More and more people are utilizing the Law of Attraction to manifest their goals, dreams, and desires. The standard approach for attracting the life you desire include: visualizing in vivid detail your desire, only entertain positive thoughts, only focus your attention on positive situation, circumstances and emotions and never waiver from believing that your will achieve your goal. However, many people seem compelled to include some additional steps. They generate a precise time table for reaching their goal and they create a specific plan of action, detailing exactly how they will achieve their goal.
So why do we believe these extra steps are necessary? It may be a reluctance and discomfort with letting go of control. May be we want assurance that the Universe will deliver the goods within time frame that we have in mind. Perhaps we are reluctant to forfeit control fearing the Universe won't follow our directive. In addition, we had been lectured countless times about the necessity of formulating an in depth plan of action, divided into phases, and include the who, what, where, how and when for each phase.
However, in my experience, these additional restrictions and directives are counter productive when partnering with the Universe. In the following paragraphs I will share a personal example that illustrates this point.
Previously, I worked as a counselor at a facility for women with substance abuse issues. Invariably, they had multiple issues and traumas that needed to be addressed at well.
I quickly developed a passion for this work and I seemed to have a natural ability for it as well. Very soon, I felt a burning desire to start my own facility which would address all types of addiction, obsessive behaviors in general, and perhaps other issues and behavioral patterns as well.
However, before I could accomplish this dream, the symptoms from my Hepatitis C, worsened to the point that I could no longer work outside the home.
I remained determined to fulfill my dream as soon as I could visualized myself back to health. After all, many of the Law of Attraction gurus maintained that disease was solely the result of negative beliefs. If I replaced all my negative beliefs with positive ones, visualized a healthy body, and stayed spiritually and energetically aligned, I would regain my health.
However, when my symptoms continued to worsen, the self-recriminations began. Adding to this, when I mentioned that I was contemplating accepting my situation rather than fighting it, one of the gurus with whom I was corresponding, adamantly suggested acceptance was akin to giving up. My guilt rose steadily as he proceeded to inform me that by allowing myself to rest when I felt fatigued, I was acknowledging the disease and in effect continuing to manifest it.
So I willed myself to act and do all the things I would do if I were the picture of health. Given the fact that on some days it takes supreme effort just to get up and use the restroom, I wasn't totally successful at this assignment. These failures, of course resulted in more self recriminations. Never the less, my efforts at willfully discounting my body's needs were sufficient to land me in the hospital.
Unfortunately, once was not enough. I needed to prove that I had made a herculean effort at curing my disease through utilizing the principles of the Law of Attraction. It did not occur to me that I was judging my performance by the standards of an individual I barely knew and his personal interpretation of Universal principles. As far as I knew, he did not have a direct line of communication with the Universal Mind.
Fear was a contributing factor in my willingness to adopt his point of view. If I couldn't heal my disease, my symptoms would not improve. And if my symptoms did not improve, I couldn't establish my own facility for addictions and behavioral issues. And no facility meant my passion to help others through counseling was impossible. Or so I thought.
So I continued to resist my body's needs. My misguided efforts netted me a few more hospitalizations followed by major surgery to have my entire colon removed. A few additional trips to the hospital, due to complications and the light bulb reignited. My own inner guidance finally had gotten my attention.
I realized that I had spent several frustrating years trying to force the circumstances to conform to the "How" I had envisioned. I had ignored my needs and feelings, fearing that a failure to heal my disease would indicate inadequacy, weakness or lack of self discipline. So I discounted my own guidance. Guidance that has always been an unerring source of wisdom and support.
It was time to do something different. I had been neglecting the present while trying to control the future. I decided to accept and acknowledge my present moment circumstances.
Instead of discounting my needs and pushing my body, mind and emotions beyond the limit, (old habits die hard in times of stress), I would take better care of myself and give up time travel, by getting back into the practice of present moment awareness.
Next I would look for some undertaking that I could pursue now, given my present circumstances, to further my passion: motivating others to find personal freedom, develop self worth and confidence discover a sense of empowerment and create the life they desire.
After a few phone calls, I discovered the facility where I had previously worked would be delighted if I volunteered to facilitate groups and fill in for the counselors. Whenever I felt up to it, I could just show up, no prior notification, no commitment. A very generous arrangement.
However, a few days latter, some books that I had previously ordered arrived. That there was such a professional as coaching, heard of coaching. One of these books happened to be written by a life and business coach. Prior to reading this book, I thought coaches were a position on a sports team and I had a vague notion that they also supervised the stars' quest for a size 2 body. That was the day I found out that a profession existed for Life and Spiritual Coaches. And the coaching sessions were typically done via the phone.
I just had to get a website and get set up on the internet. Little did I know then that the word "just" was totally inaccurate for my new venture.
I rushed to the computer, plopped down and blindly roamed cyberspace. My prior experience with the internet was 7 emails and 3 research excursions. And my oldest daughter usually had to help me find my way out of a porn site in which I had inadvertently landed. But eventually I found a 6 month program to hone my skills at life and spiritual coaching via telephone. I signed up for the course and began the process of creating my Personal Development business.
Through my internet business, I have the potential to reach a larger number and a greater variety of people than I would have ever had with a facility. Plus, the miles of bureaucratic red tape that is a prerequisite for keeping a facility open, is merely a few feet with the internet. I don't have to agonize over the inevitable decisions over compromise of the content, of the quality, of the programs and lessons. Many donation sources require the use of specific materials. And without donations, keeping the doors open is like playing Russian roulette. And finally, there's no Board of Directors, who know nothing about Personal Development, pressuring me into complying with their self serving concepts.
The Universe did a much better job at the "hows" than I ever could have done. But, as long as my perception, objective and focus were limited to a particular course, a specific plan, there could be no progress. I first had to give up control, guilt and fear and allow the Universe to do its part.
To be fair, I have since connected with some law of attraction gurus that have a somewhat different approach. And many of them sincerely want to help people learn to implement the Law of Attraction in their lives. I had made the fear based choice to unquestioningly adopt and judge myself by the beliefs and ideas of a few individuals. My motivation for complying with their views and subsequently, ignoring my own inner guidance, did however, revealed some pesky issues that I had to address. But that's another tale.
This experience has validated my perceptions of the Law of Attraction, which I had unfortunately doubted.
My interpretation of the often quoted sentence, "You can do, be or have whatever you believe and desire," is this: you can do, be or have the essence of what you believe and desire. The essence is the feeling and the need that we will experience as the result of achieving our desire. And experiencing that Essence is the reason our desires were born and our true motivation for achieving them.
Lauren Kennedy
