WORDS FROM AETHER CANDACE
How I Changed My Life With a Sharpie and a Water Bottle
A few years back, I was in one of the most unfortunate situations of my life. I picked up the pieces from a separation worthy of a Netflix/Showtime Documentary and Drama series and put my new life together. I had to use the techniques and talks I used with my clients to help me get back on track and achieve my goals.
I’m a go-getter and a fixer, but what needed to be fixed couldn’t happen overnight or even within a few months. There were so many circumstances happening to me at once that would break most people. The discouragement lowered my vibrational frequency, and I could feel it. My thoughts became fear-based, and worries crept in: Will I remain stagnant? Is my progress reversing? Will I ever get where I needed to be?
At this point in my life, I’d had enough experience with manifesting my desires by working my way out of my misery and reversing my downward spirals. For me, the key to getting back on track was to remember to pull out my umbrella in the middle of a storm - to figuratively find shelter within my mind from the rain it created. This state of mind has a 5 of Pentacles card vibe - cold and wounded people snowed on while standing right outside of the shelter. All they needed to do was to go inside to escape their discomfort. The level of manifestation required to pull off these elephant goals required a fertile brain space, and I’m going to share with you how I created it.
The Assessment - Gratitude, Memories, and Goals
We are powerful beings, and sometimes we need reminders to release our power, especially in the dark night of the soul. I knew my goals. They were blaring at me in the middle of the “dark night.” Keeping my head up to avoid discouragement was the problem. Because I was at one of the lowest points in my life, I started surrounding myself with items that reminded me of who I was at my best and things that made me smile, laugh, or made my heart feel light.
My perception of my support system at the time was shaky. Prior events left me with many wounds in my back, and I wasn’t sure who I could trust or who was safe to confide. I kept to myself and had to be strong enough to move forward without a pep squad.
Giving myself an accurate self-assessment was vital. If I wanted to make this brain space fertile enough to grow the necessary fruits, I had to have an actual lay of the land. I created a straight-to-the-point assessment based on three topics - Gratitude, Memories, and Goals.
Gratitude
It’s easy to mention gratitude and say, “Name 5 things you are grateful for,” and pull anything out of your behind, but this level of appreciation requires us to think. Can we be grateful for what we showed up in the world with? Try it. You can’t mention anything of the material world. Imagine you are naked and alone in the dark. Name the top 5 things that give you gratitude.
Memories
The Memories section can be the most difficult. When I was going through my dark night of the soul, I was also uncovering so many untruths around the people I trusted and held most dear. I was questioning myself, replaying situations to figure them out, and deciphering who was authentic in my life. Finding happy memories was feeling like a muddy uphill struggle while wearing flip-flops in the rain. The bypass for me was to respect and honor myself in the situations. To avoid breakdowns and allow space for a clearer future, I had to:
- Embrace and love myself for being genuine
- Understand that I have no control over how other people choose to show up in the world
- Have gratitude for the lessons learned
No matter what you know to be true today. List five past situations where you were at your happiest.
Goals
Of the three parts of this assessment, setting goals was the easiest for me. This is just expressing what you want or where/how you want to be. There has to be an aim and direction with this section. It’s okay to write your goals as a brainstorm, but before this section can be considered complete, it is necessary to put them in a realistic order. List the top 5 goals in order of priority.
The Numerology of 5
I chose the number 5 because it represents change. Five is about getting out of the routine and mundane and tuning yourself to taking on a new adventure. Adventures are not always about skydiving, going on blind dates, or trying foreign foods. Adventures are also about taking a step into the unknown and new emotionally. You are now taking five actions, and you are going places.
If we were to add all three sections together, we would get 15. In numerology, you would separate the two digits and add them together (1+5=6). Six represents unconditional love, stability, healing, victory, and success.
The Results as a Morning Ritual
The assessment results became the foundation of my morning ritual. In ideal circumstances, I would write these lists on paper and tape them to your mirror and say them aloud every morning. Unfortunately, that wasn’t an option for me, so I typed the lists on Google Keep and set a daily morning reminder. When I received the reminder, I took slow deep breaths and recited the lists as “I AM” statements into a mirror. These aren’t the same statements I used, but here are some examples to get you started.
Gratitude
- I am so grateful for my ability to breathe on my own.
- I am so grateful to be able to touch and feel.
- I am so grateful to be able to stretch and move.
- I am so grateful to be able to think.
- I am so grateful to be able to hear/see.
Memories
- I am so happy I finished writing my book.
- I am so happy for the moment my daughter looked up at me after her birth.
- I am so happy _______ has always been there when I needed them.
- I am so happy about my breakthrough at ______.
- I am so happy I accomplished ________.
Goals
- I am happy.
- I am healthy.
- I am wealthy.
- I am loved.
- I am at peace.
This ritual was great for elevating my vibrational frequency and aligning me with my goals. These actions were a quick ride to a better mood, but I needed more than a better mood with these significant goals to achieve. I needed to take more considerable strides towards my goals. Keeping the reminders of my power in my line of sight sparked my next set of actions that you can easily use. I wasn’t in an environment where I could openly use my magickal tools; however, here’s how I made it work for me.
