Since the release of The Secret many people are striving to work with the Law of Attraction – and that is a good thing; a helpful thing; something that, if done properly, will change life as we know it. However, often people also get confused, worried, and even angry because there are situations when this Law just doesn’t seem to apply: I am seeing myself in this new relationship; I am feeling the joy of having the lottery win; I am grateful for the recovered health of my child – and still, I am alone, without the lottery win, burying my child.
I have known many people who did think the best possible, expected the positive, had a beautiful, clear vision for their lives – not even anything extravagant like winning $20 million in a lottery – and still struggled on a daily basis. True, they took their struggles with a more positive attitude, not allowing these events to pull them down but smiling at them and taking them as a challenge. But still, they were struggling, not meeting their beautiful dreams, not living the life they were dreaming about. Why is that, you may ask?
Let me start with a grammatical clarification: as is pointed out so often when the Law of Attraction is presented, we attract that which we feel, think, and belief: that which we really want. However, what is often forgotten or misunderstood is the true meaning of “want” in this context. “To want something” nowadays often is taken to mean to fancy it, to wish to have it or do it, to think that it would be neat, etc. But “to want” has another, older meaning as well: it means “to be lacking, to need“. Keep that second definition in mind as you are reading on.
Next to the Law of Attraction there are other Laws that are at work in the Universe. One of these Universal Laws concerns itself with the freedom of choice for everyone and the possibility of Sacred Contracts that pre-date and supersede our current wishes and hopes. Let us call this the Law of Destiny.
If I have a choice to attract into my life whatever I want, so has everyone else. And nowhere is it written that everyone has to choose an easy, joyful, flowing life. Following the idea of a succession of lifetimes spent on earth we have to consider that there may be a red threat that winds through those lifetimes, a path of some kind that is to be followed, chosen freely at a time before we made conscious, material choices in this incarnation. And if that is true than maybe, just maybe, the trials and tribulations that keep coming our way are part of that bigger life plan. What if we get so focused on what we want (wish for) – that is what we see around us and wish to have for ourselves – that we are overlooking what we really need – or, to speak in an older meaning: what we are wanting of!
Even if we don’t believe in life successions it is not said that every person has to feel happy with the same things. I have worked with people who felt most comforted when they were feeling sad or angry. This was their normal and their need (and want) at the time was to find situations that supported those feelings. It can take many years of deep work to overcome such conditioning.
Then there is the possibility of Sacred Contracts: the idea that, on the spiritual level, we have made agreements and arrangements with other souls to support each other in the learning tasks that we have set for ourselves. So, what if we have decided to give this life to the service of someone else’s learning: to accept difficulties and struggle so that someone else in our life may experience the contrast. We still have the freedom of choice and can probably choose to abandon that contract – but it likely wouldn’t be that easy. The wants and needs of the other person would come into play and oppose our own wishes and that could create more struggle and pain.
Finally, there is another Spiritual Universal Law that needs to be considered in this: the Law of Efficiency. The Universe is an amazing place. Everything happens with absolute precision, without any waste and with an almost unimaginable penchant for detail. Movements and directions that are undesirable in this perfect harmony get re-directed, re-adjusted, or re-designed. So, if our wish constitutes a detour, a hindrance in the perfect design that exists for us and those around us there is a good possibility that the Universe is going to do its best to re-directed, re-adjusted, or re-designed – which we would probably experience as struggle.
But what does all that mean? Should we forget about the Law of Attraction? Should we just go ahead and do whatever presents?
No! We are free beings with the right – and the responsibility – to create and co-create life for ourselves and others. But it may need a bit more than focusing on our dreams. We need to align our dreams with our purpose, the direction of our life, and the contracts we made. We need to explore and remove the conditioning that has been placed on us to become able to look deep enough into our souls to decide what it is that we fancy and what we truly need and lack in order to move ahead in our journey. And we need to put our own energy into our dream. The Universe doesn’t waste! And if like attracts like, than not doing anything to get closer to having that beautiful relationship is going to attract exactly that – nothing happening!
Most of all, we need to continue to do the best we possibly can do without continuously looking for the reward – because if we focus too hard on a particular dream we may just walk by the many beautiful gifts that the Universe is presenting to us and that will move us along on the path to bliss, joy, and gratitude.
May your life be filled with joy and new beginnings this spring – and remember: you are exactly where you are meant to be on your life’s journey!