What if…?

At some point in my life I concluded that life equals struggle. That I had to protect myself from bad things. And that good things didn’t just happen to me, but that I had to study, work hard, put in some sweat to get them. But what if… life didn’t need to be the permanent struggle it seemed to be? What if… my experience was just an uninterrupted loop of the law of attraction at work, confirming what I believed to be true? And what if… I could break out of that loop and rewire it?

Hm… yeah, I hear you say, that’s that flimsy law of attraction stuff that miraculously turns you into a millionaire or attracts your dream partner, if only you visualize it intensely enough. Yes. And no.

According to the law of attraction thoughts have, or rather are, vibrations and life matches you up with things that are in your vibration. Always. So, if you align yourself with what you desire then life matches you up with what you desire. Conversely, if you align yourself with what you don’t want or don’t like, you end up with more of what you don’t want and don’t like. Equally, and this is where it gets a little bit tricky, if you have a desire but at the same time doubt that it will be fulfilled then you’re setting yourself up for an unfulfilled desire, plus a reconfirmed distrust in the benevolent nature of life.

So far I had little inclination to buy into that concept. Because if you think that life is struggle then the law of attraction appears to be for the lazy, the delusional, those who think that you can simply daydream yourself into your dream life, without lifting as much as a finger. If you think that success has to be hard-won and worked for, then the law of attraction has no appeal to you. Unless, of course, you sense a business opportunity here and attract lots of lazy or desperate people who buy into that concept and your products. And, pooooff, you’re rich (while they are still poor, or poorer).

But let’s pause for a moment and, for the sake of the argument, seriously consider it. What if… the law of attraction were real and at work, regardless of whether you believed in it or not? And what if… thinking of life as a permanent struggle attracted precisely that, a life of permanent struggle?

Urgh… That would be very uncomfortable and unsettling indeed. And a very good reason to pause. Because if that were true then I would be the co-creator of my own endless loop experience of struggle. No one else to blame. Hm.

Given how unappealing a life of permanent struggle is, that’s definitely something worth thinking about. Actually, coming to think about it, for a very long time I really was stuck in victim mode. I kept asking myself why certain things had happened to me, why I could not have been more lucky. I was lamenting life. And I carried around within me a feeling of lack and mistrust in life, a little resentment towards it, too. And a feeling that I had to wrestle the good stuff from it.

But what if… there really was a way to attract that which we desire into our life? What if… we really could change the very nature of our physical experience though the power of our mind? I don’t know about you but it’s an option I’d rather not leave unexplored. Just in case there is something to it. So I did some research, like I always do when I stumble upon something that I can’t quite wrap my head around but that holds some strange appeal to me, in spite of my rational thinking mind.

What stuck with me after reading lots of articles and watching lots of videos, carefully avoiding the huge flimsy businesses type section, was that idea of alignment with what you desire in the here in now. The idea that you cannot attract what you desire in the future if your alignment in the here and now is with something else than what you desire. It’s like dreaming about taking the exit on the right, but in actual fact taking the one on the left, expecting it to take you to where the one on the right would have taken you.

So, let’s say I desire to lead an authentic life (because that’s really what I’m after), then, according to the more “listenable” law of attraction proponents, my only job and the only thing I really can do, is to align myself with my true self, with what makes me happy, right here, right now. And quit the worrying, the fear, the demanding, the struggling, the effort of trying to press my desire into a specific form.

The law of attraction can’t be fooled, they say. It will always sniff out when you’re just pretending. When you’re sneakily searching for a shortcut around the alignment part. There is no shortcut but the alignment, they say. And the alignment is something that’s not done once and for all, but it’s a continuous process. A process of becoming aware of what is out of sync with your desire in the here and now, and addressing that interference by finding a way, a thought, an alternative action that feels more in alignment, more in tune with your desire.

It’s the art of using the experience of life as a contrasting experience, one that allows you to bump into what you don’t like so you have a chance to realize what you do like, and move towards it. It’s the art of choosing the path of least resistance. Not in the sense of accepting things or events you don’t like as your fate. But a way of acknowledging that there is a blockage, something out of sync with what you desire.

And then you have a choice.

You can either stay focussed on what is out of sync, fight it, get stuck in the mud of complaint and grudge, and insist on it getting out of your way. Or you can choose a different path, one that feels better, lighter, more in tune with your desire, your heart. Even if it means giving up the path you originally intended to take. Even if you don’t have a map for that path. Even if you don’t know how the next part of your journey is going to unfold.

It’s the difference between going upstream and downstream. The difference between struggle and surrender.

I have always struggled with the surrender thought. The invitation into uncharted territories. The acceptance of the not knowing. The unfolding of my path only as I’m walking it. Feeling my way forward, rather than knowing it. And giving up any attempt to control the outcome. It doesn’t sound safe.

Yet, no matter how long I kept reading and watching videos, no matter how long I searched for a safer, more predictable kind of moving forward, I always ended up with this thought. So maybe there is something to it. Maybe it’s worth a try.

I battled with that idea for a little bit until, for some reason, the thought of a leaf floating down a stream entered my mind. I guess it was all that “downstream” and “flow of life” talk that brought it about. And since there is nothing you cannot find on youtube I searched for “leaf floating downstream”. And sure enough, someone had indeed gone through the trouble of filming a leaf floating down a river.

The longer I watched it the more I felt at peace, and strangely enough I never worried about the safety of the leaf, not even when it was briefly swallowed up by a very, very strong swirl. Of course, I’m not a leaf. And there is a chance I might drown if I ever tried to live like that. But what if….. I didn’t?

 

I watched it all the way to the end. Did you?