Power Tool: Law of Attraction vs. Limiting Beliefs

A Coaching Power Tool created by Marsha Sanders
(Business Coaching, UNITED STATES)

The Law of Attraction
Limiting Beliefs
Moving Clients Beyond Limiting Beliefs
Coaching Applications: Exercises and Competencies

The Law of Attraction

(We are) powerful – but volatile – walking magnets. Lynn Grabhorn

You attract to your life whatever you give your attention, energy, and focus to, whether wanted or unwanted. Jack Losier

The Law of Attraction—like attracts like—is a law of the universe supported by laws of physics. This law applies to people as well as physical factors. This is the law behind getting what we want in life, or attracting what we do not want. We all experience the Law of Attraction, but most people are not conscious of it.

When people first learn of the Law of Attraction, it flies in the face of logic and long-held beliefs. It is based on the fundamental principal that thoughts and feelings “format” our lives. This is a bit of a radical notion to those who have not experienced it consciously.

There is a cycle to the Law of Attraction, represented in the graph below: 

• We think about what we receive and have in our lives, wanted or unwanted, and what we want to have in the future
• While thinking, we unconsciously feel and generate a vibration, either positive or negative, related to the feeling
• The Law of Attraction responds to the vibration
• As a result of this vibration, the Law of Attraction brings us more of what we were vibrating, and feeds the cycle. 

Physics and the Law of Attraction

The Law of Attraction is the scientific explanation for coincidence, luck, serendipity, and some would say even the power of prayer.

The Law of Attraction is the law of nature that states every atom in our bodies is constantly responding to everything, whether we know it or not. Because it is based on physical properties, it is not a new age phenomenon.

Physicists today agree that energy and matter are one and the same:

• Everything is energy - pure pulsing energy
• Everything vibrates
• For people, energy vibrates differently in different situations, based on current thoughts and feelings.

This means everything in this world is made up of vibrating energy pulsating at certain intervals. The strength of the energy amplifies, in a positive way, or diminishes, in a negative way, at certain intervals dictated by its frequency of vibration.

The energy that flows out of us comes from highly charged emotions, which create highly charged electromagnetic wave patterns of energy. The electromagnetic vibrations we send out, every second, are what have brought – and continue to bring – to everything to our lives, good and bad.

Lynn Grabhorn explains that this energy becomes stronger the more we send out the same kind of thoughts. These magnified thoughts create vortexes that are power centers of magnetic energy, drawn into whirling centers with everything and anything of similar vibration. This includes us, and eventually causes things to happen. The more thoughts we send out of the same kind, the bigger the centers of energy grow until they become expanding clusters of strong magnetic power, big enough to form their own powerful whirlpools of energy – either positive or negative.

Positive and negative thoughts

The feelings we flow out become the tangibles we attract back. It is that simple.
Lynn Grabhorn

We live in a world of physical polarity where there is always an opposite, and this applies to thoughts. Positive thoughts create positive realities while negative thoughts create negative realities.

Positive thoughts

When we feel good, we vibrate faster. Positive thoughts are those that are responsible for our growth, such as love, joy, happiness, laughter, success, compassion, passion, appreciation and gratitude. These are all growth promoting which is aligned with our true nature. Attracting positive energy means we fill our thoughts with those that promote growth.

Negative thoughts

Negative thoughts create negative energies and drain us of our energy. Bad feelings range from a bit down to a point of boiling, uncontrollable rage. We feel bad when we have any kind of thought that does not bring joy such as guilt, loneliness, anger, resentment, worry, doubt, frustration, stress, concern. Fear-based thoughts vibrate at a low frequency so they don’t feel good to us physically.

Societal pressure leads to “should” thoughts, which can stop us from achieving our desires. At that point we are vibrating in low frequency of social-based fear. Since we get what we focus on, if we focus on lack that is what we get. To get what we want we need to think about it in a way that brings an emotional high – not the feeling of lack. So we need to think about what we want in totally positive terms, not in a way the focuses on the lack of what we want.

Limiting Beliefs

You see everything is about belief whatever we believe rules our existence, rules our life. Don Miguel Ruiz

The Law of Attraction is very powerful, but opposite energies exist which can make our efforts to manifest what we want ineffective. These energies are usually limiting beliefs, which contradict the things we want to attract.

Limiting beliefs usually start in our childhood with our parents, teachers, siblings and the environment we grew up in. These are people in our lives who want to help us, but give us their own fears and limited beliefs that they grew up with, such as life is a series of lucky or unlucky events, life is ruled by fate. If we are happy, we feel we are just lucky. We do not understand that we manifest the thoughts, feelings, and energy that we are putting out in the world.

Miego uses an analogy to explain limiting beliefs by swimming against the current. ^—An analogy is swimming against the current. Have you ever tried to swim in the ocean against a strong current? If the current is strong enough, you could go backwards. Your effort to swim is like your effort to attract a positive thing while the current is the limiting belief. The current is like the many negative beliefs resonating within you.”

