Does anyone really get excited at the prospect of losing out on the good things of life that others are enjoying? Doubtful, although there may be a few scattered exceptions.
"How long must I say my affirmations, visualize what I want, cut out pictures from magazines, tweak my goals, and affirm that the things I want from life are shortly coming my way - before they actually show up?" you are wondering.
"Are delays denials? Is the "Law" of Attraction LISTENING? How long is this "showing up" going to take? The days and months are speeding by. I still drive a beater car. I've got more bills than money. Where are my new clients? By now I expected better results than the nothing I'm getting. What's going on? One thing's for sure, if God's got favorites, I'm feeling like I'm not in His select group."
Have you ever felt this way?
"Where are my RESULTS? Am I wasting my time telling my inner mind, 'I am prosperous, I am a money magnet. Day by day, in every way, I'm getting better and better?' Maybe this 'Law of Attraction is a con job? Am I being taken to the cleaners by believing in and saying my daily affirmations - which are very time consuming?"
These are good questions. "What's the missing ingredient if the 'Law5B4 of Attraction' really works - as all those Law of Attraction authors say it does?"
Let's start with feelings, which the lecturer Neville Goddard during his lifetime told his audiences again and again, "is the secret," in other words - there is an art to realizing our desires and that secret is feelings.
There is an aspect of our whole mind, some people call it the subconscious, that "does not originate ideas but accepts as true those [ideas backed by powerful feelings] which the conscious mind believes to be true and in a way known only to itself objectifies the accepted ideas," Goddard wrote in his small book Feeling Is the Secret.
If we do not control our feelings we impress our "subconscious" with undesirable states. By control of our feelings Goddard did not mean denial, restraint, or suppression, "but rather the disciplining of the self to imagine and entertain only such feelings as contribute to your happiness," not, I'll admit, an easy thing to always do.
Our inner mind "contemplates a feeling as a fact existing within itself and on this assumption proceeds to give expression to it," Goddard wrote. "The creative process begins with an idea and its cycle runs its course as a feeling and ends in a volition to act." His point? "Think feelingly only of the state your desire to realize." We do possess, he insisted, the "freedom to choose the kind of mood you assume, but the expression of the mood is th5B4e secret of the subconscious."
"Make no mistake about this," he wrote. "If, as you prepare for sleep, you do not consciously feel yourself into the state of the answered wish, then you will take with you into...[sleep] the sum total of the reactions and feelings of the waking day, and while asleep you will be instructed in the manner in which they will be expressed tomorrow."
"We think in secret" - and feel - "and it comes to pass; environment is but our looking glass," the poet William Thackery wrote. What if you were given a printout at the end of each day of every thought, and strong feeling, that had its moment of glory in the sunlight of your mind? Ouch. What would be the ratio of positive to negative thoughts? Could the "Law" of Attraction be getting many mixed signals from you? One moment, happy? Another moment, discouraged? Another time, really, really, really upset? What's the "Law" supposed to do to help you? How will it answer you? Exactly how many different images can we place on the photographic plate of our minds daily and not blow the transmission lines radiating from ourselves to that great Central Answering Station, wherever it's located.
Life is a series of moods and most of certainly go through many climate changes during the course of a day, which makes it difficult for our "unseen allies behind the scenes" to know what we truly want or how to help us attract it. Do we desire that anger to manif5B4est as a circumstance in our lives or do we want a new Volvo parked in our driveway? Time to decide, right?
If the "Law" of Attraction could be personified as a series of "invisible allies behind the scenes," I suspect we so confuse them they have no choice but to wait on us until we get our feelings, desires, and moods in order and gain a measure of control over them. Steady streaming pulses of intention radiating from us that are crystal clear and held steadily, despite life's hurricanes, is very helpful to those behind the scenes who are waiting for us to let them know their daily assignment, don't you think?
Dr. Robert Schuller who built a ministry and his Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California tells the story, in his writings, of Dr. Lacy Hall who years ago recruited a large number of persons for an experiment. Each was asked to keep a diary of their daily life - to record what they thought about during the course of a day.
