Something about LOA and Affirmations

[Why Syzygy]

Someone recently mentioned Louise Hay's "You Can Heal Your Life". That book comes up regularly in conversations, but I've never read it. This morning I went to amazon, and began reading the excerpt. Something struck me.

From the excerpt,

Which of these statements sounds like you?

"People are out to get me."
"Everyone is always helpful."

Each one of these beliefs will create quite different experiences. What we believe about ourselves and about life become true for us.

This is LOA 101. I'm no stranger to affirmations. I spent hours and days in the '80s reciting and writing affirmations. I can't say there were ever any consistent results. Isn't that the problem with affirmations? Maybe they work for you?

I know I'm "guilty" of saying both to myself. I do consciously tell myself people are "always helpful". Sometimes I see "proof". Sometimes, of course, there are people so seem to be out to get me! What have I done?

After reading the excerpt, I went mental and assumed the posture of "Everyone is always helpful", and then encountering someone who is out to get me. This just kind of happened automatically. I felt an inner tension. My defenses went up. This is reflective of what in reality happens when I do run into those people who take some kind of offense from me. Most times I have no clue what keyed them in to mark me. The LOA rule book would have me believe it (these people) are something I have created, or at least invited, with my thoughts.

I'm going to call bullshit. What I really need to do, and affirm, is that some people are going to be helpful SOMETIMES, some are going to be a hindrance. Some people are going to target me for their anger outlet. Others are going to share their beautiful lightheartedness. I need to affirm that whichever kind of person I encounter, I will have an appropriate response. I don't need to tighten up and "defend" myself. Those experiences are painful and never pleasant. They create a whole new cauldron of bad feelings, memories and recriminations.

This is a new way of thinking for me and turns the LOA practice on its head. My affirmations need to be about MY abilities and not about things I truly have no control over.

edit: It is really a disservice to ourselves to assume "everyone is always helpful". That leaves us unprepared for the times when people are not at all helpful. It also seems a bit disrespectful of others and their free will to action. I even smell a whiff of arrogance in that EVERYONE should be helpful for me ALWAYS! Isn't that a bit childish? And whatever will I do if I should encounter someone who is intent on being an ass? Fall apart? Spend more time with affirmations? Hate myself?

[Kind of Blue]

1. I'm just wondering if your're intermingling two LOAs?

I may not fully understand the laws yet but am practicing. So I'm just trying to understand when you say, "What I really need to do, and affirm, is that some people are going to be helpful SOMETIMES, some are going to be a hindrance." And, "My affirmations need to be about MY abilities and not about things I truly have no control over." So isn't it really the Law of Allowance you're describing and not really the Law of Attraction?

[Why Syzygy]

4. I don't know.

I consider the Law of Attraction to include any technique, such as affirmations, that has the purpose of changing one's circumstances and attract more of what one wants. I've never heard of the Law of Allowance?

[Kind of Blue]

7. Absolutely agree! But Law of Allowing is one of the Universal

It's been awhile since I've had good sources for the Law of Allowing. I started to understand it from Abraham-Hicks (Abraham channeled by Esther Hicks) about 10years ago and especially through the pragmatic book, Handbook to Higher Consciousness by Ken Keyes, written back in the 70s) that I refer to again and again. I think The Secret craze actually started as a project with Abraham-Hicks but fell apart upon some disagreement. So I was surprised to find one of the 2 videos from a Google search is in association with The Secret. I've never gotten any of The Secret products because all the info can be found on the web or in other forums for free.
http://www.attractthesecret.com/law-of-attraction/abraham-hicks-law-of-attraction/abraham-hicks-glorious-experience-of-allowing
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/yt-LzO7ZdP3ycM/abraham_hicks_the_law_of_allowing/
For me, I believe the universe is interactive, the way I think is what I experience or manifest. When I want to employ the Law of Attraction, I have to approach it with no sense of lacking therefore I want. I believe that I have everything right now that makes me happy and it is this reality that keeps me aligned with what I want to attract. Attracting from a standpoint of lacking keeps me all wrapped up up in the negative emotions of lacking. And then I'm automatically resisting what I really want by thinking of what I don't have, and since this is where my mind is focused then I continue to experience not having it.
So I focus on gratitude and an already abundant life. The key to me is keeping aligned (higher vibration) whether I run into negative people or not on the road to what I desire. This requires letting go of control (as you stated in the OP) and not worrying about outcome, Allowing.
Since the Universe is interactive, and I have gotten rid of any negative emotion associated with the desire (alignment), and let go of outcome (allowing), I know the Universe will deliver in its own way and in it's own time. It always does. The Law of Allowing is a tough one but now I cannot separate it from the Law of Attraction, because it is the key to prevent resisting what you actually want.
Hope this makes sense.

