I attended an Abraham workshop last November in Dallas and the entire experience was incredibly expansive and high vibe. From start to finish, it was such a delightful experience.
As always, so much of what I heard from Abraham resonated that day, but there has been one phrase that continues to call to me.
Abraham said many of us are following what-is instead of leading what-is.
Something struck me as so clarifying about that. It resonated to my core. Because I realized so often what gets in the way of attracting what you want, creating what you want, receiving what you want, is because you are following what-is.
If you follow what-is, then you can only create more of what-is.
More of the same. More of the essence of what is already in your life.
Let me ground us in a little Law of Attraction 101. You already know this, but it bears repeating.
- You are a vibrational being, and you offer your vibration through your thoughts. You feel your thinking.
- You are also the creator of your own reality. You offer a vibration and the Law of Attraction responds. What comes back to you is a match to what you put out.
“Emotion is vibration. What you give out is what you create.” —Abraham
Let’s tie that back to what-is.
If you are offering your vibration in response to what you are observing, then you can only create more of what you are observing, more of what-is.
See how that works?
You are observing your current reality—the unpaid bills, the job you don’t like, the spouse who doesn’t appreciate you. And you are thinking thoughts and offering your vibration in response to what you are observing.
So perhaps the vibration you offer is worry about those bills or disappointment about your job or anger about your relationship. And so when you offer worry and disappointment and anger with your vibration in response to what-is, you perpetuate what-is.
You follow what-is.
Now you may be observing things in your current reality that you don’t want and don’t like along with things you do like and do want.
That’s what most of us are doing. So the vibration you offer is split energy, which means you’ll have a mixed bag of manifestations—some of what you want and some of what you don’t want.
I know that was certainly my case before my obsession with all things Law of Attraction. Before I did the work to clean up my vibration, I was definitely a mixed bag sort of manifester, getting some of what I wanted and some of what I didn’t want.
And that’s because I was following what-is.
Are you looking around your life and observing things you want and things you don’t want?
We live in an inclusive Universe, so your attention is always saying yes to wanted and your attention is always saying yes to unwanted. The focus of your attention and therefore your thoughts is saying yes, yes, yes.
- Job I don’t like. Yes.
- Spouse who doesn’t appreciate me. More of that please.
- Unpaid bills. Yep, bring me more.
Now, I know that’s not what we intend or want when we focus on the unwanted of what-is.
But the bottom line: If what you are observing is not what you want, the vibration you are offering is saying yes to it.
- You look at your bank statement, at the what-is of your financial condition, and you feel worried and fearful. If you follow what-is, you attract and create from those emotions of worry and fear.
- You think about your relationship status, at the what-is of being single, and the vibration you offer is loneliness and disappointment. If you follow what-is, you attract more circumstances and conditions that match up to lonely and disappointed.
When you only focus on your current reality—and give your attention to things you don’t like and things you don’t want, thereby feeling negative emotion, you are following what-is. Plain and simple.
I’ll say it another way: If you are only able to see the facts of what is in your life today, not really making the connection that you created what’s in your life today with your past thinking—then you will continue to create new circumstances and conditions that are very much the essence of your current circumstances and conditions.
“It doesn’t matter what you thought or did a year ago, a week ago, a day ago or a minute ago. The Universe is only ever responding to what you are thinking and feeling now.” —Abraham
Your power to create is right now. And what you focus on grows. Which is why you don’t want to focus on what-is if more of what-is is not what you want.
Abraham says things are always in a state of becoming.
That means things are changing all the time. But often they are changing to more of the same because the thoughts you are thinking and the vibration you are offering are the same.
When your thoughts, your beliefs, your attitudes stay the same, you hold yourself in a vibrational pattern that doesn’t allow anything to change for you. The reality that manifests around you can only match up to the vibration you are offering.
Following what-is by continuing to think the same thoughts that create the same negative emotion within you will only create more of what-is in your life.
Here’s the simplest way I can put it: Following what-is perpetuates what-is.
The details may be different and the players may change. But if you follow what-is, then the circumstances, events, situations, people, and things of your tomorrow will follow from what you already have today. The essence will be the same.
Which means if you want to create something new in your life, if you want to attract different circumstances and conditions, achieve new goals, acquire new shiny pennies, have new experiences, then you want to lead what-is, not follow it.
- When you follow what-is, you get more of the same.
- When you lead what-is, you can create new vibrational patterns to which Law of Attraction responds.
When I heard Abraham talk about leading versus following what-is, an image came to my mind.
When we follow what-is, there is a breadcrumb trail of current life circumstances and conditions, and we are just observing what’s on the trail and following the trail.
Terrible childhood. Underpaid at work. Spouse doesn’t appreciate me. Job is unfulfilling. House is too small. Body is out of shape. Business is struggling.