What is an Enchantment?
noun: enchantment; plural noun: enchantments
- a feeling of great pleasure; delight
- the state of being under a spell; magic
I started surrounding myself with enchantments to keep me on track - items I created to put myself under a success spell. They positively triggered me and reminded me to stay on track and re-engage my power when I allowed my emotions, circumstances, and surroundings to pull me down. Enchantments can be used to trigger a part of your subconscious to stay on course. When we hear the word trigger, we think of negative things. Yes, triggers are associated with violent death, and people use the term to reference remembering negative emotions or memories. However, it also means its opposite. It meant exactly what I needed and what we all can use to get out of a funk as a verb.
Trigger - “verb: cause (an event or situation) to happen or exist,” Oxford Dictionary.
Why not cause something intentionally good and in my favor? Creating a positive outcome and getting into the right mind frame to manifest the solutions to fix my life is what I needed to happen. I made an enchantment to positively trigger me to snap out of the negative vibes that came through. This subconscious reminder helped me pick up a figurative umbrella to escape the storms of my mind without me having to even think about it.
Enchanted Water Bottle Ritual
For this enchantment, I used four items:
- A bottle of water
- A Sharpie
- Desire/Goal
- The most valuable piece of all - a positive and happy state of mind
The bottle of water and sharpie were easy to come by. I was in the middle of sadness, so the positive state of mind took work. To manifest or enchant anything, I choose from an assortment of actions to lift my vibration. My go-to choice in most instances were funny YouTube videos - usually standup comedy clips from Comedy Central, 85 South Show, Dave Chappelle, Roy Wood Jr., or Trevor Noah. But in this particular instance, I could not do this because where I needed the lift the most was at my job. They gave the employees an unlimited amount of bottled waters and Sharpies, but watching YouTube videos was not an option. So I had to open my Google Keep app to reconnect with the energy of the lists I created.
Saying my lists into the mirror helped, but here are some other actions that I used and that you can use to think about and to access a higher vibration. You can do the same by:
- Listening to your favorite songs
- Thinking about and remembering people who genuinely love you
- Watching or listening to comedy skits and standups
- Remembering funny personal moments
- Getting still and thinking about every cell, breath, and muscle movement’s role in blessing your life
I often use these options before meditation to make sure I can focus. It’s easier for me to start meditation in a neutral or happy state of mind instead of an agitated or sad state of mind. Reflect on how you can do all of this without anyone knowing. You are moving mountains on the inside, and you could just be sitting at your desk or standing at your work table. No one will know. ;)
Back to the flow - After moving emotional mountains and getting myself to a happy and confident place, I thought about my goals and simplified them from I AM statements to single words that represented each goal.
At the time in question, I was pregnant with my 3rd child and in an unfortunate situation. I experienced a new pain in my body that I had never experienced with my previous pregnancies. I could have easily fallen into a familiar miserable space, but I knew I needed to do something to fix my life for my family. I chose three adjectives to help me. I wanted to be HAPPY to continue to manifest the goals I had beyond my current situation. The following adjective was HEALTHY. Being pregnant can be quite scary, but having unfamiliar pain in the pregnancy made me scared for myself and my baby. WEALTHY was my third word. Much of my unfortunate situation was based on finances, but notice how I didn’t make that adjective my first choice. My state of mind was impacting my money, and happiness was my first choice.
Now it was time for me to start the process. I held on to the bottle and said, “With every sip, I am happier, healthier, and wealthier.” I then wrote, “Happy Healthy Wealthy Potion” on a bottle of water with a Sharpie. So with every sip, I visualize what my life would be like as a happier, healthier, and wealthier person. Every sip triggers a visualization. My visualizations aren’t just with my physical eyes; they are whole-body experiences. I do not only see what happier, healthier, and wealthier looks like; I’m feeling it emotionally, smelling it, living how I want to live, and surrounding myself with who I want to be around. I’m turning a bottle of water and a sharpie into Calgon.
wATER bOTTLE AND sHARPIE RESULTS
I had a checklist of heavy goals coming from a place that would break most, but my enchantment worked. Every bottle of water kept me focused, and I never gave up. Yes - I’m sure my coworkers thought I was a little weird. No matter where I’ve worked in the past, most do, but does it even matter in the grand scheme of life? No. It’s my responsibility to improve my life, so why would I care what anyone else thinks?
Under this enchantment, I made the following accomplishments:
- I got the right job to help me level-up financially
- I fixed my credit
- I got a car I had wanted almost a decade prior
- I was instantly approved for the best townhouse for my family
- I had all of my babies under one roof again
- The wrong people from my previous life kept their distance
- I married the father of my 3rd child
- I was embraced with a level of in-law love I have never seen before
- My physical pain went away
- My baby was born healthy
- My blood pressure went down, and I no longer needed medicine
- Hard and painful truths were revealed
- The best therapist for me and my life experiences helped me heal
- My BEST clients for my marketing company came back around
- I set up my Cloud 9.5 business the way I have always dreamed
- The perfect people came into my life to:
- Push me to be my best when I wanted to quit
- To listen
- To provide support
- To inspire me
- To watch my kids when I needed to time to decompress
- To motivate me to release weight
Enchanted Drinkware
I created a line of enchanted products meant to trigger your positive thoughts, to put you in the state of mind you desire, or to remind you to get into alignment with your goals - even when you forget to write on your water bottle. T-shirts with words and statements are lovely, but the message faces outward unless you are standing in the mirror. Most of us can’t do that all day, but we do need to stay hydrated, sip tea and get caffeinated from time to time.
So let’s face our goals and stay mentally hydrated while we drink. The Cloud 9.5 Enchanted Drinkware was designed to face you in your everyday life.
Enchanted Drinkware
