Manifesting Sunshine

Guest Blog by Francesca Gordon-Smith, Positive Voice

​​In 2008, life took a very different turn. I was surprised to read that I was far from alone; it seems that as many as 1 in 4 Brits experience mental health problems each year. It took me by surprise; one day I was going about my life as normal and the next I had to face the fact that I had gone into a deep low. Looking back, I can guess what caused it. I had broken up with a man who I was very much in love with, my granny had passed away and my business wasn’t as successful as I would have liked it to be. I avoided seeing friends and family because I didn’t want them to know; I was ashamed.

Luckily, I am not one to dwell in this kind of state. I quickly began searching. I spent a great deal of time in bookshops reading all the personal development books that I could get my hands on. Each time I passed through Leicester square, I found myself in Watkins Spiritual bookshop; some days I would buy books, other days I purchased Angel cards and sometimes I went to have my tarot cards read. All of this helped a little, but I was still a long way from that light at the end of the tunnel. Over the months that followed, I went on dates, I worked, I started studying Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) and I discovered Spiritual Church. I just kept busy and looked in every direction I could for happiness and hope.

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Studying NLP definitely helped and I became an NLP practitioner and hypnotherapist that same year. Towards the end of the summer, I found myself in Watkins again; I just couldn’t stay away. This time, I picked up a flyer advertising Emotional Integration.

I had no idea what it was, but it ended up in my carrier bag with the books I had just bought and was then transferred to my desk at home where it sat until I felt low enough to further investigate it. I’m sure that anyone who has experienced depression would love to just release it all; to let go of it and never be bothered by it again; this is exactly what happened after just 3 sessions with this amazing Zen therapist. I lay down and he passed his hands over my body, just as a reiki healer does; he didn’t even touch me, yet I laughed and cried involuntarily, as I lay there.

After each of the first two sessions, I had a nightmare. I remember one of them vividly; I was on an old galleon ship and I was being chased. I was hiding in a cupboard holding a baby and at the moment I woke up, they found me. Having studied dreams; I immediately interpreted it as fear of losing something precious to me- perhaps the depression itself. It is at this point that I learned to respect those things that I do not understand. After the third session, I literally left feeling lighter and happier than I can ever remember feeling. I then realised how bad I had felt before the sessions; the contrast was stark. This was just the beginning of my journey.
 
That autumn, I continued my studies and began the first part of my Master Practitioner course in NLP. All the while, I continued reading and deepening my understanding of all things ‘spiritual’. I read with an open mind and began meditating. It wasn’t hard for me, as I had been practicing self- hypnosis since 2005 when I had seen a hypnotherapist to help ease the stress that I had experienced whilst working in public relations.
 
You may be wondering what the purpose of all this was? I just wanted to have more control over my emotional wellbeing; I no longer wanted my mood to be dependent on other people or outside events. Now, I’m no Dalai Lama (what a great role model), but I am so totally aware of this that I don’t stay in emotional lows for long these days. I am fortunate enough to have the tools to enable me to move towards solutions. I recognise that where there is a low there is a reason for this low and where there is a problem there is always a solution.
 
I started going to talks on manifestation and out of body experiences. The aim here was to achieve the impossible through sheer thought. I was told to start by manifesting something simple like a cup of tea. At the time, I visited my clients at home, so this was a very simple challenge for me. I only drink herbal tea, though, so this is all I wanted to manifest, and I did.

Late one afternoon that winter, I got stuck in a snow storm. I was in central London having a lunch meeting when it started and managed to make it as far as Camden to the Gordon Ramsay restaurant. I tried everything, but no taxi, bus or tube seemed to be moving, so I sat down for a hot drink and began working through my manifestation homework. I laughed as I took it out, recognising how witch- like it all seemed.

I had deliberately placed myself in a dark corner, so that I would feel comfortable working through a closed eye process. I looked around the restaurant and was inspired to manifest free meals in nice restaurants. I found the steps of the process a little difficult to focus on; I had to keep referring to the handout to remind myself of the next step. I had only had lunch a couple of hours before, so I wasn’t particularly hungry, but I decided to order something anyway just to pass the time. Looking back, this was the perfect mindset for this exercise; I was relaxed.

A couple of months later, I started working with Italian politicians and business people. They would come over for a week to 10 days and I would spend 6-7 hours with them per day, including lunch. Each morning, I asked them what they would like to do for lunch and more often than not they wanted to try out the best restaurants in London; after a few weeks of this I found myself feeling rather full!
 
