The Truth about Your Thoughts, Words, and Actions
Harnessing the Power of Your Thoughts. A true story imitates a fictional story, illustrating a life lesson about the power of our thoughts, words, and actions.
I had written a different article for today, initially. Then I ended up in the emergency room Saturday night due to a peanut allergy. Who knew a Mexican restaurant would serve peanuts in an enchilada? As doctors and nurses graciously protected me from anaphylactic shock (they are truly the silent heroes in our lives), I thought about the message this experience held for me. Since I believe that we are guided, I trusted that this experience held meaning. Certainly, it allowed me to practice “Thinking Like a Soul” (the message of my article last Friday), but I also knew the message was more than that.
As I contemplated spiritual guidance in the emergency room, I kept thinking about my book, The Magic Mala. It’s a fictional story that depicts what I learned about life while investigating the afterlife. In that book, I wrote about the main character, Robby, having a peanut allergy. This chapter was based on my own experiences rushing to the ER when I was younger, basically documenting actual details of what that life-threatening crisis can be like. This then had me thinking about the most popular chapter of that book, Chapter Four, where the main character, Robby, meets a person who alters the trajectory of his life.
This is the scene where Tru shows up, an energetic and bubbly character who I thought of as a spirit guide to Robby. This is the first of only two scenes where Tru makes an appearance, yet she turned out to be a favorite character of many readers.
Because of my hospital experience coupled with my thoughts about spiritual guidance, I decided to share with you the meaningful message taught by Tru in this chapter. Even if you’ve read the book, I believe this noteworthy story is deserving of a second look, especially when separated from the rest of the book.
To set up the story, Robby is going through challenging times financially. In his desperation, he’s considering using his father’s mala (prayer beads) that he found in his attic to help his situation. I think of Tru as a spirit guide because she inspires Robby to appreciate the mala due to her enthusiasm and the information she teaches him about malas. In my mind, Robby’s skepticism might have spoiled and subsequently terminated his experiment with the mala if not for Tru’s influence.
In this scene, Robby’s in a library reading a little booklet called the mala manual that was with the mala when he found it. Robby found a table in the Anthropology section and pulled out the manual to begin reading it. Thus begins the story as he begins reading this passage.
Traditionally, the proper way to hold a mala is with your right hand. Beginning with the first bead, pull each bead toward you, one at a time, with your thumb and index finger.
Checking that no one was nearby, Robby pulled the mala beads out of his pocket and tried following the instructions. It took a bit of effort and concentration, but he soon got the hang of moving from bead to bead using just his thumb and index finger. He continued reading.
There are 108 beads plus one extra bead commonly known as the “guru” bead that indicates the beginning and end point of the mala. The significance of the number 108 is that the 1 signifies the Creator and higher truth, the 0 signifies emptiness or the space between our thoughts and breaths, and the 8 signifies infinity, timelessness, and eternity.
Begin by setting an intention for your mala session. What do you wish to communicate to your higher power? Do you wish to communicate an object or outcome you would like to create or attract into your life?
There was a tiny pencil on the table, like the ones golfers use, alongside a sheet of blank paper from the copy machine. Robby turned the sheet of paper over and used the pencil to write his intention on it. He wrote: “I would like to attract more money into my life.” He then read more of the manual.
Turn this intention into a brief mantra, usually only a few words long, which you will use to represent your intention.
Under his intention, Robby wrote:: “Money comes easily to me.” He liked his mantra and thought, I’m good at this. Then he continued reading the manual.
There are many Buddhist and Hindu mantras that you can memorize that have been used for thousands of years. What’s important is that you understand their intentions even if you don’t know the meaning of every word.
The language of Sanskrit is based more on energy than meaning, so each word carries an energy vibration. Therefore, each word grows in power as it vibrates from your vocal cords, attracting to you a frequency match that you project outwardly as you speak it. Here’s a popular Hindu abundance mantra in the Sanskrit language.
Om Shrim Maha Lakshmiyei Swaha.
It is pronounced: Om Shreem maah-hah lahk-shmee-yay swah-hah.
Om is how every mantra begins. Shrim is the seed sound for abundance. Maha means “great,” and in this case it means “a lot of abundance.” Lakshmi is the goddess of abundance and receiving. The “yei” is an activating sound, so chanting “Lakshmi-yei” activates the Lakshmi within us. And swahais like maha but signifies respect, so it means “the Great One” in reference to Lakshmi.
Ultimately the mantra means you are showing deep respect to the goddess of abundance, Lakshmi, for the great quantity of abundance she has sent your way.
Robby liked the idea of using an ancient mantra for abundance. He thought it might have a greater impact because of its powerful energy vibration. It must work because it has been around for thousands of years, Robby thought, then pondered, would people keep using it if it wasn’t effective?