He uses examples such as, “Trying to attract money and believing that money is the root of all evil, or money doesn’t grow on trees, will not attract money,” and, “Trying to excel at something and believing you are not worthy will not let you excel in anything.”

When things don’t go the way we want them to go, we try to find a reason. We blame others. It has to be the fault of some factor separate from us: the government, the economy, boss, marriage, background, education, and bad luck. We feel we are not getting what we want because we do not feel worthy, don’t measure up, haven’t paid our dues.

Here is a list of some common limiting beliefs:

• You have to work like a dog to make things happen
• Circumstances are outside of your control
• Some great power outside of you is pulling the strings
• It is wrong to want
• Making money is a struggle
• I'm not good enough
• I'm not smart enough
• I don't deserve to have what I want
• I am too young, people won't take me seriously
• I am too old, it's too late to start
• I don't have good luck, problems always follow me. 

Moving beyond Limiting Beliefs

What we appreciate, appreciates. Lynne Twist, The Soul of Money

Research shows that we function most of the time with our subconscious minds, and we now know that others often program the subconscious. But as humans we have the capacity to change past conditioning. We can achieve this by releasing negativity and engaging in uplifting activities. In this way we can begin to clear the subconscious of all that does not serve us.

Jack Canfield, in The Key to Living the Law of Attraction, states,

Most of us go through life just reacting automatically and unconsciously to the things and events that take place around us. Let’s say you are having a rough day, you’ve gotten a flat tire, or maybe someone has treated you unfairly. You may react in a negative way to these situations with your thoughts and your emotions. You become angry, frustrated or upset. In this case you are unconsciously reacting to the situation instead of consciously responding to it, and your negatively charge thoughts and emotions are placing an order with the universe for more of the same negative experiences. In order to create a more positive outcome, you must learn to consciously respond in a different, more positive way.

According to Lynn Grabhorn, can have it all once we learn to manage our energy and emotions. It is no accident that we get what we get in life. She states that we really just need to make one decision to move beyond limiting beliefs, and that is the decision to be happy. When we are in joy, we cannot feel insecure, unsafe, or undeserving because we are not vibrating in that negative space. We are thinking, feeling, and vibrating energy in a positive way and will have a positive impact.

So how can we change our way of thinking to move away from limiting believes and vibrate positively? The next section presents a few different approaches to attract more positive outcomes based on the Law of Attraction.

Coaching Implications: Exercises and Competencies

You don’t have to change the unwanted situation, you just have to stop thinking about it. Lynn Grabhorn

The following exercises all begin with the need to change focus: we need to focus on positive thoughts and feelings over negative thoughts and feelings. We need to try to stop being preoccupied with negative situations that are bothering us. Change your focus to something more pleasant in each moment to change and charge up your energy.

Exercise I: Focus and Anchoring

Mario Meigo’s advice is, above all, to be conscious of what you do. He states that we should not let the subconscious mind run on autopilot because the subconscious mind may register negative events from the past and the negative emotions associated with that past experience. He offers the following advice and exercises.

1. Positive thoughts. Choose to fill thoughts with gratitude, joy, love, appreciation, and other growth thinking
2. Attention. Get off autopilot and start paying attention, looking for clues, looking for and expecting synchronicity

1. Be in the present. Practice living in the present to attract more positive energy. If you are living in the future, you may be giving in fear. If you are living in the past, you may be living with guilt and remorse.
2. Focus. Intention is the act of setting in motion the Law of Attraction. Positive energy will resonate with your intention if it is focused well
3. Anchoring. This is a technique to trigger an association of something to your subconscious mind. When a positive event happens to you and you can feel energy rising, associate it with a physical gesture such as tapping your wrist or pulling your earlobe. Do this anchoring while saying positive statements such as, “I feel great,” or “I am joyous.” When you start to feel negative energy, do this physical gesture to signal to your subconscious that it is time to shift energy to a more positive state
4. Healing. Disease or illness can be caused by accumulated negative energies such as divorce, death of a loved one, or excess stress hormones

Exercise 2: Attention, Intention and Meditation

Deepak Chopra presents an argument that there is a unified field beyond our five senses, which we can access through meditation. Abundance comes from this unified field, which holds infinite creativity and where the desire for more love, money, joy, and better health can be realized if we open up beyond our limited beliefs. He states that attention energizes and intention transforms.

1. Attention. We need to open our minds and hearts to the idea that we can attract anything we want in life, and abundance will flow to us effortlessly
2. Intention. Intention is true thought of what we want to happen that helps to transform our energy
3. Feeling. Focus on a pervasive feeling that lets you know you can be, do, and have anything your heart desires as long as you believe in its possibility, that it serves you and others, and brings harm to no one.

