One of the greatest shifts that happens in our attention, as we work on cultivating the congruent conditions for our emergence, is we move from anticipation of future good or fear of future bad to a greater participation in the good already here. Remember the radio analogy that I often use: your favorite music isn’t playing in the future or distance, it’s already here and now, but you must be tuned in to that frequency to experience it.

To some extent, our habitual anxiety about the future is based on the great mystery of where we go when we die – or if we go anywhere at all. The concepts of heaven and hell play a part in this. But from a deeper understanding of what many spiritual masters have taught, there is no heaven “up there” nor a hell “down there.” It’s all a state of consciousness—heaven being that state of connection to our divine reality and hell being the experience of disconnection from that.

This is an important piece, because we’re all, to some extent, waiting or hoping to arrive at a future paradise—the paradise of a perfect relationship, a perfect job, a perfect car, house, or literally the pearly gates beyond. And most of us also fear, to some extent, a future hell—the hell of losing the love of our life, losing our job, going broke, getting sick, or dying. Both positions keep us stuck in a fantasy of the future, putting our good on a layaway plan or keeping us fearful about living fully. All the power and joy we’ll ever need are right here. But we can’t experience it as long as we’re stuck in the past, anticipating the future, or lost in fantasy

This state of consciousness often creates a self-fulfilling prophecy – and we find ourselves either running right into the bad we expect or forever waiting for the hoped-for good. Neither states of mind create the ideal conditions for the emergence of our full potential in the only time and place it can happen—Here and Now. We must retrain ourselves to remember that all the good we could ever want, all the joy, peace, love, freedom, fulfillment, creativity, and inspiration, is happening within and all around us. We are swimming in a sea of well-being and abundance and don’t often know it. All our effort to get it and our anticipation for it in the future creates mental blocks to experiencing it.

So stop already!

You must participate in your good NOW to activate the Law of Emergence.

This begins by accepting that it’s here, then doing the L.I.F.T. (Living In The Feeling Tone) practice I’ve described in previous articles. As you begin activating the feeling tone of your vision, you can start looking for evidence of it in your current conditions. This doesn’t mean merely in your personal life, which the Night Pages focuses on—but everywhere, for everyone. For example, if you’re consciously working on embodying the quality of abundance, start looking for the abundance manifesting everywhere. Notice the lavish opulence of nature, the immeasurable scope of space and the stars that fill it. Notice all the wealth manifesting for others—the nice cars, the successes, the riches of all kinds. Good is breaking out all over the place! But don’t just notice it, celebrate it as if it’s your own. When you see someone driving the car you want or living the lifestyle you desire, enjoy it and give thanks that someone is reflecting a quality and capacity of your own being.

This does a few things: first, it activates a positive feeling in you, allowing you to participate in some measure of that good—which in turn cultivates the inner conditions for it in your experience. Second, it trains your reticular activating system (RAS), a part of your brain designed to heighten arousal and awareness around a specific target, to look for and see the potential, the possibilities, and the abundance everywhere—where before you’d most likely trained yourself to see what’s lacking and not working. Third, it begins to dissolve the illusion of separation, allowing you to have moments of oneness, where you feel like someone else’s success is your own—because it is. There isn’t a bunch of separate activities of good; there’s only One Good going on everywhere. It’s Omnipresent. We’re all waves in the same sea of love, branches on the same tree of life.

For thousands of years, the world has prayed to a far off God, or done all kinds of techniques to get something or make something happen, when everything has been here all along. God has done all that God’s going to do. The work is complete. The music is broadcasting. But you must be tuned in to receive it. That’s why so many prayers go unanswered, so many affirmations fall flat, and so many practices fail—or make things worse. People are doing all these things to get something they don’t think they have—and by the very law they’re setting in motion, it must reflect back more lack, limitation, and separation. This is one of the greatest secrets. That’s why I keep repeating it. You’re already in Heaven, whole, complete, and abundant—but you must participate in it to experience it.

Master this principle and watch your life emerge to a whole new level!

To Your Emergence!