One of the common challenges in creating wealth that I see with clients is having simple and quick systems to apply the parts of the Law of Attraction (LoA), as well as other methods, that do help your cause. Whether it’s creating more money, clients, success, or paid gigs with your life’s work, one intention session or vision board collage is often not enough to cut the mustard, or grow the green.
The law of attraction, spiritual guidelines for the inner game of wealth creation, holds timeless wisdom. It is also way ripe for possible misinterpretation and faux pas. An extreme example is the mishap of James Arthur Ray’s sweat lodge retreat – designed for participants to conquer their limitations – in which three members died. Ray was one of the featured faculty in the movie The Secret. More common faux pas of applying the LoA, like the three I’ll discuss today, are a bit more easy to fix.
Keep in mind, to have what I term Balanced Wealth, you play both the inner game of wealth creation and the outer game of wealth. In Creating Money, authors Sanaya Roman and Duane Packer call the outer wealth zone the man-made laws of money – financial planning, time management, cash flow management, marketing, taxes, and business planning. They note that it is possible to create money with spiritual laws (such as LoA) alone.
As business owners, though, it might be hard to see how you can do this. How far would you get with ignoring marketing and taxes? Thus, it’s my sense too that you need both. Especially if your avoidance of marketing or “cash flow management” heh heh, represents a call for healing and growth.
Let me share thoughts on three major faux pas (missteps) with certain LoA interpretations.
FAUX PAS I: Neglecting the Deeper Side of Intention
I need a new car. I have done vision boards for car attraction in the past. They’re pretty cool looking. But if I stop there, or overly focus let’s say on good gas mileage or a certain car size or look, I can easily recreate the lack of engine integrity my last two cars have had. So it turns out, functional integrity is important in my car creation. Seems a no-brainer, but perhaps my unrequited mechanic/carhead side REALLY needs this quality in a car, and I’m learning things through my work with it. For you and your car scene, reliability might be a key quality. For Sarah, it might be the sports car t-bar that highlights the qualities of adventure and status.
In the Four Keys of Healthy Wealth, I note the importance of being aware of the higher quality (HQ) that wealth or your goal will bring to you. Good to know the HQ behind anything you’d like to create. An easy way to identify your global wealth HQ, for example, is to imagine you had ten million dollars tax-free. If you really imagine this reality, and bring it home in your body-mind for a moment, what HQ or feeling does that create for you on the inner realm? That’s your global wealth HQ.
Knowing the HQ that is behind your desire helps immensely in increasing your magneticism to this reality. Will ten million dollars bring you a big deep breath, and spell PEACE, or JOY? Good to know. That quality is yours for the taking right now, once you know it. You can cultivate that inner peace or joy in many ways. Then, you’re much more inviting to your desire showing up, whether it comes through money, or some other way that the universe, in it’s bigger picture wisdom, gifts you.
Action step: Take a goal or desire you really would like to create with more ease. After relaxing deeply (necessary for these type of practices), flesh out the realization and attainment of your goal. What higher quality does it bring to you – aliveness? peace? joy? self-esteem? generosity? self-expression? Great. Then determine the essence of this thing – what are the different features, functions, purposes that you will use this for? For example, the car that provides reliable and safe transportation.
How else can you play with this quality in the meantime? Use the HQ in your practice, and capture the essences/features in your vision board.
FAUX PAS II: No Daily Practice
Speaking of daily practices, where is that friggin’ vision board anyway? Have you ever lost your file for your vision for the year? My hand is raised on the last one, I must admit, and hey, it’s a good thing that some intentions take time to fade. Luckily the auto pilot light must have been on ; )
When you are excited to create something, and it’s a fun process for you, it’s no trouble to think about it a lot. Let’s say you’re going on vacation and will travel to a new country. How exciting! You can’t help but imagine that cafe or hotel on the beach you’re planning to stay at. Or you’ve met someone or come across an exciting idea, and you can’t get that out of your mind. These are the kind of things you might excessively focus on, granted. But that powerful focus – well you can sense the magnetic strength of it – and it’s easy to maintain.
When you are creating some things like more money and more clients, it might not only be joy and creativity that’s involved. It can also represent an evolutionary edge or point of expansion you are poised to breakthrough. It may have the positive side, as well as challenges it poses. In these cases, it’s a good idea to have a simple and efficient way to remind yourself of your goal or creative intention. A practice so to speak. Once you’ve laid the groundwork, this reminder, this daily practice, can be short and sweet; it can take thirty seconds to five minutes to refresh that page, to flex that intention muscle, and remind yourself of the HQ behind it.
Action step: Find a quick way to drop into the higher quality, the image, or the vision that represents the achievement of your desire. Breathe deep, relax and have fun with that image. You might want to do this at the start and end of your day – that twilight zone before and after waking is a great time for this type of practice. If that isn’t best, pick another daily time for you to spend 3-5 minutes reconnecting with your intention.
FAUX PAS III: No room for contractions in the creative process
This one cracks me up, as I imagine a human who only inhales or exhales, but can’t do both. This is a key problem with many LoA oversimplifications. The Abraham-Hicks system for example has the scale of emotions, which on top has all the good emotions – joy, love bla bla bla, and on the bottom has the anger, frustration, depression, etc. Feeling a bit low energy, maybe even discouraged? Uh-oh, that’s bad news. You are repelling your desire friend – sending that ten million packing to Timbuktu.
For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Oops, eighth grade science class saying hi. Seriously, I often see that for every expansion you wish for yourself, there is an accompanying conflict with that intention. For every belief that you can do this, there are a few disbelief-cats ready to be let of the bag. For every leap you are ready for, there are a few contractions that will help initiate your new breathing pattern, your new way of being.
Now I’m not sure if this is true for every Tony Robbins style business, but most every soul business owner I have worked with has this cycle of expansion and contraction, just like in and out breaths. For every program’s launch, there are stages of confidence, and doubt. Though it’s great to have less doubt – and you hope for this as you gain experience – the more important grace is to stay constant with yourself and your process as you navigate the hills and valleys. It helps to have tools to instantly invite your contraction into the light, and to hold that child of yours as it screams. Yep, good rocking moves are critical, as are good intuitive and healing tools, in moments like these.
Action step: Name 3 tools you can use for any contractions that might occur in your wealth creation and cycles of expansion/contraction. Make the list. It’s often hard to know what to do in the midst of a strong contraction. Major contractions can indicate strong healing needs, such as a trauma from the past that needs reprogramming. The strength of the contraction can also indicate the magnitude of the leap you are undertaking. Woo-hoo and hang on!
If this article makes sense to you, and you’d like more where that came from, here is a special invite to the next wealth foundations webinar that starts 9/21, LIGHTen Up the Money Flow. If you don’t feel confident in your tools for contractions, or don’t have fun with them often enough, this will hellp. You’ll save money through Wednesday with the early action sign up. And the investment will pay for itself many times over, as you navigate next steps with grace and ease – next steps that would have formerly tripped you up.
Warm wishes for joy and ease with your wealth creation cycles,
Denise Barnes