I was STUNNED when I realized my most-read blog post was about Law of Attraction… uh, what???

Honestly, the Law of Attraction (LOA) has become a cover for hyper-positivity that doesn’t account for the things actually wrong with our world that we need to fix. And BOY HOWDY, did we see that in 2020. I am a huge fan of acknowledging what is actually wrong with the world. However, I DO appreciate the power of LOA to help people manage their thoughts, emotions, and energy. We can’t always control the world, but we CAN control our reaction to it. 

This isn’t necessarily for people who had to incur debt because of a global pandemic. More for the people who can’t seem to get out of debt no matter how much money they have. For those people, a huge part of becoming debt-free is mindset, and when used correctly, LOA can support a debt-free life.

The difference between LOA and a debt-free mindset

LOA is about managing your energy and working on your life from the inside out. It’s a great tool for understanding how you WANT to feel when it comes to your money, versus focusing on what currently frustrates you about your life (like the inability to become debt-free). Therefore, LOA helps you really connect with the vision of how you want to show up in the world.

However, I often notice that choices made from a Law of Attraction standpoint can be misguided. I see a lot of people going into debt because they believe that their purchases demonstrate their faith in LOA and demonstrate faith in their future abundance. The point is, if you truly believed in your future abundance, you could wait until then to make the purchase. Or, instead of upgrading your lifestyle significantly, you can choose to make smaller upgrades. For instance, if you really want a new computer but don’t have the money for a huge investment, don’t go all out on a brand new, fancy model—get a refurbished one instead. Or if you’re used to buying your clothes at Target, you don’t have to buy designer duds to demonstrate your faith—there are several places that sell nicer clothes than Target that won’t break the bank. The point is, use your manifestation as an opportunity to be creative. That way, you’re fulfilling your vision, but doing it in a more cost-effective way.

With mindset awareness, you make sure that you’re not making misguided money decisions in the process of connecting with your higher vision. Mindset is the recipe for how you show up and LOA is your barometer to tell you when you need to manage it more closely! For example, with fitness goals, it’s great to use LOA to create some positive energy about future results, but mindset prescribes specifically how you’re going to eat and move your body. Or with children; you can use the LOA to envision a fantastic relationship with your child and manage your energy, but you’re still going to need mindset to make tough choices and do things they won’t agree with.

In short, LOA shifts your focus to what’s possible and mindset gives you a holistic philosophy to operate from as you work on fulfilling that possibility.

The single-best way LOA can help someone become debt-free is gratitude. Gratitude can shift the entire debt conversation. Instead of approaching debt from the point of, “I suck because I am in debt and I am saddled with this until I can FINALLY pay this off,” gratitude helps you maintain your long-term vision, such as:

“I’m SO grateful I have the resources and the internal drive to pay down this debt, and I am so grateful that I live in a world where I have such freedom of choice. I’m grateful for the lesson that I learned from having this debt and I am grateful that I am expanding my financial knowledge so that I can move onto building wealth in a more conscious way.”

Here are some other Law of Attraction tactics to use in the process of becoming debt-free:

• Reframe. Stop thinking that you won’t be happy, satisfied, or successful until you’re debt-free. Start focusing on what is good in your situation right NOW, regardless of the debt. List all of the ways that this debt has helped you understand yourself and your money better.
• Appreciate. Debt is a western world privilege. This debt is representative of all of the choices, benefits, and opportunities offered to you, and it’s not your job to resent it (although yes, I am totally on board with student loan forgiveness!). Appreciate how it has served you and give yourself a pat on the back for deciding at this time to use it in a way that is more in line with your current vision for your money life.
• Make “Debt Free” Physical. A friend of mine was helping her boyfriend get out of debt, so she stuck a mason jar on the counter. Whenever they made a choice to do something fun together or just were standing around, considering their weekend plans, they used that as an opportunity to “feed the jar.” As they went through their week, they would put $1-$5 into the jar here and there. It never failed… every week the jar would accumulate at least $20. Feeding the jar became something fun and exciting, knowing they could add that money to his regular monthly payments.

Actions this week

Make a list of all of the things that currently annoy or worry you about your debt. This is your resistance list and what you resist, persists.

Reframe that resistance list. The place I like to begin is by asking myself, “How is this experience contributing to my personal growth?” and then find ways that you can be gentle with yourself during the growing process.

Experiment with physical reminders. Look for ways to bring your LOA energy into the real world. Choose one thing to do differently and see how it makes you feel. My friend used a mason jar, but you could just as easily use a teddy bear as an energy symbol so that you start to smile when you think of debt.

And be sure to sign up for my free library of resources, which can help you shift your mindset around money!