Abraham-Late Night Vortex

Really cool lounge chairs at the Frankfurt airport. And that's my carry-on, which I always see in my mind's eye as "carrion". The word, not the luggage.

Yeah, I don't think I should be up at 11:49 starting to blog, either, but here I am. I worked two half days in a row--both cooking classes and got off work around 3 today. I had done a lot of cleaning at home in the morning after I meditated, so I'd been on my feet from about 7-10, then went to work and stood from 11-3 and went shopping until 5, so I now realize I was on my feet for 10 hours straight. No wonder my dogs were barking. I couldn't swim until at least 7 because of a water aerobics class that uses the whole pool and dinner was important and my partner made a wonderful roasted pepper and tofu dish with cumin, and perfectly roasted some halved potatoes (Vortex food), which we ate around 6:30. I ate moderately, but wasn't feeling the pool right after I ate. 


Besides, we had to finish "Io Sono L'Amore", which was absolutely spectacular! I would call this a film, not a movie. There is a scene where Tilda Swinton is walking through San Remo in an orange dress that matches the begonias that match the car parked on the street. Then a woman passes through the frame in fuschia dress that matches the geraniums and all this is in contrast with the gorgeous stone buildings that are very lovingly shot. Oh, my! Vortex-worthy mise-en-scene. And the sex scenes: FANTASTICALLY VORTEXY SEXY. I like it when a director shows as much of the man's body as the woman's. I watched "Io Sono L'Amore" twice (the second time to see what the director was doing) and I will rent it again to get another impression and to watch the special features, which I did not have time for. I hope there is a director-narrated version, because that will be Vortex material, indeed. To see pictures of director, Luca Guadagnino, Edoardo Gabriellini and Ms. Swinton, go here:


http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0345174/

So, all of me got in the Vortex except my feet. (I'm claiming an in-the-Vortex status, because I heard on an Abraham CD that it's good to do that even if you're in and out or on the edge. Just claim it. I like that.) I don't know if I'm working tomorrow, but up to now when my feet hurt at night and I don't do something, they kinda don't feel their prime in the morning. But, I didn't really want to go to all the trouble of getting to the pool. My partner and I had been chatting and time was slipping by and I was yawning and feeling very beddish. But then it dawned upon me that the video was due tonight before midnight and the video store is right across the street from the pool. I did some mental gymnastics and fought the idea of going swimming so late, but I really did have the desire for the feeling of being in the water and experiencing its silky envelopment. My partner and I negotiated a bit and then I gave in to the call of the water and off I went, reaching the water at exactly 10 PM. I love it when I start my exercise exactly on the hour, too. I find it very aligning. 


It took me a while to warm up. My shoulders and back were actually chilly as I swam, but the water began working its magic on me. I've recently been able to get back to doing the crawl and that is such a gift. I've been doing mainly kicking in the last several months and an interesting stroke I learned from an Olympic swimmer from the 1940's who lifeguarded at the downtown Portland YWCA decades back. It's a butterfly kick with breast stroke arms and it's a really cool stroke. I was the only swimmer and the only pool occupant until 30 minutes into my routine when a guy got in and did a walking workout. I had brought my Yoga Toes with me:


http://www.yogapro.com/?gclid=CNve2oTYp6YCFRBzgwodNgd5pA

and would normally put them on in the hot tub. I haven't used them in a long time--I sometimes forget I have them--and the hot tub use is how I've always done it in the past. But I had a brainstorm while I swam. I could actually wear them while I did my water weights. I have tried to wear them while I swim, but they fall off. I like to wear them for about a half-hour because my feet look so aligned for some time afterward and also feel really good. So I did wear them standing up in the pool; I kept them on as I walked to the hot tub and since I was the only person in the hot tub, I left the jets off and just floated in the warmth. I wear my goggles so I can completely relax without water in my eyes and I can just let my body go. Vortex!


