setting intentions – Pam Grout

Why life’s speed bumps are not destinations for pitching tents

February 6, 2017 23 Comments

“We are all gardeners, planting seeds of intention and watering them with attention in every moment of every day.”― Cristen Rodgers

Unless you’re a perfect driver (and although I know many people who think they are, I know no one who actually is), you’ve probably encountered a speed bump*, undoubtedly going faster than the posted speed.

When you inadvertently hit one, it’s a clear sign to slow down. Likewise, rumble strips, those grooves on highway shoulders that shimmy your car and offer unexpected back massages when you accidently leave your lane, are signals that something needs to be corrected.

No one would ever dream of stopping their car, getting out and complaining because “woe-is-me! I hit a rumble strip!” Nor would they call their friends, rush to a support group or enlist their therapist. The proper procedure when hitting a rumble strip is self-correct. It’s a piece of cake.

It works the same when setting an intention. Reaching any goal, manifesting any desire is a simple matter of deciding that you want it and starting to move in that direction. It’s no more complicated than driving from say, Los Angeles to San Francisco.

Let’s pretend Los Angeles is what you have now—a beat-up Ford Escort, a crummy job and weekends watching re-runs alone. San Francisco, where you really want to be, is a shiny, new Jaguar, a high-paying job that utilizes and appreciates your greatest strengths and weekends watching movies with an astoundingly hot specimen of humanity.

So, how do you get there? You start focusing on San Francisco. You forget that Los Angeles and your beat-up Escort even exist. And you remember that at every moment, you’re either heading towards San Francisco or you’re doubling back towards Los Angeles. Every thought is a step in one direction or the other. Thoughts that take you back to LA are “Good jobs and hot dates are not that available” or the even more popular, “Good jobs and hot dates are available, but not for the likes of me.”

Thoughts that move you towards San Francisco go something like this: “That new job is going to be so amazing.” and “Man, is this person sitting next to me on my couch ever so fine.” The more energy and excitement you invest, the quicker you’ll get there.

Some people get stirred up, take a few steps towards their desires, panic, and turn right back around towards Los Angeles. Others leave the LA city limits, walk for a spell, take a rest to look around, and then get pissed because it doesn’t look like San Francisco.

Of course, it doesn’t look like San Francisco. You’re not there yet. You’re still seeing countryside that’s just outside Los Angeles, stuff you have to pass to get to San Francisco. But you’ve left LA. Say a cheer and keep focusing. Whatever you do, don’t stop driving.

The only way to reach the sweet, champagne-drenched finish line of where you want to be is to keep your nose pointed in that direction. Do not turn around and look back. Los Angeles is history. Stay focused on…did I mention San Francisco?

When you hit those speed bumps, it’s just a sign to calm down and carry on. And as for those rumble strips, be grateful they’re showing you that, for a moment, you’re headed in the wrong direction. But it’s easy to self-correct.

Getting to San Francisco doesn’t take any particular gift. It just takes willingness to keep driving. To laugh at the rumbles trips. And to keep focusing your attention, energy and awareness.

See you in San Francisco!!!

*For those who like useless trivia, speed bumps are called sleeping policeman in Jamaica, kipping cops in Great Britain and speed breakers in New Zealand.

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.

Magical stories for yet another magical week

August 4, 2016 18 Comments

“It’s important to goose up your ability to know it (your intention) before you see it.”—Abraham-Hicks

Thanks to the wonders of technology, I am able to post this blog even though I’m on assignment in Colorado.

I’m getting lots of feedback that you guys dig my sharing of miracle stories.

So here are three more:

Story #1:

“Pam, if I could hug you right now I would. I have been a believer in Universal Laws for 9 years, NINE! But I have struggled. I’ve tried so many things I was told would work, and I finally gave up.”

Until….

“Your book E2 has been so helpful to me! I’m getting the hang of this! I even went out and bought E3 yesterday. Things that I have manifested are an RV for $500, and a new job

“I’ll elaborate. My husband and I are RV enthusiasts/tiny house lovers. We decided we wanted to move into an RV, or at least buy one. We also wanted a cool project. That same day, we came across a 1983 Winnebago Brave for $500!!! It has 16k miles on the motor! That is a freaking steal! I should have asked for God to give it to me for free

“The second thing was more recent, on July 2nd. I asked for a new job, and was hired back at my old company (where I worked before our daughter was born) within 48 hours! I was also given 7k more a year in my salary than what was advertised! Just because they liked me and felt I deserved it! WHOA!”