After a year and a half, the data was collected, calculated, and computerized at the Stone-Brandel Center in Chicago. The results? "The people who kept these diaries came up feeling depressed or discouraged all the time." Most, not all, but most "experienced 90 percent negative input." Only 10 percent of the thoughts they had were positive! "These were the people who had unique relationships in marriage, in the office, at home. And they also had connections with outstanding posit5B4ive thinking churches. But on an overall average," Schuller writes, "Dr. Hall said this group had 75 percent negative input."
Dr. Hall's comments were: "We are fighting against tremendous odds. The average human being (who's trying to be positive) is fighting a losing battle, unless he's tied into something unusual that constantly feeds him [or her] positive emotions."
Is it any wonder we don't have the "up" feeling all the time? Is it surprising that the "Law" of Attraction is working to give those who want to quit and give up a reason to do so, even if they are saying "I am positive," "I am well," "I am a money magnet"?
And our negative feelings really energize us, don't they, far more than our feelings of happiness ever do?
So, if we're among the ranks of those who curse the day while affirming how beautiful and exciting it is to be alive, prosperous, and well, guess what? The stronger emotions win out because they send "cancel messages' to the Call Center Operators who take and post our strongest emotional responses on computer screens or bulletin boards within the offices of the "Law" of Attraction Building. Angry? Upset? "This is not going to be a good day for Don," Don's helpers tell each other, "but what can we do? What he's angry about seems to be what he wants because there's so much feeling behind it."
"Okay. Somebody get on it; make it so for Don," I can hear a 'Law' of Attraction supervisor 5B4say.
"The words 'I AM'...are potent words," A.L. Kitselman wrote. "Be careful what you hitch them to. The thing you're claiming has a way of reaching back and biting you." Watch, in other words, what we place great feeling into; it may, indeed, reach back and bite us.
"I keep the telephone of my mind open to peace, harmony, health, love and abundance," Edith Armstrong claimed in her writings. "Then, whenever doubt, anxiety or fear try to call me, they keep getting a busy signal - and soon they'll forget my number." Armstrong does not tell us how she managed to do this, but apparently by doing so she was able to set in motion the positive side of the "Law" of Attraction and had far less bites to show for doing this than a number of her negative thinking contemporaries.
"When you have chosen a particular perspective on life," Paul Chivington insists in his book Seeing Through Your Illusions, "the universe will rush in to greet you from that perspective." So true.
"Intense fear is alive with faith." - Genevieve Behrend, Your Invisible Powers
And, I might add, expectation! "I knew it. I just knew it. Things were too good to be true. Why am I not surprised?"
Let's take a look briefly, at why it's so important how - with feeling - we talk to ourselves every day and, in the process, get the "Law" of Attraction working for rather than against our best interests.
I love this analogy Dr. Rebecca 5B4Beard gives in her book Everyman's Search: "Sometimes I have found it easy to describe what goes on in the body by making a picture of a submarine. Let us think of our cells as the man in a submarine. They obey orders implicitly. The captain of the submarine is the only one who can look through the periscope and see the outside world. The men in the submarine must take the captain's word for the conditions in that outside world. They cannot see for themselves. They must act upon what he tells them.
"You, the reasoning you, are the captain of your body. The men in the submarine are your cells. They cannot see outside. They must accept your word implicitly. You are the only one who can look through the periscope. So, some morning, like the captain of the submarine, you look out and send back a report of the conditions in the world about you, as you see them.
"You send the word down to the men below: 'All fog. All mist. Nothing clear. Icebergs ahead. Danger all around.' That is equivalent to saying, 'Everything is going wrong,' I can't see my way out,' 'Everything seems against me,' 'Obstacles meet me at every turn,' 'The world's going to the dogs.' How would you feel if you were one of the men down in the submarine? You would put your head in your hands and say, 'What's the use of washing the dishes and cleaning the galley? What's the use of cooking the food? Why keep up the daily regime?'
"Can you see 5B4the cells of your stomach that are at work down there trying to digest your food? You often discourage them with your words. You feed them on a diet of frustration and fear and blame them for not being efficient.
"Then suddenly one day you look through the periscope and say, 'The sun is out. The fog is gone. No more icebergs visible. Full speed ahead.' And the men down there breathe a sigh of relief. The danger is over. 'Let's go to work. My, we have a lot to do. We have to clean this place, wash up these dishes, and get rid of this collected waste.' They sing for joy. When you get up tomorrow morning are you going to see sunshine or fog? Are you going to send joy to your cells or are you going to paralyze them with fear?"