So now it's even later and I'm going to go now. But first I wanted to mention some little things that happened in the last week that I found Vortextual:


-an incredible salmon and pink sunset showing through bare black trees 


-a student who had given me a hard time before winter break giving me a side hug when I passed on a compliment from one of his teachers


-a very funny Craigslist ad title: "Need to published your work in online? here! (salem)" 


-8 hawks on the way to Portland yesterday--8 hawks!


-a marbled pink, blue, gray sky above me at the Keizer mall today


-in general, laughing at my own jokes, like right now when I was editing this post and re-read the last sentence in the caption on the lounge chair photo. And the joke came about as the result of an earlier edit and I laughed both times.


Oh, life is so good, isn't it?

A Madrid street performer who would fit nicely into the lounge chairs in Frankfurt.

Abraham-Vortextual Day

Gluten-free (!) pizza at a great restaurant in Paderno, Italy.

Our favorite paella. We ate this during a
wonderful Vortextual date in Madrid.

I had a lovely day yesterday (Monday, January 4) doing laundry and putzing around and swimming and getting groceries and THEN....


I had agreed to a task that I thought might be tough to stay in the Vortex around. It was a co-creative kind of a task and was not one I looked forward to. It took a few minutes, but I got spit out of the Vortex (OOV) into some uncomfortable rumination and activation at bedtime. That's all of the story I will tell other than to estimate that I was OOV for a good hour. Here's what's SOOOOO fantastic. Even with all that activation, I remembered to say things like, "I'm having a Step 1 moment that's going to make Steps 2 and 3 even bigger and even better," "I'm having a clarifying moment," "What is it that I want here?" How cool is that? Then when I couldn't get to sleep right away, I just kept thinking soothing thoughts and soon I was in the Vortex again and off to sleep. I had a great day at work even with some overflowed cakes, which caused some odors in the ovens. Young cooks learning some basics. The kids were great--I got to chat and build relationships and just enjoy those high schoolers. Fun times. 


Work was just a half-day and I was off to Portland to have lunch with a friend. Not only is she more stunning than ever, she has a passion for "the transformation of consciousness", as she puts it. She and I can talk Abraham at a level that I find really, really fun. She is also very cognizant of the huge shift that is happening in the psychotheraputic world and I enjoyed collecting book titles from her. A very enjoyable experience.


Then I went to see Braco, the Croation "gazer". Very interesting. Pretty positive. I had some interesting physical responses. I could definitely feel a lot of energy in the room and I appreciated many things about the whole experience. There is a wise guy that lives inside me who sometimes tries to make me laugh when things are supposed to be serious--I got kicked out of a Mormon church service I attended with two of my girlfriends when I was 13 for laughing--and I had a couple of those moments, but I really liked it overall. I had some lovely conversations with people around me. One man had died and come back and had out-of-body experiences. One beautiful, spirited woman with pink hair was just a delight to chat with. I met a couple of Abraham people. Fun.


I managed to squeeze in a couple of trips to places where I resell items I've collected. I got primo parking places at the height of rush hour. I tried routes that allowed me to move unimpeded to my various destinations. When I arrived I was first or second in line. All day long, things just worked out. I didn't get to do absolutely everything that I wanted to do, but it was a good day and I got home by 9 PM.


And the OOV subject? No charge in that for me today--it just had no juice, no electricity in it. I did discuss it briefly and mid-topic I thought, hmmmm, why would I focus on this? I quickly switched topics and got out of that stream of thought. I was just Step 1-ing a little, and creating an even juicier Vortex. No regrets. No-fault universe. I had managed to figure out a lovely solution even amidst all the contrast and look forward to applying that solution soon. 

Tangent: We've begun watching "I Am Love"/"Io Sono L'Amore" with Tilda Swinton. In the film she just ate a meal prepared for her by her son's friend, an experimenteur gastronomique, I would call him. She is eating the shrimp and vegetables dish he has made for her (very cutting edge, sculptural work-of-art food). In this scene, she is swept into the Vortex as she eats and it is a sight to behold. 


