From Abraham through Esther Hicks
The main event has never been the manifestation; the main event has always been the way you feel moment by moment, because that’s what life is.

For many years after he began intersecting with us, this one had no idea what we meant by “Nothing is more important than feeling good”. He’s coming to understand what we mean. This game of Life On Earth was meant to be a joyous adventure, and if that’s the way you want to experience it, your feelings are your infallible guide. Our intent in this chapter is to have you understand your emotions, what causes them and why they are so important, because it turns out that simply feeling good IS the main tent, and everything else is just a sideshow. And we’ll also talk about some processes you can use – ways in which you can simply choose to feel good no matter what.

We’ll start with some simple statements here and then expand on them.
1. You and Your Worlds (physical and spiritual) are illusions.
2. Being illusory doesn’t mean trivial or irrelevant.
3. If you’re having an experience, you’re creating it.
4. Life isn’t serious.
5. When you’re “trying hard”, chances are you’re going backwards.
6. You can’t avoid, on occasion, feeling bad.
7. You can always choose to feel better.
8. Nothing is more important than feeling good. NOTHING.

So ..#1. You and Your Worlds (physical and spiritual) are illusions.
Let’s start by reviewing how you dreamt up this physical game of yours? You made choices about how you want to be and what you want to experience. Those choices created you and the context that always surrounds you. Within that context, you made belief-choices about why you’re here and what’s important to you. You make belief-choices about everything in your experience, and Your Story is constructed entirely from those choices. It’s the story about the physical you and the non-physical you, and it’s the story about the matching version of the worlds that wrap themselves around You.

You’re a consciousness, an intelligent awareness, an extension of the Source of everything. Your intentions and desires create the shape of the conscious you. Like Source, you are time-less and space-less, BUT, it is the chosen beliefs and expectations of that conscious You, that create the illusion of a physical you in a physical space/time world, and also for many of you, the illusion of a spiritual you in a spiritual world. These illusions are your play-space. They are the set of your movie called Life On Earth. For as long as there’s a You, you’re creating yourself (in some shape or other), and the matching realms around you.

#2. Being illusory doesn’t mean trivial or irrelevant.
When we say your world is illusory, we mean there’s nothing about it that’s permanent, or external to you. It’s not a committee decision because it’s not created or maintained by anyone or anything but you. It’s your holodeck, your virtual reality. But that’s not in any way declaring that it’s unimportant. This is your life. Your desires and intentions and choices brought you here. This is your main tent and you’re continuing to choose it and form it, and like the individual frames that make up a movie, the forming of it is a moment by moment creation. It’s the stage on which you are playing your game and having your experiences. And can you see from that, ….

#3. If you’re having an experience, you’re creating it.
Unless you create it, there is no experience. You’re not co-creating with others. You set up this stage of yours, and others come to play on it .. at your invitation, intermittently, sometimes fleetingly, and sometimes indirectly. They play in your movie even as you play intermittently in theirs. We are here playing intermittently in your movie right now, even as you are playing in ours. The versions of us that show up, and the versions of those others that show up match this version of your screenplay, even as the versions of you that show up in theirs, match their screenplay.

There are, of course, an infinity of different versions and Stories, and all of them are equally valid and important. That’s how it is we can promise you that your ability to create whatever you want is not at all constrained by the choices of others. If you can imagine something different, then that version of so-called reality is playing out in another equally valid and important parallel world. But to keep things simple, in this discussion let’s focus on the version you’re inhabiting right now. This is your movie. This is where the conscious You is playing. This is where your power is, and discovering how to exercise that power is why we’re dancing with you here.

#4. Life isn’t serious.
It seems that the more limited your perspective, the more seriously you take yourself. The further you get from recognizing who you are, and being aware of why you’re here, the more desperately important life seems to be. Well it isn’t. The truth is, there’s nothing deadly serious about any of it. You came into it for the fun of being in this focused world and creating new things within it.

There are those among you who say that your feelings cannot be the main tent – it’s too superficial, too trivial, that there has to be some more lofty or divine purpose for all of this. Well we would take you back to who you are. At your heart you are a creator and a joy seeker, and there is fundamentally no entity here or anywhere that has made decisions about what you should or should not do, or wants anything from you other than to see you rejoicing in this game you are creating. We say you haven’t seen or felt “lofty” until you experience the Power and the Peace, and the Fun and the Freedom, of simply stepping into the awareness of the amazing creature that you are, and following your desires.

Then there are those that say we are promoting selfishness. Well once again, this is a One World concept, and even in that context, selfishness implies lack – that you are taking for yourself and thereby denying others – and since there’s no limit to what each of you can manifest, there can be no lack. Furthermore, what someone else does or doesn’t manifest has nothing to do with you. They get what they attract and you have zero control over that. When you truly get who you are, you know that things like selfishness, and blame, and victimhood, these are all totally invalid concepts.

What we ARE promoting is the idea that Your Story is not a fixture. While we encourage you to cherish, nourish, appreciate and anticipate the good parts, we suggest also that you open up to the idea that you can rewrite the not-so-good parts. How do you know when you’re heading into those not-so-good parts? It’s simple. It doesn’t feel good. Pay attention to those feelings. Don’t settle for less than what you want. Find processes that work for you that help you focus on what you want – and use them and use them until they become a habit, until they are simply a part of who you are.

