How the Law of Attraction REALLY Works
August 19, 2018
The pop spirituality interpretation of the Law of Attraction says that if we think only positive thoughts and say only positive words, we can avoid bad experiences and have everything our personality desires (health, love, security, wealth, etc). Conversely, if we think the “wrong” thoughts, we will emit “negative energy” and the universe will respond by giving us negative experiences.
This is one of the greatest spiritual UNTRUTHS ever told.
It’s just another form of god-in-the-sky theology that tells us that if we do a certain thing (i.e., if we “please God”), we won’t suffer. It is based on the idea that suffering is bad and should be avoided, and teaches that we can gain the approval of the universe (i.e. God) by thinking certain thoughts and behaving a certain way. This “New Age” idea is an old form of bad theology that has simply been re-packaged for a new audience.
Instead, consider this… Suffering has a purpose and should not — cannot — be avoided. Our “bad” experiences give us something to push off from in order to propel us forward in our growth, like pushing off the edge of the pool when you’re swimming. We did not come here to live in bliss and unconditional love. We came here to experience physicality; the full range of incarnate experience. Both “good” and “bad” experiences are necessary for conscious living, like positive and negative charges on a battery.
Consider this… What if we “attract” what our souls need for the greater journey, not what our egos crave for comfort?
As I wrote in my 2010 book, Embracing Death:
The true gift is not that you manifest a new job or a big house or a happy marriage. The true gift is that you learn to listen to your soul and to trust its wisdom. Without this type of complete trust and surrender, you’re in pain because you’re trying to control everything, resisting everything. If you lose your job, you grieve, you worry, you have fear, and that’s OK. There is no spiritual truth in the world that would tell you to judge yourself for being fearful. Instead, healing comes from being with the fear… by breathing into it, allowing it, processing it, learning from it, feeling it, and then walking boldly toward new reality that awaits you.
How often should you stop and surrender?
Whenever you feel the pain of resistance. Just stop and move through it. Visualize yourself as a non-physical spirit, a ghost, and imagine you are simply, calmly, walking through a wall. Do this a hundred times a day if you need to. It will lift you to a higher consciousness and bring you into the present.
How do you surrender?
You stop projecting your desperate need to make the pain stop. Stop everything. Stop trying to survive. Stop working so hard. Just STOP. And then broadcast one sentence, one word, one sigh of surrender, and it will shift everything. Don’t ask to be rescued. Don’t ask God or the universe or the latest best-selling book to fix it for you. Ask only to see the truth and lesson in the situation. And, here’s the real trick… you say it with gratitude, with love. Not with fear, cynicism or anger. You say, “I surrender with love. I surrender with trust. I put myself into the arms of the angels and I will STOP and just BE exactly where I am.”
THAT is the real secret.
© 2016 – Terri Daniel
This is amazing and I love the way you put it. I try my best to be tolerant and respectful with what you mentioned as “This “New Age” idea is an old form of bad theology that has simply been re-packaged for a new audience.” I’m sure we can “intellectualize” suffering and keep going.