Sometimes a client will ask, Why am I still having to make an effort to choose my thoughts and redirect my attention? Why is this still work for me?
The assumption my client is making is she will arrive at a time when being diligent about her thoughts is no longer necessary.
That is a faulty assumption. Believing you will and should get to such a place creates a lot of unnecessary frustration.
This might sound like a silly analogy, but stick with me.
- Do you assume you will arrive at a time when you no longer feel the need to brush your teeth each morning and night, day in and day out?
- Will you reach the place when you’ve washed your clothes enough and so you don’t need to wash them anymore?
That you brush your teeth today does not have any bearing on whether you will want and need to brush them tomorrow. In fact, tomorrow you will have the exact same reasons for brushing your teeth as you did today—your teeth feel nice and clean, your breath minty fresh, you’ve done something for the health and maintenance of your teeth and gums, and so on.
My point is you are diligent about brushing your teeth. You are diligent about washing your clothes. Well, your choice of thought is no different.
“You will never reach the place where you will not need to be diligent about your choice of thought. Because you live in a world that is determined to show you every pocket of despair. So you must diligently choose. But it gets easier and easier and easier to do so. Right now, it may feel to you like those moments of connection are the rare ones. There will be a time when those moments of connection will feel so normal that it will shock you when you get into a place of disconnection.” —Abraham
As always, Abraham has shared a lot of wisdom. Let’s head back to the beginning with that simple statement: “You will never reach the place where you will not need to be diligent about your choice of thought.”
I feel relief in knowing this. The goal, then, isn’t to elevate my LoA practice to some mystical place where I don’t need to be diligent. I will never reach such a place. That’s a relief!
Instead, the LoA practice I want to deepen is simply my connection to the rinse and repeat nature of choosing thoughts that feel good. I want to have more moments of connection to Source, to alignment, to feeling good, which only happens when I’m diligent about my choice of thought.
Being diligent is about paying attention.
About choosing your thoughts. About directing your thoughts. Being diligent requires that you be conscious about what you will focus your attention on—and what you will not.
When you fully embrace that you will always need to be diligent about your choice of thought, then you can stop spending any energy on wondering why you haven’t yet arrived at that place.
“Few realize that they can control the way they feel and positively affect the things that come into their life experience by deliberately directing their thoughts.” —Abraham
While few may realize this, you do realize this.
That’s why our paths have crossed on this LoA journey. You realize you can control the way you feel and positively affect the things that come into your life experience by deliberating directing your thoughts.
As in, deliberately and diligently directing your thoughts to what is wanted, to what you like, to what feels good. Deliberately and diligently directing your thoughts to what you appreciate and what is working.
I’ve noticed a number of my clients leaking energy because of a misguided notion they’ll reach this place where they will no longer need to be diligent about their choice of thought. Because they have not reached it, they are focused on that—I need to be somewhere I’m not, I need to do better, Why is this so hard for me?, I should be better at this by now—rather than simply and easily accepting that this is the practice.
Being diligent about your choice of thought is the practice.
One definition of diligent is showing care. That is all that’s required. Show care in the thoughts you think. If you are indulging in thoughts that don’t feel good, that’s not showing care.
When you think thoughts that create negative emotion in you and then continue along that feeling-bad path, you are not being diligent about your choice of thoughts.
When a thought pops into your head that causes negative emotion, that’s OK. No big deal. If that first thought seems to have come out of nowhere, don’t worry about what caused it. Simply do not indulge in another thought and another thought and another that also cause negative emotion.
Be willing to be diligent. Diligently choose the next thought.
When you are diligent in your choice of thought, you can choose a better-feeling thought. It might not be a joyful thought; it may not be a thought that takes you immediately to the top of the emotional scale.
But when you are diligent, you can choose the relief of a better-feeling thought.
“As you think, you vibrate. As you vibrate, you attract.” —Abraham
This is precisely why you always want to be diligent about your choice of thought. If you want to attract what you want, then you will want to think thoughts that allow you to vibrate in such a way that you attract what you want.
“Your emotions come in response to your thoughts. So a feeling is a manifestation because it’s coming in response to a thought. If you care about the way you feel, you will find a way to redirect your thoughts. It really is as simple as that.” —Abraham
Your emotions come in response to your thoughts.
Which means that being diligent about your choice of thought is the only way to deliberately create. Anything else is going to be a very mixed bag of manifestations.
“The Law of Attraction says that which is like unto itself is drawn. In other words, that which you think, in any moment, attracts unto itself other thoughts that are like it.” —Abraham
When you are diligent about your choice of thought, you can easily attract other thoughts that serve you, other thoughts that feel good, other thoughts of what is wanted.
Here’s a two-fold invitation: Be diligent about your choice of thought and release the misguided notion you will reach the place where you will not need to do this anymore.
“A lot of Law of Attraction followers focus on trying to control their thoughts, but this can be extremely challenging because there are simply so many thoughts to keep track of. Instead, if you can simply monitor how you feel throughout the day, and keep trying to make yourself feel good, you will naturally start to attract more things that make you feel good, without having to wrestle your thoughts to the ground.” —Abraham
On every subject in your life, you think thoughts that cause positive emotion and thoughts that cause negative emotion.
- I don’t know the thoughts you think about money. And I don’t know which of those thoughts make you feel good and which ones make you feel bad. But you do.
- I don’t know the thoughts you think about relationships. And I don’t know which of those thoughts make you feel good and which ones make you feel bad. But you do.
The same is true for your thoughts on every subject. You know which ones feel good when you think them versus the ones that don’t. That’s really all you need to know in order to be diligent about your choice of thought. As in, choose the thoughts that feel good.
When you don’t notice how you feel, when you don’t prioritize feeling good, when you indulge in thoughts that feel bad when you think them, none of that is being diligent about your choice of thought.
Let go of the belief that you’ll reach a place where you don’t need to be diligent about your choice of thought. If you want to be a deliberate creator—and I know you do—be diligent and deliberate about directing and choosing your thoughts.
