Law of Attraction

There’s been a lot written today on the Law of Attraction.  Many years ago, Ernest Holmes – in The Science of Mind told us how to put that law into daily practice:

“Take time every day to see your life as you wish it to be, to make a mental picture of your ideal. Pass the picture over to the Law and go about your business, with a calm assurance that on the inner side of life something is taking place.  There should not be any sense of hurry or worry about this, just a calm, peaceful sense of reality. “

Focus EVERYDAY – see yourself exhibiting that quality more – what would it look like.   Of course this focus works for material things as well. Eg. A student of mine went around for months showing everyone the picture of her new Gold Lexus convertible and sure enough, her husband, who had never bought her anything (he usually just gave her money) – went out and surprised her for her birthday with – yes, you guessed it, the Gold Lexus convertible! There is  power of in visualization!

Many of us think we already are focusing on what we want and wondering why we aren’t getting it. When this is happening, it is because we have thoughts that we are subconsciously thinking that are stronger than what is conscious.  The trick is to make conscious what you believe – so that if it isn’t serving you, you can decide to change it.
Do you put your attention on the qualities of God, or is your intention on worry, criticism and fear?
There is a self-contained testing kit within you: to test where your attention generally is.

Let me give you the test.  You have nothing to write, only to answer honestly to yourself.
What we are aiming at is a continual space of God – Good or in simple language LOVE.  The fruit of that love is gratitude.
If your thoughts are truly focused on love, on God, – they will express themselves in gratitude.  Ask yourself: Is gratitude your most prevalent feeling throughout the day?
Where do you express your love?  Your spouse or partner?  Your children?  Your boss?  Your company?  Your church?  Your president?  Your country?  Yourself?  Your God?
If you are loving, the fruit of that is a FEELING of being grateful – of gratitude. Gratitude will be the predominant feeling as you move throughout your day.

Now, if your predominant, even though unconscious, thought, is criticism – it will show up in your life as resentment.  Ask yourself honestly: Are resentments your major feeling? What and who do you criticize?  Your spouse or partner?  Your boss? Your children?  Your company?  Your church? Your president? Your country?  Yourself? Your God?
Do you criticize the trivial? – Traffic, prices, the checkout line, the media, the school system? The appearance of others?  The actions of others? Do you ever hear yourself say of yourself, how dumb?  How stupid I am?  – or look at me, I can’t even do…  you fill in the blanks…
If you are critical, the fruit of that criticism is the FEELING of resentment.

So, the test is – where is your attention generally? Does it produce gratitude? or does it produce resentment?  Which feeling do you usually express?
Are you loving — or are you critical?
Great test, isn’t it?  Can you pass it.

IF you find subtle ways you are more in complaint than in joy –  this is no need for further criticism.  This is what we do to ourselves – for example, it’s not a problem if we get rightfully angry at something that happens, but
we get into trouble when we get angry over our getting angry – and start to condemn ourselves.  Our whole purpose in life is to come more and more to love ourselves.
If you don’t yet love yourself enough, you have your work cut out for you for another year.  In what area of your life have you forgotten that you are God?   — take a look for a moment at the list we gave you when you came in….  let’s pause and let Spirit show you the quality IT wants to reveal more of in you this year…

There is no need for becoming something you aren’t yet.  It’s not a matter of achieving more, learning more, getting better.  It’s a matter of simply remembering the TRUTH about ourselves.  We are made in the image and likeness of God.  The qualities that we know are true about God are therefore, also true about us.  We need only to claim them as our own.

Before you can begin anything new, you have to complete the old. The Past – what we did, didn’t do, should have done, did poorly or wrongly – is always with us in some way.  You are not your past, yet may still be living as if you are. One of the main messages from all Religious traditions is to LIVE IN THE NOW.  One way to begin to do that is by completing the past.

I once heard that there are only 3 things which really hold a person back in life; unmet needs,  insufficient distinctions/language  and being incomplete.  Being complete at all times is a skill worth mastering.

“We spend our lives doing what we are incomplete about.”

What are some of the reasons to do Spring/Fall Cleaning  or to complete?

Lack of completion in any area of our lives takes ENERGY away from us … it lowers our self-esteem to have projects unfinished. Incompletions dominate our lives until they are known and resolved.

People often choose profession based on where they suffered in life  (therapists, healers, financial planners, Ministers?? Hmmm )… Who knows… We all spend some part of our day engaged in activities which no longer have any bearing whatsoever on what we want to do.

