When I want to make a significant change in my life, I
often think of it in terms of switching dimensions. My attention is
focused on my current reality right now, and my desired situation can be
said to exist as some alternate reality outside of my primary focus.
In that other reality, there's another me who's
already where I want to be. My goal then is to become that other me and
to shift into his reality.
In practice this is fairly straightforward. It may sound odd to you at
first, but try not to get caught up on the words I use to describe the
process. You may choose to frame it differently than I do, and that's
fine.
First I'll explain how the process works in general, and then I'll walk you through a specific example to illustrate it.
1. Ponder Other Possibilities
First, imagine that all possible alternate realities
can and do exist. The multiverse is an infinite honeycomb of possible
universes. You may be aware of only one universe right now, but suppose
that the others exist in some alternate dimensions, and you just aren't
aware of them.
In some alternate reality, the Cuban Missile Crisis kicked off World
War III. Or the USA is debt-free. Or there's an alternate YOU living in a
different city.
On a personal level, for every choice or event you experienced, some
YOU in another reality made a different choice and/or experienced a
different outcome, so there's a whole network of new realities that
splintered off from that one, a network that includes all possible
branches of possibilities.
So in some other dimension, there are other versions of you who are living completely different lives.
Now ponder that in some of those dimensions, there are versions of you
who are much happier, more successful, more socially supported,
wealthier, etc.
Feel a sense of oneness with those other YOUs. Know that in fact they
are all YOU. You exist in multitudes, but you normally focus your
attention upon just one of all possible realities.
Sometimes you may get confused, however, and not be quite sure which
reality you're in. Is this the reality where you experience abundance or
scarcity or something in between? At times you may wonder which it is.
Other times you may be quite certain about which reality you're focused
upon right now, like This is a reality where I'm in love.
2. Explore the Relationship Between Your Reality and Your Vibe
Second, begin to notice that there's a relationship between your reality and your vibe.
Your vibe is your personal energy signature. It includes your feelings, thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes.
You may recognize the vibe of another person based on the overall
feeling you have about that person. If you find someone creepy, you
could say that the person emits a creepy vibe. You may find that others
emit vibes that are peaceful, loving, joyful, depressed, angry,
frustrated, stressed, guilty, worried, etc.
Our vibes fluctuate a lot. On any given day, your vibe may shift all
over the place. Or it may remain relatively constant. But in the
background, you will tend to have a fairly stable default vibe that you
keep returning to. It's how you generally operate about 80% of the time.
If someone has a depressed vibe, you may still be able to make them
laugh and feel happy from time to time, but their normal default
behavior will be to return to that depressed vibe again and again.
The dimension you experience is largely determined by your default vibe, not by your momentary fluctuations.
Imagine you're listening to a song. The flow of the music will of
course change over time. There will be different instruments and notes
coming and going. The song's vibrations aren't the same from one measure
to the next. But a song also has structure; otherwise it would just be
noise. And so the song itself can be said to have an overall vibe, such
as peaceful, uplifting, enthusiastic, depressing, powerful, etc.
The overall vibe of a song is like the overall vibe of your life. You
may have lots of variation in the vibes within your life, but you're
still subjected to the structure of the overall background vibe.
So, for instance, if your default vibe is depressing, you can still
access some happy vibes and therefore enjoy happy experiences now and
then, but those can only exist as exceptions.
3. Identify Your Default Vibe
Next, see if you can identify your current default
vibe. Since you normally spend a lot of time there, you may not even
notice it most of the time. It's easier to notice it by contrast. When
your default vibe is fearful, and you feel really confident for a few
hours, then you may realize just how fearful your default vibe actually
is.
Remember that your vibe is more than your emotions, so feel free to
use both emotional and non-emotional words to describe it. You may
understand this part better when I share the walkthrough later on.
Again, it's easier to understand your current default vibe during
those times when you're having peak experiences that shift your vibe in
exceptional ways. When you're in a high or a low period relative to your
default, you can view your default vibe from the outside looking in.
Another way to understand your default vibe is to spend some time with
people who have very different default vibes. They will draw your vibe
towards them, effectively stretching you away from your default
experience, and during those times you can gain some perspective as
well.
If you try to understand your default vibe from the inside, you'll
probably just label it with words like "normal" or "average." But your
version of normal may be another person's version of timidity. You have
to stretch yourself away from the center to understand what that center
really looks like. Contrast is essential here.
4. Identify Your Desired Vibe
Once you have some clarity about your default vibe,
notice which of the exceptional vibes you feel most drawn to. What if
you could turn a combination of those exceptional vibes into your
default vibe, such that what was once exceptional and unusual becomes
your normal day to day experience?
Suppose you notice that your default vibe has a lot of scarcity in it.
