How To Use The Law Of Attraction In The Movement For Social Justice
Dear Friend,
How are you doing? If you haven’t taken some time for yourself in the last few weeks (or months!) I invite you to do so now. Take a breath with me. It’s been quite a year. Do not underestimate the strength you are exemplifying just by living through it.
As the intensity of energy and uprising following the murder of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor dissipates a bit, I’m finding myself settling into the unfamiliar longevity of this movement to dismantle white supremacy. Even as the energy feels calmer and less active, the unlearning and relearning remains uncomfortable and my desire to engage remains strong. I find myself asking questions about my role in this revolution, about how I can be most effective in my efforts, and I also find myself grappling with my spirituality. These last few weeks have been the first time in 11 years that I have questioned the existence of a higher universal power. It’s been in these moments that I’ve had to muster faith.
Learning about and experimenting with the Law of Attraction has been one of my favorite and most rewarding learnings in this life so far. I also know that it is a principle that is widely misunderstood, and I myself have had to grapple with it as I’ve tried to apply it to this movement. But in my understanding, it is, was always, and will always be at play, and we might as well utilize it intentionally as we create the world we want to live in.
The Law of Attraction IS NOT “Positive Thinking”. It is not wishing, it is not hoping, it is not putting on blinders and ignoring the bad stuff.
The Law of Attraction IS two easy parts and one harder part: The easy parts are knowing what we don’t want and knowing, in contrast, what we do want. I say these parts are easy because they happen naturally, all the time, as we live our lives. The harder part is lining up with what we do want. It’s harder because it requires some focused attention. We humans tend to focus on the problem and what isn’t working a little more than necessary.
The Law of Attraction requires that we pay attention to how we feel. That means how we feel emotionally but also how we feel physically. How does a thought feel in the body? Does a thought make you constrict or does it allow you to open? Do you feel hopeful or do you feel hopeless? These are questions to begin asking yourself.
It’s not that we want to avoid feeling bad or constricted. The question to ask is, is this a doorway or a wall? Only you can know the answer to that question.
When we see things we don’t like - a mean and racist president say mean and racist things, millions of people without homes, clean water, or good food, white supremacy imbedded into the institutions of the country we live in, crowded bars devoid of face masks during a pandemic - we can usually have two “pushing against” responses. One response is to get lost in the pain, anger, and frustration. The other response is to have an “I don’t like this” reaction and then be inspired toward a different future.
If you find yourself lost in pain, ie complaining a lot, feeling anxious, feeling depressed, feeling hopeless, feeling angry - maybe give yourself a break. When we are overwhelmed by pain and suffering, we are likely to create and attract more of it. Give yourself a rest. Take care of yourself until your creative life force energy comes back to you and you can breathe again. Make how you feel in any given moment matter. Meditate. Breathe. Cry. Find something to be grateful for. Connect with a friend. Write in a journal. Watch something funny on TV. Do whatever you need to do to take care of YOU. When you start to feel your creative life force energy come back and you begin to be inspired, follow your inspiration. This is a cycle of healing and deliberate creation.
If and when you find yourself inspired toward a different future, let that guide you. Think about it. Draw it. Write about it. Talk about it. Meditate on it. Breathe it in. Breathe it out. Get excited about it. Live it in the world. Expand on it. From this place of inspiration, of hopefulness, of creativity, you are likely to create the change you want to make. You are likely to be inspired toward helpful action (it might not be the action you thought you should or would be inspired toward). You are likely to connect with others who are moving in the same direction. If you find yourself back in a hopeless or upset place, take care of yourself. This is a cycle of healing and creation.
