“I was numb…”

Meet Elise Adams.

Elise was raised as a performer. Her family began performing around the time Elise turned 2. By the time she was 9 the family was professionally performing all over the United States. Each summer from the time she was 9 – 18 years old the family traveled all across the country performing at state and county fairs.

She continued on the performance track and as a student at Brigham Young University majored in Music Dance Theater and was privileged to perform with The Young Ambassadors. Currently, Elise doesn’t perform anymore and is (mostly) a stay at home mom. In addition to running a breeding business, Elise is also a successful stylist with Color Street, and wears ALL the hats included in the life of a busy mom!

Elise introduced herself in our private Mindset Mastery group, and immediately I loved her for her authenticity. She said:

I have been lurking in this group for a while, not ready to contribute. Well. I am going to stop watching and start participating. I am in the guided mindset mastery class that is currently happening on Tuesday evenings. So far I have felt an intense feeling of ‘finding my place’.

It sounds cliche so please forgive me. But I have literally felt as if I have always known these concepts. They have been inside me wanting and waiting to come to the surface. Every lesson. Every concept.

My spirit and soul cries out YES – this is right – this is true – latch on to this, learn it and never let go.

I am thankful and happy to have finally found explanation, words, lessons that communicate truths I feel I have always known but could not explain.

Some thoughts from this week’s lessons that I have been working on include:

  • People don’t resist change, they resist being changed.
  • To worry is to resist a situation that has not even happened yet.
  • When we worry we cut off our mind to possible solutions.
  • Don’t choose an opportunity out of fear.
  • The intention behind the action will affect the ultimate outcome.

These are just a FEW of what I wrote in my notes from this week’s lessons. I can say with certainty that almost all of the lessons and notes I take – feels a LOT like de ja vu. It’s as if I have learned it all before (maybe in a dream or before being born) and I am just being reminded of it. Like I just have to review the information, since I’ve known it all along. It kind of feels surreal.

I’m grateful and thankful for all those in this group and community who have been supportive and helpful through my journey so far. I’m also exited and grateful for the experiences yet to come.

On another post she added:

I LOVE the lessons this week! I had several A-HA moments. I also felt so much gratitude for the clarity I am receiving. This was a favorite from the lesson:

“The choice a person makes in the face of terror literally determines their future.”

I realized when I was younger I was really brave and made a lot of brave decisions in the face of terror. As I’ve grown older (and my children are older) it seems I have lost a lot of my confidence in my ability to be brave. Also:

“If I don’t consciously make a choice, my subconscious programs will run my life.”

WOWZA. This hit me hard.

And now that she has completed the course, I’m thrilled to be introducing her to you as a Mindset Mastery Honors Graduate!

As Elise applied for graduation from the Mindset Mastery program, I had a few questions:

Q. Did you face a Terror Barrier during the course?

Elise did indeed face a Terror Barrier, more than once. As she learned to recognize it for what it was, and exactly what to do with it, she shared her experience. She said:

I actually had a REALLY hard time reading my statement out loud. However, I am determined to graduate with honors and I KNOW I must say it out loud A LOT each day to have that honor. LOL! So….it actually took me 3-4 days of putting it off. I had a serious BLOCK about saying it out loud. It felt very vulnerable. I wanted to just say it in my head. Not out loud. But…..that honors thing you know? So I had to do it.

Q. When did that particular Terror Barrier happen?

It wasn’t long after phase two began. I had written my bite size goal statement. The one that would be my phase two goal. I had also made a goal to graduate with honors. This, to me was very important, so I had been diligent all along to fulfill all of those requirements. When I saw that I needed to say my statement out loud, with emotion and feeling approximately 70 times per week I was so disappointed. I was certain this would be too difficult. I am really good at saying goals in my head. I’m good at reading them. But saying them out loud?! Different story.

There I was about 3 days into the week and I had not said it out loud once. Every time I went to do it I ‘found’ something else important that needed to be done. I felt a very real, difficult to describe feeling every time I went to stay it out loud. It was as if there was something inside of me that refused to believe I could actually attain what was written.

