The Power of Intention

How You Came to Experience Yourself As Disconnected from Intention

If there’s an omnipresent power of intention that’s not only within me, but in everything and everyone, then we’re connected by this all-pervading Source to everything and everyone, and to what we’d like to be, what we’d like to have, what we want to achieve, and to everything in the universe that will assist us. All that’s required is realigning ourselves and activating intention. But how did we get disconnected in the first place? How did we lose our nat­ural ability to connect? Lions, fish, and birds don’t get disconnected. The animal, vegetable, and mineral worlds are always connected to their Source. They don’t question their intention. We humans, however, with our capability for presumably higher brain functions, have something we refer to as ego, which is an idea that we con­struct about who and what we are.

Ego is made of six primary ingredients that account for how we experience ourselves as disconnected. By allowing ego to determine your life path, you deactivate the power of intention. Briefly, here are the six ego beliefs. I’ve written more extensively about them in several of my previous books, most notably Your Sacred Self.

1. I am what I have. My possessions define me.
2. I am what I do. My achievements define me.
3. I am what others think of me. My reputation defines me.
4. I am separate from everyone. My body defines me as alone.
5. I am separate from all that is missing in my life. My life space is disconnected from my desires.
6. I am separate from God. My life depends on God’s assessment of my worthiness.

No matter how hard you try, intention can’t be accessed through ego, so take some time to recognize and readjust any or all of these six beliefs. When the supremacy of ego is weakened in your life, you can seek intention and maximize your potential.

Four Steps to Intention

Activating your power of intention is a process of connecting with your natural self and letting go of total ego identification. The process takes place in four stages:

1. Discipline is the first stage. Learning a new task requires training your body to perform as your thoughts desire. So, elimi­nating ego identification doesn’t mean disconnecting from your relationship with your body, but rather, training your body to acti­vate those desires. You do that with practice, exercise, nontoxic habits, healthy foods, and so on.

2. Wisdom is the second stage. Wisdom combined with dis­cipline fosters your ability to focus and be patient as you harmo­nize your thoughts, your intellect, and your feelings with the work of your body. We send children off to school telling them: Be dis­ciplined and Use your head, and call this education, but it falls short of mastery.

3. Love is the third stage. After disciplining the body with wis­dom, and intellectually studying a task, this process of mastery involves loving what you do and doing what you love. In the world of sales, I call it falling in love with what you’re offering, and then selling your love or enthusiasm to potential customers. When learning to play tennis, it involves practicing all of the strokes while studying strategies for playing the game. It also involves enjoying the feeling of hitting the ball and of being on the tennis court – and everything else about the game.

4. Surrender is the fourth stage. This is the place of inten­tion. This is where your body and your mind aren’t running the show and you move into intent. “In the universe there is an immeasurable, indescribable force which shamans call intent, and absolutely everything that exists in the entire cosmos is attached to intent by a connecting link,” is the way Carlos Castaneda describes it. You relax, grab the trolley strap, and allow yourself to be carried by the same power that turns acorns into trees, blossoms into apples, and microscopic dots into humans. So grab that trol­ley strap and create your own unique connecting link. Absolutely everything in the entire cosmos includes you and your disciplined, wise, loving self, and all of your thoughts and feelings. When you surrender, you lighten up and can consult with your infinite soul. Then the power of intention becomes available to take you wher­ever you feel destined to go.

Five Suggestions for Implementing the Ideas in This Chapter

(Chapter: Viewing Intention From A New Perspective)

1. Whenever you feel out of sorts, lost, or even in a sour mood, visualize the trolley strap hanging down from the field of intention three or four feet above your head. Imagine float­ing up and allowing the trolley to carry you to your built-in intention. This is a tool for implementing surrender in your life.
2. Say the word intent or intention repeatedly when you’re in a state of anxiety or when everything around you seems to have conspired to keep you from your mission. This is a reminder to be peace­ful and calm. Intention is spirit, and spirit is silently blissful.
3. Tell yourself that you have a life mission and a silent partner who’s accessible at any moment you choose. When ego defines you by what you have or do, or compares you to oth­ers, use your power of free will to terminate those thoughts. Say to yourself, “I’m here on purpose, I can accomplish any­thing I desire, and I do it by being in harmony with the all-pervading creative force in the universe.” This will become an automatic way of responding to life. Synchronistic results will begin to happen.
4. Act as if anything you desire is already here. Believe that all that you seek you’ve already received, that it exists in spirit, and know you shall have your desires filled. One of my ten secrets for success and inner peace is to treat yourself as if you already are what you’d like to become.
5. Copy this ancient Hasidic saying and carry it with you for a year. It’s a reminder of the power of intention and how it can work for you every day in every way.

When you walk across the fields with your mind pure and holy, then from all stones, and all growing things, and all animals, the sparks of their soul come out and cling to you, and then they are purified and become a holy fire in you.

Your Inner Speech—Match or No Match?

We can go all the way back to the Old Testament to find a reminder about our inner dialogue. For instance, as a -man thinketh, so is he. Generally, we apply this idea of becoming what we think to our positive thoughts—that is, think positively and you’ll pro­duce positive results. But thinking also creates stumbling blocks that produce negative results. Below are four ways of thinking that can prevent you from reaching for and connecting to the univer­sal, creative Spirit of intention.

1. Thinking about what’s missing in your life. To match up with intention, you first have to catch yourself in that moment you’re thinking about what’s missing. Then shift to intention. Not what I find missing in my life, but to what I absolutely intend to man­ifest and attract into my life—with no doubts, no waffling, and no explaining! Here are some suggestions to help you break the habit of focusing your thoughts on what’s missing. Play a version of the match game, and match up with the all-creating force:

No match: I don’t have enough money.

Match: I intend to attract unlimited abundance into my life.

No match: My partner is grouchy and boring.

Match: I intend to focus my thoughts on what I love about my partner.

No match: I’m not as attractive as I’d like to be.