Momentum plays an important role. When we’ve wanted something for a long time but haven’t gotten it, we have a lot of momentum in the direction of not having it. If we’ve had an easy experience with something, we are likely not to have a lot of resistant momentum to it. We tend to use our past experience as evidence of future possibility. If we have wanted something for a long time but it hasn’t come, we’ll use that as evidence that it won’t come no matter how much we want it. If we’ve gotten something easily throughout our lives, we’ll use that as evidence that it can come easily. I’ll spare you many detailed examples of this principle playing out in my own life for now. But in regard to racial justice for example, those who are just waking up to the pervasiveness and depth of pain of white supremacy and racism in America might be having strong reactions but likely don’t have a lot of resistant momentum on the subject, while someone who has been in the fight for a long time seeing hardly any change may actually have more resistance to change because they believe it won’t come, or at least won’t come easily. Try to remain hopeful in your activism. This will be harder for some than for others and that’s perfectly fine. There is probably a balancing act here of learning patience while still expecting and believing that meaningful change can happen quickly. It’s also important for white people to uplift, point to, check in with, and follow the lead of BIPOC voices rather than move actively and quickly forward in our resolve to end racial injustice. Our unconscious (or conscious) desire to prove ourselves, be good, and be worthy through our “important” action is insidious and we must watch out for it and not take actions from that place.
Law of Attraction is about you and only you. The only way to know if it works is if you work it. You’ll never be able to look at someone else’s life and judge whether or not Law of Attraction is working because you don’t know their story, their history, their point of attraction, their desire, their blocks to their desire, or anything else about them. It can be very tempting to try and look around at others to see if it’s working but all it will tell you is more about how it’s working for YOU. Sorry.
A lot of people think of anger as bad, wrong, un-spiritual, or simply not helpful. But coming from a place of disempowerment, anger feels like power. I say go with it. At a certain point, the anger is likely to feel unhelpful. At that point, switch it up.
Destruction is not always negative. Sometimes it is caring. Sometimes it is creating space for something new. Think confederate statues being taken down. Think the destruction of corporate property alongside the early protests. You yourself might not be called to destruct, but do not judge those who do. Be mindful. Zoom out a little. Be aware of balance. Be kind. Don’t hurt anyone. It’s all part of it.
One thing I’m grappling with is how intently to hold on to the revolution in a conscious way. Is the Law of Attraction responding to our desire for a better world even if we’re not consciously creating it or taking action toward it at any given moment? I am inclined to say yes. And yet, we don’t want to acknowledge the injustice and then ignore it or forget about it because we can. This is, in part, because it’s much more fun to consciously create a new world and to see the effects of your attraction than to ignore it and let it happen around you. I also think it’s because the more we ask, the more we get answers. Create an intention around your commitment to the movement and see what comes. Maybe you are being called not to focus so much on what’s happening in the world because you need some rest or because there’s no helpful action for you to take right now. Maybe in a week you’ll be at protests everyday or have a society-shifting conversation with someone you meet while you’re “not thinking about it.” The Universe works in mysterious ways.
I hope this helps you begin to consciously utilize the Law of Attraction in the movement for social justice. Don’t let anyone tell you that you have to avoid the hard stuff in order to attract the good stuff. Don’t let anyone tell you that taking time for yourself means you don’t care about the bad stuff. It is a flow. A healing and a creativity. We all have different capacities. We all have different roles. We all have different passions. We all have different points of attraction.
But my guess is that we all want a pretty similar world. A world in which we are part of, not separate from, the earth. A world in which everyone is cared for equally. A world in which all our needs are met. A world in which people look each other in the eyes and we feel like a human family. A world in which we support our earth, animals, and each other in providing us with food. A world in which everyone has shelter and clean water and clean air. A world in which creativity blossoms from every corner and expansion is celebrated. A world of music and art and conversation. A world in which every individual feels valuable and worthy of love just by being alive. A world in which our differences make life richer and more fun. A world in which we dance. A world in which we hug each other tightly. A world in which we contribute to one another in meaningful ways. A world in which we wake up feeling joyful. A world in which we don’t need permission to rest. I think this is the world we all want. If your ideal world varies from mine, that’s okay. There are worlds enough for all of us to have ours the way we want it.
I love you. I stand with you. I support your ideal world. Let’s create our worlds together.
My favorite Law of Attraction teacher is Abraham-Hicks. If you’re not ready to dive in and pay for anything, they have plenty of stuff on YouTube.
Love, Sarah