“Positive thinking doesn’t work.”  I made this statement to a group of associates at a networking meeting a while back and received many startled looks. Many of the members have known me for months, if not years, and certainly they all know I am a law of attraction life coach. What was I talking about, then?

Many self help books and teachings recommend positive thinking as a way to feel better and create what you want. It seems, on the surface, like good advice and many people think this is what the law of attraction is all about. They try their best and yet nothing changes in their lives. Then they either think the law of attraction doesn’t work, or that they, somehow, are at fault and it just doesn’t work for them. There is a lot of confusion around this topic and I’d like to help you with some fine tuning around this idea.

Simply thinking positive thoughts has no power in and of itself.

What really powers your vision and aligns you with it is how you FEEL. You can repeat positive affirmations over and over, but if there is no excitement involved and you are ignoring your true feelings, it simply won’t get you what you want.  You’ll actually be holding what you want away from you and creating a downward spiral.

Abraham-Hicks has a great analogy to demonstrate this. Imagine driving down the road and noticing that your gas gauge is nearly empty. That doesn’t feel too good so you decide to slap a happy face sticker on the gauge so you don’t have to see it and keep driving. What happens? Of course–you run out of gas anyway. Acknowledging the situation and pulling in to a gas station to fill your tank is the real solution.

So, practicing positive thoughts while inside feeling worried, fearful, angry, jealous, disappointed, etc. is not going to get you what you want.

Your feelings are there for a reason. They have important messages for you. If you don’t acknowledge your feelings, own them and discover what you can learn from them, they will get bigger. You’ll run out of gas and you won’t make it to your destination.

Once you do allow yourself to feel your feelings and explore what they have for you, they fulfill their purpose and will often dissolve on their own.  So it’s not about positive thinking.  It’s about really feeling good, which often means looking at what doesn’t feel good squarely in the face and “being” with it until you don’t need it.

Asking how this feeling–and the thought that created it– is serving you is a good place to start.

You can then begin to gradually reach for better feeling thoughts, a step at a time. It isn’t usually possible to go from feeling very low to feeling joyful in one jump. The vibrational gap is just too big. But you can work your way up to genuine better feelings by a process of offering a new thought and asking yourself if it feels better, worse or the same as the last thought. If it feels better, offer another thought in that direction. Be honest with yourself. If you make too big a jump it won’t feel good–and feeling good is what its all about!

If you’d like help with this process, you can sign up for my free Life Purpose Strategy Session.  I’m here for you!