The flaw of attraction
This is one of the most interesting questions we can ask ourselves. Can we truly attract things through our thoughts? It’s a puzzling question because its implications are as frightening as they are exciting — that’s why they say there is close to no difference between fear and excitement.
I remember a few years ago, when I first heard that my thoughts attracted my experiences. To be honest with you, I couldn’t wrap my head around it no matter how hard I tried, and tried I did.
In retrospect, I realize that at that time, through the habits I had (my conditioning) and the life that I lived, I believed that I was just a physical body in a physical world. Still, the idea that it could be real kept me going.
As I tried applying what I had learned from different materials, without much success, I started doubting the validity of such statements. My doubts, coupled with my frustration, eventually led me into seeking more peace of mind. And as I found some, I realized that I became frustrated because my wants and desires couldn’t be fulfilled. I had those wants in the first place. My own thoughts created my frustrations.
So as I observed, researched, and experimented — I realized that before asking myself whether my thoughts attracted things in my life or not, why not start with the origin of my thoughts first? Why do I have these different thoughts in the first place?
You see, as we go about our lives, especially according to the ways we have been brought up by our parents, teachers and society — we accumulate many limiting beliefs. Because our beliefs aren’t always aligned with universal principles, there are many distortions in how we think and behave.
This results in the creation of emotions such as fears, anger, pain, guilt, shame, etc., at an unconscious level. And these emotions that we are rarely conscious of, in turn, create the worrisome and narrowed thoughts we entertain on a daily basis.
A few examples. Thoughts about our scary future, thoughts about ending up lonely, thoughts about not having enough money, thoughts about our body not looking good enough, thoughts about revenge, thoughts about our hurts/being hurt, thoughts of not being good enough to start a YouTube channel or succeed in business, thoughts about sexual pleasures and vacations, and so on.
There is a reason why Carl Jung said:
“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”
Carl G. Jung
Onward.
Because of the fact that most of our thoughts are about the above, through the RAS (Reticular Activating System), we focus on interpreting our life’s events in ways that reinforce our limiting beliefs.
As a note. It is through our beliefs that we look at the world. Our beliefs shape our perspective. And the more limiting those beliefs are, the narrower our perspective on life is.
As an example. People with a narrow perspective tend to react strongly to insignificant events. They quickly lose their “cool,” in fact, they rarely experience calmness. Everything is quickly turned into a drama.
On the other hand, people who have a broader perspective, which naturally happens as they work on themselves and grow spiritually, are calmer and wiser — and this wisdom helps them keep an open-mind most of the time.
This openness of mind, and calmness of heart, breaks the cycle of reinforcement of limiting beliefs, and even better, it helps create newer cycles that form and strengthen positive beliefs.
As we keep working on ourselves regularly, releasing all that we have been brought up to accept as true, when in fact, most of it isn’t — we increase in calmness and potency. We get healthier and more harmonious insights about the nature of the universe, but also about ourselves; who we are and what we’re capable of doing.
At this point, with focus and clarity, our thoughts stop using us, and we start using them to give us a clear vision about what we would like to manifest. And because we’re freed from the influence of most of our limiting beliefs — we act with boldness and energy, creating our lives as we envision them.
Of course, we could go deeper and touch at the energy factor, the level of consciousness, the masculine and feminine principles, and much more. But that would be for another time. It’s very important to keep things practical and applicable because unless we’re able to use the knowledge we acquire, this knowledge leads us straight to an ivory tower…
I hope this answer brought you some clarity on the subject. If you have other related questions, be sure to put them in the comments.
As a final note.
If you felt like what you read was “custom-tailored” to what you needed to hear at this moment, then you’ll probably want to hear more. I started a free newsletter from which I share weekly pieces on effective healing and spiritual growth. If you’re interested, subscribe here.