The other day I wrote myself a love note. I was feeling a little down and I needed a pick-me-up. It was simple really, and it only took me about 10 minutes. I hardly thought about it either before or after I wrote it. When I shared it with someone a few hours later she just looked at me with a dead-pan serious stare and said “That is the most beautiful piece you have ever written. I’m stunned.” I was a little taken aback at the power and plainness of her statement and it inspired me to read it again more slowly. Then I was stunned. I had never read words both so commanding and so tender all at the same time. When I shared it with others they thought it was the most beautiful note to have been written to me by someone else. But I had written this to myself?! As I read the love note again the words felt absolutely true at the deepest levels of awareness and understanding. But where had they come from so unbidden? What was happening in my life that I could write them so easily and so fluidly without thinking or pausing? Then it struck me – for years now I have been actively and aggressively cultivating self-awareness, self-empathy, and compassionate presence with myself and others. For the last several months I have been pouring nearly all my energy into the manifestation of my vision of myself as an empathetic, compassionate, intuitive and powerful being. I realized that I had stopped thinking from my head about matters of the heart and stopped thinking from my heart about matters of the head. More simply put, I had untangled the mess of overlapping emotion and intellect and through the process of separation had neatly brought them into the harmony of symbiosis. My head and my heart were entwining powerfully together in ways I had never conceived of and the result of the union was, well, something as simple as the air I breathe. I loved myself. This was not just the love of a healthy self-esteem but was the deeper love of a true satisfaction with self. This was a love of empowerment and tranquility. These words and this feeling of love were expressions of my fullest self yet and they were leading to the manifestation of my fullest life yet. I realized that everything I have wanted is now within reach and coming around the corner of my life. I am on the verge of a deep and powerful explosion of….success! As I sat back and pondered this realization of self and process I wondered what would come next. What happens after success? Slowly I began to realize that success is just the middle. It would be a “C” average if life were graded. Success is just the beginning of fully living where we are accomplished and generating pleasure. Success is where we begin the discovery process of happiness and satisfaction. Success is a place of work though and it must constantly be maintained. This is where the dominant paradigm of our culture exists as well. “You must work to succeed” many self-help books will tell us. We can build tools and processes around success as well. We can build rules and goals and metrics for success even! We can know “without a doubt” that we have succeeded. In fact, a huge portion of our industry and economy is built around this “struggle to succeed.” Authors, motivational speakers and teachers earn millions on the subject of success. Success is just the beginning though. It is adequate, ordinary and sufficient. Sadly, this is where many people stop growing as they think there is nothing more. Success is where we accomplish our goals and just begin to have a vision of the future, though. There is more, much more, and the next step is called thriving. Thriving is where our needs become fully met. This would be a “B” if life were graded. Life gets easier here. Joy is abundant and fulfillment begins. When we are thriving we begin to come alive and a glow of energy is often noticed to permeate around us. This is the point in living where we begin to notice that life is about more than just work and begin to see the abundance of life. For the first time, in thriving, we are able to move past the struggle of surviving and the work of succeeding. It is a place of pleasure, pleasure at having moved past succeeding. Being in thriving space allows us to begin to open ourselves to the greater possibilities of life. We begin to notice some of the limiting behaviors that have defined our existence up until now and we begin to change them. When we are thriving there is more energy as well that empowers us, drives us and moves us forward in new and exciting ways. We become more available to ourselves and others emotionally and physically. We allow ourselves to generate new ideas that, for the first time, reach beyond just our own success. When we are thriving we are in control of our growth. We are able to guide it and direct it and know where it is going. Thriving is where abundance begins to be seen and understood. There is always more with just a little effort. Thriving is still not the top grade in life, though. The “A” grade in life is powerful manifestation. This is the place I had written my love note from. There is no wanting or needing when we live in powerful manifestation. In this stage we are creating and receiving. We are creating that which we most deeply desire in life. The desire comes from the deepest levels of our soul with full awareness and vision into our true self. From this place of depth we can create exactly that which nourishes us to the fullest extent possible and beyond. In this place of powerful manifestation we are no longer “working” at anything. Life becomes effortless as we step into the flow and energy of the universe in a way that allows us to generate on demand that which we most need at that moment – whether we know it or not. When we are fully embracing creation it extends out and beyond that which we can easily see and touch. This extension invites in new energy that is not within our control, though it is benevolent! The invitation requires that we allow ourselves to receive this new energy which we are not always aware of. What we are receiving is abundance. Abundance is not something we can control but is instead something that we must embrace, or more simply put – accept. When we are receiving we remove the blocks that have limited us and held us back. We let go of that which no longer serves us and that which does not belong to us anymore. Just as life becomes effortless with creation we become weightless when we are receiving. The burden is no longer ours to bare alone or even at all! In powerful manifestation creation and receiving begin to blend together as one. They simply become the universal “flow”. When we step fully into powerful manifestation we not only see clearly, create effortlessly that which we need most and receive abundantly that which we don’t even need to ask for. We also have full awareness and can allow both ourselves and others to be in their true nature and true being. As we let go of the ties and binds that hold us down and keep us back we discover a sense of freedom like nothing we have known before. The freedom of powerful manifestation is quite simply the ability to “just be.” When we allow ourselves to just be we become more than we ever have been before. In success we were able to reach a place of happiness and satisfaction. As we moved into thriving we stepped into joy and fulfillment and our needs became fully met. We begin to come alive and saw beyond the struggles of success, though some control and effort was still required. In powerful manifestation life becomes effortless and abundant beyond our control. Our needs become met spontaneously in ways we weren’t even aware they were wanting. As we step fully into the flow of powerful manifestation we release any need to control and simply discover what comes next as it happens neither needing nor wanting nor restricting anything. We reach a place of awe were everything and everyone is full of beauty and power and perfection – and the awe extends far beyond that which we can see. Thus, my love note was perfectly created in that moment
o

f openness and powerful manifestation and awe. If the love note were graded it would be an “A+”. It was a window into my future. I had taken a step forward in my own process too. It was the fullest my life had been yet.