7 Reasons The Law of Attraction "Isn't Working for You"

Do you believe the Law of Attraction is just a bunch of new age nonsense? Have you tried it but “it didn’t work for you”? If so it is possible you have not really understood what it is all about and/or you are “stuck” and need to rethink your approach a bit. While the movie “The Secret” brought the Law of Attraction mainstream (and I will forever be grateful because it introduced this law to me) – it had its limitations. It concentrated on monetary gain and did not amplify just how important ACTION was. The Law of Attraction has been called other names but has been talked about for centuries. You can read other texts to look at it a bit differently and study it further as I did. You can also look over my list of 7 Reasons the Law of Attraction isn’t working for you and see where you are “getting stuck” in applying it for manifestations. I hope this post will help alleviate some of the “woo woo” around the Law of Attraction and show that this is practical advice to apply to ALL parts of your life.

1) Resistance vs. Acceptance

As the quote by Carl Jung says “What You resists persists”. Are you hesitant to take responsibility for your life as it is now? Do you tend to say “but the law of attraction can’t be true because of x, y, or z”? Do you try and come up with all kinds of scenarios in which “the law of attraction can’t work?” Accept that you are responsible and have created your life so far. Don’t judge, argue with yourself or get “stuck” in the negatively such as guilt, shame or anger that this may bring – resistance and negative emotions will push things away from you instead of propelling them towards you. If you want to read about this law put in different ways by well respected authors please read, “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill and/or “The Power of Your Subconscious Mind” by Dr. Joseph Murphy.

What you are telling God/The Universe by Resisting:

If you are putting all your attention and energy into saying “This can’t be true or work” – guess what? So be it! You are telling the Universe that you do not want to manifest things by using this law and the Universe will reply by keeping things from you.

Instead:

Look at this as an opportunity to look at the past as life lessons and move on – suspend your “judgment” and just accept it – there is SUCH freedom in this. Your Life Begins Now and is no longer just what has happened up until this point! I found self forgiveness a good place to begin.

2) Self-blame vs. Self forgiveness

Yep, when I looked at 6 years of missed events, medical tests, doctor visits, missed time with my children and just how sick I was for so long I felt pretty horrendous. I could have stayed in that space -- but really I had felt badly long enough with all my illnesses. To dwell there would not accomplish anything except me missing more of my life. I had to forgive myself and I did this through meditation, journaling and Ho’oponopono. I did not consciously bring these dis-eases on myself. The illnesses and pain came because I wasn’t listening to myself or dealing with issues as they came up but was instead internalizing them. My sub-conscious created these dis-eases for me to start paying attention – it took six years but I did finally “get it”.

What you are telling God/The Universe by Self-Blame:

“I am not worthy” “Look at all I have done/said/been up until this point – I deserve to be unhappy”.

Instead:

Find a way to forgive yourself. Whether it is through writing letters to yourself to get it out, writing down life lessons learned, thinking about what different experiences taught you, by using any of the methods I used above or many of the other “letting go or clearing techniques such as EFT, SFT Awareness or The Sedona Method”. Whatever “works” for you and resonates… it is time to move on….Self Forgiveness brings a sense of peace and leaves you open for the next one that is important…

3) Self Loathing vs. Self Love

Are you your worst enemy? Are you scared because when you DO stop to listen to your self talk all you hear is you insulting yourself and saying things like “I can’t”, “I’m not smart enough, good enough….” These are programmed messages that you don’t even necessarily believe deep down. You are just so used to hearing them and acting accordingly that you don’t even doubt them for a second. You are letting them limit what you really ARE capable of.

What you are telling God/The Universe by Self Loathing:

“I am not worthy”. “I don’t love myself so how can anything good come to me?” “I’ve been told these negative things all my life – that means I MUST be them”.

Instead:

Time to congratulate yourself, you have stilled your mind enough to actually HEAR what your self-talk is saying. This is the first step to consciousness and being aware. Every tiny moment of consciousness is a chance to change the messages in your head. It’s time to concentrate on what you CAN do and find your strengths instead of concentrating on your weaknesses. Nurture and love the things you are good at! You are only limited in potential if you tell yourself you are. Oprah Winfrey started out in poverty and was sexually abused at an early age… if she had kept telling herself “I can’t” many people in this world would not have benefited from her generosity and lessons... which leads to my next point:

