Power of Attraction 3

Drew Rozell, Ph.D, Session Leader
Power of Attraction – Class 3

Drew: Here we go with class 3 of attraction. Where we left off last time, we were talking about the idea of dominant thoughts, and we were talking about the 3 steps of attraction. The 3rd step is the trickiest; this tends to be the trickiest one in the whole attraction concept so it's where we're going to spend the majority of the time today. Before we get into allowing and attraction in general, something that comes up for me is the idea of responsibility in one's life. How much responsibility do you have to take for what you get out of life? What do you think?

That's a tough one.

It is a tough one; I'm not saying I have the answer for it, either. I think attraction addresses it indirectly. For me, I think this is one of the fundamental issues around attraction, especially around the idea of allowing.

I think we need to take responsibility for everything we do.

Is that different than taking responsibility for everything that happens to us?

Yes, it is. There are varying levels of responsibility, depending on the situation.

Okya, somebody else throw in their thoughts.

There's something funny about responsibility becuae it's connected to faith too. It could be a misleading thought but they're very connected with me.

Okay, I'll go with that. How does faith – in my opinion, when I look at the law of attraction and that what I put out in the universe comes back to me, a lot of that is based on faith. It's a belief that's evolved into something beyond a belief because I've seen it work too mnay times. I'm trusting that how I feel and what I put out there is more important than what I do. I think there is some faith involved in attraction.

It's about what you put out there versus what you do – you just said it.

I know when I bring this concept up with people, and it's a simple concept that everyone has come across at some time in their lives, but they're not willing to take that leap of faith. I always have looked at attraction at something that's closely related to faith – that's the way I look at it, anyway. Anybody else have thoughts around that?

Leah: I think it's closely related as well because in order to allow, you have to have faith otherwise you're going to start doubting it.

Yes; that is it. It's especially related to this idea of allowing. You hve to have fiath that this idea works, and the vibrations under that doubt are going to be negative ones. It's certainly not going to match the joy of what you do want.

Deb: if we have to have faith, does that not also – if faith is also part of attraction, does that not also make us responsible? I think it does. If I take the position that I'm not only responsible for everything I do but everything that happens to me, then when something that happens to me that I'm not fond of, I'm in a place to hone my faith.

Ooh! That sounds good. Tell me more.

I'm thinking on my feet here; I don't know if I can tell you that.

I'll share something that happened to me. If you look at what the law of attraction is saying, that you have responsibility, that you attract whatever comes into your life – it was about a month ago, we had an inch of snow on the ground and took the dogs for a walk. I turned one of the sharp corners and put the brake on, slid, and crashed my truck. Initially, I thought, ‘Why did this happen?' I created this and I have to take responsibility for it.' After a while, knowing how this happened or why wasn't the point, but it I could accept it as not being such a terrible thing, it shifted the whole energy of the thing. It wasn't importna tthat I attracted it into my life, but what became more improtnat was how I reacted to it.

That's a great point. When we're talking about responsibility, if that means guilt, then no I'm not going to do that. If I can remove the guilt and figure out what I did, then it's a great way to be responsible.

So guilt comes up for you?

Yeah, that word ‘responsibility' does it for me.

Yeah, I don't know if anybody can come up with a better word – I don't like that word myself.

As far as faith and the law of attraction, do you just get to a place where you believe it and have faith, or do you take a stand and believe it so it operates in your life?

Well, where I come from with it, what I have faith in, it's that the universe is a benevolent place; it only wants good things for me and I don't have to spend my life worrying about stuff. Some people call that God and you can call it all different things – that one idea is what I have faith in and that makes it really simple for me. I smashed up my truck and I don't have collision insurance because I have the idea that if I'm thinking good thoughts, those things aren't going to happen. But, it did happen and how did I react to that? Do I go into a downward spiral, or do I think, ‘Hey, it's nothing to worry about.' Maybe a couple of years ago, it would have sent me into a spin, but right now I'm actually kind of excited. I bought all the parts yesterday and I'm actually upgrading it throughout. I think it comes back to how responsibility – a big point of this is that it always, it's up to you how you choose to vibrate; you have that choice. Maybe that's not repsonsibiltiy of everything that happens to you, but when things do happen to you and they will, you have the choice of how you vibrate when they occur. Perhaps that ties into faith; if you don't have to worry about anything, then it allows you to vibrate from a place that's much more positive.

