Hot Yoga and the Law of Attraction
Are you living the same life, different day?
How can something so consistently the same - hot yoga - be so disarming, while something so unpredictable - your life - bring you the same things over and over?
How do you get more of what you do want and change what's unwanted, once and for all?
Here's the secret answer you wont hear from your teachers, parents, friends or therapists:
Do nothing. Take no action at all. Stop thinking about it. Stop talking about it. Look away from the problem.
And how is that supposed to work, you ask? In a word: beautifully. And here's why: it's Law of Attraction.
The Law of Attraction has a simple rule that never fails: you get what you most think about.
Where are you focusing? Every issue in your life has two sides: what you want, and what you don't want. When you think or talk about an issue, you are either focused on one side or the other.
Where do you think you're focused when you're upset? When those powerfully strong negative emotions take over, you're focused on the dark side, my friend.
When you leave behind something you don't want, often you do so while focusing on what is unsatisfying for you - you make your case for leaving, review all the valid reasons and worse, you talk about them. Talking it out, think it though, analyze and weigh everything so you can feel more certain in your decision to leave; that's what we are told to do.
Well, now you've gone and done it; you've created your own Groundhog Day.
You have fine-tuned your focus onto exactly what you don't want. So guess what signals you just sent out...
Asked, and answered. More of the same, coming right up.
When you say YES to what you want, it's on it's way. And when you shout NO at something you don't want, it's on its way.
The Law of Attraction is not judging you - it is simply giving you what you focused on. And let's face it: often you focus more strongly on those things that annoy you.
Do you begin to see your role in creating the life you get - and your absolute control over it?
How to appreciate what makes you unhappy without dragging it along behind you
What do you do with those unhappy situations and peope in your life? You won't like this answer: you appreciate the purpose they serve in showing you a strong contrast so you can more clearly see what you DO want. And then you look away.
Noticing what you don't like serves only one purpose: to help you better focus on what you do want.
Whenever you notice what you don't like about someone or something, you can know with more clarity what you DO want instead.
Every subject is two subjects - the wanted and the unwanted. As you think about any subject, you have a choice which of side to focus on.
Just remember: where you focus now determines what you are creating in your future. Just like you created everything in your life now, by focusing on it in the past.
Told you you wouldn't like this.
Ready to start a new chapter called The Life I DO want?
Here's how you make clean break from the Dark Side and put yourself in a whole new light.
NOTE: This is a mental process. When you have a job you hate, I am not encouraging you to confront your boss, demand more appreciation or money, or quit your job. When you are overweight, I am not suggesting you cut out carbs. When you are in an unhappy relationship, I am not saying you should pick up and leave.
This is a process of raising your thoughts from what you dont want, to what you do want. When you feel that sense of relief, THEN you take action. In that place of feeling better, any actions you take will you where you want to be.
Just like taking actions from a bad-feeling place creates your Groundhog-Day-deja-vu all over again.
So you don't leave your job in a huff. You don't leave your relationship in a fight. You don't leave your parents carrying a grudge.
You find a way to shift, and only then take action, from that inspired place called Feeling Better.
Why? Because from your feelings, you attract situations, people, experiences to you. If you are feeling badly, you'll atttract situations that makes you feel similarly badly. Same mate, job, neighbors all over again.
Thanks to you.
On the flip side: act out of that better-feeling, relieved, satisfied, lighthearted, hopeful feeling where you can picture what you do want, and guess what seed you just planted.
It's challenging to feel better when you are in the midst of what you DONT want. It's like being inside a black plastic garbage bag; all you see is black plastic garbage bag. You'll know when you're inside because you'll feel like you can't breathe.
Take a deep breath and get ready to poke your way out, little at a time.
Example 1: I Hate The People I Work With
YOU: "I can't get along with the people at work. I can't leave my job and I dont want to stay. I hate seeing these people everyday."
YOU FEELING BETTER: Get out a piece of paper and start writing slightly better feeling thoughts. Start small and ONLY write thoughts that feel good. If you think or write somthing that aches, cross it out and move on. Start small...
- I dont really know what's going on in the lives of these people; I only see them at work.
- I guess they have issues I can't see
- They're probably not out to get me; they're involved in their own lives
- I guess everyone just wants to be happy; in that way, we're all alike
- Finding happiness can be tricky
- It wouldnt detract from my happiness if they were happy;it's OK for me to want happiness for everyone
- Wouldnt it be lovely if I could smile at work all day today?
- I do like my job; I enjoy what I do. I appreciate the money it affords me
- It does feel better to smile, if only for myself
- I have noticed that even the simplest compliment can soften things
- I like those shoes Marly is wearing; I'll tell her
- I love shoes - maybe I'll ask where she got them
- They look llike great dancing shoes. I can treat myself to a pair
- I have the ability to make myself happy. Thats good to know.
You may say, but I havent solved the problem with my co-workers. But you have solved the only thing that ever keeps you stuck in your problems: adjusting your signals to get you what you want, by feeling better. When you feel better, you are attracting better feeling things...like solutions.
EXAMPLE 2: My Mother is constantly criticizing me
YOU: "I havent lived at home for 10 years but my mother is still finding ways to criticize me. I feel anger when she criticizes me and guilty when I yell at her for it."
YOU FEELING BETTER: Start small.... write some slightly better feeling thoughts
- Parents are taught to guide their children
- It must be hard to be a parent for 20 years, and then have to let go
- It can be hard for any parent to see a child as a grown up
- It must be sad to feel like you're not needed anymore, especially from the child you love
- I do know that she wants me to have a good life
- I can take her suggestions or leave them
- I can believe she is well meaning and maybe even a little sad about losing her identity as a parent.