Enjoy your Vortex! 

Abraham-Crafty Chica/On Being Alone

Flowers in our hotel in Madrid.

Just finished publishing the last post and checked Twitter. Found a tweet about a most delightful blogpost by Kathy Cano-Murillo on her blog, Diary of a Crafty Chica, and a wonderful video called "On Being Alone" made by her daughter, Maya. Una familia muy talentosa. I love the name Maya because that is the name of my midwife's daughter who was about 6 when my son was born and was a full participant in the home birth experience, bringing me cool washcloths and making sure I was comfortable. All this made me happy even though I should be in bed now. Here's the link:


 http://nblo.gs/cwpoF


In the Vortex again!

Abraham-Callback Number 4

The amazing Lila Downs.

This link will take you to one of Lila Downs' wonderful songs. The link showed up on my Twitter stream and I was delighted to see this cool video. There's a bit of a Mexican theme today, so this seems apt:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtFlBWt864c

Here's a little story about what I term a "callback". Okay, so if you've been following the Vortex Diary, you may remember that the first post was about meditating and getting just to the edge of the Vortex only to be swept in by the appreciation of some porcelain hands on my mantle. A day or two later, I blogged about seeing a woman at the pool arranging her hands just so in a position that mimicked that of the porcelain hands exactly. That was callback Number 1. A callback, for me, is when the Universe lines up a little happening--a little coincidence--that only you would notice, that says to you, "You're doing very well," and reminds you to notice your alignment and to celebrate it. Esther Hicks loves to see the numbers on clocks and speedometers line up as does my friend with whom I had lunch today (I'll wind back around to that in a moment). I love those little signs and feel happy when they happen. 


After I wrote about the hands, a friend of mine told me that her sister and her brother-in-law, also friends, had been reading and enjoying the Vortex Diary, and that her brother-in-law's mind was a little blown by story of the lady in the pool arranging her hands just so. He, it seems, had been swimming in another pool on that same day, and had seen a woman do this same rather unusual exercise and arrange her hands just so. Now I had never seen anyone do this--place hands palm-down on the edge of the pool right above the waterline and then go underwater--and I've been going to public pools for decades, so it was quite a coincidence for two people to see this in one day. Callback Number 2.


On Christmas day, my partner gave me some lovely things, but maybe the sweetest thing he gave me was Callback Number 3. While looking through my extensive collection of greeting cards for one to send to his dad, he came across a card that I bought at least five years ago. I actually bought two of them because I thought they were so beautiful. He pulled it out and gave it to me because he knew the story of the porcelain hands and the just so hands at the pool. This card pictures the palms of a pair of hands arranged just so, and he was struck by the coincidence and wanted to share that with me. Thank you, honey.


Many times in the last few months, my partner and I have talked about stopping at a Mexican restaurant we pass en route to 24 Hour Fitness (or 24/7 as my partner now refers to it). We finally got around to it yesterday afternoon. (For locals, it's called Habanero and is located in the mini-mall at Hawthorne and Center.) The first thing I noticed was the cute decor--contemporary and tasteful--and the second thing I noticed was that behind the counter was a wonderful friend I'd lost contact with after I quit teaching full-time. She and I had worked in the same building for three years and really appreciated each other. We stayed in touch for some time but got out of each other's orbits and hadn't seen one another for quite some time. I think about her every single day, because she gave me two beautiful objects from Mexico for my mantle--a painting and a mask, and the painting is directly across from the chair where I meditate. She and her husband made this cool little restaurant together and the food is really, really good. She told me that she was hoping to build up their business and I, of course, told her to hold that vision.


