: IS CONCENTRATION BLOCKING YOUR SUCCESS

Good day , and I hope you are having a great day.

Today I want to talk about a topic that may seem counter intuitive at first. The other day in Los Angeles I happened into a small used book store and bought a book called The Spiritual Laws of ECK by Harold Klemp. It is very similar to the teachings of many works on The Law of Attraction. As I am reading it I came across  The Law of Reversed Effort.  It states the definition as “The functioning of the imagination by negation which draws into the external that which one is trying to avoid”  ( Klemp p.71). It states that this law is for man only because man is the only animal that can use the power of imagination.

This law applies to our thoughts. “The more you try to put your imaginative powers upon something in concentrated effort, the less you can do it.? (Klemp p.71). The detail explanation of this law delves into something that is very familiar to practitioners of the Law of Attraction. The key factor in making real what is imagined lies in the feelings. Recall, or read the earlier posts on the Law of Attraction that the thoughts by themselves have very little effectiveness on our reality. It is the feelings that we associate with them that gives them the power.

In my book Road Map to Life: A real world lesson I use the analogy of a steering wheel of a car. If the thoughts are the steering wheel of the car, the feelings are what connects the steering wheel to the tiers. Without the feelings it is difficult to make the car go the way we want it to go. In the book I was reading it gives an example: “…if a man tries to walk across a small plank from one building to another at the tenth floor, his mind would be on falling and not on the walking. What you image must have feeling—therefore the negative imaging is more likely to be effective than the positive imaging because the negative has feeling with it!” (Klemp p.72).

I started to thing about this and it bothered me for a while. From the time I was little I was told to “try hard”, “concentrate”.  Then the subtle part of the explanation of the law hit me like a brick. “We should never try to force results. We should stick to our task and finish out the race, but never knock ourselves out doing it” (Klemp p.71). Suddenly things started to make sense from the LOA point of view.

Let me sound it out here. When we are faced with a task that  we are having difficulty with or are unfamiliar with, we concentrate and if we cannot achieve success, we start to get into the defensive mode. Very few people, at least in the Western society will take a break and go and do something else and calm down and come back with a fresh perspective. It is ingrained in us to “get it done”. So we try harder, and harder. We get frustrated and we get angry. It is like the person walking on a plank between two buildings on the tenth floor. If he is not an experienced acrobat, then the fear of falling is a strong emotion. No matter how much he tried positive imagery the fear  is the stronger feeling.  Without practice and discipline it is difficult to bring positive feelings where there is fear.

Now think about the last time you were trying to get something (mental task) accomplished and things were not going your way. What emotions did you experience? When we start to concentrate for the sake of FORCING THE ISSUE we are actually counterproductive.  It makes perfect sense from the stand point of LOA. When we are sending the feeling vibration of frustration and anger then by the law we will get back the situation and opportunities to experience more and more of those feelings. Because that is the universal law and it gives us what we ask for. It  does not understand words of negation and it responds to our feelings. Whatever feelings we send out, those same feelings are coming back to us. When we take a break and take the time to relax and refresh our thoughts and thinking, then we are at a better set point. We are sending out the vibrational thoughts of relaxation and at the very least, neutrality. There is no innate resistance in the thoughts we are concentrating on.

It is even better if we take a break and come back positive that we will accomplish our task. Beware however, not to come back with the predetermined mindset of “oh crap I have to do this thing again”.  Remember your thoughts will dictate what you experience. Perhaps you can use the Segment Intending example I gave in the post on 8/28/12, to delve back into your task. There is a saying that “what we resist, persists”. The key is to keep on going but not force the issue.

It is difficult to conceptualize this in our Western society. We have been so accustomed to doing things fast. Game shows with time limits and buzzers are all over our media. Even in our schools we are taught to accomplish tasks in a certain amount of time. Pressure, pressure, pressure. The quicker you do the task the better you are. That is so different from the perspective of Eastern society. Where sometimes it is just good to do something for the sake of doing it. When there is emphasis placed on taking time out and meditating. What a novel concept. Actually taking time out of daily life to do nothing at all. Even though the concept of meditation is taking hold in our Western society it is not a comfortable practice. Most people will get to meditating when they have time. Very few people set scheduled time to meditate.

Do you know what is interesting however? The people who do set scheduled time to meditate or take a break each and every day no matter what their schedule looks like or what crisis happens to have come up are some of the most successful people in our society. Something to think about ha? If you want to have something, find someone who has it and do what they do. It is an old and true advice that very few people (including me) put to practice routinely. 

So I hope this post has opened your eyes to forcing your concentration. The mind is not designed to be forced. When you try to force concentration there is something that rebels and that is just the Law of Attraction doing what it does.  The next time you are getting frustrated with a task, remember that you are asking for more frustration. Take time, and use a tool like Segment Intending or meditation to relax and come back to the task with positive energy and fresh perspective and do not force it. It will be accomplished faster if you don’t force the issue, as counter intuitive as it may sound.

As always please feel free to share this with anyone who may benefit, and please click on the comment link bellow and leave some feedback.