Leah: I think if you come from the perspective that your present moment, your now, is perfect, then you really have to be responsible for everything that happens to you because you're the only common denominator for everything that's going on. But, if you can also accept what happens as a reality and you see what you can get from it, then… if you take your car out and someone hits you, what part did you play in that? Maybe you could've left later, or earlier and you wouldn't have run into that person.

Well said. And when you do do that, to me that means that you're in charge, that you have the power. It's not that life happens to you, it's that you're the creator of life. You always have the power in attraction; you're always creating your own experiences. If you look externally at the cause of events, you have to give that up – you can't be the creator because someone is creating that for you. Deb, did you come up with anything about that moment of honing your faith?

No, but I'm working really hard on another word for ‘responsible' – maybe we're not responsible for everything that happens to us, but we're honest. Honest implies…. I don't know. I'm working on it! We've got to get rid of ‘responsible'! I guess we're worthy of everything that happens to us.

Responsibility has such a negative connotation to it, doesn't it?

Yes, and it also implies that there's something that must be done, and I don't know if attraction is that much about doing.

Yeah. If anyone can come up with the word, I think that would be great – we could use a different word besides ‘responsibility'. It is about the things that happen to you.

It's something we create or manifest.

Because it is the idea of what you feel – let me put it this way. Do you think that what you feel is always manifested in your life?

I think so.

The difference is that I think a lot of people aren't. When I talk about attraction, people are willing to own the positive things that happen in their life, but not the negative things. The idea of blame, or looking externally when things happen, that isn't going to hone your faith. Or, you can learn the true lessons of attraction right there. The idea is that we are just a reflection of the source energy of the universe. We're just reflecting that. Thank you for that; very good.

With this whole idea of allowing, letting in and being a vibrational match for what we're asking for, I think that what we see is that we're not so much turning something on as turning something off – we're eliminating resistance. If you use electricity as an example, resistance slows down the flow of electricity. We're talking about reducing the resistance we have within us to allow what we really want to flow to us. You can look at the chiropractic model – it's one where the body heals itself, and you just want to eliminate the blocks to make that happen. That's where the idea we brought up last time, dominant thoughts, comes into play. We all have beliefs, things we've learned about certain topics, and if those thoughts are negative, we really can't change that – it's our habit, it's what we've learned and will naturally go to. If your true thoughts are negative, you know you have to turn your attention somewhere else. Everybody clear on the idea of dominant thoughts?

Things to watch out for include, first, if you're dominant thought is negative, are you focused on what you want or don't want. It may be a real subtle difference here that you have to ask for what you want, but so much of our time is focused on what we don't want to happen. You really have to check in with yourself – are you focused on what you want or what you don't want?

Deb: Amazingly, NPR had an interview with Daniel Goldman in the hour before this call. He talked a lot about being mindful and controlling your dominant thoughts. He has a new book out on the subject.

Drew: I think that's been on before because you can download that off the Internet. I don't know how to search it, but I got the link for that. Thanks for sharing that whole idea. What I have noticed a lot, and maybe it's because my attention is here – I've noticed that a lot of people are talking about the same thing. They may call it something different or may not tie to the whole concept of attraction, but everything that I see is right in line with the stuff that we're talking about. What's the book title, Deb?

Deb: It's called Destructive Emotions: A Scientific Dialogue with the Dalai Lama. It's a series of conversations scientists had with the Dalai Lama over a 5-year period and Daniel Goldman is the author – he has written previous books on emotional intelligence.

