By Dr. Keith Beasley, Faculty Member here at the BodyMind InstituteMain Website: www.onereality.co.ukBlog Website: beyondthought.todayBlog Website: knowinggrowing.blogspot.co.uk
In the personal development arena, victim thinking is a major issue. So many of us can’t help feeling that the whole world is against us. And, of course, if that’s what’s in our heads, so the universal law of attraction applies and we bring that very situation to is. All classic justifications for positive thinking. But is it as simple as that? Can we just switch our thoughts to more constructive ones?
Anyone who’s seriously tried this will probably tell you that whilst such an approach can work to some extent (often with amazing results), it’s often far from easy. The thoughts and beliefs we’re intent on updating are often so deeply ingrained that we might as well try to change our place of birth! (The two factors often having a major impact on each other.)
From my own experiences I’ve identified a number of others issues that are relevant here:
Awareness: as I become more aware, so I become more aware of the many ways in which those around me (in normal everyday life) if not ‘against’ me are probably not ‘for’ me!
There’re two facets of this. Firstly, as my own level of awareness increases so I become more conscious of the reality of those I share a street/town/country/world with. I see that most are so caught up in their own rushed lives that they don’t even notice me, let alone care about me. This is in stark contrast to the village and community in which I was brought up: where folks generally did care and look-out-for each other.
Maybe it’s just a sign of how things have changed in the 50 years between the 1960’s and the 2010’s. Somewhen, probably the Thatcher era of the 1990’s followed by the current ‘head in screen’ Tech age has made British society at least (and probably many others) far more self-centred, with the norm being to cut yourself off from everything and everybody else. No wonder so many of us have victim thinking! It’s not that the world is against us, more that the societal norm has so favoured personal success (in a limited, material sense) that there is little sense, in many quarters, of ‘belonging’, of being cared for or cared about.
In my own case, there’s another factor which exasperates the situation: Since as long as I can remember I’ve been an observer: I like to see what’s going on, I notice. I suppose it is this that has made me a good Quality Assurance person and a good researcher. I can spot trends . . . or things that are out of place. I’m not swayed by superficial factors but able to tune in and get a real feel for a situation.
Thus, as I look around me and tune into today’s reality, I can’t help but note, for example, how little time most people seem to have . . . for themselves or what they feel they need to do, let alone for anybody else who happens to be sharing life with them. It’s nobody’s fault, just what society has become, in many areas, over recent decades. Again it is no surprise that victim thinking, and all the heath and societal issues that go with it, are at such high levels.
So what’s the positive thinker’s response to this? How does the Law of Attraction apply when the reality is that, so often in modern society, we are isolated? We are on our own.
Yes, we can, and probably do need, to seek out kindred spirits, to practice acts of random kindness, to smile at others even if many such attempts at engaging will get no obvious response. When enough of us do such things, when enough of us return to showing that we care, then the Law of Attraction will respond. Miracles do happen . . . but rarely when we want them to!
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