The Principle of Attraction,  by Jim Nolan

 I want to talk about what I have come to call the Principle of Attraction. (many talk about the “Law of Attraction”, but I prefer the term “Principle”, for reasons that may become clearer as you follow my blogs…)

This Principle is as old as the hills–it goes back to the Hermetic Teachings, the Bible, Shakespeare, Napoleon Hill, the Vedic Scriptures, the Buddha–it is all over the place throughout history.

Prayer, “setting an intention”, the so-called “Law of Attraction”, positive affirmations, mantras, pep talks, the power of positive thinking, the concept of karma—it is everywhere. It is the core of the New Thought movement.

The Problem

OK, so here’s the “problem.” Some recent sources (misreadings of  The Secret, for example), and some readers of the recent sources, say, more or less, “Ask for the shiny red sports car, and it has to come into to your experience. In fact, as soon as you asked, it existed, and you just have to align with that reality for it to show up in your driveway.”

OK, I love the Abraham-Hicks materials, and have gotten more out of them than just about anything but Shakespeare in the last ten years, but we have to clear this up. The red sports car does not show up in your driveway because you asked for it. And that’s a crappy thing to ask for, anyway. (More about that later.)

The argument goes something like this:

“All thought is energy. Thoughts go out into the world and attract similar vibrations. Good thoughts attract good stuff, people or experiences, and negative thoughts attract negative stuff, people or experiences.”

No arguments with that so far.

     But when the Thoughts about the Things glibly and immediately become the Things themselves, I think it gets a little out of hand. Particles attracting particles is not exactly like my thoughts attracting whatever I think about. Example:  I follow the Abraham-Hicks Vortex Group on Facebook, and this past week, somebody posted “ARE YOU READY TO ACCEPT $600,000. THIS WEEK??!”

And people responded with all kinds of yesses and yippees and  hurrays.

Dude—that ain’t how this works. I know—you will call me a fallen Abrahammer, but nobody in that group got $600,000. last week. Guaranteed. We would have heard about it. The argument would be that they were not sufficiently aligned vibrationally with the $600,000., but if they had been, it would have had to show up, because that is Law. But you know what? I don’t really believe that. I believe our thoughts can get the ball rolling for the possibility of creation, but thinking about a castle in Spain, does not create for me a castle in Spain.

But I am not here to be a skeptic, because I love this stuff., when tempered with being reasonable. We can attract and create a lot of great stuff in our lives–that I do know…I think it works a little differently than others seem to think…much more about this in writings to come…

The Good News 

The Principle of Attraction is incredibly powerful. Our focus, our attention, our efforts, our thoughts, our mantras, our vibration—when we aim all of that incredible energy toward something, we do help to create the energy and the circumstances for that thing to manifest.

Example of One Way (of many) to Work with the Principle of Attraction: Specific vs. General 

Borrowing from Abraham, here is how I like to think about it:

Instead of the Shiny Red Sports Car, I would encourage somebody to think about what that car represents to them—to get away from the Specific, and move toward the General. It’s not really the Car that you want, it is the feelings you imagine the Car will bring into your experience.

Let’s say it represents freedom, feeling youthful, feeling sexy, feeling like you are in touch with your wild side.  That’s great. Excellent. Then I would encourage a focus on all of those things, writing about those things, setting intentions regarding all of those experiences, and I would want to hang out with people I perceive to be, and have, all of those things. “I want to create the experience of Freedom, of Feeling Like I Look Great, of Feeling Young and Alive, of Leaning into My Wild and Crazy Side.” Yes!!

The Work

We can work on that. You already probably have a lot of that in your experience, so we would work to identify all of the ways you already DO have those feelings, or WHEN you have those feelings, and what you are doing then, or WHEN you had those feelings in the past, and what were you doing THEN, or WHAT can you imagine doing in the future that will bring those feelings again.
Screw the Red Sports Car. Screw the $600,000. The $600,000. people wanted to feel Hope! Possibilities! The Power to Create Something! They wanted to feel like part of the Abraham Facebook group, where everybody is open to wonderful things happening in their lives!!

I think that is freaking great. I am totally all for that. Go after those feelings, and get them anyway and anywhere you can. Just don’t get so attached to the Specifics. Don’t tell the universe what color Joy and Freedom and Alive-ness have to be. Maybe you get ALL of those things through a new job, or a new dog, or somebody you meet, or by taking up Yoga and meeting a bunch of people you really like, or, or, or… Don’t tell the universe it has to show up as a Red Sports Car, or Johnny Depp, or $600,000., or THAT EXACT JOB.

Staying positive, keeping journals, lists of all of the things you appreciate in your life, hanging out with positive people, weeding out those who are always looking to be the victim to the latest perceived outrage (Monsanto, Donald Trump, BP, ISIS, gluten, GMOs, blah blah blah), reading inspiring books or blogs, listening to inspiring podcasts, blogging yourself about all of the great stuff going on in your world. That is the way to start. A million really smart people have great quotes about this stuff—everybody from Abraham Lincoln to Winston Churchill, to Wayne Dyer, to Henry Ford, and on and on and on. This stuff is real.

Of course you need to back this all up with the way you choose to live. You have to walk the talk. More about that next time…

For “Principle of Attraction for Dummies, Sort Of…”, click here…

Please share this post if you think someone in your network of friends might find it useful…

Warmly,

Jim

jamesmicknolan@gmail.com

#lawofattraction, #principleofattraction, #positivepsychology