When Happy Calories Don’t Count (neither does unhappy exercise) was published, my biggest fear was that I’d have to go head to head with the diet and exercise industry. Diet and exercise are “science,” right? All I had to go on was personal experience. I thought at best, I’d be written off as uneducated. At worst, I’d be debating Dr. Oz, Dr. Amen and Jillian Michaels on national TV. So imagine my surprise to discover that my biggest, most vocal, most vehement critics come from the Law of Attraction community.
It turns out that many in the “diet and exercise” community are actually quite open to what I have to say. Perhaps it’s because they understand that their approach to weight-loss is one of many, and they’ve seen how ideas about “good” nutrition have changed over time. Perhaps it’s because they witness clients struggle to get results, and science is based on repeatable results. Perhaps they’ve experienced a time when they hit a wall and had to resort to giving a client that “there must be something going on with your metabolism” answer. For whatever reason, those from the “diet and exercise” community with whom I’ve engaged don’t find me threatening.
With the Law of Attraction community, however, I’ve really struck a nerve. While many prominent Law of Attraction teachers see my work as simply another way to embrace the same principles, some Law of Attraction students are ready to take up arms against me.
I find the entire dynamic fascinating. The arguments that my Law of Attraction critics use against me are the same arguments that keep them stuck in their pain. And that’s when it hit me – there’s a second teeter-totter.
In addition to the “diet and exercise” teeter-totter to which I refer – this underlying cultural consciousness suggesting that we are no more than a balance sheet of calories in vs calories out – there is a another teeter-totter. This second teeter-totter has the entire “diet and exercise” model on one end and Law of Attraction on the other.
It seems as if my Law of Attraction critics fight against my practical and tangible interpretation of Law of Attraction so vehemently, because my approach relinquishes them from the ability – and the responsibility – of controlling the outcome.
In a very real-world, practical way, the recognition that we are 100% responsible for our experience, but not 100% in control of the circumstances of our lives, frees many of us from the pain of “not doing it right” or “creating something bad.” But for others, the thought that we are not 100% in control of the circumstances of our lives inspires fear. For if we cannot control our reality, we cannot guarantee that we will get what we want. And for some, the idea that we cannot guarantee that we will get what we want brings with it pain and fear rather than acceptance, peace and freedom.
It seems as if these critics fear that if they can’t control their results and get the body they want using Law of Attraction, they will be forced back into manipulating results through the diet and exercise end of the teeter-totter. And of course that would inspire consternation.
The good news is that we can get off the “diet and exercise” vs Law of Attraction teeter-totter just as easily as we can get off the diet vs exercise teeter-totter. And when we do that, we can come from a place of freedom, peace and happiness and allow results to come naturally.