Reality shifts bring me the most amazing coincidences, synchronicities, and dreams-come-true when I am feeling my most energized and relaxed. I find it easiest to get into this state of mind by starting off with memories of being totally loved and loving... and by visualizing my favorite people, places, animals, plants, and things. Just like Julie Andrews sings in "The Sound Of Music", it really does help to remember "a few of my favorite things".

I'd love to share a story with you about a time when I clearly noticed how my state of mind and heart affect my reality. I had arranged to meet some friends for lunch in San Francisco at the Montgomery Street BART station at a certain time, so that we could walk together to a local restaurant. I parked my car at a train station near my house, and noticed as I boarded the train that I was running a little bit late... it had taken me longer than I thought it would to park my car, so I had just missed the train I needed to be on in order to be on time for my lunch date. I didn't worry much, since I hoped that my friends would either wait for me or leave me a note saying where they'd gone. When I arrived at the Montgomery Street BART station, I began to really start worrying when I found my friends were gone and there was no message waiting for me. I asked people in the office building where my friends might be, and they did not know. I asked where people usually go for lunch around there, and was given a list of several restaurants... and the fact that "this is restaurant heaven... we have more restaurants in this city than anywhere else in the world". I ran to each of the places on the list that I'd been told were likely possibilities... but I began to realize that logic was failing me. There was no message for me, and there was no obvious place that my friends would be. I began to feel sorry for myself... realizing that I'd just wasted at least an hour in travel time as well as the train fare, and it was looking quite unlikely that I'd be able to find my friends at all. I began to wallow in these feelings of sorrow and self pity... until I realized that to do so was to give up without trying something else... the intuitive solution!

I felt this realization quite viscerally as I chose to release my feelings of loss and sorrow, and practice my meditation of feeling Love. I felt warmth flowing through me and out from me, beginning to spread further and further out around me. A slight drizzle of rain began to fall as I did this, and I smiled as I looked up to feel tiny droplets of rain landing on the bare skin of my face and hands. The rain felt soft and wet... and friendly. I began to sense that I might be able to simply follow my feet to my friends, and I trusted this intuition as I started to walk where it felt right to go. I crossed a street, looking both ways for traffic, and found myself at a large shopping center with numerous store names listed on signs. I saw one name, "Faz", which caught my eye and felt like "That's where my friends are". I asked the next passerby if Faz was a restaurant, and she said it was. She told me that it was tricky to find, since I would have to take a hidden elevator to get up to the second floor where it is. I took the elevator up, and once again followed my feet to turn right once I was in the restaurant, and walked directly up to my astonished friends. What seemed extraordinary to them didn't strike me as unusual at all to me at the time, until the next day when I was back to my more ordinary state of mind!

This experience is a reminder to me of the choice I always have to change my external reality by feeling loving. I often don't notice that I'm even making a choice in how I'm feeling, even though I know that every minute of every day I am choosing how open to love I am feeling at that very minute. Can you recall a time in your life when you could choose to feel either hopeless or hopeful? What state of mind are you in when you most effectively shift reality?

If you wish to try this exercise, notice the next time you find yourself in what seems to be an "impossible" situation. Remember that you have a choice. You can (and will) change everything around you according to what you choose to think and feel... even in the midst of crisis. You can start warming up for this by practicing meditating in noisy, chaotic environments... gradually improving your ability to meditate anywhere. If you find that this seems too hard, then simply remember that every crisis is an opportunity in disguise, giving us a new chance to practice shifting reality by changing our thoughts and feelings.

Cynthia Sue Larson holds a bachelor's degree in physics from UC Berkeley (1982), earned in conjunction with her pursuit of a more complete understanding of reality. Shortly after receiving her physics degree and working with scientists at the Space Sciences Laboratory in Berkeley, she earned an MBA degree from San Francisco State University with the intention that she would be able to help scientists better manage their projects. Following completion of her MBA degree in 1984, she worked as a project manager at Citibank for seven years at the California Data Center.

Cynthia currently writes articles for Magical Blend and Parabola magazines about reality shifts - discussing everything from the physics of prayer to the connection between language and our culture's view of reality. She has taught workshops and classes to dozens of people, and communicated with thousands more on the internet through discussion forums and chats. She has been interviewed by Elliot Stein for his Stein Online talk show. Check out Cynthia's website at www.realityshifters.com.