[eilen]

2. sometimes it is easy to mistake the purpose of the forest for the trees

I guess it depends on what you consider helpful. However, I do believe that everyone has something to teach me, and that can be helpful.

Last Fall I was trying to register for classes through my local community college. I had attended there before so was on the registry records. No matter what I did, it would not allow me to log on (the registration is online). I went to the closest satellite office and they could not help me. So I drove out to the actual school which is across town, not really easy to get to. I found parking and tried to register there on one of the computers in their lounge--where they have computers and a counter where assistants can help you with your issues. When I finally got to an assistant after being unable to log on there, she had trouble too and had to call a supervisor and the IT dept. Finally, she offered to register me for the classes since it was just impossible for me to do it. I gave her a list of classes and alternates and every one of those were closed or filled. The more I struggled and tried alternate classes, the worst it got. Finally, a light went on in my head that the universe is trying to tell me something.

For far less money, I was able to take some art classes and writing workshops that were more appropriate for my needs and were very healing in nature. I had just quit a job that had left me entirely burnt out and looking back now, I was in no shape to carry a semester's worth of college work. My body, mind and spirit needed extreme R&R.

Now, I could have focused on the relative people I was dealing with and continued my quest by chasing down professors so I could try and persuade them to sign forms to allow me into their classes and caused myself further frustration, anger and the sense that nothing was working out for me--I'm glad I didn't take that path.

[Why Syzygy]

5. I think I remember

your school story. Something similar happened the last time I enrolled in school too. I don't remember the details, but afterwards I felt I had been given a gift. I know things like that happen a lot more than we realize.

I'm not at all sure "everyone" has something to teach me. That's just me, and not a diss on you or anyone else's beliefs.

[northernlights]

3. I read You Can Heal Your Life back in the 80s

I think you need to read the whole book, not rely on excerpts.

I suppose it's related to Law of Attraction, but I think more about growing what we put our attention on and how we respond to negativity when it does appear.

I don't know why people target you, VSM, any more than I know why they target me. I only know that they do target me, in some cases before they've even met me.

There are always going to be people who seem to be -- or are -- "out to get you." Sometimes, though, they are there to push you into a different direction, but they just don't know it. And some times they're just jerks being themselves.

Hay does push affirmations a lot, which I think can help at a certain level although I also think there's a point where they aren't as helpful. I know it's never gone as smoothly for me as it seems to for her. Lately I've concluded that it makes a big difference to be born beautiful enough to have been a model. It's a fact of our culture that physically attractive people are treated better, are offered more opportunities and doors are opened for them.

[Why Syzygy]

6. That's pretty much the LOA.

"growing what we put our attention on and how we respond to negativity when it does appear"
It's the same thing, using our minds/thoughts/attention to change circumstances.