Match: I’m perfect in the eyes of God, a divine manifestation of the process of creation.

No match: I don’t have enough vitality and energy.

Match: I’m a part of the ebb and flow of the limitless Source of all life.

This isn’t a game of empty affirmations. It’s a way of matching yourself to the power of intention and recognizing that what you think about, expands. If you spend your time thinking about what’s missing, then that’s what expands in your life. Monitor your inner dialogue, and match your thoughts to what you want and intend to create.

2. Thinking about the circumstances of your life. If you don’t like some of the circumstances of your life, by all means don’t think about them. This may sound like a paradox to you, in this match game, you want to match up with the Spirit of creation. You must train your imagination (which is the universal mind running through you) to shift from what you don’t want to what you do want. All of that mental energy you spend complaining about what is—to anyone who will listen—is a magnet for attracting more of what is into your life. You, and only you, can overcome this impediment because you’ve put it on your path to intention. Simply change your inner speech to what you intend the new circumstances of your life to be. Practice thinking from the end by playing the match game, and by realigning yourself with the field of intention.

Here are some examples of a no match versus a match for the inner dialogue relating to the circumstances of your life:

No match: I hate this place we’re living in; it gives me the creeps.

Match: I can see our new home in my mind, and I intend to be living in it within six months.

No match: When I see myself in the mirror, I despise the fact that I’m nearsighted and out of shape.

Match: I’m placing this drawing of how I intend to look right here on my mirror.

No match: I dislike the work I’m doing and the fact that I’m not appreciated.

Match: I’ll act upon my inner intuitive impulses to create the work or job of my dreams.

No match: I hate the fact that I’m sick so often and always seem to be getting colds.

Match: I am divine health. I intend to act in healthy ways and attract the power to strengthen my immune system in every way I can.

You must learn to assume responsibility for the circumstances of your life without any accompanying guilt. The circumstances of your life aren’t the way they are because of karmic debt or because you’re being punished. The circumstances of your life, including your health, are yours. Somehow they showed up in your life, so just assume that you participated in all of it. Your inner speech is uniquely your own creation, and it’s responsible for attracting more of the circumstances that you don’t want. Link up uith intention, use your inner speech to stay focused on what you intend to create, and you’ll find yourself regaining the power of your Source.

3. Thinking about what has always been. When your inner speech focuses on the way things have always been, you act upon your thoughts of what has always been, and the universal all-creating force continues to deliver what has always been. Why? Because your imagination is a part of that which imagined you into existence. It’s the force of creation, and you’re using it to work against you with your inner speech.

Imagine the absolute Spirit thinking like this: I can’t create life anymore because things haven’t worked for me in the past. There have been so many mistakes in the past, and I can’t stop thinking about them! How much creating do you think would occur if Spirit imag­ined in this way? How can you possibly connect to the power of intention if your thoughts, which are responsible for your intend­ing, focus on all that’s gone before, which you abhor? The answer is obvious, and so is the solution. Make a shift and catch yourself when you’re focusing on what always has been, and move your inner speech to what you intend to manifest. You’ll get points in this match game by being on the same team as the absolute Spirit.

No match: I’ve always been poor; I was raised on shortages and scarcity.

Match: I intend to attract wealth and prosperity in unlimited abundance.

No match: We’ve always fought in this relationship.

Match: I’ll work at being peaceful and not allowing anyone to bring me down.

No match: My children have never shown me any respect.

Match: I intend to teach my children to respect all of life, and I’ll treat them in the same way.

No match: I can’t help feeling this way; it’s my nature. I’ve always been this way.

Match: I’m a divine creation, capable of thinking like my Creator. I intend to substitute love and kindness for feelings of inadequacy. It’s my choice.

The match items reflect a rapport with the originating Spirit. The no match statements represent interference that you’ve con­structed to keep you from matching up with intention. Any thought that takes you backward is an impediment to manifesting desires. The highest functioning people understand that if you don’t have a story, you don’t have to live up to it. Get rid of any parts of your story that keep you focused on what has always been.

4. Thinking about what “they” want for you. There’s prob­ably a long list of people, most of them relatives, who have strong ideas about what you should be doing, how you should be think­ing and worshiping, where you should be living, how you should be scheduling your life, and how much of your time you should be spending with them—especially on special occasions and holi­days! Our definition of friendship thankfully excludes the manip­ulation and guilt that we so often put up with in our families.

Inner dialogue that commiserates about the manipulative expectations of others ensures that this kind of conduct continues to flow into your life. If your thoughts are on what others expect of you—even though you despise their expectations—you’ll continue to act on and attract more of what they want and expect for you. Removing the obstacle means that you decide to shift your inner speech to what you intend to create and attract into your life. You must do this with unswerving intent, and a commitment to not giving mental energy to what others feel about how you live your life. This can be a tough assignment at first, but you’ll welcome the shift when you do it.

Practice catching yourself when you have a thought of what others want for you, and ask yourself, Does this expectation match up with my own? If not, simply laugh at the absurdity of being upset or frustrated over the expectations of others about how you should be running your life. This is a way to match up and become imper­ious to the criticisms of others, and simultaneously put a stop to the insidious practice of continuing to attract into your life some­thing you don’t want. But the big payoff is that these critics real­ize that their judgments and critiques are pointless, so they sim­ply desist. A three-for-one bonus, achieved by shifting your attention away from what others want or expect for you to how you want to live your life.

Here are a few examples of how to win at the match game:

No match: I’m so annoyed with my family. They just don’t understand me and they never have.

Match: I love my family; they don’t see things my way, but I don’t expect them to. I’m totally focused on my own intentions, and I send them love.

No match: I make myself sick trying to please everyone else.

Match: I’m on purpose and doing what I signed up to do in this lifetime.

No match: I feel so unappreciated by those I serve that it sometimes makes me cry.

Match: I do what I do because it’s my purpose and my destiny to do so.