Story #2:

“After starting your E-Squared book several days ago, I put the first exercise into practice. The next day a very unusual and pretty rare guitar that I’ve been seeking appeared on a local auction site for an excellent price. It’s worth pointing out that the market here for such items is really small and the odds of exactly the correct guitar (colour, year of issue etc.) coming up at all are fairly long. Today the auction ended and although – because of the good quality nature of the instrument – I would normally have expected to pay a good deal more for it, the final price was just $25 or so more than the starting figure. That is very uncanny. Thanks very much for your help.”

Story #3:

“I can count the number of times I have gotten a wrapped gift on one hand. Don’t get me wrong, my family and friends get me gifts, but they’re usually not wrapped.

“The other day I was reading through your book for the 100th time (I kid you not) I thought, “Wouldn’t it be nice if I got a gift in the next two days?”

“But I forgot about it instantly and just went back to my day. That evening my dad kept talking about something related to Amazon but I wasn’t listening. He was telling my mom about how he got a call this afternoon which was just a few minutes after I made the wish.

“Then he turns to me and says “apparently your sister is sending you something on Amazon.

“I got it that evening and it was gift wrapped!! It was a handbag I have been pining over and my sister who lives in a whole different country sends it to me the exact same day, I made the wish.

“Which goes to show two things:

1. Pam Grout is awesome

2. If you think about something you don’t have to keep thinking about it over an over again. Even a second on focusing on it enough. Which is proof of just how powerful our minds are.”

Amen, thanks for sharing and pass the champagne!!

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 about to be released, Thank and Grow Rich: a 30-day Experiment in Shameless Gratitude and Unabashed Joy

Why I’ve learned to back away from the dials, ma’am

March 21, 2016 35 Comments

“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.”–Socrates

A friend posted this query on Facebook the other day, “Your best advice in four words or less.”

She got lots of great answers. One of my favorites was, “Spread love. Spread love.”

While I didn’t post my own four words, I did think about it. And finally decided that what works best, at least in my own life, are these four words from A Way of Mastery.

“I need do nothing.”

Yes, I said nothing. Zero. Nil. Jack squat. Zilch.

I’ve discovered that, more often than not, I get in my own way. I start thinking I know how to make something happen. I start hatching schemes, composing plans, all of which are laughably limited and focused on self-preservation, survival and looking good.

The bigger thing always has a much broader, more loving perspective.

In fact, once I got over the crazy notion that this bigger thing expected something from me, something like penance or poverty or obedience to man-made commandments, I was able to let it do its glorious thing in my life.

This bigger thing, I now know, wants to bless me, to guide me, to interact with me.

But when my hands are so tightly clutching the steering wheel it can’t make contact.

God, the universe, the field (or whatever synonym you like to use) is literally blocked behind my schemes and intentions and seven steps to this or that.

I’m not saying I never create an intention. I just know that my limited tiny brain has a very small vantage point. And that the less I do, the better my life works.

Pam Grout is the author of 17 books including E-Squared: 9 Do-it-Yourself Energy Experiments that Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality and its equally-scintillating sequel, E-Cubed, 9 More Experiments that Prove Mirth, Magic and Merriment is your Full-time Gig.

Boldly claim your good. The universe is never reluctant to give.

November 5, 2014 28 Comments

Chris Michaels, a handsome and very wise Science of Mind minister, told a great story a few weeks ago.

He explained that when you make an intention (or pray or send out a ‘rocket of desire,’ as LOA students might call it), you must act with authority. You must KNOW that your words and consciousness are powerful.

Remember that bit in the Lord’s Prayer where we say, “Give us this day our daily bread?”

“Our daily bread,” say Chris, “is everything we need to live well and be happy. How bold. How absolutely courageous!!”

Notice that Jesus taught us to command.

He didn’t beg. He didn’t plead. He didn’t even ask. Or say, “Please, pretty, pretty please, God, send me a loaf of pumpernickel.”

Jesus knew his word had power. He knew that when he spoke, his word was activated by a law of energy that only knows how to deliver whatever is held in consciousness.

