Urgent Warning About "The Law Of Attraction" ⚠

General Discussion
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If there’s a state you want, that you can reasonably predict and have experienced before, and you’re not currently in that state so you intend to use Law of Attraction to reach it, ipso facto you can conceive of it, and create it for the purposes of this.

It doesn’t have to seem like “pleasure” or “happiness” as such. Satisfaction, relief, any feeling you’d rather have than the one you have now in that area/about that problem, will suffice.

Most ambition is about reaching for an experience we’ve not yet had, or only had smaller versions or similarities, but reasonably think is worth the effort.

Don’t let “joy” or “happiness” as labels mess with you over this, you just need the state for you which you want the desired goal to bring you. It’s like what Wattles calls “impression of increase” - in this universe, most things seek more life, more power, more enjoyment and flourishing, find what those are for you and like I said, no benchmarking.

Even people without anhedonia may have complex reactions, people cry when they’re happy or make warding away gestures if they’re surprised with some awesome thing, we’re all a bit complex.

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Anhedonia is a word I’ve not heard before so I checked it out and I can relate to that.

TLDR:
Decisive action for change happens without emotion. It only gets in the way. For a moment, @DarkestKnight, drop the word “feeling” and reword that phrase into “assume the acceptance of the wish fulfilled”

You don’t always necessarily have to rely on feelings of happiness and joy, although that makes for a good description of getting on a positive wavelength.

‘The Feeling Is The Secret’, the tittle of the great Neville Goddard book proposes that you use feelings and emotions associated with your goal, so it’s just like you would with a ritual, which lends the closeness of magick with Law of Attraction concepts.

But here’s the thing. Once you have done a ritual you simply accept that it is done but if whatever amount of emotion you can muster is really all you have to rely on then you are stuck if you don’t think you have felt enough.
Why should anhedonia or any condition be a block to using magick or law of attraction? I don’t believe it should be. Some people call it the law of assumption, which gives a heavy hint to using the idea of accepting the goal is yours.

Who would accept that a disability should stop anyone from doing any ritual, for example, someone without the use of their arms or hands and unable to draw a sigil or seal or light a candle or point a thing to the skies or make an alter, someone unable to stand and turn to the east or north or wherever. Should they have to say yeah no can do, leave the magick to the able bodied, I’m out?
What about the bed ridden and those who are so low on energy that they just can’t raise themselves to do anything for whatever their reasons? Does that have to mean that they have to accept they are out of the game?
I think the same thing goes for if you can’t seem to raise enough emotion. It’s a definite aid to the objective but not the be all and end all. Acceptance of the result is what you have to have.

I have seen amazing changes and ‘manifestations’ of my own doing with the law of attraction and I believe it is a thought based decision making law and not exclusively based in emotion and feelings.
Edit: from what I have written here I see that my emotions and feelings can be a major spanner in the works.

For me lately, I have pondered on lifestyle conditions that I experience, and have concluded that it comes down to what I personally ACCEPT.
Meaning, what I accept as ok. And that is what I seem to receive. Some people accept nothing but the best, some accept the mediocre and some just accept whatever, anything, even less than what they deserve.

I’ve used the word ‘accept’ a lot here and I think it’s a real key thing. How about those times that you are so beaten by stuff that you have no more emotion, you have exhausted all things and just feel numbed? Perhaps in some kind of shock of how things are and what you have accepted?

That’s usually the moment that change starts to happen. When you no longer feel grateful for all you have or positive or or able to look on the bright side and give the benefit of the doubt. When you feel that you have been resigned to it all but now change must happen?

That time you had an emotionless acceptance with a steady glare, that is when you already accepted a change and change came because acceptance works both ways. You can accept things as they are or accept that this moment tips the balance for change to come.

Think of a champion boxer or martial artists decisive action, void of emotion to strike the final blow, emotion may have carried him but there but any critical moment of action/creation/destruction is of a steady glare of acceptance, the do or die moment, no emotion just action. For me, the moment I signed a mortgage paper and then years later the moment I signed divorce papers, my pen hovered over that paper, both times emotion was there until the decisive action had to be taken, void of the clutter of emotion that made that pen hover.

