Published in Odyssey Magazine: June/July 2007

Natalia Baker explores why some of us can't have it all, all the time … just yet!

“Why am I not getting what I want?” “I put so much energy into shifting so why do I still feel stuck? Am I a failure?” “Do the laws of creation really work?” Good question which, perhaps, many of can relate to. We are in a whirlwind of information on reality creation: the films The Secret and What the Bleep and a multiple of teachers, books, and CD's all offering techniques which claim we can create our own reality and have exactly the experience we want.

I believe this too, completely and commitedly, but as I observe my own life and the lives of loved ones close to me, it is glaringly obvious that the success rate is dependent on various dynamics including the degree of healing we have undergone, our degree of clarity and the individual path we have chosen for this lifetime.

Before exploring this further, let me say it is a necessary part of our growth to understand and learn the techniques of manifestation at this time. To develop these skills is a characteristic of mastery and self-empowerment through the application of choice. You could say we are in Reality Creation 101 (a first year university course). We still have more to learn and won't get it right every time.

One of the reasons we may not be successful is best described with an example which concerned my beloved husband. Daily he meditated, visualized, affirmed, prayed and disciplined his thinking to always be positive. Through the dedicated application of these techniques he created a very successful business. Then he retired and the daily dose of reality creation input dried up. In a short time, although he never verbalized his concerns, his words and behaviour reflected the return of an earlier state of mind in which he was anxious about money running out and never having enough. As I was working and struggled to care for him in his last months, I mildly suggested it would be helpful if we could have a part time nurse. I was exhausted and concerned for my own sanity and health. Whew, what a reaction! I palpably felt his anxiety and fear of lack.

So what went wrong? Why did the old pattern return after so many years and such success? Each individual is a complex conglomeration of influences: historical, social, class and status, gender, nationality, race, culture, religion, family, karmic, inherited and so on. Belief patterns created by all these are firmly grounded into our cellular memory and can even be sourced in past lives. Do you recall Neale Donald Walsch asking God (Conversations with God, book 1) why he, Neale, was always struggling with money? He explains to God many teachers had told him it was because he lacked self worth. God suggested this was certainly not the problem as he might even have too much of it! The problem was that he could not marry the idea of being spiritual with money. Simply put, spirituality was “good”, money was “bad” in Walsch's unconscious programming. This could be very deep past and current life conditioning, possibly the consequence of Piscean religious belief in which poverty was seen as a virtue.

The point here is no matter how much we work with creation techniques, unless our belief system is uncovered and reformed, we will not be able to sustain success in what we are attempting to manifest. We have to recognize and then dedicatedly clear out those belief patterns and replace them with those that serve the vision of our greatest possibility.

It is then that constant awareness and discipline is required but this part of the work can actually be great fun. We have to re-pattern our thoughts, words, feelings and actions to resonate with what we are manifesting. Old habits die hard and it is necessary to be on constant alert. It is not the occasional thought or word that will set us back from achieving our goal, but the long-held habits of thought and speech. This is one of the areas where we fail because unless we have determination and will power we cannot achieve the necessary “refurnishing” of our inner being for success.

I recall a friend who longs for a life of freedom and joy. The words she continually uses
are “O, how I wish…” instead of “I choose” or “I intend”.

If we are not feeling, resonating and vibrating with that which we desire it is most unlikely to manifest and this is where, for many of us, there is real committed work to be done.

Depending on its nature, a limiting belief will be registered as a blockage in a chakra. Any blockage disturbs the flow down to the base vortex which is the chakra required to bring a desire into physical manifestation. An idea is seeded in the crown chakra, reflected upon in the brow so as to adapt into one's life and destiny, communicated about and given the energy of will through the throat, loved in the heart, given thought in the solar plexus, passion and delight in the sacral and birthed through the base. It is helpful to examine which chakra is hindering the completion of the manifestation and work directly with it to open and clear it.

Another area where our ability to manifest is challenged is best described with a brief chapter from my own life. I initiated the process of building a smaller house with regular use of various manifestation techniques with the aim of making this experience one of ease and grace. The truth is it has been a very l-o-n-g and tortured journey. I will not bore you with all the details, but just to say the contract stated it would take 5 months to complete. It is now 16 months later and it is nearly finished, but not quite…

I am not unskilled at reality creation, in fact I have had many successes, but it would be true to say last year was one of the most difficult and challenging of my life. I was not trying to control things with the consequent frustration and irritation veering too much towards being laissez-faire and leaving it to the professionals, believing it would unfold perfectly, but there was something greater going on. I believe the choice I have made to grow and heal in this life was overriding what I now understand was an ego desire for trouble free experience. It would be true to say the universe gave me what I needed, not what I wanted!

There are seasons of the soul. We live within some small and some very vast cycles of energy. The tides come in, the tides go out. Spring burgeons into summer, followed by the cool of autumn and then the heart of winter. Our breath is a microscopic example of expansion and contraction, the rhythm of all life everywhere, the cycles of the universe. When our personal cycle is, metaphorically speaking, in winter or autumn, it may be a time of preparation for the concrete manifestation of our desires. We have to wait for the right season. Patience and absolute trust is required.

Although I did not consciously create the difficulties in building the house, one of the blessings has been the love and support I have received from close friends. Finally it will be a beautiful home. In the end the lessons I have learnt and the person I have become are more valuable than my desire for a smooth, easy ride. I have to admit the infinite intelligence of the universe knew better.

We are all creators, whether consciously or not we are creating all the time. I once heard a description that we create in-form-ation, meaning we have created everything into form. It is time to claim this not just as selfish creators who are ego driven and “want, “need”, “require” for material aggrandizement, but as co-creators with the Divine, honing our intentions, purposes and choices to serve the whole and resonate with the greater truth of the oneness and interconnectedness of all life. It is time to shed what we create by default and become conscious, powerful co-creators. This is our destiny.

Finally, as we continue to practice the skills of reality creation, the day will come when our co-creator capacity will flow from our sense of beingness. What does this mean? It means resting in our source, one with our higher selves, connected with the wondrous creative forces of the universe. We will exist within the great stream of divine abundance, prosperity and unconditional love, where we experience the “fulfillment of every need and requirement for the hour”. Everything we need will be effortlessly ours simply through who we are. Miracles and synchronicities in our daily lives will be commonplace. We will be able to have it all – and it's soon!