Disclaimer: I’m not asking you to believe in law of attraction. The only way to know if you can actually swim is to get in the water. The only way to know if your crush will date you is to court them and see. Similarly, the only way to know if law of attraction is real, is to experiment with it. No one can prove it to you except yourself. Approach law of attraction with sincere, open-minded experiments, and the results may surprise you.
My homeless years were cold and desperate.
And although I’d studied Law Of Attraction for years beforehand, it didn’t seem to be helping me very much.
I slept on frozen ground, benches, and (later on,) upright in chairs at Internet Cafes. I learned to clean myself with tea tree oil in mall bathrooms. I ran my business --barely making ends meet-- on an old beat-up laptop … until it got stolen.
‘Law of attraction is bullshit’ was a tempting thought.
Because the only thing I could see myself attracting was misery and failure. I had studied Neale Donald Walsch’s Conversations With God and Mike Dooley’s Notes From The Universe. I'd read Gabby Bernstein, Joe Dispenza, and more. And most importantly I’d read, listened to, and watched countless Abraham Hicks books, quotes, mp3s, and videos. I’d used their General Well-Being Mediations, their Money & The Law Of Attraction Meditations, and more.
So why was I still struggling, broke, and homeless?
I discovered later that it was because…
My law of attraction skills weren’t as great as I thought.
They were straight up bad. The thing is, like most people, I refused to admit I wasn’t as good at something as I thought I was. After all, I’d studied the law of attraction more than many experts, so I couldn’t possibly be bad at it, right?
Wrong.
I was terrible at it.
Because the law of attraction works on 3 key principles.
Each principle is basically a foundation, or a pillar, of making the law of attraction work. And none of them can be faked or glossed over. In fact, each one must be rock-solid and reasonably well-practiced. And during my homeless years, I only had one of the pillars covered.
So, from what I’ve written so far, can you spot which law of attraction principle I’d actually gotten a handle on?
Yes? No? Maybe? Well, I’ll tell you.
The first principle is our beliefs.
Or our thoughts you might say. We each have about 60,000 thoughts a day, and if the bulk of them aren’t positive and ‘believing’ in what we want, then the law of attraction will fail to work.
Sure, my thoughts were quickly growing darker every time law of attraction failed to rescue me from homeless despair, but on the whole, I actually had pretty positive beliefs and thoughts about law of attraction. I’d spent so much of my early twenties studying it, that it’d be hard not to have good thoughts about it. Definitely more than 30,000 thoughts of my day were optimistic.
So why wasn’t I magically rich yet? Or at least had a roof over my head living in a closet or something. The latter didn’t seem like a lot to ask from the law of attraction.
It’s because I was abysmal regarding the second principle.
The second principle is our moods.
Ok. So… I’ll admit, my moods during my homeless years were pretty bad. But in my defense, mood-mastery isn’t easy when you can barely get a few hour’s sleep without a security guard tapping you awake with his nightstick. Mood-mastery isn’t easy when you’re doing everything you can to turn a profit, but barely making enough to eat three croissants a day.
But here’s the thing. We have about 60,000 moods a day too, and mine were shitty.
I’d think something optimistic like “I bet something good is around the corner for me!” and deep in my gut I’d feel a sharp pain and my mood would darken the thought without me even realizing it happened. Or I’d think a positive thought such as “Hey, at least I’m still helping people while homeless!” meanwhile my heart was sinking and I just wasn’t happy.
And if someone tried to convince me to be happy, I’d snap at them, act like it was impossible to be happy in my situation, and challenge them to be happy after years of living on the cold streets of Toronto.
The point is, while the majority of my intellect may have been positive, or at least vaguely optimistic… my moods definitely weren’t. I was not a happy person while I was homeless, and I believed it was impossible to be happy under those conditions.
But the truth is, happiness is an inside job and can be accessed anywhere, by anyone, if we put in a bit of effort and practice into it.
This brings me to the third key principle of the law of attraction.
The third principle is our choices.
As with the second principle, I sucked at this one. I made lame choice after lame choice. I did so over and over because we have about 60,000 choices each day too. For example, I had the choice to appreciate the beauty of the earth around me. Instead, I chose to moan about my bank account. I had the choice to tune into my emotions and realize my mood was bad. Instead, I chose to numb my pain with self-indulgent whining. I had the choice to do what I really wanted each day. Instead, I chose to hustle, grind, and ‘productive’ my way out of homelessness.
I made a bad choice nearly every second, but I didn’t even realize I was making them, because they were small, subtle, ‘baby’ choices. I didn’t think they mattered.
But they 100% do if you want the law of attraction to work for you.
We live in a very intellectual society.
We’re raised to believe that being smart is good, not knowing something is bad, and admitting that we’re wrong or unskilled is avoided like the plague.
This over-reliance on intellect makes us ignore core parts of creating our reality.
Namely, the emotional aspect of reality-creation (our moods) and the character-building aspect of reality-creation (our choices.) At least, that’s how it went for me, and most of my clients.
We all ‘thought’ we understood the law of attraction. We tried to manifest things and failed. We then became furious and bitter when it wouldn’t work, not realizing we were relying only on an intellectual understanding of it, rather than relying on true emotional work and making bold choices throughout each day. If you’ve ever tried to use the law of attraction, maybe you can relate.
So how did I get out of homelessness?
Well, after a dark night of the soul sleeping on the tile floor of an abandoned mall bathroom, I became suicidal. I got as far as sourcing a drug that Mexican veterinarians use to put animals to sleep, but I had no address they could ship it to since I was homeless & ID-less. So I was forced to admit I was a failure at business, life, and even a failure at killing myself.