4) Blaming others vs. Forgiveness of Others

I love Jack Canfield’s way of looking at this in “The Secret” audiobook…. Most people have come from some form of tragedy or dysfunctionality in their lives, “divorce, sexual, physical or emotional abuse, lack of love…” Jack Canfield says that is what he calls the “so what?!” It’s what you do NOW that counts. I had a friend in high school that was sexually abused by his grandfather ten years previously. He used this fact to explain ALL his shortcomings…. If we had an argument over something silly he would automatically say “well I was sexually abused by my grandfather you know”…. This got old pretty fast… I would be left thinking, “Um, you were an hour late because your grandfather sexually abused you 10 years ago – huh?” I know he had been to therapy to deal with it and I also know he had to see his grandfather and talk to him like nothing happened. I do not mean to belittle his situation but by staying in that state of blame and non-forgiveness he was hindering his growth and healing to move forward with his life.

Forgiveness can seem impossible sometimes – how do you forgive the unforgivable? Well, there have been parents who forgave their children’s killers and many other monstrosities. Forgiveness is always possible. It is not saying you approve of what happened by any means… Time to pull out my favorite Dr. Deepak Chopra quote again, “You must realize everyone is doing the best they can from their own state of consciousness”. It does not excuse it but it allows you to accept it happened and it is done….

What you are telling God/The Universe by Blame/Non Forgiveness

“This person/thing/event has me stuck here. I will never grow because this terrible thing happened and it is this person/thing/events fault I won’t evolve.”

Instead:

The fact remains if you are carrying around blame for someone – you have suffered long enough. Only forgiveness will set YOU free. Blame and hatred are two very low energy emotions and they will not help you get to where you want to be. Find a means for forgiveness that resonates (See #2 self-forgiveness) and get to it so you can reclaim and move on with your life. Which leads to the next:

5) Wishing vs. Concrete Goal setting

Okay so you have learned about the law of attraction -- are you sitting around saying “I want a lot of money” and not doing anything about it? Are you telling yourself JUST wishing it will make it true? Sorry, but as James Ray of “The Secret” says, “they will come and take your furniture away….”.

Or maybe you feel you have been “working so hard” and nothing is coming…. That’s the problem right there – you should not feel like you are “working so hard” and by telling everyone including yourself “how hard it is to make a living” you are calling that to you. When you look at your gifts and know you want to bring them into the world but have no clue “how”…. Give up the how for now but set concrete mini goals in moving forward. I’ve called them mini goals before and they are baby steps to help propel you forward. If you are taking action in the right direction the right people and places will present themselves to you. You have to be conscious and aware for the little nudges called “intuition” and follow through. You cannot give up at the first sign of a set-back because that is showing you do not have the belief in yourself that you can achieve your goals. Edison redesigned the light bulb hundreds of times before it worked… thank goodness he didn’t give up!

What you are telling God/The Universe by Wishing and Not Taking Action

I WISH these things will happen is the same as saying you do not believe you yourself have the power to make them happen. You are saying you do not believe in your own power but rather WISH someone would just take care of things for you. You are not taking the time to discover YOUR unique gifts but are just hoping blindly for a miracle.

Instead:

Set those goals, visualize how you will feel when you do establish them and let those emotions propel you forward into inspired action. Set mini goals such as:

-- talking to someone else who has done what you are trying to do

-- finding out more about occupations in your interests

-- spending 5 minutes doing affirmations telling yourself you will achieve your goals

-- meditating 5-10 minutes a day to start

-- educating yourself further on interests and believe you can do it which is the next step….

6) Disbelief vs. Belief

Do you have disbelief that you can do whatever you set your mind to no matter WHAT the circumstances or "odds" seem like? Do you have a bad case of the “buts”:

“But this can’t happen because…”

“But this is too hard”

“But I just can’t believe I could do it”…..

Guess what? You have just damned yourself to repeat your current situation over and over. There are no buts! I can’t explain exactly WHY I knew I could heal myself when I saw The Secret but I KNEW it deep inside. I now believe I knew it because this was my time to heal. I did not know if I would be as healthy as my young self. I did know by adopting habits that served me and becoming conscious I would feel tremendously better than I did at the time. This “belief” helped me tremendously. Even as I dealt with all my past “stuff” such as forgiveness, self love, being ungrateful, etc. I knew I was confronting it for a greater purpose and that purpose was healing from the inside out.

Continued belief and faith is important as well. I was not “judging” my healing or did not put a time frame on it. You have to believe that God/The Universe/Source knows what’s best for you and as long as you are taking action and moving forward the right things will be delivered to you as you need them. That “perfect” job may not have been so perfect… that “perfect” mate might have more skeletons than the Natural History Museum…. TRUST and BELIEVE that as long as you are doing your part – even what looks like a set-back at first might be what was needed to bring your biggest gift later. It takes time to develop new habits – especially if you have been on autopilot as long as I was! ;-) Be patient with yourself and celebrate each mini success – you are moving closer to awareness.

