When all else fails, revert to a ritual

​When all else fails, revert to a ritual.

​These were the words used by a member of the Unlimited Facebook Group this morning, that got me thinking about the difference between rituals and processes.

Abraham moved away from using the word “God” to using the words “Source” and “Universe” – the reason behind it was to step away from all the beliefs that people have linked to the word God.  Across cultures and across religions God is an entity that is personified in different ways and has different attributes and powers.  Abraham gets us to put all of that aside when we use the words Source and Universe so that we can attach new more positive beliefs to these words.

In the same way, Abraham has created a distinction between rituals and what they call processes.  A ritual is a set of actions or things you do, that help you to generate the feeling of hope about the future.  Whether a ritual gives you what you want depends on your ability to hold on to that emotion of hope for a sufficiently long time in order to generate the positive momentum that allows a positive manifestation to take place.  A ritual does not teach you how to modify your self-talk so that you have complete control.  In fact, a ritual teaches you to create a connection between action and results which is limiting and not consistent.  That is why a ritual works for some people and does not work for other people.  In my opinion, a ritual takes away your power to be in control of your thoughts, which gives you control over your emotions, which is what allows you to control your manifestation. 

I grew up with a mother who believed in rituals and our daily lives were full of them, and it always confused me that God would accept her offerings on some occasions but not on others – that implied that God wasn’t always fair, but my religious up-bringing taught me that God was always fair and that God’s rule books wasn’t consistent, so you couldn’t trust that even if you did the ritual to perfection you would get the results you wanted to get.  So I saw my mother being imprisoned by her rituals – they limited her – whereas what she really wanted was freedom. 

I am not referring to any specific ritual or process – all I’m saying is – if what you do does not involve shifting your thoughts in a manner that improves how you feel about your life, by making you feel that you are in control of what happens next, then it does not help you, in fact it takes your power away and gives it to something outside of you over which you have no control and therefore it is not helping you in the long run – it is not giving you freedom to invoke your unlimited potential. 

As Abraham teaches us, processes are exercises that you do in your head – the only action required is thinking. As long as you think thoughts that help you generate a positive emotion you can trust the process.  It is consistent and works the same way every time.  Positive thoughts lead to positive emotions which lead to positive manifestations.  Nothing is left up to chance or luck.  There is consistency there – there is no favoritism involved.  We are all the same – extensions of Source.  Source wants us to have everything we want and all we have to do is to generate a positive emotion. We can do that in anyway we wish.  We have control.  We know that when we do the vibrational work the results always follow.

Abraham teaches us how the processes work at a vibrational level.  At the basis of all the processes that they are listed in the book Ask and it is Given is just one thing: appreciation.  Appreciation is a positive thought that generates a positive emotion which leads to good things happening.

Over many years of teaching how the law of attraction works, I have developed analogies and processes of my own such as the six thinking choices and the four step process, the fire drill for your mind, these are based on the same principle – that of shifting our self-talk in order to generate positive momentum.  These processes give us the control and therefore lead to freedom – unlimited potential, unlimited joy.

Processes don’t take our power to control manifestations away – they give us that power.  Processes work the same way every time.  That is why you can trust the process.