No matter how new or how experienced you are, there will always be
times where you will work towards something and not succeed. There
are a ton of reasons for this, but most are out of our control. I
think about energy work as swimming in a river. If you are working
towards something that is a likely outcome, you are swimming with the
current and the water itself pushes you towards your goal, all you
have to do is guide a bit and open your arms to receive. However
often we find ourselves working towards something that is not one of
the likely outcomes. Now we are swimming upstream, and the water
fights us. There may be debris in the water that will get in our
way. But the water and the debris is external. All we can do is
swim to the best of our ability and keep our eye on the prize.
So what does this have to do with jinxing yourself? The mind is a
powerful tool, but it can work towards or against us. When we
visualize, we focus all our mental energy on the thing we wish to
manifest. We use the mind to send this energy out into the world.
But the mind sometimes seems to have a will of it's own, and will
fixate on things that you might not like.
Fear, worry, anxiety, obsession, hatred, insecurity....these are all
ways in which our mind tries to sabotage our work. If I am working
on becoming more healthy and loosing weight, but every time I get
dressed, look in a mirror or see a picture of a model I start
thinking about how unhappy I am with my body then my mind is building
up this image of my self as unattractive. If my mind spends more
time thinking poorly of my body than it does thinking about a
healthy, attractive body, then it will try to create the image it has
been seeing....and will try to undermine any actions I have been
taking towards my goals.
I think this is why a lot of workings focus so much on mental work.
The physical work is often easy once you get your mental self in
order. Very rarely am I physically stopped from achieving a goal.
Most times it is the mind that caves first and once the mind is no
longer committed it becomes very hard to commit the body.
There seem to be two main types of workings: fire/forget and
maintained. Each requires a different kind of mental focus to
prevent self-jinxing.
When you work with a fire and forget method, you do your working and
then essentially walk away. The intention is to build and release
the energy and then not to think about the working. I find this type
of working lends itself well to things that are mainly out of our
control or things where we don't know exactly how our needs will be
met. For example, if I am in a real bind and am not sure how I will
make my bills for the month. I can do a working to ensure that I
have the money to make it through the month. I don't know how the
money will come, but I am trusting that it will come. If I continue
to obsess about how tight my situation is, I will just be thinking
about the lack of money (which is not the energy I want to be calling
toward me). I also may not want to limit the way that the money
might come, so visualization could close my mind off to a possibility
I hasn't considered.
What I have found works for me in this case is stay aware of the
thoughts and feelings I am having. I am obsessive by nature, and
when a thought hits my mind, it can be very hard to get it out. When
my mind starts playing “what if”, my tendency is to go along for
the ride, so I really have to make sure I am paying attention so I
can stop the train before it gains too much momentum. For me, words
work best to derail my mind. Chanting or singing creates a blank
slate in my head. If I can get my mind thinking through the words of
a chant or song, it will stop thinking about whatever it was thinking
about before.
On the other hand, sometimes it can be helpful to keep a maintained
focus over a long period. Lets say I want to quit smoking. This is
something that will require a lot of effort over an extended period.
I may do specific workings along the way, but every day I will be
working on maintaining my mental focus and keeping to my goals. At
first glance this may seem easier to keep on track, but negative
mental talk is persuasive. It can be very easy to talk yourself into
making exceptions or doing something 'just this once'. In the case
of habits (whether you are trying to break a bad one or build a good
one), it is like a bell curve of effort. At the beginning, it seems
like it is impossible. I find myself slipping or just doing things
without thinking about them. And yet, the more your bring yourself
back to your goal, the more you push through, the easier it becomes.
There is a turning point where you find that your first response is
now the desirable one and mistakes are fewer.
Visual clues seem to work best for me with maintained workings. If I
am trying to avoid an action, I may put a reminder on the thing most
strongly associated with it (so perhaps a charm on the pack of
cigarettes). If I am trying to build a new habit I may wear a
particular piece of jewelry as a trigger, so that every time I see it
I am reminded of what I am trying to do (I like using knotted cords
for this, things worn on the hand where they are readily visible, and
the creation of the knotted cord can be part of a working towards the
goal as well). Making a mini-ritual out of it helps too.
I will often build a statement of intent that reinforces my goal.
Keeping track of your progress helps as well, so a journal or daily
reflection is very useful. Sometimes I find that having a negative
feedback statement is useful...something that you must do before you
do (or don't do) the action. So for the smoking, if I know I need to
say something like, “I know this cigarette is bad for me and that
it is setting me back on my goal to be more healthy, but I am going
to smoke it anyways,” then I will be less likely to actually smoke
it (especially if you know you have to say it out loud in front of
other people!).
One very powerful tool against self-jinxing is one that isn't so much
focused on anymore. When I was learning, the role of tools was
explained more. Tools (and I'm including things like incense,
stones, herbs, or really anything you might use in a working, not
just your blade and wand) help us step outside of our regular life
and into a world where all things are possible. Our society is very
close minded when it comes to miracles, energy work, spirits and
other things that are often a large part of our practice. It can be
very hard to leave all those societal voices behind when we work. We
may find ourselves thinking that the things we are doing are silly or
wondering how 'just thinking' about our desires will bring them into
being. As we build up our ritual though, as we touch our tools and
speak the words, we are silencing these outside whispers.
I firmly believe that one of the fundamental pillars of my personal
faith and practice is that of awareness. Step one for me, no matter
what I am doing, is to check in with my Self and see where I stand.
By taking notice of where I am at and being brutally honest with
myself about where I stand, I am breaking free of the sleep-walking
habit state that many people exist in. Mine is definitely not the
only path that celebrates this type of observation, and I think that
it is hard to create change without fully being aware of where you
are as well as where you want to go.
For me, exploring my Self includes work on my mental state. It means
holding up a mirror and looking at the parts of me that are weak or
fearful. By following these negative energies back to their source,
I often find that I am better able to respond to the manifestations
of them by understanding where they come from. And this is what
helps me to keep those negative energies from hijacking the things I
work to accomplish.
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