Law of Attraction: Staying ‘Positive’ When the World Seems to Be Going to Hell

Hi Kelli,
Thanks for all your great insights.Despite all of the reading and life changes, I feel stuck: my goal seems to remain out of reach because I can’t shift my vibrations for one simple reason: I can’t help but focus on the crappy state of the world in general..I mean: I am at a turning point regarding my goal, I am stuck underneath a glass ceiling and unless I shift, it won’t break; in order to do that, I try to open myself to the world more, which is a true effort given I’m way more of an introvert than anything else.

But every time I do so, I keep seeing reasons to hate this world more and more (politics, environment disrespect, and intended wealth discrepancies), which ends up with me drained morally and unable to fulfill my dream…How can one possibly open up to the world and remain positive when you fill overwhelmed by the negative crawling all around the world?

Catherine

If the law of attraction states we each create our individual reality, it follows that us humans are collectively creating our experience as a whole. And while things are getting better in many respects, we still have some room for improvement for sure.

There is still lots of fear, intolerance and hatred. We have a belief in scarcity, and not enough to go around, which perpetuates poverty and people doing horrific things to get money.

There is always some entity to blame for our problems, from greedy corporations to corrupt governments, and a sense of powerlessness is pervasive in us humans.

While we mean well in our various efforts to help people in the world deemed ‘vulnerable’ or ‘incapable’ of helping themselves, we tend to have a very disempowering view of them that only adds to the energy creating their struggles.

The list could go on and on. And the end result is a whole bunch of stuff that can make us feel uneasy at best, and hopeless and terrified at worst.

Remaining ‘positive’ can certainly be a challenge.

This is a great question, and like many questions I get, my mind goes off to 20 different tangents that all seem relevant. But like always, I try to whittle it down to a few core points that I think will be most helpful for you, and have been most helpful for me in dealing with the particular energetic ‘conundrum’ in question.

Things Are Messed Up…Can’t Lie

Things seem really fucked up right now, in all corners of the globe. America is experiencing great turmoil, and many people are losing their damn minds about the current state of affairs.

As an American, I can’t lie–many things I see happening make me feel unsettled and disheartened to say the least, from an aggressive attack on women’s rights that seems straight from another century to rolling back very important environmental protections.

Tensions between Islam and Western cultures seem to be coming to a head in many areas of the world. We are constantly hearing things about the damage we are doing to the environment. There are brutal governments doing terrible things to their people. Wars and conflicts abound.

While the ability to connect with other people is easier than ever before with social media and the like, people seem more disconnected and lonelier than ever before.

Again, the list can go on and on. These things are happening. They are real. It’s understandable to be concerned and scared.

But we have to understand we are ALL creating this. Those of us who feel powerless are matching up with those who feel the need to control others. Those of us who feel victimized are lining up with the victimizers.

We have intense fears about so many things, and we are inviting in this fear to be mirrored back to us in countless, sometimes really scary ways.

When we view others as victims or incapable of helping themselves, we are contributing to their problems, and perpetuating that reality. While we can certainly have empathy for the challenges of others, feeling ‘sorry’ for them doesn’t help one bit.

We have some really fucked up energies that exist on really large scales–whole countries or cultures. Many times, everyone on the planet. I doubt there is anyone who is totally free of any kind of fear for example.

And it creates some pretty nasty stuff. It isn’t about blaming anyone for any of this, it’s just the way it works–I cannot stress this enough.

And unless you are some kind of Buddha, or completely removed from worldly life living up on a mountain somewhere meditating all day….

Being Human Means Getting Caught Up In It Sometimes

Some of this stuff is really scary, and those fears are easily fanned by media in all forms, from newspapers to Facebook.

Again, unless you totally withdraw from the world, you are going to hear about this stuff. No matter how much you may personally try to keep it out of your orbit, you’ll get stuck listening to the TV in the doctor’s office that is tuned to the 24 hour news. It will come up in a conversation.