I’m often reminded of the cartoon meme that the good Lady_E has used in some posts, you know the one where the house is burning down around and everything is being destroyed while thinking “I’m so grateful and all is great”. Most people’s idea of what positive mental attitude is.
Yep, if I have everything I need right now then all things must be fine. Nope. Because forcing yourself to be grateful at all costs does not resemble progress.

Progress. Positive Mental Attitude.
Swap the word ‘positive’ for ‘progressive’ and you get:

Progressive Mental Attitude.

I think that looks and sounds better. When you position with the idea that each thing you do or each attitude you change that actually progresses you towards your goal as something that looks like it suits with what your goal is (congruency). That has to be better than just keeping a ‘positive’ outlook where just being positive does nothing but make you smile while you watch everything turn to destruction.

I’ve come to think that we can only receive or hold on to what we truthfully accept as ok. Manifesting goodies is what we all want but I think it comes down to what we with true congruence actually accept as our own standard.

Bearing in mind that we set our own limits.

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The deeper I get into Law of Assumption, the less I think emotion has anything to do with it. My take on it is that the “feeling” is not necessary happiness, joy, gratitude… Rather it is a sense of acceptance and normalcy in relation to your goal.

I’ve manifested positive outcomes even when in the absolute depths of despair and feeling utterly wretched, simply because the outcome was something I ended up organically focusing on with such frequency and intensity that I just knew it was a given for it to occur.

By all means feel with all the senses and emotions to the best of your ability when using techniques to manifest a goal, but ultimately the world will give you what you accept as normal and commonplace, even if at the outset it seems totally unreachable.

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Thank you for this!

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In my readings on manifestation, and the Law of Attraction, there seems to be two main schools of thought. There is the “accept your current circumstances and realise that you manifested them, so that means you can also manifest better ones” school, and the "deny the current reality by ignoring what you don’t want to see by imposing your imagined reality upon it " school, which seems to be the extreme end of the “All is Mind” belief.

The Course in Miracles says, “The separated ones have invented many cures for what they perceive as the ills of the world. But the one thing they do not do is question the reality of the problem.”

In his book, Mind Power in the 21st Century, the author, John Kehoe, wrote of a woman who healed her daughter of a life threatening hole in her heart by literally denying the existence of the problem. She still did everything the doctor’s advised, including scheduling the necessary surgery, but simply refused to accept there was a problem, even as she was preparing life for post-op recovery.

So which is the best approach? Do you accept what is, understanding that by doing so you have the power to change it? Or do you deny the reality altogether, and impose your own?

Are the two approaches mutually exclusive?

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Yeah, a feeling isn’t an emotion. What’s the feeling of satisfaction? Of disappointment? Of awareness? Of scatter-brained-ness?

With that, I wish we had more anecdotal accounts of those who have been able to use LOA, as it’s presented, to actually achieve what they set out to do.

Here’s my thing - feeling rich or wealthy, would just feel like total freedom. Or completely average, because it “feels” like a new normal. Like, right now, most Americans are richer than most of the world, by a large margin, because most of the world’s population lies in developing countries. Where they make $5 a month. So, we already know the “feeling” of “feeling” wealthy. Because to them, most of the population on Earth, we very much so are. How does one reconcile this?

To add, Neville was a well-established actor by the time he took to LOA. Acting “as if”, or “from the end” was easy peasy for him.

I dunno. Too many questions, not enough solid answers, and not enough solid evidence to point to LOA, as it’s presented by LOA gurus, that would point to it being more effective than anything else.

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They’re actually parts of a continuum. What it is, is this:

  1. you act according to what you believe, and that sets up the vibrational frequency which attracts stuff to you

  2. if you keep acting from, for example, poverty, you’ll do the things I described in the OP, “dwell on poverty, lack, things out of your reach, while wasting money on non-essentials, to reaffirm that all you can do is palliative care for your current miserable self” and thereby both magnetically and practically speaking, attract more of the same

  3. if you are in a circumstance of poverty, but act from a different mindset, by believing the current thing is the illusion and your Will is the true reality, both your actions and your vibration will change, which will change your results.

You must know someone who seems to always thrive in whatever they try, or someone who everything they get involved with, they fuck it up - same kind of thing.