No match: No matter what I do or say, it seems as if I can’t win.

Match: I do what my heart tells me to do with love, kindness, and beauty.

Your Level of Energy—Match or No Match?

A scientist will tell you that energy is measured by speed and the size of the wave being created. The size of the wave is meas­ured from low to high, and slow to fast. Anything else that we attrib­ute to the conditions we see in our world is a judgment imposed upon those pulsating frequencies. That being said, I’d like to intro­duce a judgment of my own here: Higher energy is better than lower energy. Why? Because this is a book written by a man who stands for healing, love, kindness, health, abundance, beauty, compassion, and similar expressions; and these expressions are associated with higher and faster energies.

The impact of higher and faster frequencies on lower and slower frequencies can be measured, and it’s in this regard that you can make a huge impact on eradicating the energy factors in your life that are obstructing your connection to intention. The purpose of moving up the frequency ladder is to change your vibratory level of energy so that you’re at the higher and faster frequencies where your energy level matches up with the highest frequencies of all: the energy of the all-creating Spirit of intention itself. It was Albert Einstein who observed, “Nothing happens until something moves.”

A Mini-Program for Raising Your Energy Vibrations

Here’s a short list of suggestions for moving your energy field to a higher faster vibration. This will help you accomplish the twofold objective of removing the barriers and allowing the power of intention to work with and through you.

Become conscious of your thoughts. Every thought you have impacts you. By shifting in the middle of a weakening thought to one that strengthens, you raise your energy vibration and strengthen yourself and the immediate energy field. For example, in the midst of saying something to one of my teenage children that was intended to make her feel ashamed of her con­duct, I stopped and reminded myself that there’s no remedy in con­demnation. I proceeded to extend love and understanding by ask­ing her how she felt about her self-defeating behavior and what she’d like to do to correct it. The shift raised the energy level and led to a productive conversation.

Raising the energy level to a place where my daughter and I connected to the power of intention took place in a split second of my becoming aware of my low-energy thinking and making a decision to raise it. We all have the ability to call this presence and power of intention into action when we become conscious of our thoughts.

Make meditation a regular practice in your life. Even if it’s only for a few moments each day while sitting at a stoplight, this practice is vital. Take some time to be silent, and repeat the sound of God as an inner mantra. Meditation allows you to make con­scious contact with your Source and regain the power of intention by assisting you in cultivating a receptivity that matches up with the force of creation.

Become conscious of the foods you eat. There are foods that calibrate low, and there are high-energy foods as well. Foods with toxic chemicals sprayed on them will make you weak even if you have no idea that the toxins are present. Artificial foods such as sweeteners are low-energy products. In general, foods high in alkalinity such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, soy, non-yeast breads, and virgin olive oil calibrate at the high end and will strengthen you on muscle testing, while highly acidic foods such as flour-based cereals, meats, dairy, and sugars calibrate at the lower energies, which will weaken you. This is not an absolute for everyone; however, you can detect how you feel after consuming certain foods, and if you feel weak, lethargic, and fatigued, you can be pretty sure you’ve allowed yourself to become a low-energy system, which will attract more of the same low energy into your life.

Retreat from low-energy substances. I discussed in Chapter 1 how I learned that total sobriety was absolutely essential for me to achieve the level of consciousness I craved and was destined to achieve. Alcohol, and virtually all artificial drugs, legal and other­wise, lower your body’s energy level and weaken you. Furthermore, they put you in a position to continue to attract more disempowering energy into your life. Simply by consuming low-energy sub­stances, you’ll find people with similar low energy showing up regularly in your life. They’ll want to buy those substances for you, party with you as you get high, and urge you to do it again after your body recovers from the devastation of these low-energy substances.

Become conscious of the energy level of the music you lis­ten to. Harsh, pounding, musical vibrations with repetitive, loud sounds lower your energy level and weaken you and your ability to make conscious contact with intention. Similarly, the lyrics of hate, pain, anguish, fear, and violence are low energies sending weakening messages to your subconscious and infiltrating your life with similar attractor energies. If you want to attract violence, then listen to the lyrics of violence and make violent music a part of your life. If you want to attract peace and love, then listen to the higher musical vibrations and lyrics that reflect your desires.

Become aware of the energy levels of your home environ­ment. Prayers, paintings, crystals, statues, spiritual passages, books, magazines, the colors on your walls, and even the arrange­ment of your furniture all create energy into which you’re cata­pulted for at least half of your waking life. While this may seem silly or absurd, I urge you to transcend your conditioned thinking and have a mind that’s open to everything. The ancient Chinese art of feng shui has been with us for thousands of years and is a gift from our ancestors. It describes ways to increase the energy field of our home and workplace. Become aware of how being in high-energy surroundings impacts us in ways that strengthen our lives and remove barriers to our connection to intention.

Reduce your exposure to the very low energy of commer­cial and cable television. Children in America see 12,000 simu­lated murders in their living room before their 14th birthday! Television news programming puts a heavy emphasis on bringing the bad and the ugly into your home, and in large part, leaving out the good. It’s a constant stream of negativity that invades your liv­ing space and attracts more of the same into your life. Violence is the main ingredient of television entertainment, interspersed with commercial breaks sponsored by the huge drug cartels telling us that happiness is found in their pills! The viewing public is told that it needs all sorts of low-energy medicines to overcome every men­tal and physical malady known to humankind.

My conclusion is that the majority of television shows provide a steady stream of low energy most of the time. This is one of the reasons I’ve elected to devote a significant portion of my time and efforts in support of noncommercial public television and help replace messages of negativity, hopelessness, violence, profanity, and disrespect with the higher principles that match up with the principle of intention.

Enhance your energy field with photographs. You may find it difficult to believe that photography is a form of energy repro­duction and that every photograph contains energy. See for your­self by strategically placing photographs taken in moments of hap­piness, love, and receptivity to spiritual help around your living quarters, in your workplace, in your automobile, and even on your clothing or in a pocket or wallet. Arrange photographs of nature, animals, and expressions of joy and love in your environment, and let their energy radiate into your heart and provide you with their higher frequency.