I went right home yesterday and emailed all my friends in town and recommended the restaurant. One of my very good friends responded and suggested having lunch today. The idea of great food and great company was an easy yes. We met and ordered and as we chatted about the blog, I told my friend about Callback Number 2: my friend seeing a completely different swimmer in another pool arranging her hands just so. We got our wonderful meal and kept chatting. I was happy to see that while it wasn't busy in the restaurant, there was a steady trickle of customers. As it turned out, one of the customers was another friend I'd emailed the night before who was in the neighborhood and stopped in. What I didn't realize at the moment was that this friend is the wife of Mr. Callback Number 2 and I'd been talking about them just moments before she showed up in the flesh. I'd say that's Callback Number 4, wouldn't you?

Abraham-Nearly New Year

I loved having painted fingernails in Venice.

I've been staying up really late to blog this vacation. Late like 2AM and today I slept until 9 and I WOKE UP IN THE VORTEX! I mentioned the videos by homebuiltindoorplane on YouTube in the last post and how they swept me into the Vortex. I listened to this one right before I went to bed:

He wants to feel relief, plus Abraham slams it home (Part 2 of 2)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-JSNRgBry4

and I basked  once I got into my bed. By basked, I mean I just experienced the pillow, the comforters, the sheets, the wonderful mattress, etc. I reveled in being physical, really, and then I went to sleep. When I awoke and realized I was in the Vortex, I basked some more and then put some soft, comfortable clothing on over my wonderful silk long underwear that keeps me so warm. I had a quick glass of water and headed to my meditation station, which is an overstuffed chair situated between two tables filled with books, notepads, writing implements, and other "supplies" (a bell, a candle, crystals, a music box, a mirror, glasses, Post-It flags, highlighters and an array of decks of angel/well-being/inspirational cards from several sources including Abraham). I love this wonderful space in my living room that is charged with beautiful energy. I did my meditation and I started a focus wheel. I got as far as the 8th statement and I was solidly in the Vortex and milking it. I spent time in there thinking about my friends and family and seeing them through the eyes of Source and just loving all of them.

By then it was getting to be 10 AM and I decided I'd make my green drink and listen to the Abraham video again. This was the first time I'd used red kale with the cucumber, celery, apple, lime and ginger and it made a really pretty drink that I wanted to photograph. When I retrieved my camera from my art bag in my car the screen looked odd. I think my camera was frozen and the pictures looked very ghostlike so I didn't get a good shot. I started to worry about my camera but decided being in the Vortex was more important. My camera is fine, by the way. 

I listened to homebuiltindoorplane's video (his name is Dave!) several times and basked in the content. There are so many things that Abraham is saying that have already happened to me. Since starting the blog, I've noticed that my body feels wonderful. If I get an ache or a pain, I focus on an area of my body that feels good and the pain subsides or disappears. I have energy and stamina. Staying in the Vortex is getting easier and easier and I am having a lot of fun. Being out of the Vortex is uncomfortable because being in is so wonderful. I also listened to another of Dave's YouTube offerings, which is about a healer named Bruno Groening:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvbI1X4h-

FY&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

This is one of Dave's personally narrated videos and it is very cool. 

I got to the pool just in time to squeeze in my 45 minutes of in-the-Vortex exercise and felt just wonderful afterwards. I listened to an Abraham CD (the Money book) in my car as I bopped to the pool and made other stops. Abraham responds to Jerry's questions on this CD and the subject was work. Abraham says that the purpose of life is joy and that if we stay in the Vortex and enjoy our lives, anything that we want in the way of work must materialize. Very inspiring. Recently I heard a great analogy on this same CD about being in alignment and in the Vortex. It went something like this:

Imagine that you're running down a very long corridor to get to something that you really want. Every 20 feet or so, there's a door that you must slow down to open and run the next 20 feet and so on.  This is life not in the Vortex. If you're in the Vortex, all the doors are opened before you reach them and you just get to sail on through as fast as you want to go.

Everywhere I went tonight, people smiled at me and chatted me up. People like the wonderful boy in the pool who was playing with his little brother. The lovely blonde woman pulling into the parking space next to me. The clerk at the video store was jovial. A fellow customer at Big Lots and I had a long Cuttlebug, paper, sticker conversation. The cashier shared her falling-in-love story with me.