You don’t beg the soil to grow a plant. You simply put a seed in the ground and watch it grow. You don’t plead with your coffee pot to make your morning coffee. You don’t stand over it and say.“Please, God, I’ve been really good and I need some caffeine.”

No, you simply plug it in. You place a demand upon the law of electricity by plugging in your coffee pot. And you know with complete authority that within a few minutes you’ll have coffee.

We simply must give up this notion that there is a reluctance by the universe to provide our good.

There is never hesitation on the part of the universe to give you absolutely everything good you can possibly imagine. But nothing can be given until it is claimed.

Pam Grout is the author of 17 books including E-Squared: 9 Do-it-Yourself Energy Experiments that Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality and the just-released sequel, E-Cubed, 9 More Experiments that Prove Mirth, Magic and Merriment is your Full-time Gig.

“There’s no reason to have a Plan B, because it distracts from Plan A.”—Will Smith

May 13, 2013 4 Comments

“The second I decide something is done, it’s done. I just have to wait for all y’all to see it.”—Will Smith

Or in many of our cases, we have to wait for ourselves to see it. The minute we make any intention, it’s real, it’s a viable creation. But until we can feel it and actually “be it,” our intention stays on a vibrational plane that’s out of our sight.

Making intentions isn’t the problem. What you’ve been intending is already present. It’s just that you and me and everybody else is stubborn enough that we keep staring at its lack. Until we can catch up vibrationally, we are unable to see and enjoy our fabulous creations.

As Esther Hicks likes to say, “We’ve already created enough joy and happiness for 20 or 30 lifetimes.”

I hope this is a comforting thought. That our only responsibility is to get ourselves tuned into the joyful vibration where blessings flow, to begin resonating to the vibrational catalog of fun, love and laughter. We literally have to distract ourselves from all thoughts and emotions that block the natural flow.

Most of us are really good at the first part of the equation. Making the intention. But the second part, the part where we get out of our own way and allow love and joy and the new Mercedes Benz into our sphere of awareness is often more problematic.

So for right now, forget about your intentions. Just focus on every brilliant, juicy, fun delicious thought you can think of. Be grateful for every little thing. That’s everything that even remotely resembles your intention and everything that doesn’t. When joy is the dominant emotion, you’ll be able to pull good things out of the air like magicians pull rabbits out of hats.

Pam Grout is the author of 16 books including the recently released, E-Squared:9 Do-it-Yourself Energy Experiments that Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality.

The universe is limitless, abundant, and strangely accommodating.

April 24, 2013 5 Comments

“Infinite Intelligence is ever ready to carry out man’s smallest or greatest demands.”—Florence Scovel Shinn

On Sunday, I’m giving a talk at the Unity Church I attend and my minister told me yesterday she titled the talk “Manifestation.”

Don’t know yet whether I’ll share these two manifestation stories, but since they recently happened, there’s a 50/50 chance. But by then, who knows? I may have won the lottery or sold my TV series which would, of course, overshadow these recent events.

Manifestation, as you undoubtedly know, is when you pull something out of the Field of Potentiality. It happens all the time. You draw into your life whatever you think about. As Florence Scovel Shinn explains it, “The imagination has been called ‘The Scissors of the Mind’ and it is ever cutting, cutting day by day, the pictures man sees there, and sooner or later he meets his own creations in his outer world.”

She also says, “A person with an imaging faculty trained to image only good brings into his life “every righteous desire of his heart”—health, wealth, love, friends, perfect self expression.

So the other day, I was talking to my friend Wendy. She recently moved to Florida with her beau who just happens to be a garage sale fanatic. When they lived here in the Midwest, he spent practically every nice weather weekend scouring neighborhood sales. Now that they live in the land of perpetual sunshine, I can only imagine how often he’s out there plucking up treasures. Anyway, Wendy told me that whenever she starts thinking about something, something she believes would add joy or some other benefit to her life, Jim ends up bringing home that very item. She doesn’t have to say anything. She just starts thinking, “Hmm, I could use a new set of luggage or a new salad spinner.” Within a couple weeks, sometimes days, Jim, without even being privy to her request, comes walking innocently in the door with the exact thing she’d been thinking about.