What you are telling God/The Universe by Disbelief

“I KNOW better than you what is good for me and HOW things should happen.” “Life is Hard” and I know the order things MUST go in for me to get anywhere.

Instead:

Believe you can do anything you set your mind and heart to. Accept that you are a powerful being and you do deserve the goodness that is going to come your way. Do not stray from this belief or if you do – re-center and believe again… Believe that “when you change the way you look at things – the things you look at will change” (Thank you Dr. Dyer for my favorite quote). A good way to start believing and empowering yourself is the last and final step; gratitude.

7) Ungrateful vs. Gratitude

Are you concentrating on everything you don’t have? Are you wishing you could have more but in a desperate kind of – “I KNOW I’ll never have more” kind of way? I know I was queen of concentrating on what I didn’t have. When you don’t have your health you can lump a lot of other things in right with it (friends, good times, feeling energetic and alive…).

It is interesting to me the lessons I learned from my husband’s real estate business here in upstate NY and from when we were looking for houses here. For the most part, the “poorest” people had the most “stuff” -- disorganized sometimes but MANY had tons of “things”. Most of these people were quick to point out they had nothing and no money to acquire anything. They did not see their magazines, clothes, toys and belongings as things to be grateful for – most were too busy being caught up in “what they didn’t have”. The wealthiest people we have come across have less “stuff”. Their houses have a zen-like quality. Ours has begun to take on that quality room by room the last year as we sell and donate things. If you have a lot of “stuff” – it can give you the feeling of being disorganized, overwhelmed and sends the signs out to the Universe that “you have more than enough and no room for more things”. I used to want to keep ALL of my books. Now I take great joy in passing them on. Yes, I will keep a few but I did not need hundreds lying around that I would probably never look at again.

What you are telling God/The Universe by Being Ungrateful

I have more than enough! I can’t handle or appreciate what I have. No more stuff please!

Instead:

You NEED to shift to the feeling of gratitude. What DO you have? Do you have a pet you love? Family? Friend(s) even one true friend is worthy of TONS of gratitude…. A roof over your head? Music that makes you happy? An easy time breathing? The ability to walk, see, hear, taste, feel? A safe environment? Concentrating on these things for even a minute a day will shift your mood and energy.

Pay attention to the areas of your house that have accumulated “things”. Do you feel overwhelmed when you go into a room? By giving things away you are not only helping others, you are acknowledging that you are grateful and see the things you have been given. You are clearing space for more things to come into your life.

CONCLUSION:

If you put these steps into action in your life you will become more conscious and be calling forth abundance. The Law of Attraction is at work and perhaps if you look at some of the more monumental events in your life (“good and bad”) you can see what led up to them, process and let go of them and learn how to move forward. I will be forever grateful for my illnesses and dis-eases because it led me to where I am right now. I might not have found my passion for teaching others about healing and consciousness if I had not been ill – and to date this is the greatest gift I have been given. My healing came when it was best for me to come. My love of helping others combined with writing for my blogs almost feel dreamlike to me because they come so effortlessly. I have ultimate confidence in myself to succeed in all areas of my life because I am awake… no not all the time… I have my moments – I am human! Consciousness does not come to most of us like it came to Eckhart Tolle (in one moment when he was close to taking his own life). It is a slow process…. Do not judge and berate yourself on the mis-steps (Appreciate ALL the Moments Not Just the Good Ones) but be sure to congratulate yourself on the positive…. Become your own best friend instead of your own worst enemy and you will attract riches in all areas of your life in many different forms.

I know the Law of Attraction works because I have seen it transform my life and many others. For real life examples and stories of manifestation please check out the book my story is in (as well as 50 others) “Living the Law of Attraction”. Sometimes you need to read “proof” and inspirational stories to have that “A-Ha” moment. I am now expanding my coaching practice and will include a free copy of “Living The Law of Attraction” if you sign up with me as your mind/body mentor. I also offer a free ½ hour consultation with any purchase of my e-book. I welcome comments and contact via comments on this blog or emailing me at jennymannion@yahoo.com.

Other Related posts:

“Do I Have to Stay Positive ALL the time for the Law of Attraction to work?”

“What do I do when someone important in my life does not believe in the Law of Attraction and I do?”

“Living the Law of Attraction – Real Stories of Healing and Manifestations”