When you do the contrast exercises in the previous step, you can see
that you've been pessimistic, envious, and needy. But every once in a
while, you have peak experiences of abundance, appreciation, and
gratitude. If you could experience these peak vibes as your normal,
default vibe, your life would change radically for the better. You would
effectively switch dimensions into one where another YOU is
experiencing delightful levels of abundance right now.
Vibes have many different frequencies, but for the sake of this
change, you have a couple basic options. You could focus on just one
aspect of your desired vibrational shift, such as switching from
scarcity to abundance, or you can try to combine lots of different
shifts into one. I find the former approach more effective since it's
simpler. Once I've locked in one change, then I focus on the next one.
However, I do sometimes have to work on multiple shifts simultaneously
because of their potential interactions. A vibe of low self-esteem can
sabotage efforts to create a vibe of abundance, for instance.
5. Create a Trigger for Your Desired Vibe
It's not necessary to perfectly label a vibe with
words. Vibes are much more expressive than words anyway. But it is
important to come up with a way to reload your signature vibe whenever
you want.
One way to trigger your desired vibe is to create a scene in your mind
that evokes the vibe. After some practice this only takes seconds to
load the vibe.
You may need to play around with the scene in your mind to reach the
point where it feels just right. Keep tweaking your imagery till you
feel it's helping you experience the desired vibe.
In your imagery be specific. Imagine you're playing the scene in a
movie theater. So it's not blurry or fuzzy or riddled with options. You
just click a mental "play" button and watch it go.
Note that you are not necessarily trying to manifest exactly what's in
the scene. You're simply creating a trigger to reload your vibe.
Other ways to trigger your vibe would be to find a song that evokes
the vibe. Or create a shrine in your home that evokes the vibe when you
look at the shrine; a shrine is simply a collection of objects.
6. Load the New Vibe Daily
Now here's the biggest and most important step.
Commit to spending time each day triggering and experiencing your new
vibe. Do this for at least 20 minutes a day, and keep it up for 3-4
weeks minimum. You don't have to do the 20 minutes continuously though.
Just aim to spend at least 20 minutes out of each day consciously
practicing your new vibe.
If you do less than this, you're probably wasting your time. The new vibe will not stick.
The idea here is that you have to condition the new vibe as a
permanent, long-term habit. It typically takes about 3-4 weeks to do
that.
If you hold the vibe of abundance every day for a week, for instance,
and then you slip and get sidetracked, nothing much will change. Your
default vibe of scarcity will not be dislodged. You'll continue to
experience essentially the same reality.
Once you've consciously done this for 3-4 weeks, the practice of
loading up the new vibe will become a habit. This means that you'll
continue this practice automatically without having to think about it.
At this point it's only a matter of time before your new vibe begins to
infect your default vibe, gradually shifting its frequencies over time.
With each passing week, your default vibe will become increasingly
abundant.
I usually do this by setting aside some time each day to meditate.
During these meditations I load up my trigger, experience the desired
vibe, and revel in it for 20 minutes or so. This practice not only turns
the daily experience of the new vibe into a habit, but it also helps me
get comfortable with it. After a few weeks, the new vibe no longer
feels so exceptional to me; it begins to feel normal. Pretty soon I'll
be experiencing this vibe throughout each day, not just during my
meditations.
Additionally, I also nudge myself to reload the new vibe whenever I
can remember to do so. I do it when I wake up first thing in the morning
and when I'm lying in bed before falling asleep. I do it when I'm
showering, exercising, or making meals. Sometimes I remind myself to do
it when I'm in the middle of a conversation with someone. Basically I
conspire to trigger my new vibe many times per day.
7. Act on Your New Vibe
Your vibe controls which thoughts you have access to.
As you begin to shift your default vibe, your thinking will change as
well. You'll begin to get new ideas that are inspired by the new vibe.
Notice especially the ideas that are out of sync with your old vibe but
which are clearly spawning from your new vibe.
Take action on these ideas as much as you can. Give yourself
permission to be very spontaneous during this time. Don't hesitate. Just
act.
You won't do this perfectly, so don't beat yourself up if you miss an
opportunity. Just keep leaning into your new vibe with action. Take
action again and again.
Similarly, hold back on taking action when you identify ideas as stemming from your old vibe. Let those ideas fade.
So here you're simply getting your actions aligned with your new vibe.
8. Shed the Incongruent
This step is absolutely critical, and it's a huge
stumbling point for many people. I see lots of people crash and burn
here. I can't caution you enough that you'd better prepare yourself for
it. This step often takes a lot of heart and courage to complete.
As you shift your vibe, your reality is going to shift too. But you
must cooperate with these shifts. If you fail to cooperate, you will
effectively block the shift from taking place, and you'll remain stuck
in your old reality.