He decided he would use this mantra instead of the one he himself created to begin his mala practice. He liked the way it rolled off his tongue. Although he still felt slightly skeptical, he was desperate enough to open his mind to new possibilities. He continued reading.
Now say your mantra aloud while thinking about its intention for every one of the 108 beads of your mala. In this way, you are repeating and contemplating your intention 108 times, which will take you approximately ten minutes each session, give or take a few minutes.
This exercise is a powerful method for communicating your desires to Creative Intelligence. Few people take the time to do this. Imagine doing this exercise twice daily. Imagine how much creative power twenty-plus minutes of intention setting a day will accomplish.
As he read further in the manual, Robby suddenly became aware of somebody sitting directly across the table from him, a petite blond woman just a little younger than he, and she was staring right at him. He couldn’t ignore the energy of her gaze, so he looked up from reading his mala manual. The woman’s entire face was smiling: her lips, her cheeks, her eyes, her nose, and even her ears seemed to beam with joy. She appeared to have no discomfort staring at a stranger and interrupting his reading.
“I love mala beads,” she began with no formal introduction. She appeared happy and vital and spoke very quickly. “I’ve been using mala beads since I was eight.”
Robby realized his mala was in plain sight. It’s like having dog treats at the park, he thought. She must have been drawn to it from across the room.
“I have seven. My first one is made of red jasper. My second one, which was a gift, is tiger’s eye. My third one I saw at a store and just had to have it. That one is citrine. I won my fourth mala, which has jade beads, in a raffle. My fifth one is aquamarine. My sixth one is amethyst. And my seventh one I just bought yesterday. It’s clear quartz. Every time I grow personally and spiritually, I find myself acquiring a new mala. I love yours. It’s lapis, right?”
Robby was slightly resentful of the disturbance, but the young woman’s enthusiasm was infectious. She seemed so happy that he had a mala that he didn’t want to ruin it for her.
“Umm, yes, lapis, I guess. It used to be my father’s. I just found it in the attic.”
“So it’s yours now,” she interrupted. “It adopted you.”
“Yeah, that’s exactly what my father said.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t even introduce myself. I got excited seeing you with your mala. My name is Tru.”
“Tru as in Trudy?”
“No, Tru as in Truth,” she said. Then she rambled, “My parents were sort of hippies. They named me Truth, but people call me Tru. My younger sister is named Freedom. We call her Free. And my older brother is named Alchemy. We just call him Al.”
The last abbreviation made them both laugh.
“That’s kind of cool. I’m Robert, but people call me Robby.”
“Nice to meet you, Robby. Is this your first mala?”
“Yeah. I just found it this morning,” he said shyly.
“I’m so excited for you. My malas have completely changed my life—for the better, of course. They’ve taught me that I’m always guided.”
“Guided?”
“Sure, by my spiritual guides. Or you might call them guardian angels. I like to talk a lot. You probably noticed.” She giggled. “So when nobody is around, I know I can talk to my spirit guides—my guardian angels—who I believe work with God. I know they hear me. My malas taught me that.”
“I’ve never been religious,” said Robby. “My mother was. Tell me, how do you know your guides hear you?” Although he didn’t believe in fanciful beings like angels and spirit guides, he was curious how she would answer. He had often teased his wife for holding similar beliefs.
“Because they answer me, silly! I ask for guidance and they always give it to me, usually through my intuition. There are other ways, but my intuition is pretty strong. It got a lot stronger after I began working with a mala.”
Tru continued talking even though Robby didn’t respond. He really didn’t have an opportunity to speak.
“You don’t have to talk out loud like I do for your guides to respond. I only talk out loud to my guides when I’m alone. Still, everyone is talking with their spiritual guides all the time with just their thoughts, which is why we all have to be super careful about what we think. Did you know every thought sends out a signal that God responds to in kind?”
“I’m not sure I understand,” admitted Robby.
“We’re sort of like magnets that attract whatever we think about. So if you think happy thoughts, you’ll attract happy people and circumstances into your life. If you think unhappy thoughts, you’ll attract unhappy people and circumstances into your life.”
Robby reflected that his father often said things like this about attraction, but he had never paid attention. Maybe there was something to it. He considered the idea of the mind being a magnetic beacon attracting whatever it was thinking about. If that was in fact the case, he would need to be more careful.
“Is that true, Tru?” Robby realized he’d said “true-Tru” and found it amusing. Tru didn’t seem to notice. She was probably used to it.
“Uh-huh, totally. Most people complain about their troubles or talk to others about what worries them most of the time, which communicates to God that this is what they wish to expand upon in their lives. Anything we focus upon expands. So it’s best to focus on what we want rather than what we don’t want in our lives.”