I guess one of my main points is that "everyone" and "always" are not reasonable expectations. Most, if not all, of the psychological training I've had tells us not to use black/white thinking. Nothing is ever "All" or "Nothing". Not ALL people target me, and not ALL people are helpful. And not ALL people who are "helpful" are 100% helpful ALL the time. I think the premise of the "affirmation" is faulty. If I say, "When people are helpful, I graciously accept their help." Or, "When people make trouble for me, I step around and my self assurance remains intact.", I get much closer to the See the difference? I really think the extreme thinking sets us up for failure (almost) Every time.

[northernlights]

8. I like your versions of the affirmations

I do get your point and agree.

Another related thought is that it's not healthy to block our own negative thoughts and/or feelings as they arise, which I think denying them does. Focussing on an extreme positive and not acknowledging negative feelings or thoughts forces them "underground." They then can come out unconsciously, in unexpected and/or subtle ways, causing us to unintentionally generate bad karma and can lead to that bad energy boomeranging back at us.

I think it works better to acknowledge the negative thoughts and feelings, honor them, but then choose not to act on them and instead consciously choose the higher response. Which I think your affirmations get to.

[northernlights]

9. a couple other thoughts/memories this pm...

It's been a while since I've read You Can Heal Your Life. One thing Hay stresses is that her affirmations are examples. Everybody really needs to self-examine and create their own, unique to themselves and their situations.

She worked a lot with physical illness and how our negative beliefs can manifest in our bodies. She would have been just another person preaching this stuff, except that she was in the right place / time / mindset to work with AIDS patients. Back in the early days of AIDS, a lot of people wouldn't even touch them. I think gays back then were really deeply very wounded souls and they desperately needed someone like Hay to help them accept and love themselves so they could heal emotionally and spiritually, and die with hearts full of love and at peace.

So her work is aimed at pretty extreme situations.

I also think one of the reasons that affirmations such as "everybody is helpful to me" aren't effective right now is because we are, as a culture, in a very different place than we were in the early 80s. Then we were emerging from a deep recession and people were, frankly, a lot nicer to each other. Now we are entering a deep recession or depression. Then we had ended a war and were ready to move on. Now we have been on the attack and under attack for years -- against Iraq but also against us by our rightwing neighbors

The war against us by our rightwing neighbors has sadly meant that many people *are* deliberately out to hurt us. So the affirmation that my neighbor across the street is always helpful and friendly, for example, makes no sense. Despite the fact that I rounded up his loose dogs from my yard, where they were chasing and trying to bite me, without complaint nearly daily for over year didn't stop him from calling a swat team on me when my goat slipped the gate and was grazing in my own yard. Nor did it stop him (I'm pretty sure it was him) from trying to turn my horses loose by the side of a busy road when I was voting. They have been deliberately viscious and nasty -- to deny that reality would be dangerous as well as dishonest! And dishonestly never works with affirmations. In fact, I think it creates illness.

[NJCher]

10. Lipton

Votes, I remembered reading this thread and then as I was researching today, I found this. Don't know if has anything to do with what you're talking about but it might:

"Cells & Subconscious Programming
Scientist and researcher Dr. Bruce Lipton discussed his latest work on how our biochemistry is subject to the condition of our mental states and belief systems. The cells in our bodies are like "miniature people" living in a community-- it's a technology that surpasses anything humans have created-- we're much more powerful than we realize, he said. Yet, we've been programmed to not be in control of this power and our health, he commented.

"The Field" or the mind shapes the particles or cells, and the mind conforms to its belief system, Lipton said. We manifest what our programs are, and many people have limiting or sabotaging programming installed in their subconscious from an early age. These programs are operating 95% of the time, and often don't match a person's conscious intentions about what they want to see manifested in their lives, he noted.

The rewriting of subconscious programming can't be accomplished with standard talk or psychotherapy. Instead, Lipton suggested using various methods that employ "super-learning" and the synchronization of brain hemispheres to balance the mind. Among these approaches are clinical hypnotherapy, and energy psychology (such as EMDR). What works best for an individual, will vary from person to person. For more on these and other techniques, see this resource page he's posted. "



Cher