Last week’s experiment had to do with paying attention to positive stories, and I began the experiment sharing about a deaf man who met a baseball player who happened to know how to sign.  The key element in that story was the presence of synchronicity, which I’ve written about many times in these experiments.  Synchronicities are those “meaningful coincidences” that drop into our lives to add a bit of magic, bring us what we need, and offer us moments of inspiration and hope.

One of the things I’ve learned about synchronicity over the years is that the more we pay attention to moments of synchronicity, and express gratitude for them, the more they appear in our lives.  Ever since I began to more actively notice and engage synchronicity in my life, I have become accustomed to asking for what I need and then watching it appear through the mechanism of “meaningful coincidence.”  I also allow synchronicity to be a teacher for me.  Here’s an example I may have shared in prior experiments, but it’s a moment when the complexity of synchronicity was driven home to me.

I have a habit of taking a cab home on those evenings when it’s too dark to walk across Central Park.  Because of the frequency with which I do this, I know the cab fare that it usually costs for me to get home.  On one particular evening, a number of years ago, I felt compelled to give the cab driver an extra $5.00 before getting out of the cab.  After I did so, I found myself grumbling to myself about doing so, wondering why I gave away $5.00.  It was unusual for me to grumble about this kind of thing, as when I’m moved by generosity, I generally respond and don’t give it much more thought, so I was puzzled by my internal conflict I had about  what I had just done.

I live in quite a large apartment building, with perhaps 16 or more apartments per floor.  As I got off the elevator on my floor, and went to my apartment, there on the threshold of my door was a $5.00 bill.  As I looked down at the five dollars, I found myself saying, “Oh, I get it!  There is a dance going on that is mysterious and ever-present and that I can’t possibly understand with my rational mind.”  Even though I had danced with synchronicity many times before that evening, the $5.00 bill became a tangible and inescapable teacher for me, reminding me that the flow of our interconnectedness is constant and impossible to understand with the rational mind.

And so, for this week’s experiment, I invite you to play with synchronicity even more directly than you may do already.  For example, give yourself permission to ask for things and then watch them show up in the surprising and unexpected ways that can happen.  A key in playing with synchronicity is to practice noticing what you want or need, asking for it, and then letting it go – handing it over to this mysterious, larger context.  Then, continue to let it go until you notice that what you needed or wanted has shown up in a way you may not have expected.  The key here is to notice when synchronicity brings into your life what you need and then to be sure to express gratitude for the gifts you receive – be they tangible “things” or moments that offer you gifts of another kind.

As with all the experiments, please leave judgment behind and allow curiosity to be your constant companion.  Gratitude is an equally constant and important companion when you engage synchronicity in more actively conscious ways.