Creative ManiFestival Day 27

We're looking at Steps #7 and #8 today.

STEP #7: Add a musical element: what song(s) truly express the essence of your desire?

This step is deceptively simple, but I urge you not to skip over it. As you know, the purpose of the exercises in Creative ManiFestival is to encourage you to use the full range of your creativity in manifesting. To move beyond meditation and "new age" techniques to truly invoke your creativity as your most important ingredient in manifesting what you desire.

If you are primarily an artist, or primarily a writer, it is important and effective to call on the other arts to bring you into the full nature of your creativity. While art and writing exist on paper, music "exists" in the air, so to speak (well, at least, non-visible waves of energy). It affects us on a different level. When lyrics are added to the experience, the experience of selecting and listening to music becomes all the more powerful.

Here are some specific exercises to try out when approaching this step:

a. Envision the process of manifesting your desire as a film, and select different musical pieces for the soundtrack. Select various pieces in different music genres to symbolize separate parts of the journey you are taking to bring your desire forth into reality.

b. Go to your CD/cassette collection and pick an album and song at random. (For CDs, you could say to yourself, "I'm picking the 5th CD in the stack on the left, track 6" before even approaching the stack.) Play the track and see if the music and/or lyrics bring a new layer of understanding or sensibility to your desire.

c. When you are listening to different pieces of music with this exercise, allow your body to move along with the music. This allows your entire being to absorb the new "knowledge" of the song.

d. Experiment with music genres that are new to you. In day 10, I mentioned http://www.musicmass.com as a place to start for free downloads of music. Another option is to search the download library at Amazon.com, at this link:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=artella-20&path=tg/browse/-/468646.

You can enter search terms in the Amazon search engine and find downloads that match specific search criteria.

Other downloadable music sources are:

http://www.napster.com
http://www.imusic.com

STEP 8: Listen to the music in #8 while making two lists: "Mine to Do" and "Universe's/God's to Do"

The process of making these two lists is very, very important, and playing your chosen song(s) in the background allows you to open up to new levels of awareness about the items you are placing in each list.

Why create these two lists? Why the distinction?

One of the most important aspects of manifesting anything - ANYTHING - is the act of surrendering. When we try to control every little thing, we are pushing up against the natural flow of our life.

I think where people have trouble surrendering is in not fully accepting what I believe is the nature of life - learning to surrender means coming to full acceptance of the fact that the nature of life is ALWAYS to flow to our highest good.

The world is full of proof of this concept: our bones automatically heal when broken; scientific studies show that our energetic fields are constantly drawn toward things we want, and away from things we don't want; when any body of water is agitated, it immediately levels out to rest; and a sunflower seed spends it life naturally manifesting to fulfilling its DNA characteristics that are included in the seed from the very beginning.

Many of us can accept that "everything happens for a purpose", but finding ease in surrendering comes when we can believe that "everything is moving me toward my BEST purpose."

If we can accept that the world is always flowing in the direction of our highest good, it is a natural progression to get out of the way when we want something. We can voice our desire but then surrender control. And that is what a "list for God/the Universe" to do is all about.

Marianne Williamson says:

"When we surrender to God, we surrender to something bigger than ourselves - to a universe that knows what it's doing. When we stop trying to control events, they fall into a natural order, an order that works. We're at rest while a power much greater than our own takes over, and it does a much better job than we could have done. We learn to trust that the power that holds galaxies together can handle the circumstances of our relatively little lives."

Here are some creative variations on this exercise:

a. Create a vessel or container and place in it symbols of the things you are surrendering. Some people call this a "God Jar" or a "Creation Box". Give this container your OWN name...something that makes you smile. Decorate it artfully and make the process of adding items to it a joyous experience. If you want to write the items on slips of paper, include doodles! Or try writing a haiku poem about each element that you place in the box. Make this such a joyful activity that, from now on, when you think about something you want, your first thought is, "Ooh, I can't wait to put this in my Tremendous Treasure Chest!!"

b. Create an art journal about faith, including your own exploration of images and words that push the boundaries of your current beliefs to open your mind to new possibilities.

c. Write/draw your "Things for God/the Universe to Do" list on a long piece of butcher paper hung on the wall. Rejoice in adding more things.

d. Look at the things on the "Things for ME to do" list, and make a plan. Shifts occur more quickly when they are achieved BOTH in the internal and external worlds. Decide what you need to do, and make a plan for doing it. Use your creativity (draw, write, dance) to express your relationship as co-creator with the divine force working along with you.

e. Keep track of your two lists, so that you can observe how many things are being accomplished, by both you AND the Universe!
Material copyrighted by Marney Makridakis of artellawordsandart.com. Used with permission by license.