Celebrate Feelings

As a young woman in graduate school at The University of Georgia, I attended my first big concert. Ike and Tina Turner were performing at the coliseum, and I had seats at the top of the top of the building. I went armed with a pair of binoculars.

Tina was fantastic. She was wild and energetic. I was spellbound with her amazing talent. In those days, Ike and Tina had a hit song called “What You See Is What You Get.” I took those words to heart. Over the next thirty years I developed a philosophy that promoted “visioning all that we want.” As the book says, “As a man thinks, so he is.” I carefully outlined my goals, and made collages of my dreams. I taught others to do the same. I built models of what I wanted to manifest.

In time much of what I wanted to manifest came to me, always in a different form than I “saw.” This spawned some level of disappointment. Much of the time, while I waited for the arrival of my “vision,” I suffered from impatience, and often sat on my pity pot whining about how much I deserved my vision, and “why weren’t things happening faster?”

Gratefully, I grew through these agonizing years, and came to understand the power of emotions. I came to understand that it is our feelings that create the resonating core into which flows manifestation. I came to understand that the form in which our desires will manifest is often best left to our Creator. I learned that if I could FEEL the experience of having the thing I wanted, I could manifest it more quickly. I also learned that what was manifested most often far exceeded my wildest expectations. I began teaching this newfound wisdom.

Recently we were in a long security line at the Tulsa International Airport awaiting our flight to Las Vegas. Standing in front of us was a black man dressed in a white suit. I looked twice to discover that the man was Ike Turner. We were wild with excitement. I told him of the years had been inspired by his and Tina’s song “What You See Is What You Get.” The song goes on to say, “What You Don’t See Is Better Yet.” Ike and I began singing the song together.

To my surprise, when we got to the line about “what you don’t see is better yet” Ike stopped me to say, “I’ve changed the lyrics to this. He then sang the new lyrics; “What you see is what you get... what you FEEL is better yet!” I almost kissed his feet for the affirmation of a lesson that took me thirty years to learn. Let us celebrate our feelings, and learn to FEEL all victories even before the game. Some say that we need to sustain the FEELING of success for 17 seconds or more. My drives to and from work provide perfect practice times for me to envision success and FEEEEEEL the power of having great success.

I’ve learned to affirm and celebrate success before I attain it. I often act as if I’ve already succeeded. If my success means I can afford something that I’ve been wanting, I take myself shopping to look for that new car, or couch, or computer. I write a congratulations letter to myself and mail it.

I list the first three people I’ll call when I’m successful. I often speak and behave as if I’m already successful in my desired goal. I begin to look ahead to what my next goal will be. I smile and wink more often, and whisper to myself, “Sweet”, and “Yes”! I do these things because they help me sustain the wonderful FEELINGS of being successful and having my dreams come true.