#5. When you’re “trying hard”, chances are you’re going backwards.
Thinking is what consciousnesses do. If your physical world is an illusion, can you see that it’s all (ALL) about what you think. And if life is meant to be fun, then trying hard, working hard, also cannot be an important part of the story.

When you woke up this morning, how much time and effort did it take that superconscious of yours to create the world around you? Zero. And because of that, you get the idea that you’re not the one that’s creating it. Well you ARE creating it, and creating anything else you desire takes precisely the same amount of effort. Zero. Creating is effortless. If you’re lined up with what you want, if you expect success at all levels of your consciousness, no DOing is required. Of course you could be really busy. You could be DOing many things and having the time of your life. That’s downstream DOing. That’s going with the flow. That’s living a life where things line up for you in magical ways.

But if you’re “working hard”, if you’re doing things you don’t want to do, things that are not fun at all, and you’re doing them because you “have to” or because you “should”, you’re going backwards. If you’re not lined up with what you want, there’s not enough DOing on the planet to cause it to happen. Hard work is rowing upstream when everything you want is downstream. It makes no sense at all. Now we’re not proponents of “jump and the parachute will appear”, and we’re not saying you should quit that job cold turkey because that may feel even worse. We are saying, decide what you want, practice the vision of BEing in that place, and the door will appear. Then with ease and grace, you simply open it and step through.

Circumstances do not control how you feel. How you feel controls your circumstances. The way you react to your circumstances is a choice. Some of you are inclined to say things like .. well if my circumstances were better, I’d feel better. Then while feeling bad, you struggle to improve your circumstances.
We love the Bashar’s words on this: Waiting for circumstances to change so you can feel good is like looking in a mirror waiting for your reflection to smile first.

#6. You can’t avoid, on occasion, feeling bad
The simple truth is that moments of feeling bad are always going to be a part of your experience. There will always be contrast in your experience. There will always be things you want more of, and things you want less of. This is the game you’re involved in. Without contrast there is no game, there is no adventure, no discovery, no new desires and no new creation. And there is no You. So let’s really understand this feeling bad stuff as a first step to some new patterns of behavior. We want you to see that it’s entirely possible for you to begin to really appreciate your emotional guidance system, no matter what it’s telling you.

Let’s start with – the only thing your emotional guidance system is ever telling you is – you’re heading towards what you want (you feel good), or you’re heading away from it (feeling bad)? That’s it. Feeling bad is NEVER caused by people or circumstances. It’s never “caused” by anything about you or your world. It’s only ever telling you which – direction – you’re – heading. Now of course if you’ve defined this or that particular thing as “bad”, and you experience some of that, it’s easy to start digging a hole for yourself. And once you’ve started on the hole, you feel worse, things GET worse, and it feels like your only option is to keep digging into despair and depression. The worse it gets, the worse it gets. But then …

#7. You can always choose to feel better.
Lest that you begin to think it’s possible that you can forever lock yourself into an ongoing downward spiral, into some sort of eternal hell, let us remind you here once again about the essence of who you are. You are an always connected extension of Source, and there is nothing negative, or inherently bad in the energy of Source. And therefore there can be nothing negative or inherently bad in the energy of you. Well-being is the natural order of everything. Abraham has some good words on this in their let-your-cork-float analogy.

Imagine a cork floating on a body of water, and this cork is up there bobbing on the surface. And, for the sake of our analogy, know that up here on the surface is this high, pure vibration. This is the vibration of your Source. This is who you really are. Now take hold of that cork and hold it under the water as you focus upon something unwanted or you doubt, or as you doubt or disbelieve, or as you beat up on yourself or someone else.. Now, as this cork is under water because of your attention to something that is not up to speed with it, now let go of it. Take your attention from whatever has caused the cork to be under the water.

And what happens to the cork when you let go of it? It bobs right back up to the surface. And the reason that we want, very much, for you to hear this important analogy is because we want you to know that that is where your vibration would naturally be if you were not giving your attention to something that was vibrationally different. We want you to understand that you don’t have to work hard at the higher vibration. You don’t have to work at all at the higher vibration. You only have to no longer give your attention to those things that hold your cork under the water.

And then there will be times when you’ll feel like responding to that idea with thoughts like ..
Well Terah or Abraham or whatever you call yourselves, you don’t understand that when I’m feeling down, it’s doesn’t feel possible to be logical about it like that. Sometimes when I’m down I just can’t think straight. Sometimes when I’m down, I feel like dropping into the hole, wallowing in self-pity, and just giving up on everything.
We understand, because we’ve been with you through times like that, but here’s what you can do. If you must wallow, do it consciously. Wallow away, but know that you’re choosing to wallow. And if you do that, here’s what you’re going to find.

