Dear Joshua,
I'd like to share a manifestation event I had the other evening. As I pulled into my driveway the neighbor kid ran up to me huffing and puffing and said there was a big snake in their backyard and that his Dad wanted to know if I could come take it away. Normally I would tackle these types of requests with my son and he would do all of the snake handling and I typically hold the pillowcase we place them in, but this time, nobody else was home, just me. I immediately felt "fear" thinking about having to deal with this snake situation on my own, but then I thought about how a) I really enjoy overcoming fear and b) things are always working out for me. So this empowered me and I thought this just might be an adventure that the universe was setting up for me and I should explore it. So I walked down to their house and went into their backyard where my neighbor was standing watch over the snake.
I recognized it as a gopher snake and it was about 4 feet long. My neighbor wanted me to keep watch over the snake while he went to go find a stick or something that we could use to either pick the snake up while keeping him a safe distance away or to pin his head down allowing me to grab just behind his head without him being able to bite me. As my neighbor walked off, I played the scenes out in my mind and thought that both of the stick scenarios would really rile the snake up unnecessarily and this just didn't feel right at all to me. I truly believed in that moment that if I had nothing but love in my heart for this creature, then why would he want to bite me?
So I thought I would just test the waters and see if I could pick him up with just my bare hands. I slowly bent down and grabbed the snake with both of my hands about a foot apart and started to slowly lift him up. I was trying to focus on loving, peaceful thoughts and staying calm but it was very challenging. As his head turned toward me and I noticed he could easily strike and bite my exposed arm I could feel the fear rising in my chest. I felt that he would sense my fear and this would cause him to really want to bite me which caused me to be more fearful almost like I was in a very quick feedback loop. I found myself having to very deliberately and quickly step in and stop the panic in my mind and just relax back into the feeling of love and calmness. It seemed to be working because the snake was being quite calm. I told my neighbor that I wanted him for my backyard so he could help out in our garden keeping the rodent population down so I figured I would just walk him down to my house.
My neighbor snapped a few pics of the snake and I (while I controlled my panic I should mention) and then I started my trek home. The interesting thing was during the walk home, I could feel the snake getting agitated and trying to escape me (he was quite strong) which would then cause the fear response in me to start to rise quickly as I would again think he can sense my fear which makes him more likely to bite me and I would have to again forcefully calm myself down and get back to the loving calm place in my mind. This happened several times in a short period of time. I have never experienced the two ends of this spectrum (love/fear) so quickly and so noticeably! The fear was literally like a volume control knob that I could step in and turn back down. Eventually, I made it to our backyard and I even got brave enough to use my phone to take a video of me releasing the snake so I could share with my family.
I felt a huge sense of accomplishment - I helped the neighbor out with an unwanted snake and I had an opportunity to examine/overcome fear in a new way that I had not experienced before.
I was thinking a lot about spiritual principles during this event, so I thought it only appropriate to share. I would also like to start picking off my irrational fears in a similar manner (very deliberately). Would love your perspective on this event.
Thanks!
Steve
Dear Steve,
What a wonderful story of focus. There are two sides to the coin; fear and love. As you think thoughts of love, you create a snake that is gentle, loving and harmless. As you think thoughts of fear, you create a snake that is unpredictable, fearful and dangerous. The snake was neutral. It represented what you thought about it. If you thought loving thoughts, it became a gentle snake. If you thought fearful thoughts, it became a dangerous snake. This is the key to your relationships with everyone and everything.
When we use the term "neutral," we mean that nothing is inherently good or bad, right or wrong. It's how you see the thing that makes it what it is. But beyond that, the basis of everything is love. You, at your core, are a being of pure love and everything else was also created out of love. The basis of every person, every being, every entity, every thing is love. You when you react to something with love, the basis of that thing emerges as love as well. When you react out of fear, you bring whatever has the potential for fear out of that thing you are interacting with. It is a cocreative dance, because it is a combination of your perspective, beliefs, and interpretation of whatever or whomever you are looking at.