This is also true, in that if we have the problem in any way, real or perceived, and we vibrate with that problem, and let it fill us up and dominate us, we are just going to attract more of the same.

Remember, we don’t attract what we WANT: we attract what we ARE.

That often requires almost reality-denying levels of focus on something better, but that needs to be done in a specific way, which is what all of these books teach (I especially like Wallace Wattles, his approach of the “thinking stuff” is more magickal).

For example, no amount of admiring looks at a poster of (insert preferred bimbo) are going to make her pop out of it and start lavishing kisses on you, BUT the absolute determination to be in her world and become someone she finds attractive, IS a viable thing to aim for, and using LoA can bring you opportunities to get there.

That requires ignoring where you are right now, and focusing on becoming someone who is in that world.

All I can say is, it’s the one method I have had the most solid and reliable results with, regardless of worldview at the time or anything else. I’ve got no money to make from this and am not a “guru” or author or anything like that, just trying to give a boost to what has become a rather overlooked and misunderstood method. :smiley:

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Totally understand. I made sure to point to the LOA “gurus”, because I’m sure we’ve all come across their watered down methods that don’t actually encompass the full truth of how the process actually works.

But I appreciate you expanding on how the process works. Very helpful, for sure.

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I’ll try and answer any questions to the very best of my ability. Not surprisingly, stuff asked in this is OFTEN a question or area I’m slipping with myself, so it’s no bother, if I delay replies it’s just due to time pressure/not being able to word the reply the way I want etc., so please bear with me.

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If both schools of thought are on a continuum and they both work as plenty of anecdotal evidence shows, the trick then is finding the one that is easiest to implement for the individual. For example, denying the existence of a problem is pretty difficult for most people, as it is natural for our animal selves to believe what our senses tell us, and even Law of Attraction authors like Pam Grout, who promotes the “the problem isn’t real” way of approach, cannot manage it all the time.

But if one can fully develop the belief that reality is the illusion, and that you, as the one who perceives that illusion, can change the channel at any time, then there becomes no difference between the illusion inside and the one outside. :thinking:

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Which is to some extent the meaning of the Principle of Mentalism in the Kybalion, upon which LoA is based: all is Mind.

Of course all is not your mind (no bimbos jumping out of posters) BUT, it does open the gateway to something other than a kind of concrete view of reality, in which the world is a leaden mass always going along certain pre-determined routes, and you’re just a helpless little passenger.

EXACTLY. I prefer Wattles, his thing is, work with absolute certainty that what you focus upon will come, but just work with what you have right now, and do it in the specific way he teaches.

Other people might phrase it as quantum leaps, whereby you manifest stepping stones into the reality you want etc.

You want the bimbo, you manifest the gym membership, a guy in it works for a casting company, you go to one of his parties and meet the bimbo a week after you won the powerball, and she’s charmed by your earthy wit and difference from all those other posers she meets. Etc. :smiley:

Find the teacher you like and cling to them like the only truth in the universe, because reading round too much after that if it’s done with the intent to disprove them, even subconsciously, can slow you down.

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I couldn’t make Pam Grout’s approach work for me. It was too difficult to give up my death grip on the current reality. I do like her concept of God as the no baggage attached Field of Potentiality though.

I may have to reread Wattles, and go back through Goddard. I haven’t found the approach yet that I can follow without giving in to the “reality” of having to struggle. I have an intellectual grasp on the principles, but not an experiential one.

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If you compare your current life AGAINST your desired life, instead of seeing it as the corridor TO that desired life, you will experience friction of the two different things rubbing together.

If you can experience gratitude, no matter how small, for your current life, you place it in the corridor towards your desired outcome, because the vibration of gratitude (or appreciation is often a better word) is the same in both.

One bit of great advice I read somewhere online, which I may have mentioned before, is to choose one thing you would do or own even if you were very successful, and focus on that, feel fully that feeling that “This, is complete; in this area I have absolutely achieved my goals” (or something like that worded in ways you prefer).

And at risk of sounding like a dick, I posted a lot of other small methods in here (treating things and events as ambassadors from their kingdom, for example) which I learned through trial and error, so compact this down (click or tap my av just under the OP, then the little banner with the number of posts and a pin icon) and read my posts to see if anything there is helpful.

