Okay, let's see. By now:
(1) you have selected one or two areas of your life
(2) you have recorded your current reality in these areas
(3) you have dated and filed this record away, for future reference, and you won't be looking at it again until the end of the experiment.
In the next stage, we'll be working to develop, in relation to these life areas, a list of positive intentions. For LOA newbies, drawing up this list is itself a bit of a fine art - because we have to find some ways to skip around your left brain's preconceived notions of what is possible and not possible.
Before you actually prepare your list of positive intentions, you're going to have to do a few exercises. Here is the first exercise - it's based on visualisation.
One important purpose of this exercise is just to get your brain familiar and acquainted with, and to get ideas about,
what could be possible, in your chosen life area. When your brain has a better idea of what could be possible, you will be able to draw up a better list of positive intentions.
1. Get to a quiet, comfortable place where you know you won't be disturbed.
2. You need to be feeling calm, happy or peaceful. Or at least neutral. The exercise is not to be done when you're angry, stressed, frustrated etc.
3. Helpful to do some simple stretching exercises beforehand, to get the body all relaxed and comfortable.
4. You can lie down or sit. Just get comfortable. (Disadvantage of lying down is that you may find yourself falling asleep halfway).
5. Once you're comfortable, stop all unnecessary body movements. Don't wiggle your legs, scratch your nose, fidget etc.
6. Now,
breathe. Very deep .... very slow .... Exhalations should be longer than inhalations. Hold your breath briefly at the end of each inhalation, before beginning the exhalation. At the end of the exhalation, pause briefly, before beginning to inhale. Count nine deep, slow inhalations + exhalations.
7. Keep your attention on your breath. Don't think about other things. If you get distracted, just start from zero and do nine inhalations and exhalations again.
That's the preparatory phase above. You can use it for visualisation exercises in general.
Now, what you're going to do is:
8. Run a mental movie of your chosen life area. For example, suppose you'd chosen "My Job". What you are going to do is visualise a mental movie of your daily routine at work, comprising typical daily scenes and incidents.
9. Do this movie, as if you're "in your own body" looking out.
10. If you're not sure how to visualise, just treat it as replaying your memories of your workplace. Eg if I ask you now, "What does the guy sitting next to you at work look like? How does he sound? Do you remember anything unusual about the way he walks? Or the kind of clothes he wears?", certain images should start appearing in your mind. Your mental movie is just going to consist of images like that.
11. You may feel that your movie is not very vivid. Whenever you have that problem, slow down your movie and pick out very, very specific details in the scene. For example, if you're visualising yourself sitting at your workstation, pause and focus on details like the exact location of your pencil holder; the Microsoft Word program running on your screen; the feel of your buttocks on your chair.
12. Note - your movies are not just about visual images. You can have sound, tactile sensations, taste, smell etc all incorporated. Also emotionally
feel the movie. What are your emotions, as all these different things happen in your movie?
The above are general tips for visualising effectively, And now, for the magick .....
13. As I have mentioned, your mental movie as described above, is like replaying your memories as clearly as possible.
14. But for your LOA exercise, do not simply replay memories. Alter them.
15. For your first exercise, don't attempt anything too amazing or drastic. As you play your movie, simply substitute the little things and details in your movie that you don't like, with things and details that you DO like.
16. For example, suppose your boss often walks to your workstation carrying a blue file and with a frown - he then proceeds to speak rudely to you in front of everyone. Now instead of playing this exact scene in your mental movie, play a scene where he walks to your workstattion with a blue file and a big smile - and he proceeds to praise you, in front of everyone, for a piece of work you did well.
17. Suppose your workspace is disorganised and untidy. Instead of playing this exact scene, visualise your workspace being as neat and organised as you want it to be. Etc.
18. Suppose you often find yourself stressed at work, looking at your project materials and feeling unsure about what to do next. Instead of playing this exact scene, visualise movie scenes where you are feeling happy and competent and interested at work, enjoying working on your project.
Do this throughout your mental movie of "My Job" - and what is happening? You are actually visualising a perfect day at work.
Now, even if you (currently) do not believe in the "magical' aspects of LOA, what this exercise will do for you is show you what is
possible at work -
how it could be much better than what it currently is - so that you have a better idea of what you can strive towards.
Anyway, have fun playing your movie ..... 20 minutes is good ..... then record some notes on what you did, for the purposes of your experiment. Date your record.