By the practice of focus, you can keep loving feelings going and evoke the true basis of that person, animal, or event. It has nothing to do with the thing you're looking at, it is only a matter of your perception. Your perception is clouded by your beliefs. Your beliefs are either fear-based and limiting, or they are love-based and beneficial. It is interesting to see that you have the ability to reduce the intensity of your fear-based beliefs about snakes. This is a wonderful accomplishment indeed. Let's examine this further.
You have a certain set of beliefs about snakes, most of which were given to you by others. Some of the beliefs you adopted are beneficial and others are limiting. You might have heard stories about people being bitten and dying from poisonous snake bites. This is a limiting belief because, as you know, the person being bitten was having his experience, which had nothing to do with you. If you adopt a fear-based belief based on this story, you limit your experience. This did not happen to you, yet you believe it could and that is limiting. You may have seen someone handling a snake on TV and you saw how gentle and relaxed the snake was. You adopted a belief which was also based on another's experience. This belief that snakes are gentle is based in love and is beneficial. It was not your personal experience, but since it is a love-based belief, it becomes beneficial because it broadens your range of experience. It is not limiting.
Because you are more aware of the mechanism of physical reality, you understood in this moment with the snake that you have a broad range of beliefs with regard to wild snakes and other creatures. Some of these beliefs are fear-based and some are based in love. Your point of focus creates a vibrational resonance that allows you to modulate or reduce the intensity of fearbased beliefs and raises the intensity of beneficial beliefs. By doing this you actually control the behavior of the snake itself.
The snake is neutral, but is based in love. It has the ability to feel fear, but does not need to go there on its own. The fear must be provoked. Naturally, a snake is without fear, which means that naturally a snake is a being of love, just like everything else. The snake can only feel fear if you bring out the fear in the snake. This manifestation event shows you that your power of focus controls your feelings of love and fear. You have the power to reduce fear and increase love.
This exact same principle can be applied to humans as well. In fact, here is where your true power lies. Your focus will allow you to bring out love in other people whenever you interact with another. If you lapse into fear, they will respond accordingly. There are some people with whom you interact where you may naturally feel more fearful. Your boss, your wife, your children might cause you to focus on fearful thoughts because you believe they have a lot of influence over the course and quality of your life. There might be others with whom you feel no fear, such as small children and puppies. With them you remain a being of love quite easily and naturally.
Why would you feel fear around your wife? Because she has the perceived ability to make your life happy or miserable and this can change in any moment. You might be having a nice day and return home from work and if your wife is in a bad mood, your day could be ruined. This is your perception and so the potential exists. However, you can react to her in the same manner you responded to the snake. You can understand that no one has the power to create in your world and you can use your power of focus to think thoughts of love. This will have a profound impact on the quality of your relationship.
Your attachment to what you think you have causes you to feel fear because the fear of loss is an aspect of everything you have. You fear your wife because she might leave and your life would change and you fear this change. You fear your children because they might withhold their love and you fear the loss of their love. You fear your bosses/partners because you believe they control your financial security. You fear your coworkers because you want a happy and effective work environment and you believe they have direct influence over that. You fear your neighbor because you believe what he thinks matters.
If you could focus on the one thing you have control over, which is how you feel about them, and reduce the intensity of fear that consumes you, then they would respond as the snake responded. However, you have never really acknowledged your fear of humans as you were able to acknowledge your fear of the snake. You fear humans far more than snakes, yet you use almost no focus when you are interacting with them. You simply believe that they are being wrong and that they should be different than they are.
Now you understand that you must be as focused with humans as you were with the snake. You must acknowledge your fear with every person in your life just as you acknowledged the fear of the snake. It was easy with the snake because your fears were out in the open and this caused you to maintain your power of focus. It led to a feeling of exhilaration and accomplishment. When you practice your power of focus with people as you understand your fears, you will experience even more heightened feelings of exhilaration and accomplishment.
This was an important manifestation event which gave you new insights to the power of your focus and how you can use it to overcome your fears. When you acknowledge a fear, you can use that same power of focus to overcome it. Unless you realize that a fear exists, you cannot use focus to create the reality you prefer. It is not wrong to have fear. It is a natural part of this environment. But fear is limiting and you can overcome these limitations by using your power of focus.
You are loved more than you can imagine.
Joshua