And this was the turning point.
I gave up. I let go.
I stopped being productive. I stopped painting a happy face on things. I stopped expecting to get out of this situation by my own bootstraps. I stopped caring if I was a ‘contributing member of society.’
And what did I do instead?
I started doing whatever I felt like.
I tuned into my emotions and my body. I started making bolder choices.
The truth was I was exhausted from the struggle and I didn’t want to hunt for food or find shelter anymore, so I decided I’d just lay on a park bench and either die of starvation or exposure. Giving up and embracing an abject, homeless death by starvation was the most counter-intuitive thing I’d ever done.
I laid there fasting for about 36 hours, until the bench started giving me blisters.
It was the first time I really, truly, said ‘fuck what I’m supposed to do, fuck what I’ve been taught, and fuck everyone else in the world, if I want to lay here and be a failure, that’s what I’m going to do.’
And interestingly, this got me out of my intellectual obsession with law of attraction and manually digging out of my hole, and got me to relax, be at ease, be at peace. It was the first time I truly, significantly, improved my mood during my homeless years. It was also the first truly ‘bold choice’ I made towards what I wanted, consequences be damned.
Like I said, it was a turning point.
Because after 36 hours my body was uncomfortable and hot, so I felt inspired to get up and go to the library for air conditioning. And just like I followed my impulse to waste away on the bench, I also followed my impulse to go to the library. From there I started giving my advice away for free on forums.
One of the forums was owned by Evan Carmichael, and his team was impressed with the wisdom I was sharing generously (little did they know I was just passing the time to cool down in the library.) Long story short, Evan and I ended up collabing on his empire for almost a decade. He helped me out of homelessness and together we grew his YouTube channel from ~1000 subscribers to ~3 million. I helped Evan publish 4 books, collaborate with Tony Robbins, Gary Vee, and more.
And what did I learn?
I learned that if I stopped over-relying on intellect, and put a bit more attention on my moods and choices that...
Law of attraction often guides us through impulses.
But it couldn’t do so when I ignored two of the pillars. Law Of Attraction can't work when I drowned out impulses with my egoistic ‘knowledge’ of the law of attraction and all the books I’d read.
I learned that my 2+ years of homeless hell weren’t really necessary. Sure they made me stronger and humbled me and made me a better person, but they weren’t technically ‘necessary.’ I just dragged them out due to my poor law of attraction skills.
At any time I had the option of changing my mood to one of ease, relaxation, and peace… but apparently, I had to fail at everything else before I even gave that solution a shot.
At any time I could’ve chosen to do what I felt like deep down in my gut, rather than what society had taught me, consequences be damned… but apparently, I had to choose every ‘socially acceptable choice’ first before I even gave that solution a shot.
I was an idiot.
Why not just put my intellect down for a minute and practice some emotional mastery? Why not put my ego down for a minute and simply do what I felt like, no matter the perceived consequences? Why did I act like the world would end if I just gave these two pillars of law of attraction a sincere experiment?
Because studying, reading, or ‘meditating,’ on autopilot while I ignore the more foreign and unfamiliar practices of mood-management and decision-making seemed ‘safer’ and more comfortable.
And this is something everyone can do.
We can choose the path that we imagine is ‘safer’, more ‘acceptable’, and more ‘comfortable’... but all it leads to is failure. We can also choose bolder, less familiar, 'new' beliefs, moods, and choices. It's up to each of us.
There’s something you should know, though. I wouldn’t call myself a master at law of attraction yet. I’m still learning, still growing, and a huge part of this is practice.
Practice, practice, practice.
Because leveraging the law of attraction to your benefit is a skill. And like swimming, cycling, or any skill really… There is a huge difference between someone who practices once a week and someone who practices daily.
So even when I got the hang of LoA, things still came ‘slowly.’
Why?
Because even though I finally knew all three key principles, I had so little practice at two of them. I was like a newborn trying to drive a car. I had a long way to go (and I’m still learning and practicing to this day!)
So it’s vital that you honestly admit your actual skill level with law of attraction.
Don’t sugar-coat it, don’t paint a happy face on it, don’t exaggerate it to sound better than it is. I did that, and I’m telling you right now, the only result that comes from it is pain, struggle, and suffering.
Once I admitted that I sucked at law of attraction, that I didn’t firmly understand the 3 key principles, and that I needed a boatload of practice…
That’s when things really began to kick into gear, and I believe the same thing can happen for you.
Especially now.
You can make massive positive changes to your life, immediately. Covid has basically ‘reset’ the world, it’s the perfect time to reset your approach to law of attraction. On top of that, crypto’s debut looks to be the start of a financial revolution, and it can also be a foundation for new wealth beliefs, moods, and choices.
In fact, law of attraction is a big part of why I’ve had so much success in my first 3 months here on Hive. I used my piss-poor law of attraction skills to get out of homelessness, and I used improved law of attraction skills to get the ball rolling here.
Imagine what you could do if you actually improved at the law of attraction.
Imagine what would happen if you mastered your mindset, mood, and moves that you make...
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my story and law-of-attraction-insights. Either way, I appreciate you reading, commenting, sharing, or even skimming, and I wish you huge joy and success in all you do. (Tagging a few kind souls who may enjoy this read: @ura-soul , @atma.love , @riverflows , and @miriannalis .)
P.S. If you’d like to see me teach even more details of law of attraction, here’s a video post where I go pretty deep into it.
P.P.S. I’m being interviewed on Law Of Attraction tonight in the Holos-Lotus Community Discord, bilingually translated for Hispanics, please check it out if you’re interested.
~J-Ryze
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