Last week, it suddenly dawned on me that I’d been so busy blogging and traveling and doing interviews about my new book that I hadn’t done any stories for People magazine in a while. I made the mental intention to get a new assignment with this magazine for which I’ve freelanced for more than 20 years. Within a couple days, a colleague emailed me with the news that Jason Sudeikis, the Saturday Night Live star, and his fiancé actress Olivia Wilde were headlining an event in Kansas City, his hometown. Even though I was slated to be in Honduras for the event, I managed to get a pre-interview with Jason’s mom and yesterday, my story ran on people.com. The check will be arriving soon.

Truly, folks, whatever you focus on expands. Best strategy? Set an intention and then, with complete certainty, get out of the way as it barrels towards you like the Pamplona bulls.

Pam Grout is the author of E-Squared: 9 Do-it-Yourself Energy Experiments that Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality.

Iran, writing a TV series and walking around the world with a teddy bear: the perks of being a writer

February 7, 2013 1 Comment

On my list of top three things I love about being a writer is that I get emails from readers. These joyful notes that show up unexpectedly in my inbox come from all over the world, constantly piquing my curiosity with, “How in the heck did that nanny from Iceland find my breathing book?”

I have dozens of Facebook friends from Iran. Not that I can read what they post—it’s in Persian. But I was finally able to ascertain that these friend requests are the result of somebody pirating the English version of my book, Jumpstart your Metabolism, and translating it into Farsi. Not exactly legal, but certainly a giant compliment.

I became close friends with a wonderful woman who lives on a tree farm in California, even writing a TV pilot with her and sharing a trip to Mexico. We had a blast and completely defied the old school conditioning that you should “never trust a stranger.” Now, it seems impossible that Heather and I haven’t known each other forever.

Another favorite request came from a reader in New Jersey. One of my books had an experiment that involved carrying around giant stuffed animals. It proves just how friendly and funny people are, a discovery I made after bringing back a monstrous moose from a travel-writing gig in Montana. This reader offered to walk to my house all the way from New Jersey (I live in Kansas) with a four-foot teddy bear. With that guy, I didn’t book a trip to Mexico.

My new book, E-Squared: 9 Do-it-Yourself Energy Experiments to Prove your Thoughts Create your Reality, also includes experiments. So, needless to say, I’m starting to hear from readers. Not two days after it came out, I heard from a fabulous Southwest flight attendant who heard me on Hay House Radio, bought the book and had immediate results.

Just yesterday, at my Spiritual Entrepreneurs group, a photographer, who I’ll call Sherry because that is not her name, told us that last week she was bemoaning the fact that she didn’t have a clear bead on what she wanted. “I know setting an intention works,” she said, “But I don’t really know what I want. I just want people to knock on my door and bring money.”

Not four hours after making that statement, “Sherry” was sitting on her couch when the doorbell rings. It was a friend, who she hadn’t seen in a couple weeks. She was evidently on her way to an appointment.

“I don’t have time to chat,” the friend said. “But here’s the money for those pictures. Enjoy.”

Why it’s wise when setting goals and intentions to leave the details up to Infinite Intelligence

February 6, 2013 4 Comments

“How is none of your business.”
—Edwene Gaines

Jeannie worked a minimum wage job as a clerk at a discount store. She heard this rumor that prosperity was possible to anyone who made it a conscious intention, anyone who took the time to write down what they’d “love to do.” She didn’t really buy it at first, but just in case, she hedged her bets by attending a workshop given by Edwene Gaines, a powerful prosperity teacher who makes the rounds at Unity churches.

She stood up during the workshop and challenged Edwene’s thesis. “This prosperity business is a bunch of bunk,” she said. “How could it possibly work? I barely make minimum wage. How in the world could any of this good stuff happen for me?”

Edwene reminded her of the first principle of prosperity: How is none of your business.

“Your business is ‘What do I want?’ Edwene reminded her and then asked her this question. “Would you be willing to consider the possibility that God has ways of bringing your good to you that you might not have thought of yet?”

Jeannie gulped and said, “Well, yes.”

“Okay,” says Edwene. “Should we get back to the only question that’s really up to you?”