What-is, what-is, what-is.
- We are following a trail that’s already been laid down of circumstances and conditions.
- We are following a trail of negative emotion that our thoughts about those circumstances and conditions cause us to feel.
When you follow what-is, you are stuck on that one path, and it can and will only take you to more of the same.
Now let’s imagine a very different image when you are leading what is. When you are deliberately creating the trail. When you are intentionally laying down the path.
It can be whatever path you want, taking you in whatever direction you want to go. It can be a path to whatever goals are exciting to you and whatever shiny pennies you want to acquire. It can be a path to all the experiences that are important to you and whatever states of being you want to embody.
Leading what-is means creating the path to what you want with your thoughts and feelings—in other words, with the intentional vibration you offer to which Law of Attraction responds.
Leading what-is means you understand what is active in your vibration will show up in your life experience. You are laying down the trail with your thoughts and feelings.
You take your awareness off what-is. Because what-is has nothing to do with what you are creating in your powerful present as long as you don’t activate what-is with your thoughts and feelings.
You move in the direction of what you want with your thoughts. You hold yourself deliberately in the direction of what you want.
When you lead what-is, you enjoy offering your vibration on purpose. You enjoy the feeling of alignment with who you really are. You feel good in advance of your desired manifestations because you know that is the pathway to all your desires manifesting into form.
Leading what-is means fully stepping into your role as a deliberate creator.
You enjoy lining up your thoughts and feeling good now because you know that is leading what-is. That is paving the way to what you want.
Leading what is means…
- Being deliberate about what you give your attention to.
- Managing your mind and thinking thoughts that create positive emotion in you.
- Elevating your emotions so you feel good and are the kind of magnet that attracts what you want to create in your life.
“What you are living is the evidence of what you are thinking and feeling every single time.” —Abraham
Leading what-is recognizes that to have new evidence show up in your life—the money, the promotion, the relationship, the opportunity—to have this new evidence show up in your life, requires you to think the thoughts and feel the feelings that would produce such evidence.
This is classic LoA. Don’t wait for the evidence to feel good. Don’t wait for the evidence to believe. Feel good now, believe now so the evidence shows up.
Leading what-is means improving your point of attraction so it is a match to what you want to create in your life.
If your business isn’t the way you want it to be or your bank account isn’t the way you want it to be, but you never think any new thoughts that allow you to feel better about your business or your finances, then you will continue to have evidence around you of your failing business and meager bank account.
“When you acknowledge what you do not want, and then ask yourself, ‘What is it that I do want?’ you begin a gradual shift into the telling of your new story and into a much improved point of attraction. You get the essence of what you think about—whether you want it or not—because Law of Attraction is unerringly consistent. Therefore, you are never only telling the story of ‘how it is now.’ You are also telling the future experience that you are creating right now.” —Abraham
That is so mind expanding!
When you tell the story of how it is now, depending on how you tell that story and what you choose to focus on—glass half full, glass half empty—you will also be telling the story of your future.
I want you to lead what-is.
Think the thoughts and feel the feelings as if what you want is already here. That’s what will attract it. That’s when you will see it.
Perhaps you’ve never thought about what you were doing as following vs. leading what-is. I know I wasn’t thinking of it that way. But now you have this new understanding, this new framework.
- Think about your life as a whole: Have you been leading or following what-is?
- Think about the particular season of life you are in right now. Are you leading or following what-is?
- Think about a particular area or subject of your life, like money or relationships. Again, are you leading or following what-is?
Looking at your life through the lens of this distinction can be so useful. Perhaps you start to see why you’ve been getting a mixed bag of manifestations. Even better, you start to see how to create a shift in your vibration—so you can manifest what you want with more ease.
This distinction can also be in your LoA toolkit to use regularly. In fact, I use this distinction as guidance on a near daily basis. I literally ask myself, Jennifer, are you following or leading what-is?
Believe me, when I ask myself that question, I know what I want the answer to be. I want to lead what-is!
But sometimes asking the question clarifies for me that I am, indeed, following what-is. For instance, the other day I was feeling friction about a project I’m working on. When I asked myself—Are you following or leading what-is?, I knew right away I was following.
I was following current circumstances and conditions with my thoughts and feelings. And since those current circumstances were unwanted, I knew I was only creating more of the same. Just that awareness allowed me to shift from following to leading what-is.
Let this distinction guide you, too. Put the question Are you leading what-is or following what-is? in your LoA toolkit.
Remember: What is active in your vibration is what shows up in your life experience.
If you want something new to show up in your life experience—a job you love, a partner who adores you, the flow of abundance—then it’s time to offer a new vibration.
And you can do this by leading what-is instead of following what-is.