Drew: Yeah! Thanks for that. It interests me because I think attraction is the coolest thing ever and I don't want to get too defensive about it, ever, trying to prove the case, but there are some books that have come out recently on this. There's a whole new field of psychology called ‘positive psychology' – they're orienting around what makes people happy and why don't we focus on happiness rather than problems all the time. You can go through everything from overall well-being, your definition of success, wealth – those things are all related and research tends to bear this out. When you have your attraction eyes open – I love biographies, and in every one there's such an attraction to people who are happy and successful people. Just keep you eyes open for that. I do think people are becoming more and more aware and educated about this topic.

Another thing is the idea that around if you ask for what you really want – this relates to the discussion we had earlier – and it doesn't come. We get into that whole faith place where the vibration is really one of doubt, so we keep asking for what we want over and over. We're never getting to that step 3, so we keep going back to step 1; you never actually manifest what you want. You've got to have that faith; that's where faith comes into place. Let me ask you – how do you trust it, then, if you're not getting what you want? If you're not getting what you want, how do you do this the first time?

XXX: Can you say that again in another way?

Drew: If attraction takes faith, do we just become faithful or – what needs to happen for people say, ‘I don't quite get that' and they don't really have faith because they've never gotten something this way…. How would you get them to experiment with it?

XXX: Well, perhaps you could get them to identify whether it occurs anywhere else in their life.

Drew: I like that; that has worked for me in the past.

Sylvia: sometimes what you ask for comes in a different form and that leads to confusion.

Drew: Yes, when you ask for something and it comes in a different from – I know what you're talking about. Did you have an example around that?

Sylvia: Well, just different opportunities, I think. Let's say you want a new car, and your expectation is that you're going to win a car in a lottery, and the opportunity arises but you don't see it.

Deb: After the accident happened, I sure wouldn't have said it attracted something wonderful then – I realized it a couple days later.

Drew: That happened for me as well. My accident had me wanting a new vehicle – it got my desire going. I ordered all these parts and upgrades so when it's all done, it's going to be a new vehicle. I think a lot of times things come in a different form than we expect.

XXX: Does that happen because that's the way it is, or does it happen because we're not proficient with faith yet? I wasn't being much clearer than saying, ‘I want a car without car payments' – I wasn't more specific about that. The next time should I be more specific and say that I want a new car, I want it to be red, and I don't want to have car payments?

Drew: I don't know.

XXX: I don't either.

Drew: I think you can – the law of attraction would say that whatever you ask for, that's what you receive. So, the decision on your part would be what do you really want? Do you kind of know the parameters or is there something really specific that you have in mind? Warren, are you there?

Warren: Yes.

Drew: You're looking for a new car, right?

Warren: Yes.

Drew: And what are you looking for?

Warren: A 3000 GTX.

Drew: Okay, what specifically do you have to have?

Warren: A turbo engine.

Drew: And is there a mile limitation as well?

Warren: Absolutely; I have a whole set of parameters I'm looking for, and I think the key is patience. I see something and it's close to what I want and I wait and I look, and finally something comes close and you finally buy. I have a car and I'm looking for an upgrade; my goal this time is to be patient and to keep looking for it.

Drew: So you have very specific parameters?

Warren: Yes.

Drew: Do you know you'll get what you want, Warren?

Warren: Absolutely; it's just a matter of time.

Drew: Will it be hard?

Warren: No, I go to different websites and see the cars listed – eventually it's going to happen.

Drew: To make a point, Warren is asking for something very specific and I have no doubt that he'll get exactly what he wants. For some of us, if it comes to us in a different form or isn't exactly what we want, it's because we're not specific.

XXX: I think in both cases – in the case of the vehicle that flooded, something negative happened to your vehicle. I think there are 2 different mindsets that can happen when something negative happens. In both of your stories, something good came out of something negative, and that's pretty much how I live my life. In your case, you're psyched about what your truck is going to look like now. You wouldn't have asked for an accident to happen, and something negative happened, but it's a positive now. I think it's all a mindset.

Drew: It is a mindset.

XXX: Negative things happen all the time, and it's all in how you respond to them.

