Note to self: Feed and water happy thoughts today

“Perception selects, and makes the world you see.”–Course in Miracles

Who in their right mind would walk into a restaurant, take a look at the menu and order the dish they least desire?

Likewise, who would go shopping at Nordstrom’s and opt to carry the rack’s ugliest outfit up to the sales counter?

Yet, that’s what most of us do in our thinking, in our conversations. We focus on things we don’t want to happen. We focus on the fear, on the negative, on the lack.

And those decisions have a much bigger impact on your life than one ugly dress or a dish you can’t stand. You literally draw out from the universe whatever you focus upon. In other words, you get what you order. It’s an unalterable law.

At every moment, we make the choice where we focus our energy. Always. One hundred percent of the time.

I’m not denying that our minds habitually return to the worn-out groove of thoughts we’ve had in the past and that it takes some re-training to start a new habit of focusing only on what we want, but we have the capacity to do it.

I hope you’ll join me in focusing only on new possibilities, on love, on what our world could become.

And to help with that, here’s a fun story that popped into my inbox this week:

“Hi, Pam! I’m a huge fan of your books, “E-Squared” and “E-Cubed” and “Thank and Grow Rich”. I’ve done small manifestations before, (like getting into a sold-out concert in a small venue when I was #12 on the waiting list! That happened on the evening of the day I’d finished reading “E-Squared”!))

“Here is a manifestation I had happen much more quickly than I’d ever expected. This was just under 4 days… I live in the Greater Seattle area. I am a 64-year old, white, male, saxophone player (mostly retired). But I still get wistful and think about how I’d like to have a better horn; make some new friends in other parts of the world to chat about saxophone stuff via Facebook messaging, or e-mail… Well, I had the thought, “It would be keen to get to know an Australian sax player as I am fascinated by Australia and I’d love to know more about their jazz and music experiences there. I do know they teach jazz in Australian music academies…” Then I forgot about it.

“The other day I was on You Tube watching the famous University of North Texas One O’clock Jazz Band, one of the best in the world… The tenor sax player stood up to take a beautiful solo. I thought, “I wonder if he’s on Facebook?” I looked him up there, and he was…But all of his basic information was blocked.

“I sent him a message telling how much I liked his playing and asked about his horn… and I put in a friend request.

“The next day I find that he had, indeed, accepted my friend request and sent me a lovely note thanking me for my comments, and telling me about his instrument. Now, all of his Facebook information was open to me and I saw that he was not from Texas as I’d assumed, but from Canberra, Australia! He is a freelance player and a teacher at a college in another Australian city. We’ve had some great correspondence since! Super nice fellow! I told him I hope to visit Australia when I retire in a few years and we can meet and do some jamming!

“I’d simply had the thought I wanted to meet an Australian sax man, and the most interesting series of events followed to complete my manifestation!

“Manifestation truly works if you have a little faith… and even (sometimes) if you forget about it!”

Pam Grout is the author of 18 books including E-Squared: 9 Do-it-Yourself Energy Experiments that Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality and the recently released, Thank and Grow Rich: a 30-day Experiment in Shameless Gratitude and Unabashed Joy.