Become conscious of the energy levels of your acquain­tances, friends, and extended family. You can raise your own energy levels by being in the energy field of others who resonate closely to spiritual consciousness. Choose to be in close proxim­ity to people who are empowering, who appeal to your sense of con­nection to intention, who see the greatness in you, who feel con­nected to God, and who live a life that gives evidence that Spirit has found celebration through them. Recall that higher energy nul­lifies and converts lower energy, so be conscious of being in the presence of, and interacting with, higher-energy people who are connected to Spirit and living the life they were intended to. Stay in the energy field of higher-energy people and your anger, hate, fear, and depression will melt—magically converting to the higher expressions of intention.

Monitor your activities and where they take place. Avoid low-energy fields where there’s excessive alcohol, drug consump­tion, or violent behavior, and gatherings where religious or ethnic exclusion and vitriolic prejudice or judgment are the focus. All of these kinds of venues discourage you from raising your energy and encourage you to match up with lower, debilitating energy. Immerse yourself in nature, appreciating its beauty, spending time camping, hiking, swimming, taking nature walks, and reveling in the natu­ral world. Attend lectures on spirituality, take a yoga class, give or receive a massage, visit monasteries or meditation centers, and com­mit to helping others in need with visits to the elderly in geriatric centers or sick children in hospitals. Every activity has an energy field. Choose to be in places where the energy fields reflect the seven faces of intention.

Extend acts of kindness, asking for nothing in return. Anonymously extend financial aid to those less fortunate, and do it from the kindness of your heart, expecting not even a thank you. Activate your magnificent obsession by learning to be kind while keep­ing your ego—which expects to be told how wonderful you are— out of the picture completely. This is an essential activity for con­necting to intention because the universal all-creating Spirit returns acts of kindness with the response: How may I he kind to you?

Pick up some litter and place it in a proper receptacle and tell no one about your actions. In fact, spend several hours doing nothing but cleaning and clearing out messes that you didn’t cre­ate. Any act of kindness extended toward yourself, others, or your environment matches you up with the kindness inherent in the uni­versal power of intention. It’s an energizer for you, and causes this kind of energy to flow back into your life.

Be specific when you affirm your intentions to raise your energy level and create your desires. Place your affirmations in strategic places where you’ll notice and read them throughout the day. For example: I intend to attract the job I desire into my life. I intend to be able to afford the specific automobile I envision myself driving by the 30th of next month. I intend to donate two hours of my time this week to the underprivileged. I intend to heal myself of this persistent fatigue.

Written affirmations have an energy of their own and will guide you in raising your energy level. I practice this myself.

As frequently as possible, hold thoughts of forgiveness in your mind. In muscle testing, when you hold a thought of revenge, you’ll go weak, while a thought of forgiveness keeps you strong. Revenge, anger, and hatred are exceedingly low energies that keep you from matching up with the attributes of the universal force. A simple thought of forgiveness toward anyone who may have angered you in the past—without any action taken on your part—will raise you to the level of Spirit and aid you in your individual intentions.

You can either serve Spirit with your mind or use that same mind to divorce yourself from Spirit. Married to the seven faces of spiritual intention, you connect to that power. Divorced, your self-importance, your ego, takes over.

Here’s the final obstacle to making your connection to intention.

Your Self-Importance

In The Fire from Within, Carlos Castaneda hears these words from his sorcerer teacher: “Self-importance is man’s greatest enemy. What weakens him is feeling offended by the deeds and mis­deeds of his fellow man. Self-importance requires that one spend most of one’s life offended by something or someone.” This is a major impediment to connecting to intention; you can all too eas­ily create a no match here.

Basically, your feelings of self-importance are what make you feel special, so let’s deal with this concept of being special. It’s essential that you have a strong self-concept and that you feel unique. The problem is when you misidentify who you truly are by identifying yourself as your body, your achievements, and your pos­sessions. Then you identify people who have accomplished less as inferior, and your self-important superiority causes you to be con­stantly offended in one way or another. This misidentification is the source of most of your problems, as well as most of the prob­lems of humankind. Feeling special leads us to our self-importance. Castaneda writes later in his life, many years after his initial emer­gence into the world of sorcery, about the futility of self-importance. “The more I thought about it, and the more I talked to and observed myself and my fellow men, the more intense the conviction that something was rendering us incapable of any activity or any inter­action or any thought that didn’t have the self as its focal point.”

With the self as a focal point, you sustain the illusion that you are your body, which is a completely separate entity from all oth­ers. This sense of separateness leads you to compete rather than cooperate with everyone else. Ultimately, it’s a no match with Spirit, and becomes a huge obstacle to your connection to the power of intention. In order to relinquish your self-importance, you’ll have to become aware of how entrenched it is in your life. Ego is simply an idea of who you are that you carry around with you. As such, it can’t be surgically removed by having an egoectomy! This idea of who you think you are will persistently erode any possibil­ity you have of connecting to intention.

Seven Steps for Overcoming Ego’s Hold on You

Here are seven suggestions to help you transcend ingrained ideas of self-importance. All of these are designed to help prevent you from falsely identifying with the self-important ego.

1. Stop being offended. The behavior of others isn’t a reason to be immobilized. That which offends you only weakens you. If you’re looking for occasions to be offended, you’ll find them at every turn. This is your ego at work convincing you that the world shouldn’t be the way it is. But you can become an appreciator of life and match up with the universal Spirit of Creation. You can’t reach the power of intention by being offended. By all means, act to eradicate the horrors of the world, which emanate from massive ego identification, but stay in peace. As A Course in Miracles reminds us: Peace is of God, you who are part of God are not at home except in his peace. Being offended creates the same destructive energy that offended you in the first place and leads to attack, coun­terattack, and war.