Deepak Chopra states that this is the exquisite creative process of the Law of Attraction at work. In his words,

This requires only Attention, Intention, and Silence (mediation). Go directly to the source and expect what is waiting there for you.

Meditation will to bring your mind to a brainwave state below Beta (our waking state). In this state the things inside your subconscious mind are more easily perceptible by our conscious mind and what our conscious mind ‘thinks’ can also be easily be ‘heard’ by the subconscious mind.

Whatever you put your attention on will grow stronger in your life. Whatever you take your attention away from will wither, disintegrate, and disappear. Intention on the other hand triggers transformation of energy and information. Intention organizes its own fulfillment. Deepak states,

The quality of intention on the object of attention will orchestrate an infinity of space-time events to bring about the outcome intended.

Exercise 3: Energy and Deliberate Action

Lynn Grabhorn states that the goal is to change the way we react to unwanted conditions so they stop being the focus of our attention. This is the best way to stop the negative situations in our lives from getting worse.

This exercise is all about energy and deliberate action: There are four steps of deliberate creating.

• Identify what you don't want
• Identify what you do want
• Find the energy feeling place of your want
• Expect, listen, and allow the universe to deliver. Expect it, listen and allow the universe to deliver. 

Learn to change focus

You cannot solve a problem in the same frequency it was created in, so make a decision that the problem will no longer be on your mind all the time.

The most important thing to remember to change an unwanted condition is simple: “You don’t have to change it, you just have to stop thinking about it. Just stop focusing on it.” How do you do this?

• If you are in a state of fear you will not attract all the positive things you want.
• Start your day with the recognition of some positive quality about yourself
• Be aware during the day of when you have that nagging feeling that something isn't going to turn out well
• Proactively think of the positive quality you identified in the morning, and let the fears go.
• Repeat every time you get a sense of fear. You may be surprised how many times you are in this state once you start becoming more aware of your feelings. 

According to Grabhorn, it takes about 16 seconds to link up vibrationally to whatever we are focused on with pure focused thought. In 16 seconds we begin to vibrate on the same frequency to whatever we have been emotionally thinking about, so try to keep the thought positive and focused on Wants, not Don’t Wants. What is an expression of a Don’t Want? Here are two examples:

• I want to be healthy translates into I don't want to be sick. Expressed as a want this would be said or thought, "I want to be able to dance all night at my cousin's wedding," or "I want to have a celebration after I win the marathon."
• I want to be rich translates into I don't want to be poor or struggle for money. Instead, think "I want to be able to choose what I work at, when I work and have a positive lifestyle and freedom to work at what I want to do."

Exercise 4: Identifying Desire and Raising Vibration

Michael J Losier, author of The Law of Attraction: The Science of attracting more of what you want and less of what you don’t want, states that to become more deliberate in attracting positive things in your life we need to follow three steps:

1. Identify your desire accurately and define your desire clearly
2. Raise your vibration. Losier believes you can deliberately raise your vibration to offer a positive vibration for your desires
3. Allow it. Reduce or eliminate the doubt and resistance that stops you from attracting what you want. Allow the universe to manifest it for you.

Mario Miego offers this guidance to help you raise your vibration:

• Appreciation and gratitude are the highest forms of vibration. When you appreciate something, you a offering a feeling and vibration of pure joy. Keep a gratitude journal
• Keep a diary of log of evidence of the Law of Attraction which will help you to trust the process of allowing more and lessen the doubt and resistance
• Use positive expressions like, "I'm in the process of....," rather than saying you don't have it (example, "I am in the process of obtaining my ideal job) and "I've decided," which takes the focus of lack and want and puts it on action (example, I have decided I'm going to have more money in my life)
• Create a void or vacuum, which is waiting to be filled. For example, instead of saying, "I need more clients," or "I only have a few clients," you can say "I have room and space for new clients." And make room in your filing cabinet for more client files. This will focus you on the opportunity rather than the lack.

The Law of Attraction versus Limiting Beliefs: Related coaching competencies

Several coaching competencies are related to the Law of Attraction and can be employed by coaches to move clients in this direction:

1. Create awareness
2. Values and life purpose
3. Trust versus doubt
4. Reframe perspectives
5. Underlying beliefs
6. Responding versus reacting
7. Commitment versus trying
8. Gratitude

Sources

Canfield, Jack and D. D. Watkins. Key to Living the Law of Attraction: A Simple Guide to Creating the Life of Your Dreams. Florida, Health Communications Inc. 2007

Chopra, Deepak. The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success: A practical guide to the fulfillment of your dreams. Amber-Allen Publishing, 1994

Grabhorn, Lynn. Excuse me, your life is waiting. The astonishing power of feelings. Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Inc. 2000

Losier, Michael J. The Law of Attraction: The Science of attracting more of what you want and less of what you don’t want. Vancouver, Michael J. Losier. 2003

Miego, Mario. The Law of Attraction and Limiting Beliefs Simplified. Mario Miego. 2012