Just as Guillaume Apollinaire gently encourages each of us to take a leap of faith, we find that 2012 beckons us to do the same. As many of us have been feeling already, 2012 is a potent, powerful year.

Given the doom and gloom associated with prophecies around 2012, I was expecting the entry into the New Year to be a little scarier than it actually was. Instead, just before New Year’s Eve, I felt a huge rush of emotion and excitement flood through me - and I heard myself thinking “2012 is gonna be a great year!” I shared this with a couple of spiritual friends who also had very similar experiences. Not soon after that, I was speaking with my sister who said, “I think it’s gonna be a Granby year.” I couldn’t agree more!
Everywhere I go I hear people talking about how excited they are about 2012. Certainly there are major transitions going on the world, but this is the year to see your dreams come to fruition. I’ve started to sing the praises of 2012 as THE YEAR to anyone and everyone that will listen to me!  Whatever you want to achieve or go for - you will find support and energy for your goals this year.

Tonight also marks the start of the Chinese New Year, the Year of the Dragon. The dragon represents everything that my friends and I had already been feeling about this year: it is bold, decisive, a time to launch innovative projects and big ideas. Maybe the Mayans didn’t actually think the world was going to end? Maybe they knew it was a year so powerful, so potent, so flush with possibility that they knew the world would never be the same?

So are you game? Do you want to play? What is it that you want to achieve this year? What is your quantum leap goal for this powerful, magical year? Head over to my blog and post your desires for the coming year!

Or if you really want to go for it, join in me the 6-month Peace, Passion and Purpose course starting February 21st. This is a surefire way to ensure that you have the year you’ve always dreamed of!

Buckle your seat belts, hold on to your hats, 2012 is going to be one heck of a ride! Yee-haw!

Sitting at work the other day, while we were still waiting for the debt crisis to be resolved, I was thinking about the future of our country and I had a thought “Hold a new image of greatness.” We’ve done the superpower thing; it’s not working so much anymore. So what could be next for our country? How can we take it to a new level and support our citizens, as well as citizens of all countries in living their best lives? That’s what true greatness is - living your best life, while helping others to do the same. Now more than ever we have to take control of our destiny and stop feeling like it is all out of our hands. It simply is not - we have much more power than we think.

I encourage you all to hold a vision (or feeling) of what this new level of greatness of our country might look like or feel like to you. Our visions will all certainly be different, but the essence - the desire for stability, equality, freedom and happiness for everyone - will more or less be the same. By holding a vision, or a feeling, of what is next for country, we will guide ourselves toward a better tomorrow. We must stop this nose-dive into irrational fear and we must not bury our heads in the sand and hope this will all go away. We are on a path to a new level of greatness - there is no going back to how things were before - there is no getting off this train. Like it or not, it’s full speed ahead. It’s up to us to stay grounded, focused on positive outcomes, and know that by definition, transitions are temporary. It’s how we react during the transition that dictates where and when we arrive after the transition.

Get your image of what our country or world will look and feel like when it has arrived at its new level of greatness; add it to your regular visualization or mediation practice. If you don’t have a regular practice, now is the perfect time to start. This is a crucial moment in the history of our country and our planet. It is up to all of us to create the world we want to live in.

One New Year’s Eve I found myself in a hotel room in Luxor, Egypt with a view of the Nile and the Valley of the Kings, at sunset while listening to the bustle of the market place down below and the minarets calling everyone to prayer. OMG. In my wildest dreams I would never have thought to consciously attract this into my life. But there I was, basking in the brilliance of this gift from the Universe.  What if I had been sooo focused on manifesting New Year’s Eve in Paris that I would never have allowed this in?  The fun of our conversation was that it was that: FUN!  We discussed, laughed, played and analyzed all this Law of Attraction stuff. 

Then it got really fun….they started to ask me what I was looking for in a man. :) And I was a little shy to share what I really, really wanted. Seemed to superficial. Or too much my trying to control life. Or just asking to tall of an order (so to speak). David insisted that I could have what I wanted and so he and Meghan kept asking me: “What else? What else do you want, Sarah?”

“Can I really ask about external things like appearance? It feels so superficial to me.”

“Yes!”

So I listed my desires…and it felt SO GOOD just to acknowledge those desires.

“What else do you want, Sarah?”

“Funny, playful, spiritual, smart. ”

“Do you want PhD smart? MBA smart? Street smart?”

“Hmmm…I like PhD smart, but not necessarily a PhD. You know what I really want?”

