Conditioning the Space
The meaning of ‘conditioning the space’ is simply this – expressing your intention for the nature and quality of events that you will experience. As an example, one of my favourite affirmations for conditioning the space is – Today I am going to make the world a better place. Making this statement first thing in the morning sets the tone and ambience for the day, and conditions the types of experiences I will have and how I intend to respond to them. Its effect on me has been powerful and transformative. I urge you to do it, first thing in the morning – just after waking, and feel how it impacts your state of mind. I never fail to respond with a smile and a sense that the space around me has changed – by simply stating my intention for what I want.
Other examples I like include – My intention is to experience abundance, balance, harmony and beauty, and, I exist in joy, safety and prosperity. An old affirmation used by many is Day by day, in every way, I am getting better and better.
In the opening blog series called Our Thoughts Create our Reality and in this blog entry, the underlying principal at play is that the space around us is not empty but instead composed of intelligent energy that responds to our thoughts, beliefs and intentions. My friends the P’s have stated simply that ‘beliefs are agreements you have with reality’ – and taking control of your beliefs with affirmations and visualizations was the central theme of the opening blog series. Affirmations can be specific in nature if you have precise goals and objectives, or more general in nature such as conditioning the space.
(An interesting historical correlation is the infamous magician’s exclamation of abra cadabra when performing an act. This expression, abra cadabra, has roots in the ancient Aramaic where it translates to ‘I create as I speak’.)
The ‘conditioning the space’ intention I want to address is the one to use in dealing with our own death. That subject, death, is at the top of many people’s fears – for what is after death, Hamlet’s undiscovered country, when we cease to be? While we accept its inevitability, it nonetheless does cause stress to consider not only death itself but the way we die. We see around us once robust friends and family now shuffling about with age`s progression and the accelerating decline of physical abilities and mental faculties. The deterioration we witness pains us and further fortifies our fears of not only death itself but the loss of dignity and grace which seems inevitable during those final steps.
Those fears provide the emotional energy to create the very conditions we want to avoid. We create that reality through the simple combination of thought and emotion – the more intense the fear the greater the likelihood of its occurrence. We know we are going to die – but we want to die with grace and dignity – and peacefully.
Perhaps we simply should accept and live by Leonardo Da Vinci’s adage – ‘As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death.’ Or adopt the courage of Mark Twain when he says – ‘The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time’.
Consider what Tecumseh stated – ‘When your time comes to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home’.
While these famous sages offer encouraging and inspirational advice concerning our lives and death, is there more that we can do? There is – we can condition the space by stating our intention concerning our death. Even if you have years and decades to go before you end this life’s journey, you can condition the space now. I will share with you the intention I put out to condition my space. If you like it, I would suggest you write it down and speak it out loud. It need not be repeated every day but perhaps annually.
This is it:
‘When it is my time to terminate my experience in this reality with this physical body, I want to leave graciously and effortlessly, with dignity. I want no pain, no fuss and no muss, and no big expense. I want to be met by loved ones and then reconnect with my higher-self.’
The last part of this affirmation reflects my own beliefs concerning reincarnation and the existence of a higher self or spirit and the afterlife. You can substitute your own belief or views here – the key part of the affirmation is the grace, effortlessness and dignity of the process which you want to achieve. Or you can write down and state any intention you desire.
Once you have conditioned the space, accept that it is so. Infuse the intention with joyful knowing that it will be and reduce any fear of an ungraceful and undignified exit.
Recently I read some poems by Rumi, the 13th century Sufi poet and mystic, and I will end this post with a short poem of his on the subject:
‘Death, like most phenomena
Will treat you the same way that you have treated it
With someone who has been friendly, he will be kind and amiable
And with an enemy he will wage war. ’