2. Let go of your need to win. Ego loves to divide us up into winners and losers. The pursuit of winning is a surefire means to avoid conscious contact with intention. Why? Because ultimately, winning is impossible all of the time. Someone out there will be faster, luckier, younger, stronger, and smarter—and back you’ll go to feeling worthless and insignificant.

You’re not your winnings or your victories. You may enjoy com­peting, and have fun in a world where winning is everything, but you don’t have to be there in your thoughts. There are no losers in a world where we all share the same energy source. All you can say on a given day is that you performed at a certain level in com­parison to the levels of others on that day. But today is another day, with other competitors and new circumstances to consider. You’re still the infinite presence in a body that’s another day (or decade) older. Let go of needing to win by not agreeing that the opposite of winning is losing. That’s ego’s fear. If your body isn’t performing

Seven Steps for Overcoming Ego’s Hold on You

Here are seven suggestions to help you transcend ingrained ideas of self-importance. All of these are designed to help prevent you from falsely identifying with the self-important ego.

1. Stop being offended. The behavior of others isn’t a reason to be immobilized. That which offends you only weakens you. If you’re looking for occasions to be offended, you’ll find them at every turn. This is your ego at work convincing you that the world shouldn’t be the way it is. But you can become an appreciator of life and match up with the universal Spirit of Creation. You can’t reach the power of intention by being offended. By all means, act to eradicate the horrors of the world, which emanate from massive ego identification, but stay in peace. As A Course in Miracles reminds us: Peace is of God, you who are part of God are not at home except in his peace. Being offended creates the same destructive energy that offended you in the first place and leads to attack, coun­terattack, and war.

2. Let go of your need to win. Ego loves to divide us up into winners and losers. The pursuit of winning is a surefire means to avoid conscious contact with intention. Why? Because ultimately, winning is impossible all of the time. Someone out there will be faster, luckier, younger, stronger, and smarter—and back you’ll go to feeling worthless and insignificant.

You’re not your winnings or your victories. You may enjoy com­peting, and have fun in a world where winning is everything, but you don’t have to be there in your thoughts. There are no losers in a world where we all share the same energy source. All you can say on a given day is that you performed at a certain level in com­parison to the levels of others on that day. But today is another day, with other competitors and new circumstances to consider. You’re still the infinite presence in a body that’s another day (or decade) older. Let go of needing to win by not agreeing that the opposite of winning is losing. That’s ego’s fear. If your body isn’t performing in a winning fashion on this day, it simply doesn’t matter when you aren’t identifying exclusively with your ego. Be the observer, notic­ing and enjoying it all without needing to win a trophy. Be at peace, and match up with the energy of intention. And ironically, although you’ll hardly notice it, more of those victories will show up in your life as you pursue them less.

3. Let go of your need to be right. Ego is the source of a lot of conflict and dissension because it pushes you in the direction of making other people wrong. When you’re hostile, you’ve discon­nected from the power of intention. The creative Spirit is kind, lov­ing, and receptive; and free of anger, resentment, or bitterness. Let­ting go of your need to be right in your discussions and relationships is like saying to ego, I’m not a slave to you. I want to embrace hind-ness, and I reject your need to be right. In fact, I’m going to offer this person a chance to feel better by saying that she’s right, and thank her for pointing me in the direction of truth.

When you let go of the need to be right, you’re able to strengthen your connection to the power of intention. But keep in mind that ego is a determined combatant. I’ve seen people willing to die rather than let go of being right. I’ve seen people end other­wise beautiful relationships by sticking to their need to be right. I urge you to let go of this ego-driven need to be right by stopping yourself in the middle of an argument and asking yourself, Do I want to be right or be happy? When you choose the happy, loving, spiritual mode, your connection to intention is strengthened. These moments ultimately expand your new connection to the power of intention. The universal Source will begin to collaborate with you in creating the life you were intended to live.

4. Let go of your need to be superior. True nobility isn’t about being better than someone else. It’s about being better than you used to be. Stay focused on your growth, with a constant aware­ness that no one on this planet is any better than anyone else. We all emanate from the same creative life force. We all have a mis­sion to realize our intended essence; all that we need to fulfill our destiny is available to us. None of this is possible when you see your­self as superior to others. It’s an old saw, but nonetheless true: We are all equal in the eyes of God. Let go of your need to feel supe­rior by seeing the unfolding of God in everyone. Don’t assess oth­ers on the basis of their appearance, achievements, possessions, and other indices of ego. When you project feelings of superiority, that’s what you get back, leading to resentments and ultimately hostile feelings. These feelings become the vehicle that takes you farther away from intention. A Course in Miracles addresses this need to be special and superior: Specialness always makes compar­isons. It is established lay a lack seen in another, and maintained by searching for, and keeping clear in sight, all lacks it can perceive.

5. Let go of your need to have more. The mantra of the ego is more. It’s never satisfied. No matter how much you achieve or acquire, your ego will insist that it isn’t enough. You’ll find your­self in a perpetual state of striving, and eliminate the possibility of ever arriving. Yet in reality, you’ve already arrived, and how you choose to use this present moment of your life is your choice. Iron­ically, when you stop needing more, more of what you desire seems to arrive in your life. Since you’re detached from the need for it, you find it easier to pass it along to others, because you real­ize how little you need in order to be satisfied and at peace.

The universal Source is content with itself, constantly expand­ing and creating new life, never trying to hold on to its creations for its own selfish means. It creates and lets go. As you let go of ego’s need to have more, you unify with that Source. You create, attract to yourself, and let it go, never demanding that more come your way. As an appreciator of all that shows up, you learn the pow­erful lesson St. Francis of Assisi taught: “… it is in giving that we receive.” By allowing abundance to flow to and through you, you match up with your Source and guarantee that this energy will con­tinue to flow.

