“If Wishes Were Fishes…” or The Nature of Desire

“If wishes were fishes, we’d all cast nets in the sea.” Eric Bogle, Scottish Folk Singer

It is the Universe’s nature to grant all our wishes. More, it is its greatest joy to give us all that we desire. As a matter of fact, the Universe is already giving you everything you want – or at least what it believes you want. For wishes are fishes and we are always casting nets into the sea. Truly, you’re never NOT doing it.

So manifesting all your heart’s desires becomes but a matter of clearly communicating them to the Source of their fulfillment, and fortunately it’s incredibly easy.

When you imagine something you desire – something you want to have or an outcome to a situation, for example – the essence of that desire is emitted to the Universe in the form of vibrations. Every desire has its own unique vibration (or vibrational field). It is this field the Universe reads.

What you must understand though, is that it’s the same when you imagine something undesirable, like a worry or a fear.

And when the Universe receives these vibrations, good or bad, it interprets them not only as information but as a flat out request or, if you prefer, a wish. That’s right: the act of desiring something is the same as the act of asking for it. In fact, once the Universe knows what you want the process of bringing it to you has already begun.

You need waste not a moment more worrying about how to ask for what you want. There are no magic words. You need no words at all. The asking is inherent in the wanting, or rather in the focus of your attention.

That means – and this is as liberating as it is foreboding – whatever you focus on is what the Universe interprets as a desire you wish to have granted. Clear communicating your true desires to the Universe, then, is no more than a matter of focusing on the desire itself, as opposed to its lack or absence.

Have you ever had the experience of knowing exactly what you didn’t want only to find that that was exactly what you got? Or you were very clear about what you didn’t want to happen and that’s just what did? It’s a common phenomenon, and easily avoidable.

So many desires are thwarted by a simple and fundamental misunderstanding of this one key element of the Law of Attraction: that it does not function in negatives, which is to say that it can’t NOT do something. It cannot NOT attract something to you.

In other words, it doesn’t understand you when you say you don’t want to be in a dysfunctional relationship. It only understands the vibrational energy of a dysfunctional relationship.

It doesn’t know what you mean when you say you don’t want to be drowning in debt anymore. It only receives the vibrational image of you drowning in debt. It “thinks” these things that you know you don’t want are actually things you do want, because you’re focusing on them.

Fortunately, solving this problem is easy as making it: take out the negative. Focus on what you do want, not what you don’t. Instead of focusing on the dysfunctional relationship you don’t want, focus instead on the relationship you do want: loving, trusting, empowering, fulfilling.

And instead of focus on how sick and tired you are of being poor, focus on the alternative: what it would feel like to finally have your finances under control.

The more you focus on the things, situations, and feelings you desire rather than those problems, circumstances and emotions you want changed, the more your life will start taking the shape you’ve always wanted it to.

Tips for Focusing Your Desire

To get what we want, we have to know what we want. To know what we want, we have to think about it, feel about it, make determinations about it (okay, this is what I want), and then, once we know what we want, we have to focus on it. Focusing, then, takes on a twofold meaning: focusing in terms of honing in on your desires (determining what they are) and focusing in terms of concentrating joyously on what you’ve determined your desires to be`.

This is how we ask the Universe to manifest our desires, and this is how we align ourselves with receiving them. Below you’ll find 5 tips, processes, exercises, games (call them what you will), for focusing your desire and thereby drawing what you want into your life.

Note: all the processes below are taught by Abraham-Hicks in their manual for blissful living, “Ask And It Is Given”.

1. The Magical Creation Box – Find a box, the more appealing to you the better, and start putting into it magazine and newspaper clippings and other images you find (or make) about what you want. Continue adding to the box as time goes on, knowing that anything you place into it is already yours.

2. The Creative Workshop – Take four pieces of paper and label one ‘My Body’, one ‘My Home’, one ‘My Relationship’, and one ‘My Work’. Then start adding to each list those things you want in each of those areas. Focusing on these four key areas of life will help you more clearly identify those desires that matter to you most.

3. Virtual Reality – You may say this next one is no different from ‘fantasizing’ and to that we say, “So it is”. A visualization exercise, in Virtual Reality you allow your mind to focus on a particular scene you desire experiencing, and imagining yourself in it.

Paint a scene with your mind that makes you feel good. Is it indoors or outdoors? Day or night? What are you doing it? What’s happening around you? If there’s any difference between this process and your fantasies is that these Virtual Reality visualizations is intentional, directed by your conscious desire and - most notably distinct from fantasies – honored and appreciated for the future reality they represent.

4. The Prosperity – Everyone wants money: cold hard cash; and there’s nothing wrong with it. So why wait? Start thinking wealthy now; align yourself with how you’ll feel when the wealth you already possess actualizes itself in your bank account. Creative an imaginary checking account. Use an actual checkbook register or a personal finance program on your computer if you wish, but somewhere, somehow, keep a record for this account. On the first day you play this game, deposit $1,000 into your account.

Then start spending it: writing checks (or entries in your record tracking your imaginary expenses) for everything you want to buy or spend money on. And spend it all – in one sitting (or one day). Don’t leave money around to build-up in your account; this is a checking account, not a savings .

The next time you do this, deposit $2,000 and again, spending it all. Each time you play this game increase your initial deposit by $1,000. See how it feels to spend $20,000 knowing you’ll get equal that plus more as soon as that runs out. How does it feel when you get to spending $100,000 at the time. What do you have? How does it feel?

5. The Book of Positive Aspects – Gratitude and appreciation is our way of attracting more of those things into our lives. So start a notebook where, one at a time, you dedicate an entire page to one person, animal, place, situation, or thing that is already in your life: a restaurant, a car, your spouse, your job, etc. Write down in as much detail as you can what you like/love/appreciate/are grateful for about each person, animal, place, situation, or thing.

In doing so, you not only create more positive experiences with that restaurant, car, spouse, job, etc., but you attract more of those qualities you listed appreciating into all areas of your life. Once you’ve done this a few times, try listing the positive aspects of something you’re not so thrilled with in your life. By focusing on the positive aspects of a negative thing or situation, you transform it, perpetuating and reinforcing the positive elements while the negative elements slip away.