I wake up tired. I didn’t sleep well. In fact, I haven’t been sleeping well for days, perhaps even weeks. I really just want to fall back to sleep. I whine a little.

“I didn’t sleep all night!” I complain.

Suddenly I switch my thoughts. I remember a dream someone sent to me yesterday. A dream that came through in great clarity because the dreamer asked for something specific, “to go into the darkness.” With no greater intent than to learn something about the self, the dreamer had an experience that can only be described as magical. The dreamer did experience the personal darkness, but went far beyond that into experiencing the creation of the universe. The dreamer returned having experienced awe. And I remember how that works, how we get what we ask for, how we do in fact make our own dreams, waking or sleeping, by our intent. We don’t have to accept the reality we wake up to. We can change it.

Then I remember that I set the intent, quite a few years ago, to learn how to read energy. Now I find myself in a place where I read energy all the time. I’m steeped in it! I’ve been having experiences, in both my intimate world and the world at large, for quite a while now. I’ve been practicing, testing, and noting that I’m reading energy, but lately I’ve noticed that it’s getting a bit overwhelming. Time to change my reality!

Without rejecting what I’ve learned, but taking it to a new level, I say: “Okay, so I’ve learned to read energy. I’ve taught myself how to feel, how to energetically be open and accessible, but now I find that I need something different. I can’t spend my days caught up in the restlessness of our times, it’s too energy draining. I want a new calmer reality.”

This is where I find myself this morning. As I think back over the past several months, I realize I haven’t been sleeping well for a long time. I set the intent to be “in tune” and I became so tuned-in that I’m beginning to suffer the consequences of that intent. I must stop and remember that we get what we ask for. The thing about asking is to remember that how we receive is not up to us. Gifts from the universe come as the universe sees fit.

“Is that really what you want, Jan? Okay, here goes!” and the universe let me have it, but today I’m asking for a change.

“Thank you, but no thank you!” I got what I asked for, but I must not forget the far greater intent of the universe, and myself as a human being, is to evolve. The greater intent of the universe and of nature is to push us to a new level of higher consciousness.

I accept that my personal intent really is in alignment with that greater universal intent to evolve and so I know I must return to balance. I must stay connected to my personal intent to change without getting too drawn into what is happening outside of me. These have been the messages from infinity lately too: to learn from what is happening outside, take it inward, work it to change the self and allow that changed self to react outwardly in a new way. It’s a nice cycle of energy at work, change manifesting change. As I ponder this—both the fact that I originally asked to be connected to the universal energy and that by personally changing myself I impact everything else—I reset my thoughts for the day.

I intend to have a great day! I intend to create a new reality. I shift my thoughts. I’m not tired at all! I’m full of energy!

If we truly do believe that we get what we ask for we have to remember, each day, just what it is that we’re setting in place. Do we ask consciously for a new reality or do we unconsciously accept what comes? At 5:41 a.m., after a moment of complaint that just didn’t feel creative or in alignment with growth, I decided to approach the day differently. I decided to actively create a new personal reality. In so doing I proved that it’s possible because now, as I sit and write this blog, my energy is full of vigorous creative force. By my intent alone, I changed my personal reality.

I am a totally different person from the one who woke up a few hours ago and complained so sleepily that life wasn’t fair. Life is more than fair! It just depends on how we look at it, how we perceive it, how we intend it.

In addition, how we ask for something matters. As my dreamer noted, the intent was set to face the darkness, but it was left open-ended, allowing the universe to lead the dreamer to something important. And the universe answered in a big way. The next thing for my dreamer and for all of us to keep in mind, is that, yes, we must remember our experiences of awe, but we must also remember how it all came about. We must remember that we are in charge, that we impact our reality—we create it!

May we all keep intending, dreaming, and creating new realities. —Jan, with special thanks to my dreamer for sharing!