6. Let go of identifying yourself on the basis of your achieve­ments. This may be a difficult concept if you think you are your achievements. God writes all the music, God sings all the songs, God builds all the buildings, God is the source of all your achievements. I can hear your ego loudly protesting. Nevertheless, stay tuned to this idea. All emanates from Source! You and that Source are one! You’re not this body and its accomplishments. You are the observer. Notice it all; and be grateful for the abilities you’ve been given, the motiva­tion to achieve, and the stuff you’ve accumulated. But give all the credit to the power of intention, which brought you into existence and which you’re a materialized part of. The less you need to take credit for your achievements and the more connected you stay to the seven faces of intention, the more you’re free to achieve, and the more will show up for you. It’s when you attach yourself to those achieve­ments and believe that you alone are doing all of those things that you leave the peace and the gratitude of your Source.

7. Let go of your reputation. Your reputation is not located in you. It resides in the minds of others. Therefore, you have no control over it at all. If you speak to 30 people, you will have 30 reputations. Connecting to intention means listening to your heart and conducting yourself based on what your inner voice tells you is your purpose here. If you’re overly concerned with how you’re going to be perceived by everyone, then you’ve disconnected your­self from intention and allowed the opinions of others to guide you This is your ego at work. It’s an illusion that stands between you and the power of intention. There’s nothing you can’t do, unless you disconnect from the power source and become convincec that your purpose is to prove to others how masterful and superioi you are and spend your energy attempting to win a giant reputa tion among other egos. Do what you do because your inner voice-always connected to and grateful to your Source—so directs you Stay on purpose, detach from outcome, and take responsibility fo what does reside in you: your character. Leave your reputation fo others to debate; it has nothing to do with you. Or as a book titli says: What You Think of Me Is None of My Business!

This concludes the three major obstacles to your connectin to intention: your thoughts, your energy, and your self-importance.

Here are five suggestions for overcoming the obstacles and staying permanently connected to the power of intention.

Five Suggestions for Implementing the Ideas in This Chapter

1. Monitor your inner dialogue. Notice how much of your inner speech focuses on what’s missing, the negative circum­stances, the past, and the opinions of others. The more cog­nizant you become of your inner speech, the sooner you’ll be able to shift right in the midst of those habitual inner pro­ceedings, from a thought of I resent what’s missing, to I intend to attract what I want and stop thinking about what I dislike. That new inner dialogue becomes the link connect­ing you to intention.
2. Lighten moments of doubt and depression. Notice the moments that aren’t a part of your higher nature. Reject thoughts that support an inability on your part to match up with intention. Remain faithful to the light is good advice. Recently, a friend and teacher learned of a struggle I was personally going through, and wrote to me: “Remember, Wayne, the sun is shining behind the clouds.” Be faithful to the light that’s always there.
3. Be aware of low energy. Recall that everything, which includes your thoughts, has an energy frequency that can be calibrated to determine whether it will strengthen or weaken you. When you find yourself either thinking in low-energy ways, or immersed in low, weakening energy, resolve to bring a higher vibration to the presence of that debilitating situation.
4. Talk to your ego and let it know that it has no control over you today. In my children’s bedroom here on Maui, I’ve framed the following observation, which they see each morning. While they joke and laugh about it, they get the essential message and share it out loud when anyone (including me) gets upset during the day.Good morning,
   This is God.
   I will be handling
   All of your
   Problems today.
   I will not need
   Your help, so have
   A miraculous day.
   
   
5. View obstacles as opportunities to circulate the power of your unbending intent. Unbending means just what it says. I intend to stay connected to my Source and thereby gain the power of my Source. This means being at peace, detaching yourself from the circumstances, and seeing yourself as the observer rather than the victim . . . then turning it all over to your Source and knowing that you’ll receive the guidance and assistance you require.

How Your Energies Impact Others

When you feel connected and in harmony with intention, you sense a major difference in how other people react to you. Be cog­nizant of these reactions, because they’ll bear directly on your abil­ities to fulfill your individual intentions. The more closely you auto­matically resonate to the frequencies of the universal all-creating Source, the more that others will be impacted and their lower ener­gies nullified. They’ll gravitate toward you, bringing peace, joy, love, beauty, and abundance into your life. What follows is my opinion on how you’ll impact others when you’re resonating with intention, and how different your impact is when you’re dominated by your ego’s separatist attitude.

Here are some of the most significant ways in which you’ll impact others:

Your presence instills calmness.

Your presence leaves others feeling energized.

Your presence allows others to feel better about themselves.

Your presence allows others to feel unified.

Your presence instills a sense of purpose.

Your presence allows others to trust in authentic personal connections.

Your presence inspires others to greatness.

Your presence aligns others with beauty.

Your presence instills health rather than sickness.

Making Your Intention Your Reality

In this concluding section, you’ll find ten ways to practice nurturing your intention to respect yourself at all times.

Step 1: Look into a mirror, make eye connection with yourself, and say “I love me” as many times as possible during your day. I love me: These three magic words help you maintain your self-respect. Now, be aware that saying these words may be difficult at first because of the conditions you’ve been exposed to over a lifetime, and because the words may bring to the surface rem­nants of disrespect that your ego wants you to hold on to.

Your immediate impulse might be to see this as an expression of your ego’s desire to be superior to everyone else. But this is not an ego statement at all—it’s an affirmation of self-respect. Transcend that ego mind and affirm your love for yourself and your con­nection to the Spirit of God. This doesn’t make you superior to anyone; it makes you equal to all and celebrates that you’re a piece of God. Affirm it for your own self-respect. Affirm it in order to be respectful of that which intended you here. Affirm it because it’s the way you’ll stay connected to your Source and regain the power of intention. I love me. Say it without embarrassment. Say it proudly, and be that image of love and self-respect.

Step 2: Write the following affirmation and repeat it over and over again to yourself: I am whole and perfect as I was created! Carry this thought with you wherever you go. Have it laminated, and place it in your pocket, on your dashboard, on your refrigerator, or next to your bed—allow the words to become a source of high energy and self-respect. By simply carrying these words with you and being in the same space with them, their energy will flow directly to you.

