So how about we clear this up, once and for all?

This, “Thoughts Become Things” thing we have going on. This, “Be careful what you think” thing. This, “If you knew the power of your thoughts you’d never think another negative thought” thing. How about we look at how the Law of Attraction really works?

One of the greatest spiritual thinkers of our time, Dr. Wayne Dyer, once said, “What I think doesn’t become things; who I am is what becomes things.”

As a psychotherapist steeped in the mind-body-spirit connection and the latest neuroscience research, an energy worker steeped in the latest research into the laws of resonance and entrainment, and a holistic practitioner steeped in a less Westernised understanding of the human biofield and its energy systems, I can tell you that what he said is upheld by everything I know and experience both professionally and in my own life.

See, we have a real problem in the West. We get thoughts and feelings muddled up. And emotions. And beliefs. So let’s get a little clarity.

Let’s start by understanding the difference between a thought, a feeling, an emotion and a belief. Once we’ve done that, we can see way more clearly the part each plays in the vibrational laws of the universe which we call Law of Attraction. And finally, we can then look more accurately at how that information can help us to examine just what we’re putting out there, and how to think about that in a way that helps us.

Let’s over-simplify first and then get complicated afterwards, just because I think that will help us see how everything is inter-connected.

1. Thoughts

A thought is a connecting and sharing of information in the brain. 7×4=28 is a thought. The world is round is a thought. I am 75 years old is a thought.

Thoughts are neutral. They produce a small electrical charge in the brain, but this is of no great significance energetically or vibrationally in itself.

2. Feelings

A feeling is our authentic self speaking our truth to us. A feeling is an inner knowing, and its voice is usually fairly quiet. We discover what we feel in times of quiet reflection or meditation, or in deep conversation with a friend or someone we trust. Sadness is a feeling. Joy is a feeling. Shame is a feeling.

3. Emotions

An emotion is our bodily response to a thought or a perceived situation. Emotions are the big guys, the tangible reactions we feel in our body in response to a thought, a feeling or a belief. Emotions are physical and emotions emit an immense vibrational charge. They are our limbic system letting us know how we’re reacting to our thoughts, feelings or beliefs. These are what we need to become aware of and manage differently in terms of Law of Attraction.

4. Beliefs

A belief is the way we perceive the world, the filter through which we see everything. A belief is based upon everything we’ve known up until this point, and it can be conscious—something of which we’re aware; or it can be unconscious—something which is influencing us to behave and react in certain ways without our knowing it.

So now let’s put some of this together. And let’s talk for a moment about energy and vibration. Specifically, the physical laws of resonance and entrainment. We know that everything is energy. That’s pure quantum physics. As is the fact that everything vibrates and that, via that vibration, everything affects everything else. That’s the Law of Resonance. The Law of Entrainment is the physical law which says that, as energy vibrates, everything eventually resonates in time with the highest vibration present.

Hold that last thought for later. It’s crucial.

So now let’s make this real, instead of just theoretical. Let’s use an example. Let’s talk about “Phil.”

Phil’s family moved house when he was between the ages of two and 18, 10 times as his dad went from promotion to promotion, each involving a relocation. As a consequence of those moves, Phil lost touch with significant close family members and much-loved relatives, struggled with schooling, and finds it difficult to make friends.

Phil holds memories about this, stored in his mind, body and his energy system.

Those in his mind are thoughts, which help him to recall those past events. They are factual: places, people, conversations, events. He also has feelings about those places, people and events—deeply held feelings of sadness, anxiety, confusion and so on. He becomes aware of those feelings when his emotions flare up in response to those memories—those thoughts and feelings—and he feels the physical sensations in his body of those huge emotional reactions.

It’s pretty unpleasant experiencing such reactions, however, they frighten him in their intensity. So his psyche protects him from feeling them by rationalising. These become his conscious beliefs, about how moving that many times was good for him, necessary for his family to become financially secure and successful, that it “hasn’t done him any harm.” By doing this, he’s keeping his emotions at bay, but he’s also denying his true feelings.

Bad news in terms of Law of Attraction!

However, his unconscious beliefs are the ones that are even more problematic. Phil believes that nothing lasts, that anything good will always end, that you shouldn’t get close to people because you risk the pain of losing them when they move on—as he believes they inevitably will. If you searched Phil’s unconscious beliefs even more deeply, you’d also find that he believed that he isn’t worthy of love, isn’t important, that he’s helpless to change situations, a victim in the hands of fate and that the universe was at the very least uncaring and, at worst, downright hostile.

He isn’t aware of the unexamined beliefs that drive his decisions, his relationships, his life. Nor is he aware that these unexamined and deeply-held beliefs are constantly triggering his emotions, which are vibrating out into the universe.

And so he can’t understand why, despite trying to control his thoughts, and repeating affirmations that are supposed to work, he keeps seeing the same experiences showing up over and over.

However, let’s suppose that Phil learns mindfulness, maybe gets some help to explore his real feelings, and therefore learns to calm those emotions in his body when they arise, and so can hold his true feelings less fearfully, and can therefore think about them instead of reacting to them.

Now he’ll be in a very different place vibrationally. He’ll have begun to do the real work: he’ll have become skilfull about his vibration because he’ll have learned to detect his unconscious beliefs which are triggering his emotions to emit an undesirable vibrational signal. He’ll have understood how Law of Attraction works.

Thoughts don’t become things; emotions triggered by unconscious beliefs become things. Examine those, and fear—the lowest frequency we can emit—goes away, because we’re no longer running scared, believing we can’t. Suddenly, we’re feeling powerful, and believing that we can! And then the law of entrainment—that everything must resonate with the highest frequency present—will deliver!

What we think doesn’t become things; who we are becomes things, because who we are is our beliefs! It’s our beliefs, positive or negative, loving or fearful, helpless or hopeful and resilient, which determine what we attract into our life. And once we really get that, we’re unstoppable!

Relephant Favorite:

Befriending Your Emotions is Vital for Your Health.

~

Author: Janny Juddly

Editor: Travis May

Photos: Flickr/Kiran Foster