“Well, I’ll tell you what I want,” Jeannie said. “I want to see the world. I want to go to all those wonderful places I’ve only read about and seen on TV. I want to go to the opera in Italy, the casinos in Monte Carlo. I want to see the Pyramids, visit London, Paris and Machu Picchu. I want to travel to Tibet and China. And I want to go first class and ride in limousines and wear beautiful clothes.”

And again, Edwene asked her, “Are you willing to consider the possibility that God knows exactly how to do all that?”

Eighteen months later, Jeannie called Edwene.

“And, boy, was she excited,” Edwene says.

Jeannie proceeded to tell her about waking up one morning and yelling at the walls of her tiny apartment, “I am not a clerk. I don’t know what I am, but I am not a clerk.”

She went in that day, quit her job and decided she’d look for gainful employment elsewhere.

A few days later, while making the job interview rounds, she took a break for coffee at a little diner. She sat down at a booth and noticed a paper opened to the classifieds in the booth next to her. She couldn’t help but be curious about the ad, circled in red ink.

Turns out an elderly woman who had owned three successful businesses had recently retired and wanted to see the world. Although the woman had grown children, none of them could take the time off, so she was looking for someone with whom to travel. She wanted someone who would handle all the details—plan the itinerary, secure the airlines tickets, hire the limos, etc.. The older woman didn’t care where she went. She just wanted to go, to make up for the lost time she’d devoted to her businesses.

“And guess what?” Jeannie says. “We went to the opera in Italy, the casinos in Monte Carlo. We went to Paris and London, Tibet, China and Mexico City. We saw the pyramids in Egypt,” Jeannie says. “And it was just like I asked. She bought me elegant clothes and even loaned me her jewelry.”

They traveled first-class for almost an entire year when the older woman became ill. They returned to the States and, in her will, the older woman left Jeannie a small inheritance.

So, as Edwene would say, “Are you willing to consider the possibility that God might know a few things you haven’t thought of yet?”

“Django Unchained” actor unwittingly gives tips on learning how to manifest

December 19, 2012 1 Comment

I heard Christoph Waltz interviewed yesterday by Terry Gross on “Fresh Air.” He plays a German dentist turned bounty hunter in Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino’s new film. During pre-production, he was bucked off a horse and sent to the hospital with a dislocated pelvis. As he explained to Gross, “I’d been on a horse probably 40 years ago. But riding is something that in order to master you have to do it every day, and you have to do it over a long period of time. It’s like playing an instrument.”

And that’s the perfect description of how you learn to manifest. Instead of focusing on “what you see” you practice focusing on “what you want.” Over and over and over again. Yes, you will get bucked off the horse. Yes, you’ll hit the ground of your apparent lack, dislocate the pelvis of your negativity. But just keep climbing back into that saddle and focusing on what you want to be true.

Left to its own devices, the human mind is quick to jump to conclusions, leap towards fear and cower in the face of possibilities. That’s why I’ve made “training my mind” priority numero uno. On a daily basis, I instruct it to look for beauty. Encourage it to seek out the bigger picture, to focus on the love and the seemingly impossible.

Yes, it’s an incorrigible slacker. Keeps returning to familiar old ruts. Keeps listening to the spin doctor that looks at the world as a potentially scary place. Insists on focusing on the “information” from my five senses, from the news media, from the default setting that says, “Be careful. Worry. Don’t even think about learning to trust.”

So I just keep getting back up in the saddle, directing my mind to focus on what I know to be Truth.

In my blog post yesterday, I commented that I expect “unceasing joy.”

Someone asked me, “How is that even possible?” when the “what you see” looms so large in your mind.

And all I can say is it’s the same as the answer to the old joke, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?”

Practice, practice, practice.

Or, if you’re Quentin Tarantino, you can take your character off the horse that caused the accident in the first place.

When the Oscar-winning director went to visit Waltz in the hospital, found out he couldn’t ride a horse for three months, he wisely said, “You know if you don’t talk much about it, I might get some interesting ideas.”

And that’s exactly what he did. Waltz’s character, Dr. King Schultz, spends most of the movie riding around in a horse-drawn buggy with a giant tooth swinging from its hinges.

So, quit talking about the “world as it seems,” get back up in that horse-drawn carriage and use your imagination to take you all the way to a happier, more beautiful reality.

Pam Grout is the author of E-Squared, 9 Do-it-Yourself Energy Experiments that Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality.