It’s that time of year for making promises to yourself – promises, you know from past experience, that you are overwhelmingly likely to break.

But what if you made your resolutions a firm and public request to the universe? And what if you tried to quantify the results?

Something about the promises we make to each other may carry more weight than the promises we make to ourselves. A statement in the presence of a group is a contract we make with the universe – to do and be better than we presently are. It’s analogous to a sacred promise. There is also the enhanced power of support and connection when we announce an intention to our closest friends, a condition as necessary to the human spirit as oxygen is to the human body.

 

It’s that time of year for making promises to yourself – promises, you know from past experience, that you are overwhelmingly likely to break.

But what if you made your resolutions a firm and public request to the universe? And what if you tried to quantify the results?

Something about the promises we make to each other may carry more weight than the promises we make to ourselves. A statement in the presence of a group is a contract we make with the universe – to do and be better than we presently are. It’s analogous to a sacred promise. There is also the enhanced power of support and connection when we announce an intention to our closest friends, a condition as necessary to the human spirit as oxygen is to the human body.

At every point of our lives we need to know, that somewhere out there, someone’s got our back, and this knowledge becomes a larger certainty in our lives when a group of strangers are rooting for us.

Get out your notebooks
To carry out these experiments, all you will need in the way of equipment is a notebook and a calendar. When you are first starting, note the date and times of your intentions.

Make a daily note of any change in the object of your intention, and be specific. If you are trying to heal a condition in yourself, take a daily ‘temperature’ of change. What do you feel like? What symptoms have improved? Have any got worse? Have any new ones shown up?

If you are trying to change your relationship with someone who is ordinarily very antagonistic to something more positive, make a daily note of his or her interactions with you, to determine if anything has changed.

Choose your goal
Here’s how to do it. Select a goal that has never happened but that you’d like to have happen. Choose something that seldom occurs or is particularly unlikely, so that if it does come to pass it is more likely to be the result of your intention. Be highly specific.

Here are some fun possibilities to play around with before setting your own goals:

• receiving flowers from your husband (if he has never bought them for you)
• having your wife sit down and watch a football match with you (if she usually refuses to do so)
• having the boorish neighbour who never gives you the time of day start a cheery conversation with you
• having your child help with the dishes
• having your child wake up on his or her own in the morning and get ready for school without prompting
• improving the weather (30 per cent more or less rain, say)
• having your child make his or her bed (I’m still working on this one)
• having your dog stop barking at night
• stopping your cat from scratching the sofa
• having your husband or wife come home from work one hour earlier than usual
• having your child watch television two hours less
• getting someone who can’t stand you at work to say hello and start up a conversation
• achieving 10 per cent higher profits at work
• growing your plants or crops 10 per cent faster than usual.

Announce these intentions to a small group of your friends (those not involved in the intention.) As you begin to manifest, you can try more complicated thoughts. But remember, at first you want one single event to change, something where change can be easily quantified and can probably be attributed to your thoughts.

Report the results to me on this blog or my Facebook page: www.facebook.com/LynneMcTaggart2011