Most people survive these incompletions, but in every instance, there is a cost.  Because the natural state of human being is BALANCE,  WHOLENESS and INTEGRITY, we lose power and energy when we are incomplete.

Proof?  Virtually everyone feels much better after having cleaned out a closet, or when a course is complete or a major project is finished.

First we need to complete our PAST – if that’s not already done…but, then we need to master the skill of being complete about everything as it occurs..

That would give us virtually boundless and healthy energy.  We wouldn’t have our juice sucked up by the known and unknown stuff to which we have become accustomed.

Let’s be real here – we’ll always have some Incompletions in our lives – and rarely is someone fully complete about past trauma such as losing a loved one or even some childhood damage.  The point here, though, is that you can substantially enhance your well-being energy level and effectiveness by being more complete.

I’m certainly not talking about being manic about being complete all the time.  Life is MESSY by nature.  Go with the flow, but always get complete about the things or situations that you know will bug you later.  Don’t step over anything.

WHAT ARE INCOMPLETIONS? And where do they come from?  Incompletions are events which have occurred in our lives that passed by without our having done what was necessary to be complete (as in satisfied, handled fully, responded powerfully) about.
Examples are as follows:
Not taking out the trash when it was full yesterday.

Not stopping someone from saying things that hurt you

Doing something you considered wrong or not right

Not going for a goal that you really wanted but were afraid to go for.

There are six signs of being incomplete:
REGRET, REMORSE; SHAME; ANGER; DENIAL and continuing SADNESS.

What is a recurring problem you have individually?
Collectively?  Why does it keep coming back?
What is the COMPLETE WORK you could do to have it complete forever. Do it!! PLEASE.. NOW.  IT is costing too much.

Here’s a great story I want to share. It’s called, Carrot, Egg or Coffee? (You will never look at a cup of coffee the same way again.)

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved a new one arose.

Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water. In the first, she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs and the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil without saying a word. In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners.

She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, “Tell me, what do you see?”
“Carrots, eggs, and coffee,” she replied.

She brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they got soft. She then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, she asked her to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled, as she tasted its rich aroma.

The daughter then asked, “What’s the point, mother?”

Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity–boiling water–but each reacted differently.

The carrot went in strong, hard and unrelenting. However after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak.

The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior. But, after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened.

The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water they had changed the water.

“Which are you?” she asked her daughter. “When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?”

Think of this: Which am I?
Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity, do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength?

Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and a hardened heart?

Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you. When the hours are the darkest and trials are their greatest do you elevate to another level?
Don’t let the storm overwhelm you. You show it how overwhelming you are!

The Coffee transforms the world around it by becoming one with it.

Albert Einstein once said: .The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.. Can we see? Wrapped in awe and wonder. When was the last time you let that happen? How many people walk around in life feeling wrapped in awe and wonder? Most of us are wrapped in confusion and fear; wrapped in I can’t do this, wrapped in: What’s going to happen?.

What are you wrapped in? When was the last time you took time out to notice something beautiful? Remember, the Law of Attraction teaches us that whatever we focus on increases. Spend time each day NOTICING beauty around you and let it touch you. Helen Keller tells us, “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.”

So, to cultivate the Quality of Beauty, we need to look beyond the physical and take time every day to look at the physical so that we can see beyond it. As Johann Wolfgang von Goethe once said: “Hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of your life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.” When I first read that, it made me ask myself what I spent my time on. Who has time to read a book, to listen to music, to go to a place of beauty? Isn’t that what we frequently say? I hear more retired people today saying that they don’t have the time. .I’m too busy.. What’s this about? What are we busy about? Take time to smell the roses. Can we, every single day take some time to listen to music, to read some poetry? What would life be like if we started living that way instead? To focus on what is real, what is important in life, what’s beautiful, rather than what we now focus on, whatever that is.

Walt Whitman tells us .A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books.. And, once again, Ralph Waldo Emerson, .Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful, for beauty is God’s handwriting – a wayside sacrament.

Welcome it in every fair face, in every fair sky, in every flower, and thank God for it as a cup of blessing.

One of my favorite Chinese proverbs says, “When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other.”

If you truly love Nature, you will find beauty everywhere. The moment that we give attention to anything, like a blade of grass, it becomes mysterious. It becomes awesome. It becomes a magnificent world unto itself.

R. Buckminster Fuller once said: “When I am working on a problem I never think about beauty. I only think about how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.”

American author, poet and philosopher, Ralph Waldo Emerson said, Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.