“Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes; but no plans.”

~Peter F. Drucker

During the summer months, Paul and I were out one evening talking (Paul’s my husband for those who don’t know). During that conversation he said something to me and I could see how it ‘locked in’ for him. Within a few short weeks he had completely changed the trajectory of his life and what he was doing, and I knew that that moment he locked in was the tipping point for all the change he had manifested.

It’s awesome to see, that moment when someone commits themselves fully either to a course of action (that is what I want to do) or to the avoidance of further action (I refuse to do/be this anymore). Both are powerful forces of change once the commitment is made. I’ve known this commitment, have engaged in in many times and I have an inherent sense of the forces that come into play, momentum for lack of a better word, once that commitment is locked in.

As an aside, in case you’re not sure what I mean by locked in, it’s when the commitment is so fundamental, literally at the cellular level, that you can almost see the body shift in response to it. Whenever I’ve made an absolute commitment to something, or someone, it feels as if there’s a core of steel that locks into my spine and the rest of my body comes into alignment around it. You can also start to feel the first stirrings of Universal energies coming into alignment, like a shifting of the wind where all of the ingredients you need to make your commitment manifest start to show up in an astoundingly short period of time and you can even find yourself feeling like you’re riding the tide rather than in any way in control of the changes you’ve wrought.

Now I’ve decided to commit to something very important to me. However, as I started to marshal the energies to lock in around it, the process shifted on me and took me in a very different direction. I’ll try to explain what happened here, it’s still early days on this process for me, but I felt compelled to share it as I know the energy of 2012 is very momentum and movement oriented, hence many of you are getting ready to commit to things right now and I wanted you to have the option to try this approach:

The old way…

If you think back to the way you used to commit, as I’ve mentioned, it was very much self-powered. YOU made a decision, YOU locked in, essentially lighting the fuse for the momentum that would then carry you towards your committed path. All great and good, and the feeling you get from this process is very empowering. Make no mistake, using this approach, you were, in fact, creating shifts in the Universe to bring to you exactly what you’d committed to – the proof is in your results. However, I started to question a few things:

• What if your approach was limiting. Was your commitment as ‘big’ as it could have been or was it merely a means to shift out of where you were into something different?
• Using this approach, once you commit, you feel very much like a locomotive building and creating extraordinary momentum, but are you truly enjoying the ride or are you completely focused on the process of ‘getting there’, of seeing your commitment made manifest?

The new way…

Many of you reading this have been on your journey. You know, the journey that has fundamentally stripped away everything that you were to make room so you could step fully into everything you are meant to be, yeah…that journey. Not exactly fun (not even close), but I believe the brunt of it has passed. The ‘new you’ now has to learn some new tools and this Dance of Commitment is one of many you have the choice to embrace.

As a result of your journey you’re a different being. Literally. You are not what you were. You’ve embraced the idea that you are more. It’s time to start understanding what that means and to start actively embracing it. In this case, it means that you have a Universe full of energy at your disposal. Why not use it. It’s there, and it’s infinite. You can’t deplete it, in fact, the more you use it, the more you contribute to it. The Dance of Commitment, in a nutshell, is a conscious choice to leverage that power. Think of your emotions and body as a beacon rather than the tool.You have the ability to quickly and easily mobilize the energy of your commitment, but then, rather than depending solely on the energy you can personally generate, you’re actively sending the energy of your commitment out and literally permeating the air with your intent.

If you’re struggling a bit here with the difference between the two processes, here it is:

With the old approach you carried the load of powering the change you created.

With the new approach you are consciously allowing, and giving carte blanche power to, the Universe to carry the load of powering the change you are creating.

Which approach do you think is more powerful?

Which approach do you think might be a wee bit easier on you and your body?

