INVOKING A POSITIVE QUALITY

Purpose: Use this exercise if you seem stuck in a negative way of behaving, feeling, or thinking and want to open up to a new possibility.

First, clearly define the negative characteristic you are seeking to transform. For example, let’s say it is Extravagance. Let the feeling of Extravagance come forth, and feel it completely. Discover its essential quality.

Now, contemplate what the opposite of this trait would be and give it a name. For example, Simplicity. (Remember, no one can assign you this opposite quality; you must come up with this yourself.)

The essence of Simplicity, an archetype, must now be planted in your consciousness, preparing to manifest itself. Close your eyes for a moment, and see this happening in your mind. . . .

Take some time to meditate on this new quality and feel it entering into your mind . . . your emotional body . . . and now your physical body. . . . Become Simplicity!

As Simplicity, let yourself turn whatever comes in spontaneously, and place it in your heart. . . .

Let the symbol speak to you from within your own mind and heart. . . .

Once you feel your focus is exact and the message is clear, imagine yourself walking around during a day in your ordinary life, utilizing this quality. . . . See what happens. . . .

Now, slowly, still retaining all that goes on inside, simultaneously be aware that you are right here in this regular world. . . . Open your eyes and come fully back into the room you are sitting in.

You may want to reflect for a while, write something, or draw a picture.

For your aid in this practice, here are some of the ideal qualities that emerge most often from persons using this technique:

Acceptance
Appreciation
Aspiration
Authenticity
Beauty
Being
Belonging
Calmness
Centeredness
Childlikeness
Compassion
Comradeship
Concreteness
Courage
Creativity
Curiosity
Daring
Decisiveness
Detachment
Determination
Discipline
Discretion
Ease
Empathy
Endurance
Enthusiasm
Faith
Freedom
Friendliness
Generosity
Genuineness
Good Heartedness
Grace
Harmlessness
Harmony
Humility
Humor
Initiative
Integration
Integrity
Leadership
Light
Love
Mutuality
Nonattachment
Order
Patience
Peacefulness
Persistence
Position
Positiveness
Power
Purity
Reality
Respondability
Responsibility
Serenity
Service
Significance
Silence
Simplicity
Stability
Sythesis
Thoughtfulness
Tolerance
Trust
Truth
Understanding
Unity
Vitality
Wholeness
Will
Wisdom
Wonder

To add potency to taking on any new quality or behavior, here are a few suggestions:

1. Begin talking about this new aspect of yourself to your friends, declaring your intent to develop it in your character. This grounds the thought in reality, giving the unconscious mind a chance to believe it and to cause it to happen.

2. Begin acting as if you possess this quality—imagine the archetype Simplicity overshadowing you, doing things that represent its nature. You will find yourself behaving differently, as if by magic. This really works!

3. Write the word Simplicity every day for a while, placing it somewhere in your room where you can see it, to be reminded of it. Or draw a picture of its symbol, keeping it close by.