By Matt Sison - Hypnotherapist

Thank the sweet lord for the recent revival of the positive thinking and law of attraction movements that have swept through our consciousness in the last few years in the form of books, audio and video programs, and workshops.

And positive thinking should be the Ideal, shouldn’t it?

Well, yes and no.

Yes, because it makes us feel good and temporarily gets us out of misery… if even for a short time. And anything that can break that cycle of misery surely has to have a positive effect, true?

You know about a year back I wrote an article for a popular news-based website where I discussed some backlash stemming from the dvd “The Secret.” At the time, even I had gotten swept up in the enthusiasm that this dvd created.

However, I intuitively sensed that the principles espoused in The Secret would lead to what is called an “upper limits problem” An upper limits problem refers to the idea that we all have an unconscious limit to how much positive energy we can handle coming into our lives. And when life gives us more positive energy than we can handle, we will unconsciously sabotage things to bring the energy back down to our comfort zone. For some folks love and intimacy are big dosages of positive energy; just when a relationship is going well, a fight might break out so as to limit the energy. Or right before a romantic vacation, one of the partners might get sick, and in this way dampen the effect of the positive energy that would have been generated on the vacation. Other forms of positive energy that people experience might include financial success or stability, or good health, or happiness. When I’ve done hypnotic regression work with my clients, what I’ve noticed is that as we reach the upper limits of good energy, another unconscious part of us goes, “uh oh, when’s the other shoe going to drop?”.

I had a fair amount of experience dealing with the upper limits of good energy problem in my practice, and was even compelled to discuss it while being interviewed for a popular internet podcast a few years back. However, it’s not until recently that I truly understood the effects of the backlash.

Well, I think the other shoe is starting to drop. So many followers of The Secret and the Law of Attraction are starting to experience a huge backlash of anxiety, doubt, frustration, desperation and even depression. They are left wondering “Why isn’t this working for me?”

Just take a quick glance at our current global economic crisis and it becomes easy to see that despite the wave of positive thinking created by these ideologies, we are in dire straits, and perhaps more unhappy than ever before, despite all of our positive thinking. So just what happened anyhow?

As much as I love these ideologies I think they have a particular flaw. Their main idea is that in order to manifest what you want, you have to be connected to something called “source” energy. Well, being a spiritual guy, that’s not too far of a stretch for me. However, then they tell us that source energy is on the side of joy. Mmmm… ok, this is where I start to fall off just a bit.

I like to think of it this way:

Let’s imagine a person (maybe even yourself) who is experiencing peace and feels in balance right at this moment. I don’t necessarily mean joyful, rather peaceful with a sense of harmony knowing that he/she is right where they need to be. This sensation is what I like to refer to as being centered. And it has a distinct body-level feel to it.

So with that being said, imagine a graph with a horizontal line, and then a vertical line dissecting the horizontal line right down the middle. In the middle is our center: our balance and peace (peace actually pervades the whole graph but another topic for another time.)

To the left of the vertical line we have a gradation of what can be termed “negative” feelings… from frustration to fear, etc… On the right we have a gradation of positive feelings from happiness to excited joy… etc.

Well, these positive thinking philosophies tell us that we are closest to source energy when we are on the right side of this graph – excited joy. Let’s reexamine this position to see if its necessarily true.

I would suggest to you that source energy is not on the right side of the graph, but actually in the middle where we have peace and balance. Have you noticed it’s easiest for us to manifest things that we are not as deeply attached to? When we are in the middle, we are more at peace with (and thus less attached to) those manifestations on the far right of the graph - peace. Thus we are not “clinging” or “wanting” to a degree that pulls us out of our center.

Now, I’m not saying you can’t manifest your desires from joy, because I know you have manifested from that energy before. However, if you think of it you’ve also manifested some desires from the other side of the spectrum. You’ve manifested from Fear which is on the left side of the graph. For some of us, fear has been the driving force to reach goals.

But the things you manifested when you were in a state of peace or a simple “okayness” required much less energy and anxiety then manifestations made from the states of joy and fear. It’s those that you attracted from a state of peace and balance that “seemed so easy.”

Moreover, some of you may have learned from certain spiritual self-help philosophies that you should imagine what you want, but then let it go and don’t think about it again.