- I can choose to believe that she is really proud of me.
- I know how much I love my child; we have that parental-love in common.
- She was a good mother to me when I was a child
- I can't wait to see my daugther after work today
EXAMPLE 3: Show me the money!
YOU: "I need more money! I want to be able to pay my bills AND have enough money to enjoy my life. I feel worried, discouraged and afraid. How will I pay my bills? Will I end up broke? Who will take care of me?"
YOU FEELING BETTER:
- Lots of people have money. Lots of them started with less than I have now.
- I am not any different from these people
- I do like having money. I love buying gifts for people - like, I would love to buy those earring Lois admired and surprise her! I can just see the smile on her face.
- I appreciate that the credit card people trusted me. Their trust is well placed; I have always paid my debts and I am proud of myself
- I really am really very resourceful with money. I always find a way to have get I need
- I do enjoy all the things I purchased. My life is more enjoyable because of those things. I value what I have
- I enjoy money
- Money is a renewable resource. I've had more, I've had less, I've seen the ebb and flow and it always comes around again
- I can feel the flow of money all around me
- It won't be long before it's coming my way again
- I feel like buying myself a hot chocolate today.
The Law of Attraction is very straightforward. It's not punishing you or teaching you lessons. It simply responds to whatever you are putting out there. You are the radion station, sending out signals at all times; the signals that return to you are those that are most like what you are sending out. No judgement.
Words don't count. Actions don't matter. Feelings are everything.
Think and act only after you have moved your feelings into the place that feels good.
And why do you always feel so much better in the hot yoga room?
Aside from the heat, the humidity and the friendship you feel at Riverflow, we teach you to stop focusing. Let your mind relax - we're here to guide you.
For 90 minutes you get a break from thinking about your problems and worries. As you do the hot yoga poses you are encouraged to experience yourself as limitless, someone who can, in the hot yoga room, transcend your stuck body, and maybe even your life.
Come in from the cold and change your body and your life, in hot yoga class.
Hot yoga is a better feeling place. Let the Law of Attraction follow you out of hot yoga and into your life.
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
Reader Comments (11)
So if we become so preoccupied by what we don't want that's what we end of manifesting?
You said a mouthful, Alex!
Oh my goodness, this post just made me feel ten feet taller.
I can't imagine a better way to calm down from feeling all umbrage-y than to sit down and write/feel your way toward appreciation--such a better way than yelling, saying something hurtful you don't mean, and walking away, only to be drawn back by the guilt.
Restoring the integrity of the self-->Acting out of that integrity-->Benefiting everyone involved (aka, acting in accordance with vs. against the principle of ahimsa).
Love it.
I would agree with you. After doing 140 consecutive classes of hot yoga...there has been a shift, it's a cumulative thing. My concentration, focus and awareness has deepened. And although I have not reached Nirvana, I aspire to it. Thanks.
Writing has always been a great release for me and while I focus on the positive there have been times writing out the negative would help me let the negative feelings go. I love the idea of scratching out the negative thought or word. The more negative the thought or feeling the more bold the scratch would be to cross it out.
June - yes, erase the negative statement completely and keep yourself moving slightly, slightly, slightly more towards the better feeling thought...that's the whole ball game. Stating the negative wont help it let go - Law of Attraction says noticing the negative does one of two things: presents stronger contrast so you can see what you DO want , or attracts more negative to you. You can benefit from a negative feeling - for clarity on what you DO want. So state more clearly what you do want. You are a radio station sending out signals at all times (Bose said this and he should know about radio signals!) Decide which signals you want coming back to you.
Mary-Rush: Nice analyzing! I have heard it this way: feelings lead to thoughts lead to actions lead to results. Feelings are always first. So - first feel good!Then CHOOSE what you want to do, from that good feeling place. Acting when the good feeling isn't in place will never get you the results you want ((a good feeling result) We are told to focus on ACTIONS - but the secret is that actions DO NOT bring results. Feelings do. Damn - imagine if your grade school homework was to "feel good" instead of "do your work!" We'd all be masters at success by now.
Jane - yes, you are talking about the action of doing the 140 hot yoga classes (congratulations by the way!) But tell us about the feeling that inspired this practice: did you do this because it felt good? Was there another reason? And how do you feel now? As for Nirvana - you can be there instantly if you follow those good feeling thoughts. You don't have to aspire to anything; you can have it right now, when you choose to put yourself in the place of that good feeling of whatever Nirvana is for you. This is a lot less about hard work than we were taught.
Following the concept of 'Abhyasa' (sanskirt for plain dogged determination), I wanted to learn, become a more knowledgeable, experienced yoga teacher and experience what my students would be experiencing as well. In that knowing and with that experience the feelings that came up were ultimately pure joy. That pure joy is accessible now in almost all my classes and throughout my day because the intensity of 140 consecutive hot yoga classes has prepared my body, mind and spirit to receive. I know, sounds like I lost my mind. But, I haven't.
This is so spot-on Rhonda. In the last week, I've managed to hold off my "reaction" to a conflict, by taking a step back and doing something else that feels good (e.g. hot yoga, church) and then once my mood is raised I am able to simply think about the conflict in a better light (and focus towards positive outcome). I have made two important decisions with regards to conflicts by doing this and am actually feeling better when resolving the conflict with the other person.
I love all the confirmation to focus on the positive and definitely NOT dwell on past negative experiences. This especially speaks to me at holiday time!