A few weeks ago I wrote about setting my intention to take swimming classes and within a couple of weeks I took an incredible week-long swimming class.  It's pretty darn cool to see the law of attraction at work.  

I promised to write about my previous experience with the law of attraction, the one that brought Hudson to me, so here goes.  

Two-and-a-half years ago I was single and I had just quit my job at a top law firm to pursue my passion as a life coach, and to have more freedom in my life, something I pretty much gave up once I started practicing law.  Practicing law at a top law firm and being single without kids seems to goes hand-in-hand.  

After I left the firm I started my life coach training program with Martha Beck and one of our exercises was to write an 'end game'.  Start at the end, where you want to be, describe your ideal life, set your intentions and you will attract more of what you want into your life.  It happens.  Usually without even thinking about it.  This isn't like "The Secret" where you essentially make a dream board with a picture of that new Mercedes you've always wanted along with the fifteen-bedroom house on the ocean and then expect that they'll just appear in your life.  No, that's not what this is about.  This is about really getting clear about what it is that you want from your life, setting your intention on having that and then acting as if you already have it.  

When I wrote out my end game in Martha's training I happened to be on a 10-day-mini 'Eat, Pray, Love' retreat that I gave myself on the big island of Hawaii.  I was single at the time, but I had a pretty clear picture of what I wanted.  We were told to write it as if it were three years later, or April 11, 2011.  Here's a snipit from my end game:

"On April 11, 2011 I am 38 years old. On this day, as with all days to come, I will wake up whenever the sun rises and shines into my bedroom window. I will start each “work” day at 10:00 after I’ve exercised, meditated, had a nice breakfast and have given myself 15 minutes of doing nothing. 

My workspace is attached to my home, which is on the ocean in Encinitas, California. My workspace is on the top floor with floor to ceiling windows looking out over the ocean. The windows open slightly to faintly hear the sounds of the ocean.  There are pictures of all of the places I’ve traveled in the frames, as well as family pictures, including pictures of my husband and one-year old baby."  
Now, for those of you who don't know me ... next April 2011 my baby Hudson will be just over one-year-old.  I now live in a condo overlooking the bay, with floor-to-ceiling windows and the sun shines in each morning waking me up.  My office is in my home and it's overlooking the bay.  Granted, it's not the ocean, but the bay feeds into the ocean and it's pretty darn close.  I am not married, but I guess April is still five months away, right?!  ; ) 

While the universe was busy shifting around to create my reality I had completely forgotten about my end game.  I hadn't looked at it since I wrote it out until two years later, after Hudson was born.  My jaw dropped.  I had to re-read it a few times.  It was sort of like the moment the pregnancy test said "Pregnant".  I was in disbelief.  I have the life I wrote about.  Wow, that was easy.  And ... I became a believer.  A believer in setting intentions and the law of attraction.  

So what are you waiting for?  Go write your end game - compose your life.  Pick a date in the future, one year, three years, five years, whatever and write your ideal day as if it were already that date.  Describe your life in as much detail and take it one step further than I did - print it out and tape it to your bathroom mirror.  Or above your bed on your ceiling, I don't care.  Just paste it somewhere where you will see it every day.  Or, if you're brave enough, copy it into a comment right below this post!  REALLY put it out to the universe.  What do you have to lose?  C'mon, click copy and paste.  And presto - see what happens. 

About a year ago Jamie gave me a gift of piano lessons to take whenever I wanted.  Or, whenever I made time.  I still haven't made the time.  But, about a month ago I told him that I have changed my mind, and I wanted to trade in my piano lessons for swim lessons.  I don't know how to swim.  I know how to get myself from one end of the pool to the other without drowning, but I've never learned *how* to swim.  Watching me swim is painful to any onlooker.  It's about as entertaining to watch as it is watching Jamie snowboard down the mountain.  Flailing arms and legs, completely out of control and barely staying afloat.  

About two weeks ago I was telling a girlfriend how much Hudson loves his swim class, and how I would really like to take swim lessons and become a strong swimmer.  About one week ago, Jamie was given an opportunity to take a Total Immersion intensive swim course this week in Coronado, (http://www.totalimmersion.net/), but he has to work, so I get to take the course in his place.  Lucky me!  I got what I asked for in less than one month's time; not a bad turn-around time.  And I don't believe it had anything to do with "luck".  I set my intention on swimming lessons, and I put it out to the universe.  

This is not the first time I've set an intention and then watched it pop up in my life.  (Stay tuned for part two of setting your intentions for the most amazing story of getting exactly what I asked for).  The universe is filled with energy, and when you set an intention and hold it in your mind, that energy moves you in the direction that you want to go.  I know, some of you are thinking - energy, c'mon?!  Don't take my word for it, give it a try. Set an intention for something small, but something you don't see showing up in your life every day.  A ladybug, or a purple ball.  Be as specific as you can and then hold your intention in your mind until you see it.  Keep your eyes open, you've likely already seen it, but we're rarely present enough in the moment to really see what our eyes are looking at.   

As a new mom, my eyes are not only always on Hudson, but my thoughts are as well.  It's sometimes hard to even know what it is that I want anymore, much less to ask for it. I often get wrapped up in Hudson's world and my new life of being a mom that I forget what I, Michelle Mitchell, wants or enjoys outside of being a mom.  My swim lessons are Monday through Friday this week and it's really the first time I've done something completely for myself in nine months.  It feels great to be checking back in to my needs and wants for a change.  

It's far too easy to get fully wrapped up into my baby's world, which is why I have to pencil in time to ask myself what brings me joy  and then set my intentions accordingly.  Just as I've said in prior blogs, I know that I am a much better mommy when I do things for myself and enjoy life as an adult!  Hudson completely approves of mommy taking care of herself so that she can show up more fully when she spends time with him.