The Universe Meets You Where You Settle

When you level up your life, weird shit happens. You’ll get sick even though you’ve been fine all year. Your dog will start pooping in the pantry. Or you’ll find yourself in a fender bender on the highway. When you make a significant shift in your life - whether by adopting a new level of awareness, making a major edit in your self-story, or taking action you never thought you could - things are gonna change. Underlying all of these changes is one significant shift: sensation. No matter what kind of evolution you’re trying to achieve, at the root of calling in new situations is always a change in sensation. That’s the law of gravity in action. You are a planet, not just a person. When you stay in one place and calibrate the sensations of your body, you inevitably begin to call in new substance. You don’t need to chase it, hustle, or beg for it. Gravity is the same creative force that sculpted the Universe, empowering the sun to call in planets and allowing Mother Earth to create everything we see today. There is no exception to the law of gravity. When you create a shift in your sensation (which is at the heart of any change), you will inevitably call in new substance. This can be super fun! If you hit the right frequency, change happens quickly and effortlessly. Instead of having to change careers, you find your boss approaches you with just the opportunity you’ve been seeking. Instead of having to hustle on dating apps, you run into the love of your life at the gas station. Instead of having to time block and use discipline to achieve your goals, they flow through you effortlessly at random points in your day. Harnessing gravity is at the heart of interdimensional lifestyle design, because it honors the fourth truth of being human: interstellarity. You are not a person. You are a planet. The sooner you learn to play with gravity, the sooner your life will change. But sometimes… the changes you seek don’t come as you expect because in order to bring you new substance, the Universe first needs you to become a person who can receive it. For example, I have a mild toothache. Or is it a gum ache? All I know is that my back tooth is disgruntled in a way it’s never been before. It doesn’t feel toothy, it feels gummy. But despite all the salt water rinses and flossing and essential oils I smother on it, it remains achy and irritated. I tell my clients all the time: new problems are good problems. When something you’ve never experienced before comes into your life - even if it totally sucks - it’s a good sign that you’ve shaken off a pattern you’ve been carrying around for far too long. The Universe is giving you this seemingly “bad” thing so that you’ll recalibrate to receive the “good” thing you actually desire. It’s here to make you into the person you’re meant to be. You see, you can’t be the same person and have the same life, which means you can’t be the same person and have the same problems. New problems are always a sign that something is shifting and it’s always for your highest good. Since I have zero cavities and have had zero problems with my teeth and gums, I figured this new ache is a good sign that all my evolutionary efforts are paying off. The bummer part of me running into a physical issue I can’t fix (because through Interdimensional Lifestyle Design, I manage most of them on my own) is that I needed to make a dentist appoint, which is an extra bummer because I don’t have dental insurance as a self-employed business owner. (Did you know Marianne Williamson is super serious about universal health care being added to a new economic bill of rights? You know her. You probably already love her. She’s the one behind that famous quote… Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?”' Yeah, she’s running for president. I’m totally in.) So even though I was less than satisfied with my last dental cleaning, didn’t like their corporate feel, and felt ashamed at the way they talked about my teeth, I made an appointment with my latest dentist because I figured it’d be cheaper because they already have my x-rays. When I called to make an appointment, I quickly found out that it wasn’t super cheap and, in fact, the person on the phone couldn’t even give me a good estimate of cost because there was a $50 difference between doctors and she couldn't even calculate the cleaning until I was seen during the exam. In any case, the minimum I'd probably be paying was $250-$300. I’d also wanted a next-day appointment, but instead got one booked four days later. I wasn't entirely put off by the booking process, so I filled out the online health record form, and resolved to go. Do you hear all the settling in this situation? The very next day, I received the consequences of all that settling. I got not one, but two calls from two separate people about matters that I’d already dealt with the day before. Call us back to confirm your appointment. Call us back to update your insurance. I was like, seriously? I just made the appointment yesterday. Isn’t there a link I can use to confirm? Who calls anyone anymore? Also, why am I confirming this appointment within 24 hours of making it? Also, I already told you I don’t have insurance. Don’t you all talk? I huffed and puffed my way to the dog park before calling them back, feeling irritated, resentful, and pushed around. There it was again, their corporate atmosphere and their total lack of connection to me as a person. The irritation and indignation spiraled in my mind, and I felt stuck going to a corporate, “clients are numbers” dentist when deep down I thought I deserved more. This should not have been a surprise to me: When you go back to something you don’t like, you will always be reminded of why you don’t like it. I have had to learn this lesson over and over and over again. I’ve gone back to restaurants with terrible service because I hoped it would be different. I’ve gone back to jobs that didn’t pay me well because I thought they’d appreciate me after being gone. And I’ve gone back to lovers who didn’t treat me well because I hoped that they would value me more. At the heart of this habit is an unfortunate belief system I’ve been endowed with by our culture: We should be happy with what we get. If the restaurant is at a great location, you should settle