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I think this has definitely been my biggest obstacle in all my previous attempts at utilising the principles of the Law of Attraction.

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Imagine you want to bake a cake, and you have flour, eggs, and sugar, a baking tray, etc., all that you need.

You mix them up according to the recipe then you set the timer and all’s fine.

That is a metaphor for the most basic action of setting an intention using LoA.

First, along comes an annoying housemate to say they’re sorry they just threw your cake out, they didn’t realise it was a cake because it was burned to a crisp, then they whine for half an hour about how they burn all the things they cook, and by the time they’re gone you’re pissed off, probably not in the mood for cake, and maybe even giving up on baking because you don’t feel like the oven (metaphor for reality) can be “trusted” to keep your cake safe while it cooks and rises.

In fact, your cake might still be in the oven, and the neighbour just pranking you, and the next thing you know you smell burning – by then your poor cake has gone to a place where you can’t use it, and the neighbour’s untruth has become the truth – you have no cake.

This is a metaphor for remaining open to, or worse, seeking out, anything which may deter you from absolute quiet faith you can have your goal, especially opinions or “evidence” from other people.

Next, same scenario – cake made, in the oven baking away.

OR IS IT?! :eyes:

You have to keep going and opening the oven door, because you can’t be certain, so you have to keep peeking – your cake will cook unevenly, if at all, and the cold air will stop it rising as it should.

If you do this enough, not only will you have no cake, you’ll become convinced baking is not a possibility for you at all, because that time you were super careful about checking, it still didn’t work.

This is a metaphor for ANY scenario where you compare the cakeless world outside the oven, with the in-oven world that was on-track to deliver your cake. The cold air of the unwanted reality CAN affect the process of cake-coming-into-beingness.

I’m trying to think of other ways people can fuck up LoA and present them in the cake metaphor, because it’s pretty solid so far… you need to do specific things, then make choices that don’t fuck them up, which can also include not doing certain things whose core premise is “I probably won’t get to have my cake.”

Even if those things seem perfectly reasonable, on the surface. :wink:

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Easiest way to make it work is to fall asleep as if desire has happened so it stays in your mind all night

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Check out r/NevilleGoddard or r/NevilleGoddardSP – linked here to the top posts of all time. There should be quite a few success stories and some helpful posts. Like this one.

I would generally encourage everyone to ignore LOA gurus (youtube/facebook LOA coaches and the like, anyone who charges money for their teachings). There are some who can be helpful at the right point in your journey, or explain something in just the right way that it makes sense, but usually it becomes either:

  1. the same one or two concepts repeated over and over in every single video (because really, the Law is simple – simple, not “easy” – it just needs to be put into practice), or

  2. a new amazing/magical/revolutionary/etc. method or technique every other week, which just causes your focus to become scattered and cause frustration.

Much better off reading source material – Murphy, Goddard – and I believe Lady E mentioned a few others in this thread as well. There is NO special magical exclusive secret to manifesting that a coach can give you in exchange for money. It is simply a matter of understanding the principles and techniques and then persistently putting them into practice.

A lot of the Law of Belief I’m finding is just learning to get out of my own way…

…Yes. For certain situations where I want to see change, I won’t perform rituals at all, but will rather use the Law of Assumption. If I can’t stop thinking about the situation repeatedly, I make that work to my benefit by consciously keeping an eye on my thoughts and canceling any negatives, or changing them into positive focus on what I do want.

It’s very easy to develop a habit where your thoughts / inner conversations / internal monologue drift into imagining worst-case scenarios, preparing for how you’d react to disappointment and not getting what you want, having imaginary arguments with others, and so on. A dedicated pessimistic mindset isn’t even required for this, it’s just human nature to do this to a greater or lesser degree.

It’s certainly OK and human to react with hurt/sadness/disappointment/etc. to negative occurrences if and when they actually happen, but too often we predict them, expect them, dwell on them, or at least spend time giving them attention and in doing so let them take anchor. Simply removing your attention from negative outcomes and starving them out might be overlooked in favour of other more flashy techniques (two cups, 5x55, SATS, self-hypnosis, scripting, etc.) but I have enjoyed much more success in using the Law just by doing my best to ignore these thoughts, get out of my own way, and let the thing I want appear in my life.