FINALLY I decided I would not go to bed that night until I had said it out loud! All day long I thought about it. But never said it out loud. I was very frustrated with myself and not able to pinpoint why this was so difficult for me.

It was bed time. I was chatting with my husband. I was avoiding it. I was upset and frustrated. I left my bedroom and went to the front room of our home. I sat down and was very focused…..I had to MAKE myself say it out loud.

As soon as I started saying the words, even the first few, I began to cry. I cried hard. I let it all out. I sobbed for a few minutes and then began saying it out loud again. I cried as I said it twice through. By the third time I was a little more composed. The fourth time I could say it relatively easily. I kept saying it over and over until I could add the positive emotion and feeling to the statement.

Q. How long did it take to shift the feeling?

Like I said, I left our room and went out to the front room of our home. I sat down on the couch and forced myself to say the words … Who knew there would be so much emotion about saying this statement out loud?

On the fourth time that I made it through without tears, there wasn’t any happy emotion. I was numb. It was well into the 20th time of saying it (the next day) out loud before I felt a genuine happiness as I said the words.

After this… I was able to move forward. It was difficult. But I pushed through. For this I am grateful.

Q. What was your Phase 1 experiment (the inconsequential goal)?

I do a lot of driving during the day. I own a taxi cab and am a very popular driver (a mother). I decided AFTER I was on the road for what would be about an hour and a half in the car that my experiment would be hitting green lights throughout my drive. At first I (keeping my eyes open) visualized the lights turning green as I approached the intersection. I focused quite a bit on this, even as I hit a couple red lights at the beginning of the drive.

I also decided that no matter what happened I would be grateful. I ALSO felt myself get nervous as I got close to the lights (worried they wouldn’t turn green and I would be disappointed and a failure – an out right lie that I quickly drop kicked out of my head).

I hit a few red lights. Worried. Decided not to worry. Felt peace and excited to approach a green light (even when I didn’t). Then…..my mind found a squirrel and I thought about other things. After a while of this I realized I hadn’t stopped at a red light in a LONG time! I was shocked and happy!

I spent a little more time being grateful and doing some more visualization. Then, promptly got distracted and forgot about the entire thing. AGAIN, about 20 minutes later I realized I hadn’t stopped at a red light in quite a while. I also noticed that when I had stopped at a red light it didn’t bother me much. Because I knew that the next one would be green. I felt grateful for the experience.

Since I do drive about 3-6 hours each day (depending on the day) I will continue this exercise and try to keep my thoughts more focused.

To sum up:

I spent focused effort visualizing what it would look like and how I would feel when the light turned green just as I was approaching the intersection. I reminded myself of the Laws of Thought throughout the process. When I remained calm during a red light, it seemed to turn green much quicker! I was grateful for the green light before it happened. I remain grateful for all the green lights I hit every day.

I enjoyed this experience (even though at first it seemed unreal that my thoughts could actually have an effect.) I found that I proved myself wrong.

Q. How effective were you at being able to think truth in spite of appearances in assignment/lesson 18?

For the assignment in Lesson 18 I chose to face my fear in writing. I was actually surprised that I could take all emotion out of it as I wrote. (The example at the bottom of the page was very helpful!)
It was liberating to see my fears written out. I saw that they were neither good or bad. I described in detail what would happen if all of my fears came true. Surprisingly when it was all written out a bunch of the emotion attached to these scenarios dissolved. It was amazing!

I have thought about this experience since then. When I am in a tight situation: a time crunch, feeling overwhelmed, things aren’t going as planned, etc. I am able to think through the ‘worst case scenario’ and actually take OUT the negative emotion connected to that outcome.

Generally speaking I am more at peace in my daily activities because of this new practice.

Q. If you had difficulty with anxiety or other troubling emotions, how did you deal with them?

1) I felt rushed and somewhat overwhelmed with the pace of the ‘guided’ structure. Sometimes I wished I had had more than one week to accomplish the assignments. Some of them required more thought and pondering. However, I was also very GLAD that I had a deadline! I needed to have weekly class so I would get it DONE!

