I remember when I first saw the movie, “The Secret”. I was at a conference with scientists and thought leaders, and many people strongly urged me to watch it. But I remember that my sense of unease began to grow and grow as I watched. I got so uncomfortable with it that I got nauseous and kept wanting to walk out.
Why?
It reminded me too much of my early life experience with religion. Coming from a deeply religious family, I was told that if I just believed in Him, that God would provide. But that seemed way to simple to be true, and I got the impression that there was a lot of over-promising and under-delivering.
The Secret, like many religions, wreaked of the religious promise that if only you believed, you would be happy, or get what you wanted. Again it seemed way too simple and way too good to be true.
What is The Secret?
It is based on the notion of the Law of Attraction, the idea that you attract what you vibrate.
More and more people insisted I pay attention to the Law of Attraction, but I kept resisting it.
And then I met Peter, a friend and super-achiever who has impressed me with his incredible drive, his achievements and his ability to manifest his dreams. He told me that he has a daily practice of incanting his dreams and goals.
After hearing him say that, and given how many times the Law of Attraction had come up for me, I started to take it as a sign, that it was time to pay attention. Then it hit me. I could do an experiment. While I struggle with incanting and visualizing my dreams, I could at least release subconscious barriers to do so.
So I tried it with a variety of aspects of my life. I used it when I needed to manifest more business. I used it to help manifest opportunities and reach goals for both myself and my clients.
But what I had to do to reach my goals and dreams was to not only to visualize, but to overcome the barriers along my path.
When The Secret may not work.
So does the Law of Attraction work?
I came to the conclusion that it could work, unless you have obstacles. I essentially had too many obstacles for the Law of Attraction to be sufficient.
Interestingly, research psychologist Gabriele Oettingen would agree with me. She is the author of “Rethinking Positive Thinking: Inside the New Science of Motivation.
She conducted experiments examining people striving for a huge variety of goals, including weight loss, job seekers and love seekers, and found that the more positive fantasies about achieving their goals, the LESS likely they were to achieve them!!! Why? Because she said that good feelings from the fantasies decreased the urgency to do what it takes to achieve their goals!
However, what she found mirrored my experience. She found to achieve your wildest dreams, you need WOOP, or a Wish Outcome Obstacle Plan.
- Develop a WISH
- Specify an OUTCOME (know exactly what you want)
- *Find OBSTACLES within yourself to this outcome (not excuses)
- Make a PLAN to overcome obstacles.
*Excuses, regardless of whether or not they are true, are our own beliefs. If we buy into those beliefs, they become our obstacles.
This is exactly what we do at Holistic Brain Health to reach goals. A client comes to me with a wish. I try to get them to think about specific outcomes or steps. We identify more specifically, with these 4 steps, you need to need to get there. They often share known obstacles and I reveal subconscious obstacles. To overcome the obstacles, we identify and release the thoughts and emotions that feed them.
A striking example is in my recent search for housing.
A couple of months ago, I was informed that my rent would be going up by over $300/ mo. Knowing how competitive the rental market is in Seattle, and knowing how quickly housing costs have gone up in the last few years, I was very worried about my ability to find something affordable. Finding affordable housing just seemed too good to be true. However, knowing how important my beliefs were, I knew that if I couldn’t believe that I could find a good housing situation, then I wouldn’t be able to.
So I released subconscious barriers to believing that I could find good housing. I realized I need to find a roommate, and my friend pointed me to a community housing page on Facebook. I posted an entry specifying exactly what I was looking for, and found an ideal housemate for me within just a couple of days!
Our next obstacle was an extremely stressful housing market. I’d heard stories of 20 parties showing up at open houses, all with applications in hand! Plus we each had needs that would make the search challenging. I found myself not wanting to look for housing, because there seemed like so few options. After realizing my thoughts were not serving me, I released my subconscious barriers that were getting in the way of my doing whatever it takes to get acceptable housing. After doing so, I was able to look daily, and to reach out to as many resources as I could find.
We soon found a house!
On paper, the new house met all of our needs but one, and the one need it didn’t satisfy, a dishwasher, was not a deal-breaker. After seeing it, we quickly told the landlord we were interested in an application, but knowing how competitive the housing market is, our next concern was how we could be the most competitive candidates. Again, I realized my lack of optimism in this regard was not serving me, so I released subconscious barriers to being the most competitive candidate. After releasing my internal barriers, I decided I needed to seek out wisdom from experts on how to get housing in a competitive market. After doing a search online, I found an article with fantastic advice. By then I had 2 roommates and they agreed that we needed to take the article’s advice. It worked! We got the house!
So if you know anyone that seems to be getting in their own way of reaching their goals, is overcome by fear, discouragement or dread, releasing subconscious barriers is the fastest way I know to reach your dreams!
Want to know more? Listen to my interview Releasing Subconscious Barriers: The Key to Health and Happiness, and contact me for a complimentary consultation.
“Woman With Thought Bubbles” courtesy of phanlop88 from FreeDigitalPhotos.net
“Dreams” courtesy of fantasista from FreeDigitalPhotos.net