"I wish we could all take a vacation from negation," Beard says. "I wish for one day we could exalt everything in our bodies." The same sentiment holds true, I believe she would have said, for how we view, and feel about, the circumstances of our life.
A shift in our feelings, what Neville Goddard, called "the secret," will make all the difference in how the 'Law' of Attraction works for or against us. This shift is illustrated in Lynda Madden Dahl's book Ten Thousand Whispers:
"Surrounding you is an infinite field of probabilities, representing all possible variations of events you could ever experience. See these probabilities of bright tiny sparks of silver against a backgroun5B2d of black velvet. Now see many larger gold stars randomly spread throughout the field. These gold stars represent the probabilities that are most likely to be actualized in your life based on this moment's thoughts, attitudes and beliefs.
Add our moods and feelings here, also.
"Now, pretend you change your thoughts from, say, fear to excitement about an upcoming event. Look what happens to the field of probabilities. Some silver stars become gold sparks, and some gold stars become silver sparkles. Now change your attitude about a past event and see what happens."
To be rich, feel better, and attract more of what life has available specifically for you, watch what you image with feeling and emotion. A picture is merely a mental form and it has all the characteristics of "any waking event, thing, or situation that we might see in everyday waking reality," Gerald Epstein, M.D., writes in Healing Visualization. "The difference is that, unlike objects perceived when awake, they have no volume or mass. In short, they have no substance. Yet they do have ENERGY. We might think of these images as our mental children. We give birth to them to act on our behalf as agents of healing," and I might add "prosperity."
When we image what we desire, and with feeling, we are creating a subjective, or inner, reality, "but it is a reality nonetheless, with the power to affect our bodies," and I would add "our lives."
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By now you've probably figured out that I'm placing your powerful emotions and Desires under the same tent. "The secret of success lies in this," Robert Collier writes in Riches Within Your Reach:
"There is inside you a seed of God capable of drawing to you any element you need, to bring to fruition whatever of good you desire. But like all other seeds, its shell must be broken before the kernel inside can use its attractive power. And that shell is thicker, harder, than the shell of any seed on earth. Only one thing can break it - heat from within - a Desire so strong, a determination so intense, that you cheerfully throw everything you have into the scale to win what you want."
Here's one way to do this. "During the course of a day I may imagine many things, but instead of imagining lots of small things, I would suggest that you imagine something so big it includes all the little things. Instead of imagining wealth, health and friends, imagine being ecstatic," Neville Goddard suggests.
What is Goddard saying? In effect, "Reduce the idea of ecstasy to the single sensation, 'Isn't it wonderful?' Do not allow the conscious, reasoning mind to ask why, because if it does it will start to look for visible causes, and then the sensation will be lost. Rather, repeat over and over again, 'Isn't it wonderful?'"
Be Rich! Just for the fun of it. Isn't it exciting to be alive - right now? You can get the positive aspects of the 'Law' of Attraction on your side by reminding yourself, with feeling, that "Somewhere, within your soul," to quote Neville Goddard, "there is a mood which when found, means health, wealth and happiness to you."
"Your emotions are a result of your belief and thoughts," William Walker Atkinson writes in his 1908 classic Thought Power, which is about the "Law" of Attraction. "Ordinary appreciation a Right Brain activity that is enormously intensified by suggestions from the Left Brain," the British novelist Colin Wilson says. The most important factor in vision, he indicates, is a "Precise knowledge of what you are trying to do," an important, not to be overlooked, first step."
"We should all be bringing some seemingly impossible things to pass," Florence Scovel-Shinn says in The Game of Life and How to Play It.
Right now "feels" right to do this, don't you agree?
James Clayton Napier worked as a TV news anchor, talk show host, and feature story reporter in Texas for thirteen years. James interviewed thousands of people during his career from the highest and mightiest to those whose lives were so quiet they might never have been noticed had he not decided to tell their stories. He has also taught TV news reporting and speech communication at three universities.
Learn more about James' current projects at http://dollarsloveme.blogspot.com
Henry David Thoreau