My fabulous partner and I took a walk in the very cold evening weather after a light dinner and that's when I began blogging. It's a few short minutes until 2011 and I am psyched because I've been in the Vortex for the entire day basically. I slipped out a couple of times and remembered from the homebuiltindoorplane video that examining any negative thought or emotion is something that can be accomplished in a flash. And since my dominant intent is to get back into the Vortex, that's what I did. An A+++++++++ day times at least 5 today. Happy New Year!!!

Abraham-More on Focus Wheels & Homage to YouTube's Homebuiltindoorplane

Beautiful laundry hanging in the Venice neighborhood near our hotel. 

What a thrill to be able to say that I have continued to meditate and do focus wheels (or something similar) each day since I started the Vortex Diary. Yesterday, my first statement just wasn't really coming right to me. I decided to get out "Ask And It Is Given" to review the focus wheel process. I knew that the statement in the middle of the focus wheel should reflect the feeling you are reaching for, but it was good to look at the book and to note that it's helpful to be aware of your present feeling state. The process was originally intended to be done in a feeling state that falls somewhere between boredom and anger on the Emotional Guidance Scale (found on page 297/Ask And It Is Given). (Note: In the newer Vortex of Creation workshops, Abraham talks about doing focus wheels in the Vortex or closer to the edge of the Vortex.)


Here are some ideas I found very helpful:
-Through our experiences, we come to believe certain things.
-The beliefs we hold keep us in a particular vibrational pattern.
-This vibrational tone disallows us from accessing the things we desire.
-We often defend our beliefs, by saying, "But it's true," even if the beliefs don't serve us.


Okay, here's what I often forget:
Anything that has manifested into a "physical, tangible, definable truth is because someone has given enough attention to it to make that so.....and just because someone else has managed to create their truth, it does not mean that it has any relationship to you or to what you will create."


And whatever your present reality/life experience it's not that way because it's an undeniable truth, "it is because in your attention to it, you have achieved vibrational harmony with it, so the Law of Attraction brings a matching experience to you."


It's so basic to the teachings of Abraham, yet I forget this all the time. The promise of the Focus Wheel is that you can practice thinking yourself into a better-feeling place and reset your vibration.


Once you've found your statement for the middle of the focus wheel, you're looking for a thought that is just a little bit beyond your current vibrational setpoint. Why? Because it's a better-feeling thought than the ones that hover around your current belief. Remember, we're bridging beliefs with the Focus Wheel. And a better-feeling thought brings RELIEF. So your statement will be: a.) general b.) soothing c.) one that you can believe.


Here's where 17 seconds and 68 seconds comes into play. You think that soothing thought for 17 seconds to begin attracting more thoughts like it. In the book, Abraham suggests staying with the thought or amplifying it or finding a memory related to it. Now it doesn't say this in the book, but I heard on a YouTube video recently that if you think that soothing thought for 68 seconds that you actually reset to the higher vibration of that thought!!!!


After reviewing the material, it was easy to identify my feeling state as pessimism. Now it wasn't a strong feeling of pessimism, it was inklings of it, but it was definitely there. So as I reached for optimism statement by statement, I decided to actually time myself. One of my timers is always set for 2 minutes because of the Self Myofascial Release work that I do. Hmmmmm, I thought, when I figured out how fast even 68 seconds went by, if I just keep the timer set for 2 minutes, I'll be pretty darned sure I'm resetting my vibration and how cool would that be? Well, it was marvelous. I found that by amplifying the thought, I got big waves of relief with each statement and by the time the half-hour or so it took for the process, I was pretty blissed-out. In fact, I had a teenage houseguest and I was inspired to blast some Busta Rhymes to wake him up, which blissed him out.


