TL;DR: The author explores how a lost set of keys led client “Steven” into a vibrational tailspin, revealing old belief patterns and offering a powerful opportunity for realignment and expansion. This is part 2 of Steven’s story.
Steven was already off balance. He’d ignored his Broader Perspective’s gentle invitation to stay home—a nudge his wife had unwittingly overridden. He’d also hit a baby deer the night before. That was a jarring event. But it still reverberated through his body the next morning. He hadn’t slept well. And even though he showed up to work as scheduled, something inside him knew: he wasn’t calibrated.
That matters. Because when you’re not calibrated, when you’re not aligned, the Universe doesn’t punish you. But it will offer a mirror so accurate, so refined, that if you’re paying attention, you’ll see exactly what stories you’re still telling—whether you like them or not.
For Steven, that’s exactly what was about to happen.
Steven could have avoided all this had he listened to the gentle whisper. The whisper from his Broader Perspective to stay home. Not avoiding it, however, introduced a wonderful unfolding. Although Steven would see it that way for many days.
When Keys Vanish, Beliefs Speak
It started simply. A moment that could have gone unnoticed. As Steven performed his usual rounds on the college campus where he worked, he had just used a lockbox key—one of many keys specifically assigned to him as part of his facilities management role. These keys weren’t just tools. They were symbols. The keys were tangible representations of the next level of his career: campus locksmith. The locksmith job promised higher salary, better hours, more freedom and more recognition. It was a promotion Steven looked forward to.
One moment while using the keys at the lockbox, Steven had the keys. The next moment, however, they were gone. Steven’s heart sank. He looked everywhere. He retraced his steps. Steven checked every pocket, every surface.
The keys were simply not there. Not in a metaphorical “they’ll turn up later” kind of way. But in that physical-reality-has-shifted kind of way. A loss so precise it almost felt orchestrated.
Because it was.
And yet, Steven’s boss, Richard, wasn’t pleased. “That’s not going to look good for your locksmith promotion,” Richard said shaking his head. “A locksmith who loses his keys?”
And with that, Steven’s vibration—already shaky—collapsed into a tailspin.
“Lost” is a vibrational reality
For most people, losing something like keys is common. I’ve written several stories about my experience losing things. Here’s one. Here’s another. When something goes lost, the best thing to do, if possible, is forget about trying to find it. Instead, if we just go about our business, we’ll be led back into the reality where the item is present.
But most people, myself included sometimes, instantly start looking for the item. Doing that, we amplify the reality in which the thing is “lost”. Moreover, the more we try to find it, we amplify its lost state even more. So losing things, especially minor things, is a great way to prove to ourselves that we constantly move from one dimension to another. Losing something gives us a chance to play with alternate realities.
Sometimes, however, we lose something significant. When that happens, we’re not likely to just forget about it. In those cases, the lost item represents a more important movement of dimensional reality. For Steven, losing his keys was part of an ongoing series of manifestations. Manifestations that began with a wonderful visit to his sister’s house.
Killing that dear was part of that unfolding. So was being unable to sleep. Indeed, I’m sure, in the dream state, Steven soothed a lot of what he had stepped into. But he didn’t allow the momentum to soothe further. That’s why his Broader Perspective wanted him to take the day off.
He didn’t though. And everything changed. The intensity of his disconnection increased. As it did, more benefit unfolded for him.
From Whispers to Storms
Suddenly, everything Steven hadn’t done yet became a spotlight of failure. There was the broken sprinkler system. The backlog of requests. His own perfectionism kicked in, too — frantically reviewing all the ways he might have prevented losing his keys. Richard’s comments, the increased scrutiny he laid on Steven, the backlog of requests — all these things represented increased intensity.
But the real storm raging wasn’t Richard or anything outside Steven. It was the internal narrative Steven summoned in response. Richard, who had previously been mentoring Steven for the locksmith role, now seemed like a different person. He showed up as critical, cold and suspicious. Steven felt judged, watched, scrutinized and criticized. This new version Steven created had him feeling completely disempowered. And his lost keys left him feeling helpless to do anything about the situation.
All that didn’t happen because Richard suddenly changed. It happened because Steven’s vibration changed. In his state of fear, he rendezvoused with a version of Richard that reflected exactly what he feared most: rejection, disappointment, and lost trust.
That’s how manifestation works. It doesn’t just hand us things. It reveals the shape of our beliefs so we can do something about them. Do something and we become a match to better alternate realities. But if we don’t, the shape of our beliefs, projected outward as a physical reality, gets more intense. It gets more intense because our Broader Perspective and All That Is wants us to align with that which we desire.
It’s the only way we can have what we want. So the Universe and our Broader Perspective cooperates in nudging us in the direction of what we want by giving us cues. They start as whispers. However, if we ignore them, they can turn into storms.
Mother becomes the boss
So the intensity of Steven’s reaction wasn’t about keys. It wasn’t about promotions. It was about something deeper. Something older. Something Steven had felt before.
The feelings—of being misunderstood, scrutinized, punished unfairly—were eerily familiar. They echoed memories of his relationship with his mother. Back then, he often felt like he couldn’t do anything right. No matter how hard he tried, she’d find something wrong. Her love and trust were conditional, easily withdrawn at the first sign of what she perceived as “failure.” Another way of describing “failure” is “any time Steven didn’t meet her expectations.”
Now here he was again. Different setting. Different authority figure. Same emotional response. That’s the gift of manifestation. It’s never random. It brings the unsoothed pattern back to us—but dressed in new clothes. This time it wasn’t “Mom.” It was Richard. And instead of a scolding at home, it was pressure at work. The stakes were higher, for sure. But vibrationally, the match was perfect. And the situation? Exactly the same.
All this wasn’t bad, though. It reflected Steven’s upgraded status as a vibrational being. The stakes were higher. His job was potentially on the line, or so Steven believed. His boss was furious with him, he thought.
What I knew was this whole experience was a higher-level opportunity to soothe his old beliefs. Beliefs still creating realities in his life that revealed where he is relative to his desires.
Steven is doing great. In other words, he’s progressing and progressing fast. It seems like these kinds of situations shouldn’t happen for someone advanced as Steven. And yet, these kinds of things do happen in the early stages of the advanced practice. That’s because they act as clearing gateways to brighter, better alternate futures.
Beliefs Hide in Plain Sight—Until They Don’t
Steven didn’t notice the parallel at first. Nor did he recognize how perfect all this was.
It wasn’t until our session, as we slowed everything down, that he saw it. The shame. The fear. Impulses to over perform in order to prove his worth. The sense of being “on trial.” All of it tracked back to a belief constellation first activated in childhood — and still quietly vibrating in his present-day experience.
Again, the lost keys didn’t cause this vibration. They revealed it.
That’s why the Positively Focused practice is so powerful. It shows us nothing ever “goes wrong.” Even a lost object is a portal into deeper knowing—if we’re willing to look. Not with blame. Not with urgency. But with curiosity and compassion.
And Steven did just that…eventually. It took him a week. In the days leading up to our session, he struggled. When he came to the session, he was deep in negative emotion. Despair. Helplessness.
By the end of our session, however, he saw what was unfolding—not as punishment or setback—but as a tailor-made invitation to liberate old beliefs from their hiding places. He didn’t just lose keys. He found himself.
Takeaway: When something’s lost, something deeper reveals itself.
See you tomorrow for Part 3.