As you shift your vibe internally, you're going to see some flare-ups
of polarized energy in your external reality. Some of it will be very
positive. New forms of support will rush towards you to encourage you.
But much of it will take the form of resistance.
A common form of resistance is people telling you that they don't like
what you're doing, especially people who are close to you now. If your
vibe has been fairly stable for a while, then realize that your personal
relationships right now are a result of your current default vibe. As
you shift your vibe, your relationships must change as well. Some people
may shift their vibes to join you, but many won't.
It's a mistake to try to negotiate and compromise with the people who
are putting up resistance. Simply disconnect from them and let them go.
This will create space for new people to come into your life, people who
are vibrational matches for your new vibe, not your old one.
If you want to create abundance then, expect to lose many of your
scarcity-minded friends. If you can't stomach that, realize that this is
actually a result of the scarcity vibe itself. From the vibe of
abundance, this is needy, clingy behavior, but from within the vibe of
scarcity, it will more likely be labeled as loyalty.
The tricky part about shifting vibes is that some vibes include sticky
elements that make them very stable. Scarcity is such a vibe.
Depression is another. When you're depressed, for instance, you're going
to repel happy people from your life, and so the only people who will
deal with you are probably depressed, angry, or otherwise down on
themselves. You won't see much evidence of what a happy reality could be
like until you shift your vibe. So some vibrational shifts are a bit of
a catch 22 indeed. If you're waiting for evidence that shifting your
vibe will improve your reality, and you're unwilling to try shifting
until you see such evidence, you'll be waiting a very long time. Your
vibe will repel such evidence from even entering your reality.
This is why I like to have my default vibe infected with a sense of
exploration and the desire to embrace new experiences. This helps expose
me to new potential vibes to explore, and it helps prevent me from
getting stuck. In fact, I've probably enjoyed the biggest and most
positive shifts by embracing friends with vibes that were very different
from my default vibe at the time I met them.
In order to complete my own shifts, I sometimes have to shed old
friends who aren't compatible with the other side. It's difficult, but
it's worth it. People are like magnets, and keeping people in my life
who will keep pulling me back to my old vibe isn't helpful. Whenever I
let go of those relationships, I feel relieved, and it's so much easier
to complete the shift afterwards.
Just to clarify this a bit more, I'm not really letting go of the
people. I'm letting go of the vibes they're currently holding. If they
were to shift their vibes later to something more compatible with mine,
they could easily re-enter my reality. For instance, I recently had to
tell a friend that as long as she insists on holding herself in a vibe
of depression and abuse (and remaining loyal to people who treat her
like dirt), I'm not going to continue to connect with her because that's
incompatible with what I want to experience. But I let her know that
I'm happy to reconnect when she shifts her vibe to something more
compatible with me (positive, growth-oriented, etc).
On the other hand, it's also quite beautiful when I connect with other
growth-oriented people who are on a similar path, so we can work on our
shifts together and help support and encourage each other along the
way.
9. Embrace the Dimensional Shifts
As you see your reality begin to shift, welcome it.
Notice signs that you're making progress, and celebrate them. Creatively
observe that your reality is indeed changing.
These shifts happen over time, usually weeks or months in my
experience. I like to think of this process as traveling through the
intermediate dimensions between my old reality and my intended new
reality. During much of this time, I'm no longer in my old reality, but
I'm not quite in the new one yet either. I'm crossing through other
dimensions that represent combinations of my old vibe and my new one.
This is where you will see a lot of partial matches. A business deal
shows up, but it isn't quite right. A new potential relationship partner
shows up, but s/he isn't interested or is already involved with someone
else.
My advice here is not to force anything to happen. If you get too
involved in these partial matches, you're very likely to get stuck
partway through your shift. So don't get clingy with these intermediate
universes and the "opportunities" they present to you.
Keep your focus on your new vibe, and do your best not to succumb to
the lure of partial matches. I know they're tempting, but don't take the
bait. This is especially tricky when shifting out of a scarcity vibe,
where clinginess is part of the vibe. Just do your best to keep moving
forward.
What happens to these partial matches as you continue to shift? In my experience they typically go one of two ways.
The first possibility is that they simply fade from your life, and something better shows up later.
The second possibility is that the nature of the connection shifts. So
the same business deal or relationship exists in your desired reality,
but the circumstances are different. In these situations, as you
continue to shift, you'll see changes occurring. New funding will come
through that wasn't there before. Someone who was unavailable becomes
available.
When dealing with partial matches, it's very important to allow them
to be as they are without undue attachment to outcomes. If you try to
force or push the partial match to become a full match, you're going to
stick yourself to one of those intermediate dimensions, and you will
block yourself from experiencing a full match.