Meghan and David in excited unision, “What?!?”

“I want a man who is my equal at Scrabble! Or crossword puzzles! But that kind of smart!” Wow! What a rush of fun and excitement!

“Yes, Sarah! Great job! That’s how you do it! Be that specific!”

And we all got into the excitement and they kept asking me, “What else?”

“I want San Diego to be our home base, where we go as a retreat, perhaps when we are writing our books, but we have a place in New York - we do a lot of international peace work there - and, and, and maybe a place in Geneva, Swizterland, too! Because that’s where the UN is!”

“What else???”
“Really? I can keep asking?”
“YES!”
And this went on and on listing all sorts of fun, playful, spiritual, wonderful qualities in ways I had NEVER expressed it before.  I could literally feel this man’s energy next to me. And so could they!

There was really something magic about letting loose from the corners of you brain your TRUE DESIRES. Mama Gena says something to the effect of “Just want what you want and accept and love that this is what you desire!”

Thanks Meghan and David!!!

So yesterday I send out my huge proclamation to the Universe about earning $450K this year, and guess what I get today? A friendly letter from the IRS saying I made a mistake on my 2009 taxes and really I owe them $3000. By April 27th.

Oh, and this is suuuuch a juicy opportunity to sink into victimhood about this.  But I know it’s a HUGE sign that I am moving forward towards this goal. So thank you IRS for being the vehicle of this message. Thank you.

So here is what I do:

I learned this first step while listening to the Soulmate Summit - I apologize I can’t remember who said it, but I will figure it out and post it soon.  First, sink into your heart space, take a few breaths and feel really yourself in your heart. Then think of something that lights you up - I most often think of my nieces and nephew since I have only hugely positive associations with them.  Next, fe-e-e-e-l the deep gratitude you have for this person, pet or thing - really let it fill your whole body up with joy and gratitude.

Now your body is in the perfect receptive state to sink into your visualization - and I’ve adapted a technique from Arielle Ford who calls them “feelingizations” instead of visualizations.  In your state of blissed out gratitude, slowly shift your thoughts and feelings to what you are intending to manifest - but it is most important to make sure to stay in a state of gratitude. Pay attention to how your body feels - you might have to play around to see what “flavor” of your goal keeps you in that state.

When I do this, I often think (I’m using think very loosely here - it’s really a blissed out juiciness) of how good I feel having achieved my goal. I think of how many people must have been helped through achieving my goal.  I feeeel how satisfying I must feel to actually achieve this juicy quantum leap goal. I heaps loads of gratitude on myself for my commitment to living my best life. I sink into deep gratitude to the Universe for allowing/gifting/helping me with this.  I play around with different affirmations, feelings, thoughts or pictures to see which keep me in the juiciest, most grateful state.  If it’s not fun, quit immediately. It’s supposed to be playful, exciting and fun - when it is, then you know you’re on the right path!

Do twice per day or as many times feels juicy and pleasurable. Try it and let me know how it goes!

At a certain point I asked myself, “Why did I attract this situation into my life? What might it mean?” In Louise Hay’s book, You Can Heal Your Life, she has a list of body parts and what a problem in one of them might mean. So I looked up “lungs” and it said this: Depression, grief or fear of life. Not feeling worthy. At first this didn’t resonate with me - I’m extremely happy and fully embracing life. But then I thought about my super expansive new goal. I don’t fear life, but I am expanding into my life more fully and asking for more life in my life.  So I acknowledged this part of me that was/is scared to be so much more alive and perhaps feels unworthy of so much.  And guess what? No joke, it almost completely went away….

Saying this affirmation, I have also realized that my ego/brain has this way of slipping into kind of a subtle, half-subconscious victim mentality . It’s like I’m too holier-than-thou-new-agey to express it externally, but if I’m quiet I can hear those thoughts go by: “Of course that happened! Ugh!” “Oh you’ve got to be fucking kidding me. This sucks.” “Of course I don’t have money to do those things! I never have enough money!” But if I am the source of my abundance, then I must uncover and relinquish this hidden and untrue victim mentality.

Deep breath….

And if you want to check out her beautiful words of wisdom, check out her website at www.lotusblossombooks.com.

Interestingly enough, on New Year’s Day, a friend gifted me the book “Creating Money: Keys to Abundance.” (An act of generosity in itself!)  And as I was driving home listening to the radio, the first song I heard this year was Hall and Oates, “Rich Girl.”  I love it when life is playful!