You’ll be acknowledging to yourself that even this wallowing is a choice. And even if at first it’s just a vague thought in the back of your mind, what you’ll discover is that you’re beginning to acknowledge once again that everything is a choice, and therefore, this particular chapter in your Story is the one you’re creating. And then you’ll find you’re on a slippery slope, but it’s a really good slippery slope, because once you start to acknowledge that, you start to pull out of it. It might take a while, but as you once again recognize consciously what’s really going on, what you’re doing is letting your cork bob to the surface. And then, things get better. And the better they get, the easier it gets. And the easier it gets, the better it all gets.

Do you get what we’re saying here? There are bad slippery slopes, and there are good slippery slopes. Let’s ask you this question. How easily do you find yourself slipping back into “reality-mode” or “where’s-my-stuff-mode” and seeing the world as the cause of your problems? .. Many of you would respond with .. very easily. So then let’s ask you this question. How easily do you find yourself able to pivot out of “reality” mode and back into awareness, into knowing the world is exactly as you have created it to be? If you’re honest, many of you would say .. that’s the hard part. And in those answers, can you see what you’re creating?

We’ve often said .. not only is your desired destination, achieving that particular thing, yours to choose, but so is the journey. You can choose to see it as hard and beat your way through the underbrush, or you can choose to know that just over there, ten steps to the right is the yellow brick road. And you can go to the right, and step onto that road, and frolic your way to wherever you want to be. You see, you’re creating the whole shooting match, and if you answered that second question with “that’s the hard part”, you’re creating that life is always going to be a struggle. Well .. phooey to that. You get to choose. So take a stand with yourself.

There’s a way you can set in motion right now, in your day to day experience, the appearance of the good kind of slippery slopes in your world, the discovery that there are yellow brick roads all over the place. Set yourself an intention right now:
• That you will never again in this life see your feelings as anything but a signpost.
• That you will from this day forward appreciate your emotions as the gift that they are, and
• That you will henceforth discontinue the process of associating bad feelings from any cause – any event, or person, or anything.
Here are some steps for a mantra.

1. Let me be aware – how am I feeling? (.. REALLY feeling .. how far short of fantastic)
2. Hey wait, I’m feeling bad (or bored, or angry, or jealous, or frustrated).
3. What does that mean? (I’m going in the wrong direction).
4. Who am I? (The creator of everything I experience).
5. What am I about to create? (What I don’t want).
6. Let me climb mentally here and see the view. (Get a true perspective).
7. To my emotional guidance system, thank you. (Thank you. Thank you.)
8. Now let’s bounce back to feeling good. Let’s begin to entertain a new thought of what could be.

You CAN develop the habit of being aware.
You CAN develop the habit of seeing things from a higher perspective.
You can bounce from oops to ahhhhhh, good.
Each time you make this new choice, you step into a new version of you, and a new version of your context, a new version of the world that matches the new you, appears around you.
Your habit becomes more and more .. I feel bad –and – and – and .. now I feel good.
Bad .. then immediately .. amazing .. fantastic!
Off course .. to .. back on course.

As you intersect with other people in Your Story, they show up within the boundaries you have set. You mix it up and you have experiences – some wanted, some unwanted. New desires are born. New choices are made and Your World re-versions itself around you. This is the fun of it. This is how you create in all of Your Stories and it is why it doesn‘t matter what Story you have chosen because you can always change it. There is no part of any game that confines you with limited options. You came here to experience the joy of creating in this different context, but your Stories are not absolute. You can pick a new sideshow.

Feeling bad is no more and no less than misalignment with who you are. In other words, if your thoughts are pointing you in the direction of what you want, your heart sings. You’re in that joyful range from peace and pleasure to ecstasy, and any actions you’re taking to achieve this, will feel effortless. But if you’re heading away from what you want, if you’re creating negatively, your feelings will match – from unease down to fear or anger to utter despair. You are struggling. And that’s why ..

#8. Nothing is more important than feeling good. NOTHING.
Remember where we started here. Creating new things is what you came here to do. So do you begin to see why how you feel is so important? If the absolute core reason you came here was to experience the joy of creating what you want, and you are heading in the opposite direction, nothing can be more important than changing course. There’s nothing about Your Story that’s more important than feeling good. There are no “Should”s, no “Have-To”s, no “Must-Do”s, on earth or anywhere, that can possibly take priority over simply turning and heading in the direction of what you want.

Nothing IS more important than that you feel good. Nothing. Nothing. NOTHING. Be easy about everything. Come at life as if it’s truly the game that it is. Relax more. Appreciate more. Laugh more. Make feeling good your life’s purpose. No matter what Story you chose, you can always choose another one. Be less mesmerized by any particular story and more aware of how you feel about it. Pivot away from negative thoughts and imagine what you want into BEingness.

If you’ve dug a hole for yourself, stop digging. Set your intentions once more on feeling good. Feeling good is more than just a good idea. It defines the quality of every part of the life you’re living, and it will define the ease with which you transition at the end of it.
Focus on living life within the context of these two questions:
How do I feel? .. And .. What do I want now?
How do I feel? .. And .. What do I want now?
The main tent, you see, has never been that physical stuff you manifest, nor even the non-physical stuff you’re making up. The main tent is you with your hands in the clay of All That Is, creating your next masterpiece.