“What we focus upon expands?”
“It sure does. Some people think about what they want but then follow that thought up with an opposing thought that they are undeserving of it or not lucky enough to have it.”
“I do that sometimes,” Robby admitted.
“Or they express thoughts of disbelief that they can attract such outcomes into their lives. If we communicate what we want, but then spend equal time communicating why we won’t get it, the negative communication cancels out the positive one. This is why the power of your belief plays such a big role in attraction.”
Robby wasn’t sure what to think of this fast-talking young woman exploding with enthusiasm, but everything she said strongly resonated with him. He knew that he was the type of person who held thoughts of worry and fear in his mind more than positive thoughts of hope and optimism, especially lately. Because his life wasn’t going so great, he’d been worrying a lot more in the last month or two.
He also knew he was the kind of person who would follow up a positive thought with something negative like, That never happens to me or I’m never lucky like that. He was amazed how much this stranger was speaking directly to him as if she could see inside of him. He remained silent and kept listening.
Tru picked up Robby’s mala and looked at it while she talked. “The mala is an awesome tool for teaching us how to think more consciously. It gives you the opportunity to repeat your desires for divine creation 108 times without allowing space or time for opposing thoughts. By repeating your mantra over and over again, there’s no time or space in your mind for anything other than thoughts of your desired intention. And if you do this twice a day—morning and night—you have just doubled the power that the mala grants you. It’s a great way to begin and end your day.”
Tru handed the lapis mala back to Robby, and he stared at it with amazement as she continued. “The Universe does not know the difference between positive and negative, good or bad. It only knows how to respond to the energy frequency that you send it. Your thoughts are energy that vibrate at a specific frequency. Every thought holds a different frequency. And when you speak your thoughts out loud, the sound of your voice gives it more power energetically.”
Robby thought about the sound of Tru’s voice as she kept talking. There was something unusual about it. It was like it had a musical tone to it, almost like the sound of wind chimes touching.
“God sends you a frequency match to whatever you have requested in your thoughts,” she said. “Think of wealth, and God delivers wealth. Think of financial struggle, and God delivers financial struggle. Think of health, love, joy, loneliness, or sadness, and that is exactly what will be delivered to you.”
Robby remembered a time when he was angry about something a client had said on the telephone and then he’d driven to the store immediately after the upsetting phone call. On that trip to the store, he was pulled over by the police for failure to use his turn signal, cut off by a driver who stole his intended parking spot, and a nasty cashier got impatient with him when he used coins to pay for milk. And that wasn’t the only time negative events had piled up on him. He had recognized years ago that bad things tended to occur whenever he was in a lousy mood. Now this sprightly woman was explaining why that happened.
Tru was bursting with energy. She was kneeling on the chair and talking with her hands. “Want to know a life-changing secret?” she asked Robby.
“Sure.”
“Not many people know this one. If there are aspects of your life that bring you happiness and pleasure, then send God the signal that you’re grateful for them. Gratitude is one of the most powerful frequencies in the Universe. The best way to do this is to create a mantra of gratitude to use with your mala,” she said.
Tru grabbed Robby’s pencil and paper on the table and began writing on it. “Here’s a powerful mantra you can use. I created it for myself.” She wrote it down as she said it aloud: “Thank you for the blessings.” She looked up at Robby to make sure he was paying attention.
“When you say it, think of a blessing in your life for which you feel grateful. I’ll give you some examples. Say thank you for the blessings and think of your health. Say thank you for the blessings and think of your family. Say thank you for the blessings and think of your home. Say thank you for the blessings and think of your friends. Say thank you for the blessings and think of your writing talent.”
“Wait!” Robby stopped her. “How’d you know I have a talent for writing?”
“Just a hunch. Like I said, my intuition is really strong. Plus, lapis is often the stone of writers or lawyers, and you don’t seem like a lawyer.” She snorted as she laughed.
Robby’s mind was blown away by Tru’s ability to know he was a writer, but her snort made him laugh and distracted him from thinking too deeply about it.
“So while practicing your mala with the gratitude mantra,” said Tru, her whole body squirming from her passion, “you will think of 108 blessings in your life. And by doing this exercise, you are communicating to God—through your spiritual guides, if you prefer—that you want more of these things. It’s like saying, ‘This is what I like in my life, God. Please keep it coming.’ And God will deliver more of every blessing that makes you feel grateful.”
Robby couldn’t deny it. This was all making perfect sense to him. It was almost scientific, like his father had said: “It’s not about luck or what you deserve; it’s about sending out an energetic frequency, which the Universe responds to in kind.”
