Crack – click – snap.
“Hmmm.”
Every single morning and evening, for at least a couple years, I’d done a standing meditation. And several months before I got my sign-spinning job, I noticed something interesting:
My spine would creak and crack as if I were getting a chiropractic adjustment.
And the cracks would occur around my pelvis, right at the root of my spine.
Things became more interesting as I began my job and noticed the movements I made while outside also cracked my spine. A lot. Sometimes hundreds of times per day.
Then, as the weeks went by, I noticed something else:
Over time… the cracks began to inch their way up my spinal cord.
Very slowly.
To be clear, I mean that the cracks, at any given moment, were isolated to one level of my spine. However, from week to week and month to month, the level experiencing the cracks would crawl higher and higher up my spine.
Almost as if things were loosening and aligning, ever so slowly, as I meditated and developed myself. Kinks being worked out.
One morning before driving to my new job, I wondered while meditating:
“What’s going to happen when the cracking gets to the top of my spine?”
An answer popped into my head: My financial situation would completely transform for the better.
That sounded pretty good. Of course, I had no way of knowing if that were true, or some fanciful idea concocted to satisfy my desire for more money, and for my meditating to have significance. But I was determined to find out.
So throughout my day, as I stood outside, I’d gently move in ways to turn my spine, frequently inspiring a creak here and a snap there. I’d pump my arms as if trying to elbow someone behind me. Sometimes, just moving around my sign was enough. In fact, the workout I got from waving that sign alone (it probably weighed a little over five pounds) transformed my body.
I had a feeling this would enhance the flow of subtle energy through my body, especially my microcosmic orbit. And this, in turn, would enhance my ability to manifest what I wanted.
I certainly hoped this would work.
For over a decade I’d been stymied by something, which had intensified into an all-consuming obsession:
Why is it that I could take massive action, do all the “right” things… and still not get the results I wanted?
It seemed every self-help book I’d ever read or guru I’d learned from, had an endless supply of tips, tricks, and strategies designed to motivate, organize, focus, clarify, and inspire people.
…Ummm…so what if I’ve already got all that in spades and my life still sucks because none of it actually helps me get what I want?
This barely-contained desperation lead me to study the mind, visualization, and then eventually Taoist meditation. The idea being, the meditations could put the necessary “juice” behind everything else I was doing on a conscious level. Or, unfuck me at a level that my conscious efforts couldn’t heal alone. Or both.
This spine-cracking seemed like a physical and very literal, linear, example of that healing process.
The exciting results I achieved in the advertising realm occurred when the cracks were still quite low on my spine. At this point, I don’t believe I had concocted my theory about the loosening and aligning of my spine, but that didn’t stop life from validating it.
I spent more money on the same advertising source, always making sure to test out two different campaigns to see which one would perform better. I’d keep the winner and “fire” the loser. Almost every single time, I was able to create a better ad.
There was just one problem:
My overall results kept sinking.
This wasn’t too surprising. If you keep fishing in the same small pond, you run the risk of overfishing. I realized I had to expand my scope.
So I tested advertising on other websites. This is where the heartbreaking cycle began. And I used that word deliberately when describing my results: Good results come when your ad makes enough profit. Bad results come when it completely fails and you have to completely revamp things. “Heartbreaking” results come when you’re so close to a winner you can taste it… but you can’t quite reach it.
When it came to business, that was the story of my adult life.
There were scorching summer days when I’d be outside all day waving my sign, my MP3 player cranked up to songs like U2’s Red Hill Mining Town, trying to distract myself from the $1400 (more than a month’s pay) ad campaign launching that day…
…only to come home and watch as I brought in some money, but not enough to declare it a winner, like the first breakthrough I had.
During this time, I subscribed to a marketing newsletter written by a man who’d been through financial and personal challenges far greater than mine.
He’d been homeless, almost murdered on many occasions, bankrupt, and went on to become a millionaire
And unlike so many fake-gurus hustling their wares, this guy had actually “been there and done that.”
As I read his back issues and listened to recordings of teleseminars he’d done, I realized a way I could introduce myself to him personally.
Next, I’ll describe the unusual way I got this man’s attention and went from anonymous reader to student to colleague and friend. In fact, this man would eventually deliver me a career breakthrough that I didn’t see coming in a million years.
But before I go, I want to add something even though it’s a bit of a spoiler. It has to do with what happened when my spine-cracking reached just under my occiput:
I went through a rough transition to a new career, completely transforming my financial life for the better. So it would appear my theory held water. Or at least my belief that it did, made it true. Or maybe it’s a coincidence.
Anyway…
The shifting of my spine hasn’t stopped
Now it’s back to my hips again. For many months now, I’ve felt how my hips and shoulders are out of alignment and are sort of drawn inward, and are now finally unwinding and expanding.
I’m wondering if, at the end of this process, my life will transform in a more profound way. Perhaps a new direction in my business. Or meeting the woman of my dreams. So, much like my financial life transformed once my spine relaxed and aligned in a certain way, some other part of my life will – once my hips and shoulders relax and align as well.
We’ll see.
And you can bet I’m doing plenty of stances, stretches, and meditations to assist the process.