Now, I don’t know about you but this bothered the hek out of me as I was so excited about manifesting what I wanted that I couldn’t stop thinking about it! And this made me feel bad ’cause these philosophies told me to forget about it! Not to mention how dismayed I would get if it didn’t come right away or even at all! But I stuck with it and found other ways to create excitement, only to fall back into this pattern again and again - something I found common place with people who attended a plethora of manifestation meetings on a weekly basis, as they tried in all earnest, to sustain these “good feelings.”

However, imagine, if you could experience the sensation of joy in your manifestations, I mean fully experience joy but then after experiencing it, you returned to a peaceful state where you could release your attachment to the outcome (as opposed to just forgetting about what you imagined) and even move into a sense of assured calm and centeredness when you think of your manifestation? Thus, keeping resistance to a minimum!

Let me give you an example:

I remember one of the most exhilarating events of my life was when I was younger and I hit my first 2 homeruns in little league. I actually dreamt about it the night before! But when I came to the park, after having experienced the excitement in my dream, I was very at peace with the idea of hitting 2 homeruns. I was going around telling my teammates, in a very calm and serene manner, that I would hit two homeruns, one off Joey Speakes and one off Greg Nealon… and sure enough… whammo – my first homerun ever in the first inning against Joey Speakes and in the 6th inning another homerun off of Greg Nealon.

More so, I found out the next day that the coach had given the sign to Greg and his catcher that Greg was not suppose to throw any pitches across the plate. Rather he was suppose to walk me!

In retrospect, if I would have came into that game clinging on to the excitement and telling everyone “I’M GOING TO HIT 2 HOMERUNS TODAY.. I DREAMT IT,” then quite possibly it may have taken me out of the center and I would have tensed up from all the excitement and not accomplish what I had dreamed of the night before.

This is what happens to a lot of us, we cling on to the excitement which shoots down our rocket of desire.

Now, keep this in mind as you continue to read - it’s the center we want to be in when thinking about our manifestations.

You see sensations to the left or right of peace are meant to be experienced and then let go of. They are simply guidelines as to where one may want to focus a life of peace. They aren’t meant to be held on to. And that’s one of the greatest problems we have faced, hitherto, in creating our manifestations.

Please remember that I’m not saying you shouldn’t experience either side of the spectrum. In fact, I’m saying the opposite - FULLY EXPERIENCE THEM! But don’t cling on to either side!

As I am fond of saying “Wanting may create rockets of desire, but clinging will fire off SCUD missles to knock them down!”

Consider what happens when you’re on the left side of the spectrum: Fear. What happens to your body? Adrenalin rushes through, blood pressure rises, pulse rises… etc.

Now think about what happens on the right side of the spectrum: excited joy. What happens to your body? Adrenalin rushes through, blood pressure rises, pulse rises… etc.

Notice what either the sense of joy or the sense of fear does to your body. It pulls you out of homeostatsis. It pulls you out of center. Imagine trying to sustain either side of the spectrum indefinitely. Physically, it will wear out your body and mentally/emotionally it will “pendulum” your feelings back and forth from fear at one end of the spectrum, to excited joy at the other end, barely giving you any time to just sit and experience balance, peace and most of all CLARITY.

You see, this universe runs on the idea of balance. Once something is tilted one way it then has to tilt the other way in order to recalibrate; and if doesn’t find a way to slow down toward the middle, disasters have a greater potential for occuring.

We tend to think that it’s the left side of the spectrum that holds us back, but please understand it’s the right side of the spectrum that has equally, and at times even more so, held us back from fully experiencing a life of peace, balance, and harmony while attaining goals that make us truly happy and content. It’s the right side of the spectrum where a lot of today’s philosophies say you must “vibrate” with constantly to achieve what you wish. But listen to your body! You can not sustain either side without having some kind of extreme recalibration back and forth, or some sort of repercussion.

This is why we are having the backlash of anxiety, doubt, frustration, desperation and even depression.

Unfortunately, so many of us tilt more to the left side of fear. And like I said earlier we can manifest from this energy, but it takes a ton of energy to do so and when we do manifest from this energy it has worn us out so much that we wonder if it was all “worth it.”

So how do we experience our joyous feelings and come back to joy where we can let go of the attachment and thus release resistance to our manifestations?

Well, come back to this blog often and I will touch upon more answers and ideas in the future. In fact my business partner and good friend Randy Shaw and I are in the midst of putting together a 4 cd set that will more thoroughly explain this concept, including practical exercises that will help you manifest through peace!

Sincerely,

Matt Sison

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