Along our evolving journey of manifesting the highest versions of ourselves, naturally sometimes we slip and fall and lose sight of the bigger picture and purpose. This is not an issue of that being a “bad” thing, but how we deal with those times when they arise.

So how is your life going so far? How would you rate it in terms of your personal satisfaction at the current time?

If you are consciously creating your experiences and are aware of your thoughts and actions at least most of the time, then I am assuming your response to my questions above will be very positive.

If you choose not to take responsibility for your own life and live by blaming others whether that is society, family, friends or coworkers, then I am assuming your response to my questions above, will be less than positive.

In this essay, I will be specifically speaking to those of us who fit more within the first case scenario, who aim to live consciously, are accountable for ourselves and seek higher growth but are not quite yet masters at it in all situations.

Do we get better at dealing with the challenges in our life and thus shorten the duration of negative energy we generate, or do we keep falling in just as deep each time life does not go our “so called” way?

Background Knowledge: Law of Attraction

Okay so most of us who are reading this are familiar with the Law of Attraction. When the movie “The Secret” first came out, it seemed to have masses of people who either got it and loved it or picked apart every reason why it won’t work.

Well again here, I am assuming you got it. So you’ve incorporated more conscious thinking into your life, you’ve focused on attracting more of that which you want and trying not to give any attention to that which you do not. And?

And… it may not have always worked. Ah, this is where the cynics and critics are rubbing their palms with happy, devious smiles :) No, just kidding, but back on a serious note, it is a bunch of such occurrences that deterred many of those who tried to apply the Law of Attraction, from continuing to incorporate conscious and deliberate thought into their lives.

So first let us remind ourselves, review or for some learn a few reasons why it may not have always worked.

1. You were not in complete alignment with your desired thought and/or action

Ex: Saying “I am going to win the lottery” and then thinking “oh but the odds of winning are so low” is an example of not being in full alignment with your thoughts.

2. You were trying to lie to yourself

Ex: Saying “I am going to win the lottery” and then not actually playing is not only out of alignment but setting yourself up for big disappointment. Life is not “magic” you say “poof” and there it goes – remember it will not do anything for you without you putting an active role into it yourself first.

3. You were careless with your thoughts

Ex: Saying “I want to win the lottery” simply leaves you in a state of wanting and nothing more.

AND THE BIG ONE…

4. Your inner being knew better (or if you’d like God, Source, or even the Universe knew better)

Ex: You say “I am going to win the lottery”. You think about it regularly with positive intent, you play, you talk to others about it, etc. but then it falls through and never happens. Have you ever considered that if you actually won the lottery you may have ended up in a reckless state or lost control of yourself, or worse? Perhaps, on a deeper level, your inner being believes that money corrupts, confuses or demoralizes people? Bottom line you have to be really, really honest with yourself to be in alignment with not just the thought itself, but more importantly your inner being.

So based on this review, most of us can agree that sometimes being in the perfect alignment with your thoughts and actions still is not enough. You can be the happiest and most optimistic person ever, but when life does not go your way after you have covered all of our steps – it is many times none other than disappointing. And that is where the trials, tribulations and frustrations of our everyday life come in. That is until we become more enlightened.

Personal Example

To bring the point home even more, I will share with you a personal example of this from one particular time in my life. In 2008 I started thinking about relocating (a rather short) distance in my job, and then about 6 months after that I really tried to get that ball rolling. A few months later another possible job opportunity came up that I thought I would enjoy even more. So here I had three possible new roads from which to choose the next path in my life and what happened?

What happened is that during this period of possible choosing, first I found out that the first job opportunity – the relocation, is not hiring for the foreseeable future. As for the second job opportunity, I found out that they already did their hiring and my application was not considered at the time. And so, as I found out the latter news, a pang of frustration set in, or perhaps it was disappointment, or a mixture of both. But I went through an array of feelings and emotions for only about 5 minutes – yes literally 5 minutes.

At first the frustration turned into despair thinking that I did everything right to become aligned with this position, then I have to admit that about 30 seconds of anger followed, and then about 10 seconds of hopelessness after which I laughed, shrugged and woke back up. I woke back up to conscious thinking and got in control of the situation, stopping it from controlling me. I took a few deep breaths and made sure to shake off the negative energy. In this way I made sure that it has no more hold on me than it already did and that through it I did not attract any other negative events.

I then had a moment of honest reflection with myself.

So Why Did Things Not Work Out As Hoped?

When I reflected on this I considered the following:

1. ASK: Did I state my intentions clearly?

The answer to this for the most part was yes. I was deliberate in both my thoughts and actions where the two job opportunities were concerned.

2. BELIEVE: Did I believe this was going to happen?

Well here I realized there was a break in my thought pattern. As soon as I learned that my initial choice was not really hiring, my passion for pursuing that opportunity went out the window. As for my second choice, I greatly believed in this one…except for the fact that a little thought crept in once or twice telling me that I may not have enough experience for this position.

3. RECEIVE: Was I open to receiving the new opportunity?

And here is where I found the biggest contradiction. Even though I love my present job and even though relocating would be even better, my heart and deepest inner passion is somewhere else and has been for about 6 months now. Deep down as good and fulfilling as my job is, my passion resides in writing on a professional level, in research, in public speaking but above all in not being tied to any organization – but working for myself.

So there you have it, it hit me hard – but the truth was right there in front of me. When it comes to our intentions the reason they often may not go as we plan and intend is because our inner being is saying something else. And in truth whether we are conscious or not we are sending out contradictory messages to the universe. Being unsure of something or changing our minds can only guarantee that we do not receive what we think we really want. And this is why most people who attempt to apply the Law of Attraction fail.

I know where there were holes in my thinking in both cases, but then there is the one higher feeling still. Remember #4 from our review above. The reason why my disappointment and frustration lasted so short and I quickly bounced back into my conscious, positive and happy self is because a calming thought came over me. Perhaps where I am is exactly where I am supposed to be for one reason or another. Perhaps even, a greater opportunity is going to present itself that is in true alignment with my inner being and by accepting one or the other of the 2 choices I would be locking myself into something that did not serve my being to the fullest. And after my reflection I knew for sure that neither of these opportunities is what I really wanted deep down inside.

Now “pessimists” or as some call them selves “realists” may call what I am doing above a cop out of some kind, a weakness of the mind or reasoning out a failure. But how does turning our trials, tribulations or frustrations in life into failures, sad or depressing moments serve us? All it does is decrease our positive energy, invite more negative events into our life and basically make us feel bad, on both a mental and physical level. Therefore for true growth to occur, one must simply be honest with oneself no matter what the situaton entails. And once the consequences come, accept them and learn from them whether they are desirable or not.

Conclusion

Until we all become enlightened masters and sometimes not even then, chances are we will at some point or another find ourselves in a moment of some kind of trial, tribulation or frustration.

The key is not to let negative thoughts, emotions and energies get dragged out of that moment, but see it for what it is – a moment, a moment during which through conscious thinking I dictate what I get out of it. Remember it is never the situation that is “bad”, but the meaning we give it.

Now for a second imagine the above example in an alternate way: I could have gone around all day and all weekend moping and complaining to everybody I knew about what I could have called a great injustice. But how does persisting in a negative state serve one, unless you live off of people feeling sorry for you?

The positive side and the area that I want to focus on and leave with, is that a) the unconscious feelings I generated were extremely short lived and b) I did not let it affect my overall day, life or my interaction with anybody else. Even if unconscious moments decrease by a minute each time you have them or you have less of them overall – that to me indicates great growth.