AttractAnything! (The Blog)

Everyone who has studied the law of attraction is aware of the importance of keeping a positive state of mind.

One of the most basic concepts of the law of attraction is that your state of mind has a “magnetic” property to it (for lack of a better word), and that you attract people, circumstances, and abundance (or lack) according to your your dominant mindset. If your mindset is primarily positive, and you focus on abundance, prosperity, good health, and other positive things, the law of attraction says you will tend to attract positive circumstances. But on the other hand, if your mindset is primarily one of lack and limitation, you will tend to attract these unwanted things as well.

In other words, the law of attraction is an honest broker — it does not judge your request; it simply gives you MORE of what you are already resonating. With this in mind, I want to address a question that I’ve received from many of my personal coaching clients: “Does this mean that we have to stay in a carefree, happy, Pollyanna-like state of mind 24/7 in order to attract good things?

My answer to this is simple: no.

We are ALL imperfect human beings, and it is not necessary (or even desirable) to hold yourself to a higher standard than that. Because we are fallible human beings, we don’t always live up to our best ideals. This is absolutely nothing to be ashamed of, and people who stress too much about trying to attain perfection in their state of mind can often drive themselves a little “loopy” in the process. It’s important to recognize that you’re only human, and do your best to maintain a state of mind that will attract what you want in your life — but you must also balance this with an understanding and acceptance of your own fallible nature as a human being.

It’s okay not to be perfect at this stuff — it really is. The law of attraction is not a harsh, unforgiving “boss,” watching over your shoulder 24/7, and just waiting for an opportunity to bring you down. Here’s an example: because “like attracts like,” it is not a good idea to go through your life being angry. This will tend to attract ill will and angry circumstances into your experience — something I’m sure you do not want.

However… that does not mean that it is NEVER appropriate to be angry, and in certain situations I believe it can actually be useful. I had a coaching client last year (let’s call him “Jim”) who was feeling horribly depressed, and had lost all self-esteem because of a series of devastating rejections and betrayals in his life. Because he was a keen law of attraction follower, he tried his best to never get angry or upset about what had happened. Which seems like a reasonable thing to do because after all, he didn’t want to attract more angry circumstances and people into his life, did he?

But because he had “swallowed” his anger about these betrayals and rejections and refused to feel at any outrage, his state of mind became poisoned with self-pity, and his self esteem and confidence suffered, till at last he sank into a state of depression, with a distorted, negative self-image. All because he had refused to mentally “fight back” against the outrageous behavior he had been unfortunate enough to encounter.

His situation reminded me of an important concept I learned as a freshman psychology student at University: “anger is more useful than despair.”

While it is certainly true that anger is not an ideal state of mind to attract anything worthwhile into your life, it is EQUALLY true that anger is far more useful and productive to your state of mind than despair and depression. In fact, depression is actually anger turned inward (on the “self”), and it poisons the mindset in lots of ways, ruining otherwise healthy self-esteem. And depression is especially devastating — it is a feeling of hopelessness or victimization, and in my opinion, is the lowest emotional state a human being can resonate.

Anger on the other hand, while not ideal, is certainly a “higher” emotion than depression or hopelessness — much higher in fact. It is possible to accomplish a great deal in your life by acting out of anger, but you’ll get nowhere by acting out of hopelessness, depression or despair. In “Jim’s” case I encouraged him to go ahead and be outraged about the experiences he had dealt with and work through it. In fact, I counseled him to use that outrage and that anger as a catalyst to make big changes in his life, and to pursue things he had wanted in his life for years, but felt too “tore down” to take effective action.

I’m happy to report that “Jim” is doing a lot better these days. And yes, he did go through a stage of feeling quite angry. But it was a step up from the emotions of despair and depression that had lingered within him for so long; so in Jim’s case (and yours and mine), anger was definitely more useful than despair.

In time, of course, Jim moved beyond the anger, raising his vibration in a way that attracted better and better things into his life. But he was only able to get there by working through the anger, and not trying to deny it or “go around it.”

All of us who use the law of attraction want to keep a happy, positive, abundant and loving state of mind, because we know this will attract more of these positive things into our life. But we must never forget that we are all human beings, not computers! We are inperfect by nature, and that is absolutely OK. Keeping a positive state of mind, and using the law of attraction effectively is not a black-and-white issue. It’s about going after those better feelings, pursuing those thoughts of abundance, peace and happiness — and accepting our human fallibility when we sometimes don’t reach them. It is the effort that makes all the difference.

Filed under: Positive Thinking, The Law of Attraction, Using the Law of Attraction