If you’ve read Ask and It Is Given, you’re probably familiar with the columnar pad method, which is outlined in Process No. 19, “Releasing Resistance to Become Free of Debt”.

Quick Summary of the Columnar Pad Method

If you’re not familiar with the process, here’s a quick outline:

You’ll need a columnar writing pad with several columns. For releasing your resistance to debt, you’d want one with as many columns as the number of monthly expenses that you have. Starting in the far left column, you’ll track your monthly expenditures, from your largest to the very smallest. So your largest payment will be in the column on the farthest left, and your very smallest payment will be in the column on the farthest right-hand side of the pad.

In the header for each column, write down the name of the payment (ie Mortgage). In the second line, write down the minimum payment you must make. Circle this, so you know it’s your required payment. Then in the third line, enter the total outstanding debt.

At the top of the sheet, write this affirmation: “It is my desire to keep my promise regarding all of these financial obligations, and in some cases I will even do twice as much as is required.”

Now, to play the game: when you receive a bill, you go to your columnar pad. If your minimum payment has changed, write that down; otherwise, just write down the same figure you have circled. Underneath that, write down the new outstanding balance, after taking into account your minimum payment.

Everytime you pay the bill for the payment that is on the farthest right-hand side of your columnar pad - that is, your smallest monthly payment - make a double payment. Then write down the new outstanding balance.

From the book:

“This may seem a little strange to you when you first begin to play the game, but even if you do not have enough money to pay everything you owe in all of the columns, still double the payment in the far right column. And feel glad that you have kept your new promise to yourself to do your best to pay everything you owe, and to do even twice that amount in some cases

Because you are looking at your finances in a way that is new, your vibration will begin to shift right away. As you feel even the slightest bit of pride for keeping your word, your vibration will shift. As you keep your promise about doubling up on payments, your vibration will shift. And with this shift, even if it is slight, things will begin to change in your financial condiitons.

… Instead of feeling discouraged as you find yet another bill in your mailbox, you will feel an eagerness to enter the bill on your columnar pad. And with this shift in attitude and vibration, things will begin to change in your financial picture.”

Expansion of the Method to Eliminate Other Resistance

I’ve always been pretty comfortable with my debt, so the columnar pad method never really called out to me in the past. But recently, in their late summer/early fall workshops last year, Abraham began expanding on the columnar pad method, explaining how you can use it to help you eliminate other resistances that might be blocking you from lifting your vibration.

I found this very exciting - suddenly, a process that didn’t really resonate with me became a very valuable tool.

I first heard it at the workshop I attended in San Antonio last September. Abraham applied it to the situation of a woman who wanted to lose weight. But it can be applied to just about anything around which you have resistance, and in several other workshops they expanded on this using other situations.

Basically, what you do is take a look at what your desire is. And then from left to right, write down actions that would be beneficial for you to take when it comes to this desire. Start with the action that you have the most resistance to, and put it in the left-hand column, and then continue with actions to which you have lesser and lesser resistance to as you go along the top of the pad. On the right-hand side of the pad, place those actions which would be beneficial to your desire, but which you enjoy.

So, for the weight loss example, while you might have “Exercise at the gym every day” on the left-most column, on the right-hand side you might have actions like “dance to music I adore” or “take a walk outside” or “make the diet food that I love the best”.

Underneath each action, put the ideal amount of time that you feel you should be spending on the activity, if it’s a time-based activity. If it’s not a time-based activity, put down the ideal number of times you should do the action each day.

The key is to have a handful of actions that you DO enjoy doing, which will help you progress towards your desire, listed on the right-hand side of the column.

Reword the affirmation so that it’s in keeping with your desire. For example, for weight loss you might use: “It is my desire to keep my promise regarding all of these exercise and diet intentions, and in some cases I will even do twice as much as is required.”

Then each day, keep track of how much time you spent in the activity, or if it’s not a time-based activity, put a checkmark in that column if you did the activity. And each day, for at least one of the actions, either do double the amount of time you’ve written down, or do that action double the amount of times that you’ve put down, if it’s not a time-based activity.

When I heard the process expanded like this, I remember thinking, “Yes! I love that!”

It is very definitely a very playful and fulfilling way of shifting your vibration when it comes to a desire to which you have a lot of resistance.