he could do with more cash. He wrote, ‘I did it [FIND-DIVINE-COUNT-ON] in a rather cynical way and got a £25 payout on premium bonds today!’ He’s now working with REACH to find a long-lost book. Next was Rhonda’s email. Rhonda is a kindred spirit who thoroughly believes in angels and manifesting. She chose ELOHIM-DIVINE as her Switch-pair, which asks for a miracle from God or the universe. Plagued by money worries for months, she wrote: ‘Liz, I won £25 on yesterday’s Lotto!! Most I’ve ever won. Started playing two months ago. Do you think it’s the Switchword working already? Last night I repeated it 28 times. I am on the train to work feeling very wealthy!’
Perhaps Jon’s lack of attachment to the outcome actually helped him; he was willing to be open-minded and try, and he received a small reward as a result. Perhaps Rhonda’s total belief helped her; she was dedicated to her Switchword practice and it paid off. Whichever, it doesn’t matter. Two very different people had exactly the same result after chanting their Switchwords, and the universe responded regardless of their level of belief. All you need is the belief that it’s worth trying: the universe takes care of the rest. What do you have to lose?
Ellen, firmly in Jon’s sceptical camp, shared her story with me: ‘I was looking for a gardening book and I’d searched everywhere. Then your email arrived and I used REACH to find it (although I was sceptical). I set a time limit of that day and when it didn’t turn up, I felt my scepticism was justified. However, the following day I was walking past a bookcase that I had already searched through, and there it was. Did the same with a mislaid bicycle pump and found it almost straight away. Scepticism overruled (for now!)’
While a successful track record obviously helps belief (the more we succeed, the more we trust in the process), research also suggests that familiarity alone generates positive thoughts. Even if we’re only able to carry the basic belief that Switchwords are worth trying – but don’t necessarily believe that they will work – we cultivate belief as a by-product. This is known as the exposure effect. We have positive thoughts about things we’ve seen or heard (or experienced through other senses) before. This is true, of course, in advertising (which is why we’re bombarded with repeated adverts) and also in music. A refrain or chorus has the effect of enchanting the brain – the exposure effect of repetition means we come to like what we’re familiar with. So this is part of the belief factor in Switchwords: the more familiar we become with the Switchwords we choose, the more we generate an inner belief that they will work, whether we’re conscious of this or not.
Tip: Use CARE to remember the parts of this book you need.
There’s a Switchword to help you store information – including Switchwords. This word is CARE. You might imagine this as the ‘save’ function on a computer. CARE helps you bank information for retrieval later. Whenever you pause in your reading of this book, say, think or chant the Switchword CARE to help you store the information you need. When you want to remember a Switchword or any part of this book later on, use the ‘finding’ Switchword REACH, which retrieves whatever you need, when you need it.
Ready for the next step?
Opening the pathways to success
The subconscious houses that aspect of our higher self (or super-consciousness) that can be thought of as the guiding principle that wants what is best for us in this lifetime, attracting the wise lessons we need to learn, and inspiring us to act from a place of love rather than fear. When we use Switchwords, we are switching on the subconscious and the higher self to bring us what we genuinely need (rather than what the ego, expressed through the conscious mind, assumes we should have).
The subconscious mind holds thoughts, impressions and beliefs that the conscious mind is not aware of. These hidden attitudes have a powerful effect on our lives, both positive and negative, whether we achieve or fail, falter or procrastinate, take risks or confront problems. Your subconscious mind can be your greatest ally in achievement. It responds to the energy of the thoughts and feelings within you to attract external influences that hold the same vibration: like attracts like. This is the basis of mani-festing – the belief that we can change our reality by changing our thoughts.
So, while we tell ourselves what we’d like to achieve, we also assume that our subconscious mind hears the command, understands it, believes in our missions and enters wholly into the agreement. Our beliefs, actions and words are consistent with the goal we’d like to achieve – or so we assume. We think we’re together as one, a perfect union of the conscious and subconscious self, all geared up to make whatever we want happen.
Experience, however, shows us that this isn’t always so, and we’re often left bewildered by our failure to complete a task or make a substantial change in our lives. When our subconscious mind appears to ignore or even sabotage our conscious desire through action or inaction, it’s virtually impossible to create and sustain the new reality we want, whether it’s making more money or beginning a new business, managing time, dealing with anxiety and fear or breaking negative habits.
If we need more money, we might consciously affirm, ‘I am wealthy, I live in abundance,’ and repeat this on a daily basis, often reciting it while looking at ourselves in a mirror and imagining how we’d feel if we were rich and successful. But what if our underlying belief conflicts with this affirmation? What if, at some level, we don’t believe we deserve – or want – money?
Liam’s money
Here’s an example. Liam lost his father when he was 26 years old; they had been very close. His mother had passed away when he was just five years old, and Liam was now devastated at the loss of his sole parent. The proceeds from the sale of his father’s home were then divided between him and his brother, Patrick. Liam was not wealthy – he earned a modest wage – and willingly accepted the money from the house proceeds.
But this is what happened next. Liam immediately spent £35,000 on home improvements. He and his wife, Sarah, had been trying to sell their house for 18 months in a slow market, and Liam believed this would make it saleable. It was way more than they needed to spend, but he insisted. Why spend so much on a house they were going to leave, Sarah asked?
A friend Liam worked with needed a heart operation. She would have to wait eight months for surgery, until Liam offered her £9,000 so she could have her operation within weeks.
Another friend ran a breast cancer charity. He donated £5,000.
He spent £10,000 on a better car, but sold it within three months. He didn’t like the steering.
And then all the inheritance money was gone. When their house finally sold, its price had only increased by a fraction of the value of the improvements.
Looking back on that period of his life, Liam reflected: ‘How could I have spent that money on myself? It was Dad’s money … It somehow didn’t feel right.’
Sarah added: ‘That money was contaminated for him, so he took no pleasure in it. He maybe had the feeling it was right to suffer emotionally and financially – not to benefit. So, in effect, he gave it away.’
Liam’s grief over his father got expressed through money – he got rid of it as quickly as he could, making sure not to purchase anything he would have to live with long-term. A subconscious money programme was running the show, not his conscious mind, which knew, logically, that the money should be spent first to help himself and his family (with donations secondary). This was how he consciously chose to spend his inheritance. But his true beliefs about what the legacy money meant showed up in his actions. He made decisions about spending from a place outside of his immediate conscious awareness.
So how did Liam’s actions get ahead of his conscious decision not to spend