Create Your Life With Conscious Intention

How is more Important than What

One of the biggest mistakes people make when trying to manifest their dreams is working from some perceived skillset rather than the correct mindset. "I can do X, Y and Z. Therefore, I should get result A" is an example of relying on your level of skill in a particular area rather than on your mindset. Skillset thinking always emphasizes what over how.

In the example above, the what might be PowerPoint, Excel and running a projector during a presentation. While it is often very important to have these particular skills in a modern business setting, your skillset - or what you do - is really not very critical at all to the outcome of a successful business presentation, or anything else for that matter.

Almost any combination of skills will help you get there. What focuses your consciousness on post-intention patterns: you first intended to learn presentation skills and how to use the applications that go along with successful presentations; this empowered you to expand your consciousness in ways that would not have been present otherwise.

Your initial intention was fulfilled when you created a way to acquire the presentation skills necessary. These tools helped you get there, but they could easily have been other ones altogether to get the same result, for example, public speaking, using a whiteboard and skillful use of audience participation. The key thing here is that it all began with an intention (mindset), then a new creation emerged (skillset) as visible evidence of your consciousness at work doing what it does best - being conscious.

There are many systems for working with consciousness in the world today, some more effective than others. They all have aspects of technique that recommend them, and they all work with setting intentions in some fashion as the only way to make your consciousness manifest in the world. Conscious manifestations are your intentions. Unconscious ones are everything else.

Mindset is all about how you focus on something (attention), how you apply your energy to things (action) and how your beliefs affect the process (current and past conditioning). Taken together, attention, energy and belief work in harmony with each other to help you set your intention.

We are ineffective manifestors of our intentions to the extent that one or more of these three elements is out of whack. For example, a strong belief in luck or chance will short-circuit your ability to apply energy when manifesting your intention to become wealthy. The odds are much more in favor of you finding a way to create your desired reality from a finely honed mindset than from the chance operations of impartial universe. You are more likely to become wealthy through your own efforts than through winning the lottery. In fact, your own efforts will guarantee your wealth if you are able to bring your attention, energy and beliefs all together in alignment.

How the Universe Works

The universe is the field of manifestation in which your consciousness gets to play with its creations. It is what The Secret calls your genie. It's sole function is to grant your wishes. As evolving spiritual beings operating on many levels simultaneously, we have both the responsibility and the cosmic pleasure of manifesting the very stuff of creation. Some of us do this on a grand scale while others manifest mostly personal creations on an individual scale. The scale is not important. The what is not important. The how is important. How we manifest is ultimately the only thing that provides us with feedback for our own spiritual evolution. And evolution is all about change, perhaps the one immutable property (How's that for a paradox?) of the whole universe: everything changes from one form of energy to another in endless variations over untold eons. The universe not only is, it is becoming. From the microcosmic to the macrocosmic levels, change is the instrument of its evolution.

This is very simple stuff, really, but can appear to be intimidating to our untrained consciousness when dealing with such concepts. After all, most of us have never been taught how to work with our own consciousness, and a lifetime of beliefs, habits and ignorance in this area has not prepared us for instant illumination. We're all experts at manifesting our realities. We just don't know how we do it. Let's apply a little attention to the process itself. Here's a brief recap:

The universe serves as the field of manifestation for our creations
Everything in the universe, our consciousness included, is in a process of becoming or evolving
Change, perhaps the one universal attribute of all things, is about shifting one form of energy into another
As consciousness spiritual beings, how we move this energy (the mindset) is more important than what we move (the skillset)
Attention, energy and belief affect our ability to manifest our intentions

As conscious beings, we cannot help but create. As the field of manifestation, the universe cannot help but reflect those creations. Both conscious creations (intentions) and unconscious ones (everything else) involve exactly the same mechanism of moving one form of energy into another.

Our success or failure with our intentions depends upon our ability to consciously work wit our attention, energy and belief. When these three are used properly, our intentions are reflected in the outside world as our creations. Our conscious creations exist side-by-side with our unconscious ones. Evolution is the degree to which we can consciously work with our creations. How we use our mindset is the determining factor in our success or failure as conscious manifestors. What we do to get there is completely irrelevant.

Your Role as a Conscious Manifestor of your Intentions

How you place your attention serves to set up a certain energy pattern. In this energy pattern, certain frequencies are possible while others are not. Learn to focus only on things that support your overall health, well being and evolution as a spiritual being and conscious manifestor of reality. This will gradually clean your energy field up and fine-tune the level of frequency to promote more consciousness. Focus on all levels of being in this fashion: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual.

Choose how to use your available energy in each moment to optimize your creations. It takes energy to do things in the world, but you are probably less aware that at least as many things can give energy back to you. Eat the proper food and do the things that energize the body. Establish and maintain healthy relationships to energize your emotional self. Feed your mind with challenging and stimulating ideas to encourage an energized intellect that can help you further evolve your consciousness. Meditate or pray, and associate with like-minded persons who, like you, wish to evolve spiritually and to nurture the higher levels of your consciousness and spirit. Let go of things in your life that do not serve your evolution in the four main areas of body, emotions, mind and spirit.

Work with your beliefs to make certain you are operating free and clear of early conditioning, social and cultural patterns, ingrained family experiences and acquired judgments, perceptions and truisms. The universe is all about change and you should be too. Negative beliefs can grow quite stale and ingrained and serve to limit your ability to change as needed in an ever-changing universe. Replace all negative beliefs with positive ones, ones that come from your conscious intention rather than your unconscious acceptance of your own and others' creations.

Working with your attention, energy and beliefs in these ways will put you well on the road to consciously manifesting your intentions. Take delight in the process and don't sweat the details. How you live your life will always be more important in the long run than what you fill your life up with. It's your life, now go and create it how you wish!

Tim Thompson is a professional freelance writer/editor whose work with Dream Manifesto helps illuminate life for online and offline audiences around the world. He currently makes his home in southern California and is working on several online projects.