Robby totally understood what Tru had explained about gratitude too. He knew that when people thanked him for a kind deed he had done for them, their gratitude made him want to do more for them. He had always thought that it was interesting how people’s gratitude toward him made him want to give them more. So why wouldn’t God respond the same way? It made perfect sense.
The librarian walked by and overheard Tru talking. She approached Robby and Tru. “I’m going to have to ask you to lower your voices a little,” she said softly.
They both apologized. When the librarian turned the corner and was out of sight, Tru stood up. “I have to go anyway,” she said in a loud whisper, still not very quietly. “One last thing. If you think, say, or write something negative, something that you are worried about or complaining about, quickly offset that energy frequency by rethinking, restating, or rewriting the thought in the positive.
“And if you act in such a way that conflicts with your intention—such as setting an intention to attract new friends but then refusing to go to a party when you are invited—this is the same as thinking or writing in the negative. Actions are just thoughts in practice. So always make sure your thoughts, words, and actions are in alignment with your intentions.
“And now I really have to go.” Tru started walking away.
Robby noticed she seemed to bounce when she walked. Everything about her seemed light and filled with positive vigor.
“Nice to meet you, Robby!” she said rather loudly as she waved goodbye with both hands.
“Nice to meet you, Truth.”
Robby heard what he’d said again and thought, Truth just gave me a lesson on the mala. He was somewhat freaked out by what had just happened. It almost didn’t feel real. He looked at the paper where Tru had written “Thank you for the blessings,” which confirmed the encounter was real.
So much of everything he was learning made complete sense to Robby despite his skepticism. Like his father said, the mala beads seemed to represent an intersection where science meets spirituality. He decided to commit to a daily practice of using his strand of mala beads with the Sanskrit abundance mantra twice a day for forty days.
Why not? It won’t make things worse, he thought. And maybe this will help my life improve, if even just a little.
He decided to begin the next day. He felt lighter just having made the commitment. He packed up his mala, the manual, and his piece of paper, and left the library to go home to Mary.
End Scene
This ends the scene in The Magic Mala. Towards the end of the book, Robby’s negative thinking spirals out of control until he attracts to himself the peanut allergy. In that emergency room, the doctor gives him epinephrine and a high dose of Benadryl, the latter which puts him to sleep. While sleeping, he has a dream where his deceased mother comes through teaching him the power of his thoughts—the same message Tru shared with him above. Robby realizes that his fears led him to the emergency room and taught him the importance of better self-care.
My own peanut allergy on Saturday night had a similar yet more defined message. As I was lying in the hospital bed, I realized that many of my peanut allergy emergencies in my past coincided with pivotal changes in my work. Here I was, once again, in the ER after announcing only two weeks prior that I’d be focusing on my writing rather than my videos.
Negative thinking often stems from fear. This was true for Robby, and I’m sure it’s true for me. While most of you have cheered and supported my latest announcement (which I sincerely appreciate), I’ve had a few messages from people in the past week saying how much they miss my videos. It’s natural for me to want to please those who appreciate my work. I’m certainly aware that many people enjoyed my videos and podcast. But that medium for teaching no longer serves me. As I said in my announcement, it is writing that makes my heart sing. It took the coming of a new decade (my sixties) to awaken me to this epiphany—the truth.
I suspect the peanut allergy last weekend resulted from my concerns that some fans of my teaching might not support my new commitment. And yet, as I lay in the hospital room in the face of the manifestation of my fearful thinking, my apprehensions were comforted by my inner sense of knowing that this is the best choice for me. And what’s best for me is always going to be better for my audience, because joy brings out the best in everyone’s work.
One of my favorite books, The Art of Extreme Self-Care by Cheryl Richardson, speaks to this subject of honoring what brings us joy. By choosing to do what makes my heart sing, I am being true to myself, which always serves my audience. Doing what’s best for us is always the wise choice. How serendipitous that I was eating out with our dear friends Cheryl and her husband, Michael, at the Mexican restaurant on Saturday night. Cheryl, as it turns out, would make a fine ambulance driver if she ever chooses to change careers herself.
I share with you both Robby’s story as well as my own, trusting that you might recognize moments in your own life where the lessons we learned might resonate with you. I hope you enjoyed meeting Tru and Robby, and I’m pleased that you’re on this new journey with me here on Substack, which I’ve named Bob Olson Connect. I’m grateful as always to you for reading this.
With love,
Bob
Bob Olson is the host of Afterlife TV, author of two books, Answers About The Afterlife and The Magic Mala, and creator of the reputable directory of vetted psychics and mediums, BestPsychicDirectory.com. His newest venture is Bob Olson Connect, a Substack newsletter where you can read his stories, listen to an audio of each article, and ask him questions or share your otherworldly experiences.
Such a gift!!!!