Healing the Self and Laws of Attraction

Lisa Jackson, MA, LPCC, NCC, CEP, CWK
Spiritual Psychotherapist
http://www.healinghearttherapies.com/

There are so many articles, books, and discussions about “laws of attraction.” Have you heard about this theory yet? It’s basically the idea that what you believe, think, and feel you attract to yourself. As an energy practitioner I ‘see’ this pattern emerge constantly. People who feel depressed and live in the belief something is wrong with them inevitably seem to ‘attract’ the most incredible stream of negative things into their lives. Conversely I have seen people make attempts at ‘attracting’ what they want by changing their requests to the universe, “Source bring me a better job” and still no changes. Why is that? If the “law of attraction” is intended to be a response to our thoughts, feelings, and beliefs why is change not instantaneous?

The “law of attraction” is a valid theory and there are people who have mastered the concept to the point of exception. However, at least from my point of view, there are several layers we must address before we are fully aligned in a manner that we are able to “attract” more positive things into our lives.

Foremost, the idea of “law of attraction” represents the alignment of our energy bodies toward our highest good. Getting to that place of alignment is often a journey into the darker realms of our souls. A journey of deep self exploration that eventually leads us toward greater insight into our ways of being in the world; giving rise to changing our ways of interacting with others, changing our behaviors, our beliefs, and even our feelings. In more concrete terms, once we have healed our emotional wounds (on all levels) we are free to live an exceptional life.

There are at least three aspects involved in our healing process that lead us toward greater alignment; psychological, physical, and spiritual. Addressing each of these realms of our experience sets us on a path toward “an exceptional life.”

Psychological Health: To fully address our psychological health we must be able to understand all the factors that contribute to our emotional and mental wellbeing; ‘emotional’ referring to our inner most feelings and expression of those feelings; ‘mental’ referring to our thought process which is intimately linked to our emotional responses. Throughout life we experience events and interactions that leave lasting wounds. How deep these wounds are has a lot to do with how old we are at the time of the event or interaction, our emotional state at the time, and factors like how loved or vulnerable we felt in general prior to the event. None the less these wounds make an impression often leading to the birth of a new belief. That belief alters our behavior in an effort to protect or avoid such events from happening again and eventually our brain develops a pattern of processing every time a similar event occurs, or we believe is occurring. In association with this process usually an emotional response is attached. The initial emotional response and the learned emotional response. The initial emotional response is the first reaction to the event or interaction, the learned emotional response is what we develop as a ‘coping’ mechanism. To gain psychological health some believe it is necessary to understand the origins of our developed ‘coping’ mechanisms and to connect with the original emotion associated with the event or interaction. Through our insight of the experience (from an alternative perspective) we develop new skills that allow us to alter our emotional reactions in a healthier more authentic way. In order to begin the process toward greater alignment we must start with addressing our emotional wounds and the psychological manifestation of those wounds such as depression, anxiety, addictions, and/or other mental health concerns. The work begins…

Physical Health: There are parts of our physical health we are completely responsible for; nourishing ourselves with appropriate foods and liquids and avoiding exposure to toxins we understand to be harmful to our physical wellbeing. Often people who experience a lack of emotional and psychological balance manifest poor physical health as a natural expression of that imbalance. Simply avoiding things that are not healthy to us is not always enough. Sometimes we must make an extra effort to find better health. Whether we admit it to ourselves or not we all know when we are treating our bodies poorly. Being willing to take charge of our physical health can be a challenge and that challenge increases when we are not in balance in other areas as well. A willingness to care for our bodies is a powerful statement that reflects a level of self love and a belief we are worthy of wellness and care.

Spiritual Health: This aspect of our wellbeing may seem more elusive than the previous areas. Spiritual health, in my mind, is the development of a deep trust both in ones authentic self and in a higher entity, being, energy, source, or spirit…whatever one wishes to call it. As a side note: The purpose of naming "it" at all allows us to discuss the ideas associated with "it" but also brings us into greater alignment when we do. Consider when someone talks about something they are passionate about, their energy increases, they are more focused and clear thinking, and have a positive feeling pulsing through them…the energy resulting from their expression is a form of higher vibration that manifests as a result of that passionate feelings.

The same, I believe, holds true when we discuss our various versions of a “higher source.” For some people this can be a religious practice, for others, a simple acknowledgement of something more. I generally think of this ‘higher source’ as the structure that keeps all matter from floating off into space. I prefer to think of this energy not as human-like but as a highly refined energy source that is without any human overlays – in other words, no judgment, no fear, no passion, and no agenda. In essence without any humanized projections this energy presents as pure love – the absence of all other ‘stuff.’ This ‘energy’ vibrates at such a high level it is in essence imperceptible. By healing our old emotional wounds, clearing our thinking process, and caring for our bodies we begin to achieve a higher level of vibration…we are now propelling toward that higher energy and greater spiritual development.

Healing of any kind is not absolute. It never happens in a straight line. More likely we manage to address certain aspects of our healing and growth at certain times and move forward then back a million times. The point however, is that the more we work at each layer of healing, the more we shift our vibration to be more like “higher source energy” - and the more likely we are able to manifest that healing in concrete terms. As we have greater healing we begin choosing those things in our outer world that more accurately reflect our inner world. This, in my mind, is the essence of the “law of attraction.”