Drew: That makes sense to me. I remember probably about 7 or 8 years ago, it was a winter day and was living in Syracuse at the time. I remember looking out the window at a car that had been in an accident right in front of my place and was happy that it wasn't my car. When I walked out to my car, I saw the other side and they had totaled my car. What it made me do was move on and move up into something better. It forced me to take that leap at that time, and that was the best thing that happened to me. It raised my awareness of what was possible for me, and got me on track that way. We always have that choice in how we vibrate and how we respond. Some things are really difficult; my mother has Alzheimer's disease and it's really hard to be around that. My dominant thought there isn't positive; it's very challenging. Sometimes the best thing for me is to not be around that. That's the challenge – how do you be around those dominant thoughts?

Dominant thoughts and what to watch out for, in cutting off the allowing process. I used to see old beliefs show up – when I hear somebody say the word ‘how', at that point, when you get to the point of how something is going to occur, you're heading down that road of doubt and negative vibration and you're not allowing it to happen. That's really hard for people and I understand. We come from a linear-dominated world, and people want to know ‘how'; they want to figure out how.

XXX: They want to take some action.

Drew: Yeah, what can I do to fix that? And, attraction, as strange as it sounds, the actions are irrelevant. That's a hurdle some people can never get over. When I find myself asking myself, ‘How is that going to happen?', I know I've stopped allowing. The other word that comes up is the ‘but…' Here's all the reasons I'm not going to allow that to happen. Just notice that and be aware of it within your own mindset and when you hear other people talking about what they want. You'd be amazed at how many times people do that. I'm sure there are other words; those are the 2 I hear most often. Okay?

XXX: Okay (multiple voices)

Drew: We all have old beliefs that keep us from getting what we want; there's a way to overcome those, to diffuse those, and that's to increase the amount of wanting you have. Focus on how cool the thing you really want is, and build up your energy there. If you want that 3000 GTX, Warren, really, really want that.

The last big point we'll get through today – I got this one from Abraham Hicks, and I really like it. In this whole attraction model, they ask a series of questions. The 1st question is: you can choose whether you feel good or feel bad. What do you choose?

XXX: Feel good (multiple voices)

Drew: Truth versus untruth. What do you choose?

XXX: Truth (multiple voices).

Drew: You have to make the choice between feeling good and the truth. What do you choose?

XXX: Feeling good (multiple voices)

Drew: All right! You've got to live in reality; get your head out of the clouds – that's what we're taught. We're programmed where we have to face facts. You know, reality is what we make it; it's all made up anyway. People get so caught up in that and they call that ‘truth'. Most people choose that reality all the time, rather than feeling good. They will make themselves miserable and live according to something they think is the truth, rather than feeling good. I think this is another really big point around faith. You have to believe, and more than believe, I think you have to know that you're here to feel good. Feeling good is the best thing you can do for your life and the universe as a whole.

Leah: I think that when you're dealing with truth and reality, you can always find some part to feel good about. Like the example about the Dalai Lama, he talks about dealing with other people – if there's someone who always drives you crazy, that may be a reality you don't like but there is probably something about that person that you do like. That might be away for you to deal with that person.

Drew: Thank you for that. The way I see that as well – I hear people talk about their relationships with their spouse, and someone's making them mad and can only see them in one way. I can look at the condition with my mother and focus on that reality. If that is what you're focusing on, that is what you'll attract. In this case, it all depends on where you put your attention – particularly with other people. How do you attract other people? You cannot create the experience of another person. That's up to them; you can't change them. All we can ever do, in any situation, is to see the person as we want them to be. All we can do is pick up whatever is there that makes us feel more positive; if you can put out that vibration, the only time you'll encounter that person is in a manner that matches your vibration. If there are 10 different characteristics of that person and there's 1 you really like, focus on the 1. That will attract to you more and more of what you want.

All right, I think we're in a good place right now to call it class 3. Class 4 will talk more about allowing and what I think are some of the key prerequisites for attracting. As always, feel free to bring your comments and questions. I want to thank everybody for sharing. We'll keep working on that – I liked the suggestions on different words rather than responsibility. Thanks everybody; we'll catch you next week!