And as a human being, you are going to get sucked in sometimes, maybe really hard or for prolonged periods. You’ll worry about your future, about your kid’s future.

And with all this focus on what is wrong with the world, you will be tuned into it even more, and hear about even more terrible things happening. You’ll find yourself attracting situations where you may be personally witnessing things that upset you, that make you feel bitter, negative or hopeless about the state of ‘humanity.’

And then you will feel even worse, which leads you to attract more ‘evidence’ that the world is one big shit show.

That is just the way it goes sometimes. No matter how many wonderful nuggets of spiritual wisdom you amass that help you deal with this angst about the state of the world, again, you’ll probably still get caught up. You may always be caught up to some degree, but the emotion isn’t as intense, and you can release the thoughts and feelings more easily.

It’s Kind of Like a Detox

Apparently when you do some sort of ‘cleanse’ or ‘detox’ you may feel worse before you get better. All the ‘gunk’ is leaving your cells, and you may get headaches, diarrhea, fatigue and breakouts; a health condition might flare up before it heals fully.

All this ‘stuff’ had to come out to re-establish balance, get things running smoothly again,etc…

I kind of think that is what is happening in the world right now, a time that seems especially intense, chaotic and explosive.

Trump winning the election is a good example. Many people think someone like him winning means something went terribly wrong, but I don’t see it that way.

I think there was a lot of fear, intolerance, feelings of powerlessness, and other ‘ick’ that was really gaining steam in the US (and the world at large.) and someone like him winning brought it all to the surface. Collectively, we manifested him–not just Americans, but the world as a whole.

And lots of stuff started happening that people are really unhappy with, such as the travel ban for certain Muslim-majority countries, restrictive laws concerning women’s reproductive rights, damaging environmental policies, etc…

And what happened? People sprung into action, fighting for things that were important to them, like tolerance, equality, freedom of choice. It brought people together in ways that might not have transpired if it was just ‘politics as usual’ in Washington. It got people talking about things in a way that might not have happened if the current environment wasn’t so ‘inflammatory.’

This wasn’t just happening in the US, but in countries around the world.

Now does this mean we are moving towards some kind of ‘utopia?’ Probably not, but as fucked up as a lot of things seem right now, I think we are moving towards something better collectively. It might just look kind of ugly for a bit, but if we can see what is actually happening on a deeper level, it gets a lot easier to look beyond that ‘ugliness.’

While ‘fighting against’ and being driven by intense hatred of the president, government in general, or some other entity deemed the ‘enemy’ isn’t the most ideal energy for change, it is better than nothing and we have to start somewhere.

People are really starting to wake up, and that process can be a bit messy, but it’s a good thing.

We Can Choose To See the Good

What you focus on expands, no two ways about it. The more you focus on the bad in the world, the more ‘evidence’ of its ‘badness’ you will manifest into your own reality. Same goes for the good in the world.

LOA 101 basically, right? Yes, there are troubling things happening in the world right now, there have always been troubling things. But there are lots of good things too. Lots of love, beauty,caring and kindness.

While it might seem impossible, or even ‘irresponsible’ to do so, you can choose to direct your attention there, at least predominantly. You really can.

I see all sorts of good news all the time, like certain animals considered critically endangered getting ‘upgraded’ because populations are rising again, or countries where they are not as inclined to protect vulnerable animal populations implementing programs to change that.

As someone who deeply loves animals and is particularly saddened by how us humans are messing with our fellow living creatures, it gives me hope.

The other day I saw an article about how the dropping cost of alternative energy sources make their widespread use inevitable, drastically reducing our dependence on fossil fuels.

These are just a couple of examples, and they may seem like small things. But the point I am trying to make is, things aren’t often as bad as they seem. Many of the problems that don’t seem to have solutions, or seem totally ‘unsolvable’ really aren’t.

You just really aren’t going to hear as much about the ‘good’ stuff though, at least through mainstream sources. That doesn’t ‘sell.’ That won’t keep you coming back for more. Fear-based news will though.

