"The Secret" on Steroids

With all the buzz about the popular book and video called "The Secret," a primer on the laws of attraction, more and more people are realizing that the quality and meaningfulness of their lives is directly associated with the quality of the thoughts that they think. We can individually and collectively take responsibility for our future. We can use our creative power to create the condition of our own lives and to assist in the evolution of the communities in which we live and work.

Have you noticed that when someone in a particularly foul mood enters a room, everyone in the room feels the toxicity of their presence? It feels like an energy vacuum. And likewise, when someone enters your orbit that is particularly lighthearted, they light up the room with their smile.

In the 1970's and 80's psychologists promoted the “power of positive thinking.” But in the 90’s, it became apparent that positive thinking negated authentic "negative" feelings like fear and anger. Now, the more holistic approach is to honor and listen to your so-called negative feelings and address the fears and conce
s that those feelings are bringing to your conscious attention. That nagging internal voice that seemingly focuses on doom and disaster for no good reason is a survival mechanism. Fear protects us from taking risks that are are perceived to be too dangerous, whether physically or emotionally. If you are an engineer and you are worried that your bridge might fall down, those worries provoke you to take action to guard against disaster. But if you stay up at night endlessly worrying about what is going to happen to you without taking charge of your mind or your life, you may simply not know how to problem solve when you are in a fearful state.

Einstein once wisely noted that "Humankind cannot solve its problems from the same place of consciousness from which we created them. A new place of consciousness is required." As a hypnotherapist, I can say with conviction that most worry is an unconscious misuse of your imagination. You take the worst possible scenarios and scare yourself with them. Some people worry as a course of habit. Others may have had parents who were worriers, and discover that they have internalized those voices into their own heads. No matter what the cause, if you find your mind obsessing fearfully over the "what ifs" of the future, you can just as easily "what if" about potential positive outcomes. After all, when standing in the present projecting about the future, it's all just projection. Why not project in a direction that propels you to insure that you end up with the outcome you actually desire?