The Law of (Negative) Attraction

The other day, I was talking to someone about the Law of Attraction and “The Secret”. In particular, what it is and how I have been using it in my life. They asked me an interesting question, “Why is it that everyone who tells me about 'The Secret' only talks about the positive, doesn’t it work in the negative as well?”

At the time I took the question to be in the vein of a “don’t want” like an Anti-War protest to end war. I explained that the universe tends to be a bit dense in this area as it does not understand the concept of “No” and “Not”. I explained that the universe gives us what we focus upon and does not understand why would spend our energy, time & thought on something we did not want.

Later I started to think about the question again and realized they may have been asking about an example of the universe manifesting something I did not want. Right now in my life, I have a wonderful example of this in action.

On my job, I have a boss that I love to death, but sometimes, I would not be to upset if he just disappeared into the ether on his own volition. It is not that he is a bad person or evil in any way, but several of his habits in business work to my detriment in many ways. Someone once said “That which you resist, persists.” This is definitely showing itself in my life…

I am not going to go into details, because they are not important to the discussion, but let us just say that I have been fighting with them so much that they have become nearly toxic for me. Is this his fault? Well, it would be easy to say yes, but the truth is that I am quite aware of the fact that he can only annoy me as much as I let him. The truth is that whatever he may be, only I can be annoyed (OK, read infuriated at times) with him and if I wish it to cease and desist, I just need to stop trying to bend him to my will.

Now this has not necessarily been a bad thing, which is something we learn in time. As much as it has been inharmonious in my day-to-day existence, it has also been of help in that it has helped push me out of what would otherwise be a very nice “comfort” zone and back into the world of self-employment. James Redfield, in his “Celestine Prophecy”, makes the comment in one of his insights that we become aware of the positive aspect in everything that happens to us. For me, that lining is continuing on my journey to self-fulfillment and pursuit of my dreams. In addition, even my boss’s annoying behaviors might just be worth it if I make something good out of it, as someone once wrote, “If life hands you lemons, make lemonade!”