Then tonight as I was contemplating writing this post, I decided to listen to some Abraham on YouTube. I got swept into the Vortex listening to the newest videos from homebuiltindoorplane. The second video was the total package for me, because it just confirms what I've been experiencing since deciding that being in the Vortex is THE most important thing in my life. Here are the links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEC_Bls6fGU&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-JSNRgBry4

This guy does an amazing service to the Abraham community with the steady stream of excerpts that he posts. If I've heard a particular workshop before he gets a segment of it on YouTube, it will invariably be something that struck me as an extremely noteworthy piece.  He has a wonderful website:

allowing abundance.com

He also has a really cool forum where Abraham folk can share ideas and hear what others have to say. That link is:

allowing abundance.com/forum

Abraham-Milking Being In the Vortex

This is a picture of a lovely doorway I passed on my way to the market in Venice. It is located on the Zattare, which is a waterfront area that runs along one of the big canals.

Today, I'm excerpting, as close to verbatim as I can manage, a section of an Abraham YouTube video. Abraham is responding to a request from a European woman to talk about a new way of looking at economies. This segment was really lovely to me because I woke up not in the Vortex today and even though I have a lot to accomplish, I stubbornly decided to make getting into the Vortex my main priority. Then I puttered instead of diving into cleaning; instead of eating a breakfast that was good for me and that I "should" eat to stay healthy, I nibbled on foods that I love just long enough to take the edge off hunger; I wandered about letting the joy impulse guide me. I hung around in the Vortex milking the feeling (emotions and sensations) of being in the Vortex. Here's the funny thing, my visitors called to say they'd be an hour late, which gave me time to sit down and listen to Abraham on YouTube. Here's the golden nugget I found that brought me even more joy:

The success indicator is joy; the success indicator is that feeling--it is an emotional mood; it is a feeling of alignment; that is what success is, you see. And so we think it is a lovely, lovely thing that in this economic time that feels like upheaval and maybe even crisis to a lot of people, where the problem, the problem, the problem is being amplified that the solution, the solution, the solution is framing up too. It is the forerunner, it is the prepaving of more people realizing that it is the joy that they've been looking for all along anyway. And that in the discovery of it then all of the trappings have to come with it, too. Everything that everyone wants, whether it is a material object, whether it is a pile of money, or a relationship or a circumstance or an event; everything that everyone wants is for one reason and for one reason alone. They think they will feel better in the having of it. And so in an economic climate that feels out of control, or even in an ecological climate that they are telling you is out of control, when do you think most people are most likely to finally, once and for all, new-frontier-like to give up, to give up that attempt at control? It's when it finally occurs to them that it's too big to control. I cannot control that (X3) so larger and larger numbers of people are giving up that fruitless, never-would-work-out-anyway effort at control, and in giving up control, they find themselves in alignment with all that they've been asking for. We think that you've cued yourself up for the perfect economic success, for the perfect emotional success.

In other words, sometimes people worry that, oh, Abraham is getting so non-physical-like in their verbiage that maybe they just want us to give up all of our physical trappings and just come into this airy-fairy non-physical, non-tangible vortex of creation; maybe they're just trying to lure us into non-physical and away from the tangible stuff that is physical. And we say, you don't have to give up one for the other. But you'll never get what you want in terms of manifestation until you've made this Vortex--this vibration of reality your top priority. And when you do, success will flood in upon you in all manner of speaking. It will come in every subject; it will come from all directions, it will come everywhere you turn. Everywhere you turn, ideas that inspire and delight you will be there. People that you can love and who love you will be there. Money and trappings and things that bring you pleasure will be there. Business and commerce and -resources will be there. In other words, clean air will be there; good-feeling friends will be there. All that you seek, all that you've held dear, all that you've carved, day-by-day, bit-by-bit as you've sifted through the contrast out of your lives that you've put into your vortex, all of it will not only be there for you, in terms of manifestation, it is there real time, present tense for you now. You've just got to figure out how, day-by-day, thought-by-thought, mood-by-mood, to get in there.