The never-ending stream of thoughts comes to you every moment colorfully presented in their confounding tapestry of various topics and concepts. They artfully swing the pendulum of emotions from ecstatic happiness to desperate loneliness in mere seconds. The web of seemingly unrelated, but yet interconnected thoughts are your constant companion. You make a decision of which thought to focus on and channel that rich flow into a direction of your choosing. The process by which you do that can be strenuous or effortless depending on your mental state at the time, focus and many other factors. The same process also applies to life.
For in life, everything exists. As you look out into the world closely surrounding you or that which is far away, you will notice the presence of all outcomes. Hunger co-exists with affluence, love with hate, openness and willingness to help with injustice and prejudice. People of all colors walk this Earth and to make sure we don't think of ourselves as its only occupants, over 70 percent of it is home to a great kingdom of creatures of water. Life is an all you can eat buffet. You see it one way or another by choosing to focus on certain aspects of it and relating it to how you feel about what you just witnessed. Then you decide whether to continue focusing there or moving on to a topic that interests you more. And so we move through our time consciously and subconsciously choosing the direction.
For most, the process described above of the inner world (thoughts) and the outer world (that which surrounds you) is one of a passive observer. It is not one of an active participant and co-creator. Because noticing and directing/ignoring a thought is not the same thing as creating one. That subtle but very significant difference is the reason for this article and why many don't find true success with the Law of Attraction and Manifestation.
The fact is the flow will always be there, one that is generated for you or by you. When instead of noticing or directing the existing flow you consciously create a new one, the magic happens. We often speak of setting an intention, but miss the mechanics of it. Intention starts with origination/creation of a new flow. You make that choice, give the initial "push" with visualization and then work with the Universe through action and affirmations to do the rest.
Imagine, for instance, that a torrent of water is carrying you down its path and you are approaching the waterfall. You feel powerless and are desperately looking for a branch or a rock to hold on to and stop your progress. That scary thought would be an example of trying to alter the flow. You are not OK with where your life is heading and you wish to do something about it. However, you are working within the confines of your environment. You are not looking outside the "stream." Origination, in our example, would be akin to you saying STOP and the waters parting around you as you proceed to build a bridge to the shore. Sounds ridiculous to any "sane" person but so does visualizing yourself rich or healthy when you are currently not.
Manifestation is a naturally occurring process that shows up as a result of our decisions. Sane people don't notice it, slightly off-kilter ones do and those really off the beaten path actually believing in it. Where you fall in that spectrum is up to you as the Universe doesn't worry about that and will continue functioning. However, if you want to make it work with you, you must take your noticing to the next level and say 'stop.' After you stop the ever-present flow you have a chance to breathe, think and decide where to go from here. That is when you set the intention and build your "bridge."
One final and very important step in origination -- you can only co-create when you accept that you have the power to do so. If you feel that the process is above/outside you then it will be and your results will echo that. When you see yourself as a limitless being that can bring anything into your reality then you will.
First published on OM Times http://omtimes.com/2015/01/missing-key-manifesting/