Recently people have been asking me about the film The Secret and what I think of its message. The Secret has been making the rounds online and on video, partly due to the persistent marketing of the producers (and here I am helping them out… see, they’re good). If you haven’t yet seen the film, it presents a basic message that we draw into our experience what we focus on.
Energy following attention is a basic principle being proven through research in quantum physics, engineering, and subtle energies. Applying this law can have amazing effects, but I’ve heard some folks getting into an internal quagmire trying to use this information.
On the one hand, the knowledge that we influence our experience through our attention and emotion is potentially transformative. If I take on the conscious practice of noticing where my thoughts are, noticing where I’m investing my emotions and my energy, I can learn how much choice I actually have. I can learn which thoughts, reactions, and feelings have become habitual, when I’m not even aware that they are choices I’m making.
When I notice habits of thought and feeling that don’t serve me, like replaying an unpleasant encounter in my mind, essentially keeping myself upset, I can consciously change the direction of my thoughts and feelings. I can envision myself remaining calm in an interaction that earlier left me feeling nervous or insecure. I can bring new energy of centeredness to myself, and with practice, can shift the dynamics of a similar situation in the future.
I can also learn to notice when self-doubt or insecurity come up. I may have the tendency to energize the self doubt – “This works for other people, not for me,” or “This will never really change.” As I think this way and feel bad about myself, I am once again giving attention and energy to the messages about myself I don’t want to nourish. If I can catch this habit and work the “internal muscles” of awareness and intention again and again, I can learn to redirect my attention, thoughts and feelings to what I would prefer to experience, and to truer versions of who I am. That’s a powerful practice for growth and inner freedom.
On the other hand, if something difficult happens in my life, and I begin to question what I did to bring this on, that can go in some negative directions. “We create our own reality” first came into more popular focus a couple of decades ago. One result was that if someone came down with a deadly disease or had some calamity befall them, they sometimes got the message “You did something to bring this on.” That kind of simplistic thinking can blame the person who is going through a hard time, further sapping their energy. Maybe there were factors that brought on the cancer, or helped create a tragedy. Is it the best time to explore them? Perhaps there also are factors outside of our awareness—factors, reasons, or even laws of the universe beyond what we currently comprehend.
In the same way, being more aware of where we place our attention and what thoughts and feelings we nourish can bring greater choice to our lives. But let’s be easy on ourselves too – there are many mysteries of life. When we can learn from life’s challenges and take responsibility for aspects of them, we benefit from doing so. Seeing what we do with our precious life energy is part of energetic intelligence. Learning to do so gently, without using the law of attraction as another way to make ourselves bad or wrong – or noticing gently when we tend to put our energy into doing so! – will allow us to increase choice and personal power without turning this law into a way to beat ourselves up when we’re down.