{June 2020} The Building

I pulled up to a rest stop just past the Utah border about an hour from my final destination. It had been a brutal 22 hour drive in the absence of a working air conditioner. I could barely notice the sweaty predicament in my cloud of euphoria. I was finally picking back up my project of traveling and painting murals. Van life isn’t for everyone, but I prefer the simplicity and I was happy to return to the comfort of my homelessness as well. As I pulled back my sun visor to reveal what the humidity had left of my face, a piece of paper tucked neatly behind a clip caught my attention. It was a note I had written to myself two years prior. I remember the note distinctly because I had been researching quantum physics and the art of manifestation at the time. I had just purchased the van and was really unsure of my decision to pursue an art career and basically give up all hope of a safe and predictable future. I had no money in the bank and no idea what I was doing. In black ink and in meticulously even rows, I had written:

I am so happy that I pursued my dream of making art. I now make plenty of money each month to support my dream and I am financially free because I believed enough in myself. I am so grateful for what I have manifested. I am successful and love what I do.

Now at the time that I wrote this, I was writing my goals down as if they had already happened, even though it was the furthest thing from my current reality. As I read each letter over again I began to tear up, I had done it. What was written on the paper was my new and current reality. I created it. I didn’t hold back anything when I wrote it because I had come to the understanding that nothing I could dream up was unreachable. It was that faith in myself that the universe took notice to. This wasn’t my first run in with manifestation either. I had also attracted the man of my dreams and a 30lb weight loss with this same technique. Now before you grab a piece of paper and start filling out your order there are a few things to keep in mind when one is manifesting a new reality. I’m going to give you an example of something I just recently manifested but first, lets talk about the formula.

The number one thing that you have to remember when you are manifesting is you need to make the goal tangible. It’s not enough to just think that you want something because a thought doesn’t hold as high of a frequency as words on a piece of paper or speaking the words out loud. If you keep your dreams in your head, I’m afraid that is where they will stay. I understand that speaking your dreams out loud is intimidating because once you voice what it is that you truly want, now disappointment is a real possibility. What if it doesn’t happen? What if I tell this person what I want to achieve and then I can’t see it through? This is where faith and affirmation play a huge roll. If you doubt your ability to create your own reality then the universe has no choice but to match your enthusiasm.

The universe will never tell us no. It tells us one of 3 things.

1. Yes

2. Not yet

3. I have something better for you.

The next important thing to remember when manifesting is being specific. You can’t simply set vague goals such as “ I want a better life.” This won’t work. WHAT would make your life better? This takes a bit of inner reflection and self- confidence to decide what that would be. This means you won’t be able to play a victim role and accept your life as it already is. Blanket statements like “ I am getting old and this is my fate” lock you in to a self-loathing prison and throw away the key. If this makes you feel uncomfortable, I invite you to sit with that.

Ok, so after you’ve actually spent some time alone in your own head and defined specifically what it is you want. Then you’ve taken it a step further and written it down as if it has already taken place. Now, you write down what actions would need to take place in order for this to happen. There is a little bit of work involved, but this goes for anything worth working toward. After you write down your action plan, then you wait. I’m going to show you an example of something I most recently manifested for myself.

After returning from South America, I was taking a look at my portfolio and although I love all my murals, I hadn’t really painted anything BIG. I often times apply for mural contests and grant money and your application is just more likely to be considered when you have bigger examples of your work to show. Now, although I have interned with many mural artists and am fully capable of painting on a large scale, I just hadn’t created any of my own. So this becomes my new mission. I start writing in my journal every morning “I am blessed to have had the opportunity to inspire others and to display my passion on such a large scale” as if it had already taken place. But this isn’t enough. I created the vibration but I needed to take some action. There was a mural contest taking place with a big building involved so I applied for that. I would also visit the building from the contest often and do things like place my hands on the warm bricks and actually imagine what it would feel like to take a brush stroke on that building. I took in the sounds around me as if it were my first day on the job and even felt the gratitude that would wash over me after reaching my goal. Now, I wouldn’t hear from the contest for a while so I started taking action in other areas. I visited local businesses and asked to paint in my hometown where murals are pretty much non-existent. I pitched my ideas to SEVERAL business owners but I kept meeting rejection and doubt. This is great place to feel like giving up because rejection is not comfortable for anyone, but I didn’t stop there. I made posts about murals and started talking about my ideas of what I wanted to paint to anyone that would listen. I researched large murals online for inspiration for the mural that I would paint when I inevitably landed the job of my dreams. Now this next step is major. Letting go and having faith. Satisfied that my goals were well documented and that I have taken considerable action, now I sit back and wait. I don’t let the people that told me no get inside my head and take this as a sign that I just haven’t found my dream building yet. Forcing things in any situation is never a good outcome. What happened next was incredible. I made a post about donating a mural to a local business affected by Covid-19 and I had business owners from all over the area contacting me to paint…. you guessed it…their building! I booked not one but FIVE large-scale murals in one single day. Just like that, something that was only an idea in my head became my physical reality. Now I haven’t heard back about the big mural contest yet, but I definitely have enough to keep me busy until September. Even writing about the contest right now in this blog is another form of action and re-affirms my goal to myself and the universe. Here is a sneak peek of the projects I have coming up. If you are reading this and you are from my hometown of Huntington, Indiana, please know that I feel truly blessed to finally be able to bring in some large-scale, interactive art to the place where I grew up and where my dreams all started.