Posted by mmorand on March 11, 2009
The Law of Attraction In the Thought World
William Walker Atkinson wrote a book in 1906 called “Thought Vibration or The Law of Attraction in the Thought World. He wrote over 100 books in his career and was widely respected as a leader of new thought and spirituality. His writing formed the theoretical basis for the hit movie The Secret and influenced many of its interviewees (Such as Jack Canfield and Joe Vitale). I’d like to share some quotes from each chapter with you over the next few weeks as it’s such an amazing little resource and the language with which he writes is so matter of fact it really appeals to the logical, rational, need the science behind the method part of my brain. I hope you like it. Michelle
Chapter V: The Secret of the Will
“… few realize that the Will may be developed and strengthened by intelligent practice.”
” … Will Power, with all its latent possibilities and mighty powers, may be developed, disciplined, controlled and directed, just as may be any other of Nature’s forces.It does not matter what theory you may entertain about the nature of the Will, you will obtain the results if you practice intelligently.”
“… I think that in the higher regions of the mind of every man is a great store of Will Power awaiting his use. …. Your Will does not need training — but your Mind does.The mind is the instrument and the supply of Will Power is proportionate to the fineness of the instrument through which it manifests.”
“He who has developed his mind so that it will allow the Will Power to manifest through it, has opened up wonderful possibilities for himself.Not only has he found a great power at his command, but he is able to bring into play, and use, faculties, talents and abilities of whose existence he has not dreamed.This secret of the Will is the magic key which opens all doors.”
“Many of us feel that if we would but exert our Will, we might accomplish wonders.”
“We instinctively feel the power of the Will, but we haven’t enough energy to exercise it, and so drift along with the tide, … “
Michelle here, I was thinking about the above statements and it is clear to me that people who use food to cope have tremendous will power; they’re just exercising it in the wrong direction. Their will power is directed towards controlling their food intake and body size. Will power will not be enough to resolve a harmful coping strategy because you must understand the underlying reasonsand triggers for your need for the food and body focus in the first place. That is the place to apply your will. To focus your efforts on relationships or circumstances in your life where you do not respectfully ask for what you need or where you feel unsafe or insecure is the most powerful manifestation of your will power.It states to yourself and to anyone watching that you believe you are worthy of love and respect and that you will only engage in relationships where those things are present. If you are using food to cope you do not believe that you are worthy of dignity and respect from yourself or from others. Place your effort on finding the source of that story and seeing how it manifests in your life today, apart from food, and you will have the key to a life that is completely free from food and body image focus.
You are worthy of respect and dignity in all the areas of your life.
Love Michelle
Dictionary.com describes ‘synergy’ as the combined action of one or more stimuli. What could possibly be more stimulating that the smells and sights of early spring after months of slogging in the cold and wet?
With the tiny green buds erupting everywhere, vivid purple and orange crocuses exploding in flowerbeds and banners on the sides of city buses pleading for daffodil pickers, spring is in the air and the sentiments it brings are contagious. The long sleep of winter is showing every indication of giving up the ghost and with it, we can lay our bad habits and deliberate nutritional ignorances to rest once and for all.
June will be our month to focus on Natural Eating in the CEDRIC newsletter, but I wanted to bring it up in this issue to go along with all the green that is cropping up everywhere. We need to be in full throttle of eating right by June, where we will augment the process with tips and yummy ways of integrating a wiser nutritional path for ourselves, but we have to start somewhere and there’s nothing like using the encouraging shoots of green as our incentive.
I am using the impetus of all this burgeoning growth to inspire me to be good to my self, to become more active and to look at the heavy, deadening parts of my life with a critical eye, ready to eliminate anything that doesn’t contribute to improving my situation, in order to make me physically light and to make my spirit lighter. “The body will follow” is the lesson I’m learning from those who have already been through the difficult baby steps of beginning to be aware in a body/mind/spirit philosophy. (more…)
Another way of saying that is that the only reason you struggle with disordered eating in the first place, or anxiety or depression for that matter is because you are going against your core values somewhere in your life. This violation of your true self, your inner conscience, creates a sense of separation and a lack of trust and safety within yourself. The more you act in ways that compromise the values you believe in, the more anxious and alienated you feel and the more insecure you are overall. Another way of saying that is that when you go against your core values you are out of integrity. And when you’re out of integrity you feel guilty, bad, wrong, ashamed, embarrassed, and just plain anxious. (Are any of those familiar to you?)
When we act from a place of integrity, honoring our core values, it doesn’t matter if someone is mad at us, threatening us, blaming us for their sadness or their life, we have empathy for them without taking it on. We know that our responsibility first and foremost is to honor our core values because if we do that, we truly are doing our best for that person; for our friends and family and our society. It’s true.
Think about it, does anyone truly gain when you lie for them? Does anyone truly benefit from you compromising your commitments to yourself or others for them? No. Maybe in the short term it might seem like it. But really, very quickly, the relationship begins to suffer from the lack of respect and integrity; resentment and insecurity build and what could have been a very lovely friendship or partnership turns sour. And when you step in to try and “fix” things for someone else by taking responsibility for their actions or needs you’re sending that person a message of disrespect. In essence you are saying “I don’t think you’re capable of handling this on your own so I’m going to do it for you.” It’s hard to build a healthy connection that way. It establishes a sense of dependency and imbalance that is hard to overcome.
In the immediate moment it might seem like a good idea to compromise yourself to make someone happy or to meet their needs in some way. It isn’t. “But what could it hurt, just this little bit, just this once, if it makes them happy?” you say? Lots. You will end up paying the price tenfold as will the relationship. You’ll feel anxious and insecure. You’ll feel compromised and taken advantage of. You’ll set a precedent for the next time this person has this problem or need and it is harder then, to set a different boundary. You’ll feel bad. And I suspect that you’ll use food to cope. That’s a big price for not saying no to a dinner invitation or to giving someone a ride etc. But that’s the price you pay each time you go against your core values and needs to “make” someone else happy or to avoid their anger or disappointment in you.
So, take the time to make that ‘Values List’ if you haven’t yet and then look at the primary relationships in your life and see if any of them, as they are currently operating, require you to compromise yourself in any way. Make a list of the little and big things that you do that don’t feel right to you or of the dynamics between you and the other person that leave you feeling controlled and disrespected or frustrated.
There is a good chance that those things are happening because you’re allowing your core values to be compromised and chances are those things couldn’t even begin to happen if you honored your core values.
Check it out and let me know what you discover.
Love Michelle
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