Also – this thread kinda puts me in mind of the theory of aggregation of marginal gains. I read a great post about this a few days ago and for the life of me I can’t remember where it was (reddit or BALG), nor find it again. Funnily enough it read much like the key insight @Lady_Eva usually posts so forgive me if I’m quoting your own words back to you :stuck_out_tongue:

Essentially, a couple of decades ago, the British cycling team was famously and enduringly mediocre in their performance at all high-level cycling events. To the point where certain European bicycle manufacturers would refuse to sell bikes to the British team in fear of their brand and sales being affected by repeated losses.

They hired a new coach who implemented a “marginal gains” approach to all aspects of their performance and training.

[The coach] said, “The whole principle came from the idea that if you broke down everything you could think of that goes into riding a bike, and then improve it by 1 percent, you will get a significant increase when you put them all together.”

This included things like redesigning the bikes, rubbing alcohol on the tires for better grip, having the cyclists wear temperature-regulating clothing for improved muscle performance. It also included such changes as finding the best pillows and mattresses for the cyclists to sleep on, having a surgeon to teach them how to wash their hands to avoid catching a cold, and painting the inside of their equipment truck white so they could catch tiny specks of dust which might degrade their cycling equipment.

Long story short, after five years, the British cycling team went from having won one gold Olympic medal since 1908(!) to winning 60% of all gold medals available at the 2008 Olympic Games. At the 2012 Olympic Games the British team set nine Olympic records and seven new world records. From 2007 to 2017 the team won 178 world championship cycling events and 66 Olympic or Paralympic gold medals.

So I suppose the lesson there is something like: examine your life, scrutinise it closely from every angle, overlooking nothing. Find minute areas where you can make improvements, and improve them. The aggregate of tiny improvements in effort toward a larger goal can be hugely impactful.

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Anton LaVey explained it all decades ago in The Satanic Bible:

E. The Balance Factor
The Balance Factor is an ingredient employed in the prac­tice of ritual magic which applies to the casting of lust and compassion rituals more than in the throwing of a curse. This ingredient is a small, but extremely important one.
A complete knowledge and awareness of this factor is an ability few witches and warlocks ever attain. This is, simply, knowing the proper type of individual and Situation to work your magic on for the easiest and best results. Knowing one’s own limitations is a rather odd bit of introspection, it would seem, for a person who should be able to perform the impossible; but under many conditions it can make the difference between success and failure.

If, in attempting to attain your goal through either greater or lesser magic, you find yourself failing consistently, think about these things: Have you been the victim of a misdirected, over-blown ego which has caused you to want something or someone when the chances are virtually nonexistent? Are you a talentless, tone-deaf individual who is attempting, through magic, to receive great acclaim for your unmusical voice? Are you a plain, glamorless witch with oversized feet, nose, and ego, combined with an advanced case of acne, who is casting love spells to catch a handsome young movie star? Are you a gross, lumpy, lewd-mouthed, snaggle-toothed loafer who is desirous of a luscious young stripper? If so, you’d better learn to use the balance factor, or else expect to fail consistently!

To be able to adjust one’s wants to one’s capabilities is a great talent, and too many people fail to realize that if they are unable to attain the maximum, “a half a loaf can be better than none.” The chronic loser is always the man who, having nothing, if unable to make a million dollars, will reject any chance to make fifty thousand with a disgruntled sneer.

One of the magician’s greatest weapons is knowing himself; his talents, abilities, physical attractions and detractions, etc., and when, where, and with whom to utilize them! The man with nothing to offer, who approaches the man who is successful with grandiose advice and promise of great wealth, has the alacrity of the flea climbing up the elephant’s leg with the intention of rape!

The aspiring witch who deludes herself into thinking that a powerful enough. working will always succeed, despite a magical imbalance, is forgetting one essential rule: MAGIC IS LIKE NATURE ITSELF, AND SUCCESS IN MAGIC REQUIRES WORKING IN HARMONY WITH NATURE, NOT AGAINST IT.

That said, I would not be so abrasive and categorical.

