I had a weird experience yesterday.

It started a couple of weeks ago, I listened to one of the audio talks by my favorite speaker, Gil Fronsdal. The talk was about purification and how meditation and mindfulness practice is often a way to clean out the psyche. Gil pointed out that people who meditate often get annoyed when all of a sudden their mind is full of memories and they aren’t having their normal “peaceful” meditative experience. He says this is a misunderstanding.

Gil explained using the metaphor of washing your clothes. Your body is like the water, it gets dirty (full of memories, physical pain etc.) when the meditation is “agitating” the clothes (your psyche). However, we don’t get mad at the water because it get’s dirty, we’re happy that our clothes are clean. This is how we need to think about the mind. The Buddhist concept of purity is related to this important step needed to clean your mind of the day to day clutter that collects in it. Purifying the mind in this way is often translated as purging your mind. However, the literal translation of the word is not “purge” but vomit.

He explained that sometimes people get nauseous and, on rare occasions, vomit from meditating when they begin to dislodge all the old clutter and stuff of the psyche. I listened, quite interested in this podcast, but dismissed all the talk about vomiting right out of hand.

So yesterday I was meditating…I’ve been doing this five week course (but I’ve been doing it for months) and it’s on concentrating (not on mindfulness). I am not really sure about the difference other than that concentrating calms the mind so that you can then do mindfulness practice. In week four, Gil talked about how your mind will do all sorts of crazy stuff to you when you’re getting concentrated. That’s exactly what had been happening to me; I would start to get really hot and sweat, even though I was just sitting in the house. My hands would feel really heavy. Yesterday was the first time that I began to feel every tiny piece of hair that was touching my face. My face felt extraordinarily itchy and tickly, but I just continued to concentrate and not let it bother me. Gil had also said this feeling of itchiness was common.

But then, right when the meditation was nearing the end, I started to have the most amazing and powerful feelings of nausea wash over me. I began to heave, but tried to remain calm. By the third wave, I was so sure I was going to throw up that I stood up and ran to the bathroom. I heaved again, but I didn’t throw up because the feeling receded when I got up. It was crazy. Afterwards I had a strong feeling of elation that lasted for about an hour but then I felt really depressed, bored, and antsy. This lasted for several hours but then I felt better towards the end of the day.

I’m not really sure the point I want to make with this story, other than to show that the mind is powerful and intense. For those of you who are interested in some exercises you can do to dislodge cluttered psyches, we wanted to direct you to the exercises portion of our website that’s been recently updated.

Good luck to all and keep up the good work.

Steve Pavlina has an interesting article today about how intention works in the present moment. I haven’t done a lot of research on intentions, desires and manifesting riches. But I have given a lot of thought to living in the present. I think Steve’s point here is something like a western pop culture version of mindfulness practice. I’m all for it. Here’s a brief summary of Steve’s main points:

Suppose you like the idea of tithing 10% of your income to worthy causes. But your finances are too tight for you to feel comfortable tithing right now. However, you tell yourself that you intend to start tithing once you experience a greater state of abundance. So you’re acknowledging the reality of your present situation while holding a positive intention for the future. This seems reasonable, doesn’t it?

In actuality, however, this type of thinking is self-defeating.

Consider the thoughts/intentions that are being put forth:

1. The intention to tithe (future).
2. The intention to experience limited finances (present).
3. The intention not to tithe (present).
4. The intention to experience abundance (future).

Now collapse all of these intentions to the present, since other times are merely illusion. This yields the following:

1. The intention to tithe (present).
2. The intention to experience limited finances (present).
3. The intention not to tithe (present).
4. The intention to experience abundance (present).

Is this a congruent set of intentions? Obviously it’s in conflict because 1 cancels 3, and 2 cancels 4.

Unfortunately, this is how most people go about forming and holding intentions. No wonder their intentions fail to manifest. If you hold intentions like the ones above, you can invest tons of energy and have very little to show for it.

So what’s the solution? The solution requires that if you want to hold an intention for your future, you must in fact hold that intention for your present. The focal point of your positive expectations must be now – not later… or tomorrow… or someday.

Forget about past and future, and focus entirely on the present. But give your present a velocity instead of seeing it as a fixed point. Your present is not a single frame snapshot – it’s an animation. Whenever you hold an intention, you’re aiming to alter that animation.

Let’s return to the tithing example. If you recognize the present as the only reality, then your new intentions will look something like this:

1. The intention that your tithes are continually increasing (present).
2. The intention that your experience of abundance is continually increasing (present).

Whenever you observe reality, observe it changing in the direction of your desires. See your present reality as a canvas that paints an ever more beautiful picture.

There are so many great tools floating around out there promising to help you better control your reality. From the Law of Attraction to meditation, all of these mental exercises require the full belief and commitment of your mind in order to get the best results. This can be one of the biggest obstacles. How can we manifest our own reality, if we don’t really believe that it’s possible?

Starting small is a great way to build confidence in your ability to manifest your reality. Recently I discovered a new talent, that I think anyone can learn as a first step to taking control of your reality: stopping the hiccups with your mind.

I discovered my new talent almost accidentally. I was discussing a new article for ConsideringTheUniverse.com with Laura, when I got the hiccups. I was having a hard time talking and concentrating on the conversation because of the hiccuping. I finally got annoyed and said aloud, “I am going to stop hiccuping right now!” I shut my eyes and concentrated, my hiccups stopped immediately. Not even one more hiccup. Laura and I were amazed.

Since then I have consistently been able to stop hiccuping after the first hiccup. Here’s how:

• When you feel the first hiccup, stop everything you are doing.
• Shut your eyes and calm your mind.
• Take shallow, slow breaths, carefully controlling the rise and fall of your chest.
• Think about how your mind and body are one and you are in control of both.
• If you feel another hiccup, disregard it and continue to concentrate.
• When you feel that you have control over the hiccuping, return to your activities, but keep control over your body.
• Your hiccups are cured!

If this technique doesn’t work the first time, keep trying. I guarantee you, it is possible. Once you prove to yourself that you have control over something that seemed to be totally unpredictable, you will gain confidence in your manifesting ability.

Another good way to build confidence in your abilities is to pay attention to coincidences in your life. See our article on Nurturing Coincidences for a place to start.

Marc Andreessen, at blog.pmarca.com recapped the book, Chase Chance and Creativity, originally written in 1978 by James Austin.

Andreessen is an entrepreneur and businessman. His post is about luck/chance and how important it is in business. We think that luck, coincidences, and synchronicity are all parts of the same phenomenon.

Austin described four types of chance in his book:

Chance I is completely impersonal; you can’t influence it.

Chance II favors those who have a persistent curiosity about many things coupled with an energetic willingness to experiment and explore.

Chance III favors those who have a sufficient background of sound knowledge plus special abilities in observing, remembering, recalling, and quickly forming significant new associations.

Chance IV favors those with distinctive, if not eccentric hobbies, personal lifestyles, and motor behaviors.

This description of “luck” or “chance” is the same phenomenon Deepak Chopra talks about in The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire, only Deepak calls it “coincidence.” Deepak’s premise is that everyday coincidences are meaningful and if we notice them, they’ll provide us with insight to ourselves and our spiritual journeys.

Deepak takes a more metaphysical route to describing this phenomenon, but both Andreessen and Deepak are talking about the same thing. Andreessen’s post is a great way to introduce skeptics to coincidences and synchronicity because he is not part of the “new age” community.
We also liked Andreessen’s advice on how to cultivate “luck.” He recommends being energetic, curious and an individual. It’s important to get out into the world, try new things and learn. Luck will find you.