for shitty service. If the job is easy, you should settle for unsustainable pay. If the lover is available and willing to be with you, you should accept how they treat you. I think these belief systems are leftover trauma from the early twentieth century, when our ancestors faced a real economic depression, serious global wars, and challenges with securing information as easily and effortlessly as we do today. It's also a byproduct of the education system, which was hijacked by elitists at about the same time. We're all trained to settle, conform, and go along to get along right from the start. Humanity has evolved exponentially since then. What was true back then isn’t true today. We can’t continue to use the recycled belief systems of the old world to build a new one. We need to believe better so we can dream better. My stuck feelings about going to a devaluing dentist made me realize I was replaying old beliefs that the situation couldn’t be better - that I didn't deserve any better. The indignation was the sensation my body was using to communicate to me that I felt disrespected and that it believed I was worth more. But did the dentist's office disrespect me? Or did I disrespect myself by going to a dentist I know I didn’t like? Obviously, it was the latter. When you become 100% accountable for your life, you also become 100% equipped to change it. I couldn't change how the dentist's office was going to treat me, but I could certainly change how I was going to. Right then and there, I decided to cancel my appointment without any knowledge of who I’d book with next. As Milo took his sweet time dragging his precious feet back to the apartment (he literally never wants to go home), I immediately remembered the dentist from where I lived last. It was a location right around the corner from my apartment, filled with women who were positive and complimentary, and who all seemed genuinely happy to be at work. The hygienist did an awesome job with my cleaning and although she gently reminded me to floss (they all make me itchy), she had nothing but positivity and praise about my precious teeth. When the doctor came in, she not only easily diagnosed my problems as tooth sensitivity and instructed me to stop using water with my Sensodyne (apparently it waters it down the sensitivity-solving agents), she also totally reframed my entire orthodontic history. We’d been talking about the palatal expanders I’d gotten in both fourth and seventh grade. For those that don’t know, an expander is an enormous plastic retainer that gets glued to the top teeth for 6-8 months. Each morning, I’d use a metal key to crank the retainer so that it widened slightly, slowly but carefully breaking the bone of my palate and expanding the width of my top teeth. The pain that shot up to the top of my skull each day was enough for me to hate the thing, but what was worse for a 10 and 13 year old was to go to school each day with an ever expanding gap in her front teeth coupled with a lisp and a lot of extra spit that sometimes shot out of my mouth beyond my control. You can probably understand why I was less than happy reporting this experience to my new dentist. Without skipping a beat though, she shared that people who need expanders who don’t get them usually end up having serious breathing trouble as older adults. Her exact words were, “So it might be helpful to stop thinking about the experience as bad. It was actually a really good investment in your long-term health.” I kind of cocked my head to the side in disbelief and was like, “You’re right. I didn’t know how much of a benefit it was. Thanks for that.” In less than 30 seconds, this woman totally changed my life - shifting my sensation around the story of my teeth from embarrassment, resentment, and shame to the high-vibing beacon of gratitude that better honored the truth of my circumstances. Nowadays my orthodontic journey is a celebration, and one that I’m deeply grateful to have been gifted by my parents. I think more people would actually go to the dentist if they got to go to her. The point is that my experience with that dentist was incredibly fulfilling - even life changing. Everyone there was fabulous, the dentist may as well have been a life coach, and everything - including x-rays - only cost me $99. This morning as I carried Milo up the three flights of stairs back to my apartment (not only is he reluctant to go home, but it’s also already a bajillion degrees so he overheats easily), I realized that what I really wanted from my dental experience could actually happen. It already had! This thought shifted my belief about what was possible and recalibrated my intentions of the experience I was determined to create. I believed better, which allowed me to dream a better dentist dream. I eventually sat down to my computer to begin what I thought was going to be an arduous search for the $99 all-inclusive dentist deal. I wanted my exam, x-rays, and cleaning to be under a hundred bucks, and there was a part of me - the old part of me that believes a good life has to be hard - that thought it was going to be hard to find in the town I’m in. But I kid you not, my first search revealed exactly what I was looking for. A quick review of their website and the scheduling phone call also reassured me that everyone there has the high-vibing energy I’m calling into my life. Plus, I can go tomorrow! No joke, the pain in my tooth is actually receding since then. That’s the magic of being interdimensional. Changing your beliefs will change your thoughts which will change your sensations which will change your situation. Here’s the point of this very detailed dental debacle: The universe will rise to the standards you set. Keep them low, and it’ll meet you there. Raise them high, and it’ll meet you there too. Other people and external circumstances have absolutely nothing to do with it. You’re the one who gets to set your worth. Stop settling and see what happens. Chances are, you’ll be surprised. If you’re ready to raise your standards and work through the gunk that’s holding you back, I’d love to help you. Spend 90 days with me. We’ll raise your standards, calibrate your sensations, and give you all the tools you need to truly start living a life you love… Not one you settle for. Take care of you, Dr. Ashley Anne