You haven’t gone through this journey for the sole purpose to continue to suffer and ‘do it alone’. This tool provides you not only with ease of access to an infinite power source, but it also allows you to sit back, relax a bit, perhaps enjoy the journey???. The process of locking in, as empowering as it may be, is hard on the body. You’re literally holding the energy of your intended change inside of your physical body and building momentum from the inside out. With you engage in the Dance of Commitment with the Universe, you can allow your body to relax while the momentum is built by energies outside of you, that are actively working for you, based on your intention. Specifically, this means it does not require your active energy input beyond getting the commitment/intention out there. I’m calling it a Dance because you’re engaging in an actively intimate exchange of energy between you and the Universe. A Dance should be fun and engaging. It should allow you to get out of your head (ahem!) while at the same time trusting your partner to move with you through the intricate steps of your Dance (think flexibility on your part and being open to more). I think you’ll be amazed at what shows up!

Rather than describing my experience, I’m going to give you a bit of a step-by-step instead as it came to me that this is, in fact, a tool that we can choose to embrace, hence you should probably know how to use it.

I recommend being very comfortable and quiet for this process, ideally without interruption. Give yourself a good hour, though it won’t take quite that long.

1. Be crystal clear. Make the essence (definition, decision, etc.) of the commitment absolute in your mind. Keeping it brief and high level is best, the less detail you provide around your commitment the more power you are giving to the Universal energies to deliver amazing miracles far beyond your imaginings. The more detail you get into, the more you restrict the possibilities. An example might be: “I can’t work here anymore.” Be careful not to get caught up in the how’s related to your commitment, avoid focusing on all of the details that will be related to it, and definitely do not think about any ramifications of the decision. If you’re at the commitment stage, all of that thinking has already been done to death. GET OUT OF YOUR HEAD.
2. Focus all of your emotional energy on making this commitment absolute. No back doors, no half-ways, no saying it but not really meaning it. If you’re still struggling with that, then you’re not even ready for Step 1. To focus your emotional energy, allow yourself to feel everything related to this commitment. In the case of ‘I can’t work here anymore’ allow every frustration, stress, unhappiness, misery, lost opportunity, etc. to build inside of you until you hit a culmination point. When you get to that point, where you feel as if you’re going to explode with it, then put every ounce of that energy into your commitment. Say it out loud: “I’M NOT WORKING HERE ANYMORE!!!” If your commitment is more along the lines of, “I want to move to another country”, then allow the feelings of excitement, adventure, trepidation, fear of the unknown to permeate your body, then do the same, “I WANT TO MOVE TO ANOTHER COUNTRY!!!” (a quick note here – don’t get too caught up in the words want, can’t, etc. Yes, I know all about NLP, The Secret, etc. The energies of intention we’re working with here blow all of that stuff out of the water, so use the language and words that hold the most power for you!)
3. Focus on shifting the energy outside of your body. When you say your commitment out loud you’ll start to notice a shift in the energies inside of you. Focus on sending the energy of your commitment outside of your body, rather than manipulating them within your body, which is what we used to do when we locked in (we sub-consciously marshaled that energy into a self-powered change agent). When I was making my commitment statement I found that the shift of energy outside of my body actually happened quite naturally, but then I was channeling the process the same time I was doing it, so I don’t want to put any expectations on how it will feel for you. Trust the process. Don’t judge the movement of the energy. For me it felt as if my entire body was saturated, right down to the cellular level, with the energy of the commitment, to the point where my body literally couldn’t contain any more of that energy and it started to permeate outside of my body in waves. These waves actually gained momentum rather than waning in strength the further they got from my body. Trust whatever happens to you – the magic is in your intention for the commitment, your body will do what it does, don’t judge it just because it doesn’t exactly match my description.

Now, just allow. I’ve been tapping into my commitment every day (for about a week so far) and I can still feel the power of it out there. It’s almost as if I can sense on the periphery that things are shifting to make room for me in my new reality, whatever that is. Yes, I’m still taking actual physical action related to my commitment, but I don’t feel ‘driven’, or focused to the exclusion of enjoying and trusting the process. Rather I feel supported, held and energized.

I’ll keep you posted on my progress…the proof, as always, is in the pudding:)

Enjoying the Journey! ~Trish