Self-respect emerges from the fact that you respect the Source of which you came and you’ve made a decision to reconnect to that Source, regardless of what anyone else might think. It’s very important to keep reminding yourself at the beginning that you’re worthy of infinite respect from the one Source you can always count on, the piece of God energy that defines you. This reminder will do wonders for your self-respect, and consequently your ability to use the power of intention in your life. Over and over, remind yourself: I’m not my body. I’m not my accumulations. I’m not my achievements. I’m not my reputation. I am whole and perfect as I was created!

Step 3: Extend more respect to others and to all of life. Perhaps the greatest secret of self-esteem is to appreciate other people more. The easiest way to do this is to see the unfolding of God in them. Look past the judgments of others’ appearance, failures, and successes, their status in society, their wealth or lack of it… and extend appreciation and love to the Source from which they came. Everyone is a child of God—everyone! Try to see this even in those who behave in what appears to be a godless fashion. Know that by extending love and respect, you can turn that energy around so that it’s heading back to its Source rather than away from it. In short, send out respect because that is what you have to give away. Send out judgment and low energy and that is what you’ll attract back. Remember, when you judge another, you do not define them, you define yourself as someone who needs to judge. The same applies to judgments directed at you.

Step 4: Affirm to yourself and all others that you meet, I belong! A sense of belonging is one of the highest attributes on Abraham Maslow’s pyramid of self-actualization (which I discuss at the beginning of the next chapter). Feeling that you don’t belong or you’re in the wrong place can be due to a lack of self-respect. Respect yourself and your divinity by knowing that every­one belongs. This should never come into question. Your presence here in the universe is proof alone that you belong here. No per­son decides if you belong here. No government determines if some belong and some don’t. This is an intelligent system that you’re a part of. The wisdom of Creation intended you to be here, in this place, in this family with these siblings and parents, occupying this precious space. Say it to yourself and affirm it whenever necessary: I belong! And so does everyone else. No one is here by accident!

Step 5: Remind yourself that you’re never alone. My self-respect stays intact as long as I know that it’s impossible for me to be alone. I have a “senior partner” who’s never abandoned me and who’s stuck with me even in moments when I had seemingly deserted my Source. I feel that if the universal mind has enough respect to allow me to come here and to work through me—and to protect me in times when I strayed onto dangerous nonspiritual turf—then this partnership deserves my reciprocal respect. I recall my friend Pat McMahon, a talk-show host on KTAR radio in Phoenix, Arizona, telling me about his encounter with Mother Teresa in his studio before interviewing her for his program. He pleaded with her to allow him to do something for her. “Anything at all,” he begged. “I’d just like to help you in some way.” She looked at him and said, “Tomorrow morning get up at 4:00 A.M. and go out onto the streets of Phoenix. Find someone who lives there and believes that he’s alone, and convince him that he’s not.” Great advice, because everyone who wallows in self-doubt or appears to be lost. . . has lost their self-respect because they’ve forgotten that they’re not alone.

Step 6: Respect your body! You’ve been provided with a perfect body to house your inner invisible being for a few brief moments in eternity. Regardless of its size, shape, color, or any imagined infirmities, it’s a perfect creation for the purpose that you were intended here for. You don’t need to work at getting healthy; health is something you already have if you don’t disturb it. You may nave disturbed your healthy body by overfeeding it, underexercising it, and overstimulating it with toxins or drugs that make it sick, fatigued, jumpy, anxious, depressed, bloated, ornery, or an endless list of maladies. You can begin the fulfillment of this intention to live a life of self-respect by honoring the temple that houses you. You know what to do. You don’t need another diet, workout man­ual, or personal trainer. Go within, listen to your body, and treat it with all of the dignity and love that your self-respect demands.

Step 7: Meditate to stay in conscious contact with your Source, which always respects you. I can’t say this enough: Meditation is a way to experience what the five senses can’t detect. When you’re connected to the field of intention, you’re connected to the wisdom that’s within you. That divine wisdom has great respect for you, and it cherishes you while you’re here. Meditation is a way to ensure that you stay in a state of self-respect. Regardless of all that goes on around you, when you enter into that sacred space of meditation, all doubts about your value as an esteemed creation dissolve. You’ll emerge from the solemnity of meditation feeling connected to your Source and enjoying respect for all beings, particularly yourself.

Step 8: Make amends with adversaries. The act of making amends sends out a signal of respect for your adversaries. By radi­ating this forgiving energy outward, you’ll find this same kind of respectful positive energy flowing back toward you. By being big enough to make amends and replace the energy of anger, bitter­ness, and tension with kindness—even if you still insist that you’re right—you’ll respect yourself much more than prior to your act of forgiveness. If you’re filled with rage toward anyone, there’s a huge part of you that resents the presence of this debilitating energy. Take a moment right here and now to simply face that per­son who stands out in your mind as someone you hurt, or directed hurt to you, and tell him or her that you’d like to make amends. You’ll notice how much better you feel. That good feeling of hav­ing cleared the air is self-respect. It takes much more courage, strength of character, and inner conviction to make amends than it does to hang on to the low-energy feelings.

Step 9: Always remember the self in self-respect. In order to do this, you must recognize that the opinions of others toward you aren’t facts, they’re opinions. When I speak to an audience of 500 people, there are 500 opinions of me in the room at the end of the evening. I’m none of those opinions. I can’t be responsible for how they view me. The only thing I can be responsible for is my own character, and this is true for every one of us. If I respect myself, then I’m relying on the self in self-respect. If I doubt myself, or punish myself, I’ve not only lost my self-respect, I’ll con­tinue to attract more and more doubt and lower-energy opinions with which to further punish myself. You can’t stay linked to the universal mind, which intends all of us here, if you fail to rely on your self for your self-respect.