  1. Talents can be learned. Vocal coaches such as Phil Moufarrege, Anna Tyrie and singer Roomie explained how they could not sing all that well at all, and after much practice and training became quite good at it. And remember: “That’s all right. Lots of people who can’t sing make records.” lol But seriously, with constant training (finding one’s voice, good placement and technique) and proper engineering, anyone can sound decent. And there is rap! A great alternative to singing. With constant practice, guidance and a good flow, a “non-singer” can still rap and have a very lucrative recording career.

  2. As for the looks and weight factor… Yes. This counts a lot too, and looks can be improved greatly (with or without cosmetic surgery) with skin care, hair care (unless one is bald), clothing, physical training and proper diet. That said, even more important than that is magnetism. As Priestess Akelta explains, one could be the least attractive person in a room; with proper inner magnetism, it is possible to bewitch, intrigue people and make them want to come closer, want to know more. Such controlled magnetism can pave the way for many great opportunities.

  1. As for the miracles department… As LaVey puts it, better to achieve and gain half what you’ve expected than nothing at all, but miracles have known to occur in some instances, so keep dreaming big. Look for The Wish Fulfilling Mantra** - ***Sree Ram Jaya Ram Kódhanda Ram.

  2. Be careful of conventional wisdom! LaVey made great points, but conventional wisdom may stop you from attaining your full potential. Dan Peña’s Your First 100 Million, now out of print, has a warning against conventional wisdom.

  3. And finally, yeah, a bit of “inflated” ego is required to succeed in certain fields. Take Jennifer Lopez, for instance. How many times have people written comments such as: “She cannot sing.”, “She’s not made for that.”, “She’s not made for that.”, “She’s not made for that.”, “She sounds terrible.”, “She makes my ears bleed.”, “Why can’t she stop singing?”, “She stole other people’s vocals!” (not true), “Mariah still doesn’t know her.”, “How could they chose J.Lo to be Mariah’s replacement is beyond me.”, “She’s the worst singer ever!”, etc. Decades later, she still will NOT stop singing, and good for her!

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I would like to add this.

Any thought we have that we offer no resistance to is the thought that become reality.
When thoughts happen in this way, the result happens naturally instantly.

Have you ever decided on something without questioning yourself and then seen the result appear naturally? I’m talking about the smaller things in life here, those things that go almost unnoticed in your day to day activities.

It seems that the biggest problem with understanding how the law of attraction works is that we naturally aim at the big things instead of digging deep enough into our simple everyday occurrences, like choosing a mood to be in, whether we are going to be on time for something, getting a parking space or no queue at the supermarket. Or here’s a bigger one, other people’s responses to ourselves.

The law of attraction is in motion every moment of our lives and I think that to catch the essence of how it works, it’s beneficial to look into what has already played out in our past few hours or day or two and see if you can find some thoughts and reactions that followed.

The trouble with bigger aims is that we have to delude ourselves in order to imprint a chosen reality and it is natural for us to end up having an internal discussion on the how and why and it gets confusing because with this approach we are not making any actual decisions, we just think around the big subject of how life works.

The essence of it is in the smaller stuff that is blindingly in front of ourselves.

I like Lady_Eva’s analogy of cake baking and it made me think of how an expert cake baker knows without question how her cake is going to come out of the oven.

She knows her way around the kitchen and she knows her recipe and she knows when to put it in the oven and when to take it out, all instinctively without the need to question anything about it and the cake comes out perfectly as expected.

It’s quite possible that we are all instinctively negative and suspicious about everything in life, that is, until we learn where our safety and strength is. Maybe this is why we find it difficult to find the positives and make the most of them sometimes, because we simply don’t trust because of reasons.

The negativity gets in the way and stops the decisive action from happening when we question our wherewithal in any situation.
On the other hand, the expert cake baker just does her thing without worry because she already accepts and knows what her result is going to be.

So if a goal is something of an unknown result you absolutely do dare to ‘act as if’ you are that expert cake baker.

The expected result comes from a place where you have an unshakable acceptance, belief and knowing that it will be because is in reality there is no need to reason or question otherwise.

Get past the notion of it being a delusion even if it is delusional to start with and depending on what the goal is you might have to position yourself step by step but we are absolutely allowed to be audacious with what we want to attract.

You have to claim it for it to become reality. Stick your name on it and claim it. Give it a burst of life :boom:

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Bump!

:grinning:

Cause this is one of my favorite threads.

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