If you’ve been intrigued by the law of attraction and positive thinking but you haven’t been able to crack the code, there’s a reason for that. When Rhonda Byrne released The Secret, it felt like someone had just released the Kraken. Finally! The law of attraction had been put into simple to understand terms that anyone can use! Now, I’m just going to imagine feathers and dollar bills and then see them everywhere! It was a powerful time and I’ll admit, I got swept up in it.
But then, as time passed, I found myself frustrated. Why wasn’t my bank account filling up? What was I doing wrong? I did some extra reading. I found the series written by Florence Scovel Shinn that were published starting in 1925 and I read them with excitement. “Ok”, I thought, “I’m finally going to crack the code here!” I returned to a practice of gratitude journaling. I was specific in my gratitude. I included things that had already happened and things that I was acting as if they had already happened. I, like the rule follower that I am, followed ALL THE RULES.
And yet. I had a good life, but it wasn’t the one I was imagining. It felt like everything was always out of my reach. Here’s what I didn’t know, and what I’m working through now.
I didn’t know that I needed to get my mind right first, to clear the traumas and beliefs that cloud me, to be able to focus on the rest. As it stands at the moment, these spiritual principles have a loud voice on a big stage and the result of that is I see people in my office who are just like me: feeling shame and guilt for not being ‘good enough’ at the spiritual principles for them to lead to happiness, success, health, and ease. One of my podcast guests, Ashley Rose, a transformational life coach said it best: “I was stuck on a hamster wheel of self-help, not getting anywhere.”
I read things on Instagram all the time that tout “You aren’t broken!” “You are a magical unicorn!” It sounds so LOVELY. But. But. We are all a little broken and our inability or lack of willingness to stare at those broken bits and go through the pain of putting them back together (or tearing them off completely) is what is holding us back. You must face yourself fully and honestly to get to a place where the spiritual principles actually start working.
It starts with awareness and as they say: “When you are ready, the teacher will appear”.