My interest in how thoughts and feelings become things continued and I became certain that I was also manifesting things unintentionally. A couple of years later, I came across ‘the lost mode of prayer’ and loved it instantly. Greg Braden shares this process beautifully in his YouTube videos. As with almost every new technique I learn, I practiced it and experienced amazing results. In 2013, I was taking a short break with my partner in the South of France. I was 5 pregnant and I had just moved to Paris where Philippe was working on our new flat in preparation for the birth of our first child. It was early May and all we both needed was sunshine. Ironically, it just wouldn’t stop raining.

It was cold in our little gite and my partner, Philippe, was grumpy. I tried to cheer him up and he just gave me a look. Then I remembered ‘the lost mode of prayer’. I asked him to describe his perfect day. After much persuasion from me and protests from him, he understood my intentions and ‘played the game’. He said he wanted to go for a walk around a nearby lake, but only if the weather was good enough. It didn’t have to be sunny, but he would not walk in the rain. “OK, what else?” I asked. He wanted to sunbathe by the pool and go to the beach. Essentially, he wanted sunshine. I told him to get into a comfortable position for meditation, I did the same and then I asked him to focus on all the things that he had just told me; particularly the sunshine and how it made him feel.

You see, what you visualise is important, but what is more important still is how you FEEL while you visualise. You have to create that feeling that is only usually triggered once you have the thing that you want. You have to imagine and even to trick yourself into thinking and feeling that you already have the subject of your desires. I do this by going there in my mind. To cut a long story short, when we woke up the next day, it had stopped raining.

It wasn’t sunny, but it was perfect weather for walking around the lake. We put on our trainers and walked. By the time we had done the circuit of the lake and made our way back to our gite, the sun was shining. I jokingly put on my bikini and went to lie by the pool. It wasn’t hot, but it was bearable.

​By the time Philippe joined me by the pool, it was starting to get hot and I was contemplating a dip in the pool. I couldn’t help laughing. We decided that we should go to the beach while the weather was nice; it was bliss. That night, we decided not to take any risks and did the lost mode of prayer again. The next day, we drove further south to the border of Spain where we were met with very hot sunshine.
 
Over the years, I have developed more subtle ways of using this process. I do my best to remain positive and relaxed whilst taking the necessary actions to complete a given task. Philippe makes this easy by being very pro-active and efficient. I could re-tell countless stories of us achieving the impossible within the nick of time, but at this point I am sure that what you really want to know is how to do this, so here it is:
 
5 Things You Need to Know Before You Begin:

1.Before you can manifest anything, you must know exactly WHAT it is that you want.

2.If there are any doubts, mental blocks or limiting beliefs lurking at the back of your mind, you will not succeed. Sometimes, this requires more than positivity to overcome; some people meditate, whilst others will find the answer in a book or a coach; DO what is necessary to overcome any mental blocks.

3.Start by manifesting simple things and work your way up to something big.

4.Ignore the how and focus on the WHAT, but stay motivated and pro-active. Sometimes opportunities will just come to you out of nowhere, but most of the time you will seek them out; because we only seek out the things that we really want this helps re-affirm the WHAT.

5.Be aware of your thoughts and emotions. When in balance we manifest more balance; It is no co-incidence that some people experience a run of bad luck, whilst others are just lucky; there is actually no such thing as luck; it is all about their MINDSET.

Manifestation Meditation

You don’t need to know how to meditate to follow this meditation. Simply read through the instructions a couple of times and then take your time to meditate and manifest.
Remember that the object of your desires should be beneficial for all involved and without limiting beliefs or fear on your part. This is why we suggest starting with a cup of tea!

•          Sit comfortably (on a chair, on the floor or on a sofa or bed) I sit cross legged, but you don’t have to.
•          Keep your spine erect and your head at a 90 degree angle in order to remain lucid and alert
•          Close your eyes
•          Take a gentle, deep breath
•          Become aware of your breathing (without controlling it)
•          See (visualise) the object, event or situation you desire to become a reality- let’s call it *
•          See * and feel as you would feel if it were your current reality. If, like me, your * is sunshine, feel the sun on your skin. See what you see, hear what you hear and feel what you feel.
•          Spend some time experiencing this experience
•          When you are ready, open your eyes and relax with a deep sense that this will come to pass
•          Say, “thank you”.

 
For more tips, tricks, and to receive sneak previews of the course throughout November and December SUBSCRIBE to Francesca’s blog HERE! You can also download Francesca’s FREE Liquid Love Mediation by clicking HERE! 
 
About the author:
 
Francesca Gordon-Smith specialises in Vocal Empowerment and Positive Mindset. She helps clients to speak with eloquence, confidence and sincerity. She focuses a great deal on the link between emotions and our ability to speak from the heart, which she believes to be the only way to really connect with others and build lasting relationships.