Step 10: Be in a state of gratitude. You’ll discover that grat­itude is the final step in each succeeding chapter. Be an appreciator rather than a depreciator of everything that shows up in your life. When you’re saying Thank you, God, for everything, and when you’re expressing gratitude for your life and all that you see and experience, you’re respecting Creation. This respect is within you, and you can only give away what you have inside. Being in a state of gratitude is the exact same thing as being in a state of respect— respect for yourself, which you give away freely, and which will return to you tenfold.

You Get Treated the Way You Teach Others to Treat You

Let’s take a look at the steps you need to take in order to make the stated intention of this chapter and all succeeding ones a reality.

Step 1: Identify your intention verbally and in writing, and develop a deep yearning for it. When you create a great longing for the experience of a peaceful family, everything will begin to hap­pen to fulfill this yearning spontaneously and naturally. Rather than praying to a saint or God for a miracle, pray for the miracle of the inner awakening, which will never leave you. The awakening of this inner light, once experienced, will become your constant compan­ion, regardless of who you are with or where you are. The dynamic force is within you. This force is felt as great joy running through your body. Ultimately, your thinking will become sublime, and your inner and outer world will become one. Yearn for this awak­ening to the inner light, and long for your intention to manifest.

Step 2: Intend for all of your relatives what you intend for yourself. When anyone criticizes, judges, acts angry, expresses hatred, or finds fault with you, they’re not at peace with themselves. Want this peace for them even more than you desire it for your­self. By having this kind of intention for them, you take the focus off of you. This doesn’t require words or actions on your part. Sim­ply picture the people in your family with whom you’re not at peace, and feel the peace you crave for them. Your inner speech will change, and you’ll begin to experience the peaceful authenticity of both your beings.

Step 3: Be the peace you’re seeking from others. If peace is missing in your relationships with your family, it means that you have a place within you that’s occupied by non-peace. It may be filled with anxiety, fear, anger, depression, guilt, or any low-energy emotions. Rather than attempting to rid yourself of these feelings all at once, treat them the same as you do your relatives. Say a friendly Hello to the non-peace, and let it be. You’re sending a peaceful feeling to the non-peace feeling. The lower energies you’re experiencing will be strengthened by your peaceful Hi or Hello, and eventually vanish as the divine grows within you. The way to this peace is through any form of quiet and meditation that works for you. Even if it’s only a two-minute respite during which time you’re silent, concentrate on the name of the divine, or repeat that sound of “Aaahh” as an inner mantra.

Step 4: Match up with the seven faces of intention. If you’ve forgotten what the universal mind of intention looks like, it’s creative, kind, loving, beautiful, always expanding, endlessly abundant, and receptive to all of life. Play the match game that I introduced earlier in this book, and very quietly and with unbend­ing intent bring the face of the universal Source of all to the pres­ence of everyone whom you feel brings you down or interferes with your peace. This kind of spiritual energy will be transformative— not only for you, but also for your relatives. Your intention to be in peaceful relationships is now taking form—first in your mind, then in your heart—and ultimately, it will materialize.

Step 5: Review all the obstacles that have been erected on your path to familial peace. Listen to any inner dialogue that focuses on your resentment of others’ expectations for you. Remind yourself that when you think about what you resent, you act upon what you think about, while simultaneously attracting more of it to you. Examine your energy level for your tendency to react to lower energies with more of the same, and give your ego a reminder that you’ll no longer opt to be offended, or need to be right in these relationships.

Step 6: Act as if. Begin the process of acting as if what you intend to manifest is already true. See everyone in your family in the love and light that is their true identity. When someone asked Baba Muktananda, a great saint in India, “Baba, what do you see when you look at me?” Baba said, “I see the light in you.” The person replied, “How can that be, Baba? I am an angry person. I am ter­rible. You must see all that.” Baba said, “No, I see light.” (This story is told by Swami Chidvilasananda Gurumayi in Kindle My Heart.)

So, see the light in those others, and treat them as if that is all you see.

Step 7: Detach from the outcome. Don’t let your authentic and peaceful attitude depend on your relatives’ behavior. As long as you remain connected to intention and radiate outward the high energy, you’ve achieved your peace. It’s not your place or your pur­pose to make everyone else in your family think, feel, and believe as you do. The likelihood is great that you’ll see dramatic changes in your relatives as you teach them with your own persona how you intend to be treated. But if they don’t change, and if they continue their nonpeaceful ways, let go of your need to see them trans­formed. It all works in divine order, and the saying Letting go and letting God is a helpful reminder for you. By letting go, you guar­antee your own peace, and you dramatically increase the odds of helping others to do the same.

Step 8: Affirm: I attract only peace into my life. I remind myself of this affirmation many times on a given day, particularly with my children and other more distant relatives. I also practice this in grocery stores, when greeting flight attendants, when vis­iting the post office, and while driving my automobile. I say this silently to myself as an absolute truth with unbending intent on my part, and it works for me all the time. People respond to me with smiles, acknowledgments, friendly gestures, and kind greetings all day long. I also remind myself of the cogent observation from A Course in Miracles when I feel other than peaceful in any given moment with my family: I can choose peace, rather than this.

Step 9: Hold no grudges, and practice forgiveness. The key to having peace in all your family relationships is forgiveness. Your relatives are simply doing what they’ve been taught to do over a lifetime, and the lifetimes of many of their ancestors. Shower them with understanding and forgiveness from your heart.

This passage from A Course in Miracles offers so much in the fulfillment of this intention:

Do you want peace? Forgiveness offers it.

Do you want happiness, a quiet mind,

a certainty of purpose,

and a sense of worth and beauty

that transcends the world?

Do you want a quietness that cannot be disturbed,

a gentleness that can never lie hurt,

a deep abiding comfort,

and a rest so perfect it can never he upset?

All this forgiveness offers you.

Step 10: Be in a state of gratitude. Rather than being in a state of non-peace concerning any family members, say a prayer of gratitude for their presence in your life and all that they have come to teach you.