2) More than once I felt a ‘stall’ in my emotional progression. It kept going back to the false beliefs of finances/money in my subconscious. I could tell it was slowing me down. I finally sat down and did the same exercise from the beginning of the class. The free write when we burned the paper at the end. I sat and just wrote and wrote and wrote and let all the feelings and phrases I had about money etc. come out. I then ripped the paper into very small pieces and burned them. It helped and I was glad I got over myself and just did it.

Q. What was your goal or intention for the Phase 2 experiment?

Let me start with what became a bite-sized piece of the goal:

My husband and I created a void. A space. I really should have taken a “before” picture. This room was FULL. We have slowly but surely emptied EVERYTHING out. We are creating an open space to welcome some new dogs for our breeding program. We haven’t met this new dog yet. She is still finding us and we are looking forward to meeting her. (Looking also!)

I chose to believe that this void would be filled with more than what we could imagine. (Vacuum Law of Prosperity)

Fast forward to today:

Because we had previously created that void in our home, I decided my official bite size goal would be connected to filling that void.

My family has a very new breeding business. We are just starting out. We are in need of a particular female dog to add to our program.

Months ago I mentioned to a friend that ‘we will have to get a puppy and just wait until it is old enough to breed because no one is going to sell a dog of high caliber who is old enough to breed!’ I remembered that conversation and decided that I had decided that was true.

It isn’t true.

There IS in fact a female dog out there who is ready to breed who is EXACTLY what we need. This feat – to find the dog – became my meaningful goal. It felt VERY impossible! Ha! I wrote it out (remember the terror barrier when I bawled as I said the statement out loud) and began forcing myself to believe. It was difficult to believe.

I said it and said it. Over and over. I visualized meeting this dog. I used visualization A LOT! I saw in my mind’s eye meeting the previous owners, meeting the dog and loving her at first sight. I saw myself bring her home! I saw her pregnant and then give birth to healthy puppies! I saw it all in detail! It became more and more real each day. I could not NOT smile when I said the statement because it did, indeed, make me so happy!!

At one point I remember the thought coming to me – I don’t really need to say this anymore. This is in my subconscious! It was SO REAL to me! (I did, however, continue saying it!)

About half way through the process I had the distinct impression that the dog Heavenly Father had in mind for me may, or may not, be female. And that the female we have NOW was in fact the same as the one I was describing in my statement. (Our current female has had some health issues and we don’t know if she will be able to carry another litter.)

I recognized that God’s plan might be different than mine, but I continued saying that statement! I also prayed that whatever was best for us (and the dog) would come to pass. Meanwhile all this time my husband and I were actively looking for a dog that would fill the requirements I had in my statement.

Not long before Christmas we found a dog that fit every single requirement in my goal! Except he is male. 🙂 When we looked at the pictures and talked to the owner I KNEW this was our dog!! It was actually CRAZY to me how specific he was to the requirements I had written down!

We moved forward with the purchase! I drove 2,500 miles over the New Year to go to Texas and pick him up! I am so grateful for the experience I had with this bite size goal!

4 months ago if you had told me this was possible I would have laughed and said no way! BUT IT IS TRUE AND IT HAPPENED! I haven’t wasted any time – I am on to the next bite sized goal!

Congratulations, Elise! Keep up the great work!!

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Elise’s dog breeding business is Good Life Great Danes – Because Life is Better with a Dane! Family owned Great Dane breeders. They do health testing, are AKC registered and love helping families find their perfect puppy! Learn more at www.goodlifegreatdanes.com

Elise has also joined us on the Rare Faith Program Facilitator Track to help us deliver Mindset Mastery and Genius Bootcamp classes to others! We’re thrilled to have her on board! Browse her articles and learn more about what she’s up to here.

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Leslie Householder
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This Post Has One Comment

  1. Bethany Theulen

    I love this! As a fellow breeder, I have personally experienced the laws applied to not only my human family, but my pet family also. I have become very intentional in seeing perfect matches of families with puppies.

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