Embodiment · “Being Precedes Having”
Drawing from the Infinite
Settle into a receptive, grateful, trusting state and consciously ‘open’ to draw health, renewal, and ideas from the ‘Infinite Force and Mind’ — placing yourself in the best state to receive rather than straining to produce.
Go quiet — ideally into nature. Stop striving and place yourself in the best state to receive. Soften, breathe, and open with gratitude for what is already given. Turn toward the Infinite for the renewal you need — health, strength, an idea — and expect it, without forcing. Let the replenished, grateful state settle in, then carry it into your day.
What it is
Alongside the active “demand,” Mulford taught a quieter, receptive practice: placing yourself in a calm, grateful, open state so that health, fresh vitality, and new ideas can flow in from what he called the “Infinite Force and Mind.” His model is almost respiratory — the mind, like the lungs, can breathe in renewal if it stops clenching.
As he put it, the human being “absorbs the most of this power, and will absorb far more in the future. as he learns to place himself in the best states to receive it.” The practice, then, is not effort but receptivity: gratitude, stillness, and an expectant openness to be renewed.
The Method
- Settle into stillness. Find quiet — ideally outdoors, where Mulford located the clearest renewal: “It is the Infinite Force and Mind as expressed by all these natural things, which is acting on you.” Slow down; stop striving for a few minutes.
- Soften into a receptive state. The point is to “place [yourself] in the best states to receive.” Loosen the grip of planning and worry; adopt the posture of one waiting to be given, not one trying to produce.
- Open with gratitude. Dwell briefly on what is already good and given. Gratitude is the warm, open feeling-tone Mulford treats as keeping the channel clear — it turns the mind toward the Source rather than toward lack.
- Ask for, and expect, renewal. Quietly turn toward the Infinite for the specific renewal you need — health, fresh strength, a needed idea — and hold the expectancy that it is being supplied, without forcing.
- Receive, then carry it into the day. Let the calm, replenished feeling sink in; rise slowly and let that state colour your activity. The renewal is meant to be lived from, not merely felt and forgotten. (Sourcing note: quoted phrases are verbatim from “Healing and Renewing Force of Spring” and “God in the Trees” in Thoughts Are Things; the numbered structure is an attributed paraphrase of Mulford’s counsel on receptivity and gratitude.)
Source & Lineage
Prentice Mulford (1834–1891) paired the assertive “demand” with a gentler doctrine of reception — that we draw life, healing, and inspiration from an Infinite Mind by becoming quiet, grateful, and open.
This receptive-gratitude strand runs forward through Unity, Emmet Fox, and the broader New Thought emphasis on “tuning in” to a Source.
Common refinements
Trying hard to relax. Receptivity can’t be forced; the move is to stop doing, not to add effort labelled “receiving.”
- Skipping gratitude. Without the grateful turn, the sitting easily slides back into problem-solving and worry.
- Treating it as a vending machine. The state matters more than the specific ask; demanding a result anxiously collapses the receptivity it depends on.
- Leaving it on the cushion. The renewal is meant to be carried into action; note it, then let it shape how you move through the day.