I know that this idea to not pay attention to all the bad stuff happening in the world seems callous, uncaring or even ‘irresponsible.’ But I can’t agree with that.

I know that for many people who exist in a more comfortable world untouched by some of the worst of it, like crippling poverty, severe political instability, war,etc.., at least ‘bearing witness’ probably helps alleviate some of your guilt for ‘having it so good.’

You may not be personally affected but at least you are ‘informed’ and that makes you a ‘good’ person.  

I used to feel that way, and it wasn’t doing me any favors or the world in general. Sure I knew about every terrible thing that was happening around the globe…and then what?

All my ‘hand-wringing’ about the state of the world wasn’t making any sort of positive contribution. I couldn’t personally do anything about any of those situations.

The only thing I could truly do was work on my little corner of the world, and try to help people in the best way I knew how, which is why I started this blog. I learned certain things that made my life better, and I share those insights in hopes they help someone else too.

I can give money to causes I care about, that are doing work I think will make a difference.

I can do my best to send kindness and love out into the world.

Yes, I get caught up in the shit like anyone else, but I am much more conscious now of focusing on the world I want to see, because those aspects exist right now. They always have.

The positive perspectives I share really aren’t truly MY perspectives. I work to adopt a view of myself, other people and the world at large that the Universe or God would have.

And I don’t think they would have such a shitty view of the world and humanity. I don’t think they would draw the same depressing conclusions about the current and future state of our existence.

I don’t want to read about the problems in the world, I want to read about all the wonderful solutions people are working on. I want to throw my energy behind that.

I don’t want to hear about all the vulnerable, victimized populations and how terribly they are suffering. I want to hear about all the wonderful organizations and individuals (namely local ones who really understand the culture and how to best help their people) who are assisting them in meaningful, empowering ways. I want to throw my energy behind that.

We always have a choice, and you can certainly choose to keep focusing on all that stuff, feeling defeated, deflated, dejected, hopeless and that life just sucks and isn’t fair. But you must realize the fact you are making the choice. It is not an obligation or responsibility. It is not something beyond your control, even if it may seem that way sometimes.

Just like your mind tends to zero in on the negative in your own life, it feels like it must do the same in the world at-large. And just like you can do in your own life, you can choose to change this tendency and programming.

The Best Contribution You Can Make

While Catherine really didn’t mention this in her question, I feel it is relevant and something we are grappling with, even if we aren’t fully aware of it.

If we are collectively creating our reality, the best thing each individual can do for the world at large is be their best, happiest self. That will put out all sorts of wonderful energies into our collective vibration, such as love, joy, happiness and peace.

I know we can feel guilty about this sometimes. You think of all the people in the world who don’t have the ‘luxury’ of personal development, and working on ‘finding their bliss,’ such as the proverbial ‘starving children in Africa.’

You may be right about that. But you passing up the opportunity to do so for yourself isn’t going to transfer said ‘opportunity’ to someone else who appears to ‘need’ it more.

I know a lot of people dismiss this sort of journey based on this reasoning it is ‘self-indulgent’ and not available to all, but they are kind of full of shit. It is just a good excuse to just keep living as they are, and not deal with the discomfort of making changes, while seeming ‘deep’ or something.

I know this whole ‘scene’ seems to be the purview of well-off Westerners, particularly us ‘whities.’ But I have encountered people from all over the world, whether meeting them in person or through my blog, who are just as interested in these topics and living their best life.

So don’t let people make you feel guilty that you actually care about your happiness and making the most out of your life.

You may feel inspired to help in certain ways, whether donating money to a particular charity, or volunteering your time at a particular organization. If that is something you feel in strong alignment with, go for it.

But if the true cause of our reality is the energy we are throwing out into the Universe, and the perspectives we hold, the most significant contribution you can make is focusing on the world you want to see, the world you know is possible.

Your Turn

What do you think? Any tips for keeping in a higher vibe even when your surroundings are not exactly encouraging? Anything resonate in particular?

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