A Pessimist’s Guide to Manifesting 3: The Law of Repetitive Effect

Why are you getting what you don’t want, over and over and over and over…

“You’re stupid.”
“You’ll never get ahead.”
“You suck.”
“You can’t win, so why even try?”
“What makes you think you’re so good?”
Have you heard similar voices in your head?
Lots of us do. I did.
What are these voices that tell you how horrible and undeserving you are?
You’ve probably found that over the years, they’ve been right on many occasions.
Or, actually I should say, you’ve allowed them to be right.
These negative inner voices are just an expression of the story that we’ve learned and accepted about ourselves.
We create these stories early in childhood as we begin to define events based on emotional judgements rather than as mere events.
Here’s an example of what I mean: Let’s imagine a pair of twin siblings. They begin crying in the middle of the night.
Sibling #1’s crib is closer than sibling #2’s crib. (Incidentally, sibling #2 started crying first.)
When the parent enters the room in a sleep stupor, they instinctively take the path of least resistance in stopping the crying and pick up Sibling #1 because he/she is closest.
The first time this happens, sibling #2 makes a note of it and begins to form a story that the parents must love sibling #1 more because they take care of him/her first.
Over the years of toddler-hood, this scene is repeated many, many times.
As it takes place again, and again, and again, sibling #2 forms a story from his/her observations. It’s a negative story about his/her worth that says, “My parents love my brother/sister more than they love me.”
This eventually morphs into, “I’m not lovable,” or “I don’t deserve to be loved,” as they go through the challenges of adolescence and get rejected for dates or dumped by partners.
We’ve all been through those situations. They hurt, but why do some people bounce back from them so easily while others dig into a deep pit of despair?
It’s because they, like sibling #2 in the illustration above, are defining an event through a story that has no connection to it.
The story that they tell themselves about how unlovable they are has nothing to do with the event of being rejected or dumped.
Instead of looking at a date rejection as, “She’s already has plans,” or “We have nothing in common to talk about anyway,” those with negative self-stories instead define the event as a judgement on their worthiness, such as, “She doesn’t like me,” or “I’ll never meet anyone,” or “Why did I bother? No one wants to go out with a loser like me.”
And, as these events repeat, (as any of us who ever dated knows that they do), the story of unworthiness is reinforced with every single occurrence.
Thus, we become who we tell ourselves that we are. Our childhood creates our adulthood.
My question to you: What are these people manifesting?
They will say that they want to date and have a relationship, but their results are repeated rejection.
They want to manifest partnership, but are creating loneliness.
Shouldn’t the Law of Attraction bring the intended outcome to them?
Why isn’t it working?
Initially two reasons come to mind: The Law of Dominant Effect (which we will address in the next article) and the Law of Repetitive Effect (which is our topic today).
The Law of Repetitive Effect states simply that the more the subconscious experiences a message, the more it believes it to be true.
If you repeatedly hear messages in your childhood that relate to you being a bad child or unworthy of gifts because you break things (accidentally, of course) you can internalize these statements as the story of your value.
You might even believe stories that you hear casually from your parents. Maybe there were times of financial stress in your family during your childhood. Depending on the intensity and number of times that you were exposed to comments about not having enough money or needing to struggle to get ahead, you may have internalized as story of lack regarding your ability to be successful and financially independent.
The good news is that you can change these stories.
The stories of the past belong in the past. They have no place in the present, nor do they have a place in defining your future.
These stories can be replaced through repeated exposure to positive, success-affirming messages that empower you instead of beating you down.
Some choose to use counseling or therapy to begin to break this chain of self-defeating, negative internal messaging. This process takes place mainly on the conscious level and can take years to resolve.
Hypnotherapy has been extremely helpful in guiding clients to turn their thinking around.
This is because the basic elements to our personal stories are held in the subconscious mind. This is the seat of our emotions and beliefs.
By guiding a client into hypnosis and delivering their empowering message straight to their subconscious mind, they can begin the process of shifting their story from one of defeat to one of success.
Recordings of this session allow the client to listen to the messages over and over so that through repetition, they can reprogram their negative subconscious beliefs into a positive mindset.
It’s not always easy. This work takes time – we didn’t learn our negative patterns overnight and we don’t completely lose them at a finger-snap. But positive results can be seen almost immediately.
Once in a positive mindset of success and worthiness, we can begin our manifesting journey to co-create that which is truly our goal.
From a scientific perspective, we can see this law confirmed in the Reticular Activating System (RAS).
In short, you create more of that upon which you focus your attention.
You can read my article about the RAS here.
Because, for the Law of Attraction to work, you also need to believe that you are worthy and deserving of your outcome. Otherwise, you will sabotage your efforts.
Your homework for this week is to:
1 Meditate on your current story. Is it one of personal power or one of self-defeat?
Write it down so that you can become fully aware of it. This is your baseline for change.
2. Meditate on what you want to achieve.
Now that you are aware of your current story, how is it blocking your progress in realizing this goal?
3. To achieve your goal, what do you need to believe about yourself? Do you need to behave differently or believe yourself to be someone other than whom you think you are currently?
Do not shrink from this challenge. Remember, in a universe of Pure Potentiality, you can be and become whomever you choose to be.
Write a new story for yourself, one of achievement, power, success and worthiness.
I’d love to see your work. Please comment below or send me an email at daniel@danielolexa.com.
Remember, you are what you think. Think good thoughts and be kind to yourself.
You are deserving of success.
Let’s do the work so that you can realize your abundance.