I first started meditating about 30 years ago when I was in my late 20s. After going through a series of career setbacks and bad relationships, a friend turned me on to it, extolling its benefits and explaining how much it helped her get centered and get her life on track. It was awkward at first learning how to quiet my mind, but she gave me a guided meditation tape, which helped tremendously. Over time, I got better and better at it and, before long, I was an old pro.
Fast forward a few years: I was nearing 40, and I’d made some inroads into my career and had achieved a few things I’d set out to. But I still had not found the right person who I felt connected to enough to want to marry. One day, I was visiting a friend, perusing his book collection, and ran across a book called The Power of Alpha-Thinking: Miracle of the Mind, by Jess Stearn. It was about the author’s exploration into this meditation technique called “alpha-thinking.”
With this technique, while you’re in your deepest state of meditation, called your alpha state, you interject visualization into the process. Whatever you’re trying to accomplish, visualize a clear picture of it while you’re in this state. Stearn wrote that people who did this were able to more effectively tap into the subconscious and make positive changes to their lives, such as stopping smoking or losing weight. And the interesting thing is that in some cases people were seeing changes within days or weeks!
“When I was visualizing my new job, I saw myself driving up in my new car and going into my office. And I would ‘feel’ what it would be like to be doing what I loved. I also visualized being in a wonderful relationship with a man I adored and who adored me.”
Back then, I thought, what did I have to lose by trying it? Although I had been in Los Angeles, I was looking for a job down South at that time to be near my mom who had been ill. I needed to get to her quickly, if needed, but I was working in television and hadn’t found any television jobs near where she lived. So I figured I’d probably have to change careers. I also wanted a new car, a new place to live and a mate who was right for me.
Stearns wrote that it was important to get into the feeling of it while you’re in the alpha state, so when I was visualizing my new job, I saw myself driving up in my new car and going into my office. And I would “feel” what it would be like to be doing what I loved. I also visualized being in a wonderful relationship with a man I adored and who adored me, and I would feel that euphoria of being in love. I practiced every day but tried not to think about whether it would work or not and just went about my business as usual. I don’t remember how many days or weeks it was before things began to happen, but I remember the order in which they came.
Shortly after starting the alpha training, I received a job posting in my email box for a producer position on a court TV show in Texas, which was within driving distance of my mom. This was significant because as long as I’d been a member of that particular job listserv, I’d never received a job posting for Texas.
I went ahead and applied, but since I’d never worked in court television before I didn’t think I really had a chance of getting it. The very next day, I got a call from the hiring producer asking if I would submit a demo reel of my work. I mailed the reel, and he got back to me a couple of days later asking me to come down for an interview. I flew down for the interview, and it was one of the few times in my life that I’ve been hired on the spot!
Now, I believe I’ve discovered at least one of the ways we’ve been given to assist God in cocreating in our lives — through the power of our own minds.
When I got back to LA to retrieve my stuff, my car broke down, which forced me to go car shopping way ahead of schedule. With hardly any money (I hadn’t even officially started working yet), I was able to drive off the lot that same day in a nice SUV, which I had also visualized.
Once I got to Houston and started working, I was soon able to move into a very nice apartment. And one month after I arrived, I went shopping at an electronics store and met the man who would eventually become my husband. He’d been temporarily working there, but at dinner, I found out he was divorced, a devoted dad of two and had been an IT instructor at a local college. More importantly, we shared very similar spiritual beliefs.
From getting the job to getting the new car to getting a new place to meeting my husband, all happened within a period of three months. It was crazy! I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t lived it. It was like everything I saw during my alpha sessions happened.
Since then, I have used the alpha thinking method to help me achieve many things. I’ve heard all my life that God created us to be cocreators with him, instead of expecting him to do it all, but I never understood the “how.” Now, I believe I’ve discovered at least one of the ways we’ve been given to assist God in cocreating in our lives — through the power of our own minds. That, I think, has been my biggest lesson of all.