I have fallen into this trap so many times it's not even funny, but
these days I'm really committed to not forcing things when I observe a
partial match. I have enough experience that I don't need blind faith to
keep me going, just the remembrance that partial matches are a clear
sign of progress but not a reason to pause in mid-shift and proclaim
victory.
When you don't fall for the temptation of a partial match and hold out
for a beautifully aligned match, you can keep moving forward
vibrationally. Then when your new vibe is locked in and your old vibe
seems like a distant memory, you're going to be in your new desired
dimension, and that's where the really good matches will appear with
grace and ease. When these matches hit you, it's like a smack upside the
head. Their alignment with your desires seems almost too good to be
true. Just be careful not to push them away by seriously thinking that
they are too good to be true. Welcome them with appreciation and
gratitude, and know that you're ready to experience and enjoy them.
10. Enjoy Your New Reality
Vibes can be very sensitive, and it's unlikely that
you'll achieve what you might label as perfection. It would be really
tough to lock onto the exact dimension you wish to experience and go
there specifically. These tools are not that precise. But you can get
close enough to your desired universe that you can still proclaim
victory.
At some point I usually reach a tipping point, and I can tell when
I've tipped. I've escaped the gravity well of the old vibe, and I've
clearly been pulled into the gravity well of the new vibe. I may not
have shifted completely into my desired reality, but I have enough
momentum that I can predict I'm going to get very close to it if I just
maintain course.
A good way to lock in your new vibe is to appreciate your new reality.
You've come a long way, and now you're in a whole new universe. This
new universe has a different energetic signature than your old one, and
it's a good match for your new vibe.
If you resist this shift and start loading up your old vibe, you can
shift back. There's no rule that says that just because you made a
positive shift, you can't undo it. You can certainly undo it and
backslide. So to prevent this from happening, make a point of
appreciating what you have now.
It can take some time to get used to your new reality. Try not to get
too excited about it, as if it's something exceptional that won't last.
Try to embrace your new reality as normal; expect it to persist for a
while. Feeling good about it is great, but don't get so excited that you
doubt its continuation since that may ultimately backfire on you. If
you believe it's too good to be true, you'll attract a universe that
validates your belief. So even if you attract something really amazing
to you, know that you deserve it.
When you're ready for another shift, you may wish to hold the more
desirable parts of your current vibe/reality stable, and work on
creating the vibrational shifts that will allow you to slide sideways
into a nearby dimension that has your desired improvements. For
instance, once you've shifted into a reality where you enjoy financial
abundance, you may wish to shift from there into a reality that includes
social abundance as well.
Dealing With Resistance
As you work through your own shifts, let me
reiterate: it will be hard, but it will be worth it. The most difficult
sticking point is being able to say goodbye to parts of your old reality
than can't make the journey with you. Your heart will ache at times,
but you'll be happier on the other side.
I'm coming to appreciate the resistance to vibrational shifting since I
see that it serves a valuable purpose. Resistance helps keep your
current vibe stable. When you drift away from it, forces push you back
towards the center. This may seem like a trap, but it has the benefit of
stabilizing your vibe long enough so you can experience and learn from
the full richness of it. If your vibe could shift very easily, you'd be
crossing dimensions all the time, and your reality would be highly
unstable. It would be difficult to learn much. This would be the ADHD
version of reality.
With a stable vibe, you're less likely to accidentally flip into very
different dimensions. This gives you time to explore, learn, and grow in
a stable reality. Then when you're ready to shift, you need to exert
enough willpower to cross the resistance barrier. This ensures that when
you do shift, it's due to a very conscious and deliberate choice, not
by accident.
If you think of resistance in this light, I think you'll come to
appreciate it as I do, and it won't be such a big deal. You'll see that
it's actually helping you.
And in truth, when you're truly ready to change, you'll know that no
resistance can stop you. Dealing with resistance is a process of saying
goodbye to the old and getting comfortable with the new. It's a
graduation of sorts, which is frequently a mixture of sorrow and joy.
Are you really ready to let go of negative, scarcity-minded people? Do
you feel you deserve to experience happiness, joy, and love every day?
Are you ready to enjoy your life fully, or do you need to punish
yourself some more?
If you don't like the reality you're experiencing now, then why are
you still clinging to this particular dimension? Are other possible
dimensions too far outside your comfort zone? Are you willing to
experience discomfort and uncertainty while you shift? What is it about
this reality that you'd have a hard time saying goodbye to?
Shifting dimensions is challenging but also deeply rewarding. If I
didn't learn how to do this, I'd might be experiencing the inside of a
prison cell today. In some other dimension, that is indeed what I'm
experiencing. From my current dimension, I can feel compassion for that
guy, but I have no desire to join him in his cell. And perhaps he also
knows that in some other dimension, he is very happy and free. This
contrast just makes me appreciate my current reality even more.
