Ep 72: Why the Law of Attraction doesn't work for some with Michael LeBlanc

You are listening to episode number 72 of the Reinvent You Podcast with Michael LeBlanc. If you're someone who wants to make major changes in their life, someone who wants to achieve their goals, or maybe you're someone who knows this is not as good as it gets, but you have no idea where to start. On the Reinvent You Podcast, we explore different types of people, their successes and failures, and how they reinvented themselves to create the life they love. It's our hope that from hearing their stories that you too may have more insight into what it takes to build a life that you envision for yourself. Here to help you do that is performance and life coach Travia Steward. Joining me on the Reinvent You podcast today is an Amazon bestselling author. He's a coach, he's an energy practitioner. He's also a licensed clinical social worker and a speaker. Joining me today is Michael LeBlanc. Michael's passion is to help people journey beyond their analytical mind and tap into their divine intelligence to glean— to gain clarity, also to move past those limiting beliefs and embody new and improved states of being needed to manifest their best lives. Your inner self has to be aligned with your dream. So stay tuned right now as we delve right into this conversation of just how to manifest your lifelong dreams. My peeps, today on this Friday, this Friday, I have a special guest with me. You know, and it's funny because, you know, I just think everyone has a degree of the six degrees of separation, right? So the guy that, that is on the podcast today, a couple of my best friends, Nat and Kat, go, Hey, what about this guy? This guy is a Coach just like you. And you know what? I think he's into that woo-woo stuff just like you are. And I was like, yeah, that's my people, baby. That's what I'm talking about. And so we connected. And you know what? I've already fallen in love. Today on the Reinvent You Podcast, welcome, Mr. Michael LeBlanc.

Hey, and thanks. And good to meet you, actually, virtually anyway.

Yeah.

Yeah, I love that. And Kat, so I appreciate them sharing that we, we both are fond of woohoo.

Yeah, we are.

We are.

And every now and then when I go— because they both, you know, they listen to the podcast. And then I always ask questions that I want to know. But I also ask questions, I go, is Kathy Luke going to think this question is way out there? Okay, I need to reframe it, you know, that kind of thing. And so I love that. So, so Michael, thank you so much. I'm so excited to dive into this conversation with you today.

No, absolutely. I'm excited to be here. So thanks. Perfect. Perfect.

So, you know, I love to hear about, you know, the, the name of the podcast, of course, is called Reinvent You. And I know that you have been through some things. And so I want to start off with like that article. My goodness. So a little bit of your story. And what I think is so profound is that the quote from the article was that you could hear your dream crashing around you. So can you talk to us, give us a Cliff Notes version of your journey, and then how you reinvented Michael?

Yeah, so, um, when I got in, I got into social work, right? So I was going to be a priest. Spirituality has always been just a passion, uh, ever since kind of my early 20s and stuff. Um, but I kind of canceled out priesthood because I wasn't really religious. I was just more spiritual. I was gay. And it's not that the Bible wasn't significant, but it was only a spiritual teaching kind of place for me. It's like there's more. And so I was like, well, you're not religious, the Bible is so-so for you, and you're gay, so probably shouldn't be a priest. So, so, you know, so that led me into social work. And I ended up going to Austin once I got my degree. And I really just wanted to do one-on-one kind of work. And so I started as soon as I could, I started my own private practice. And I also loved gardening and I missed physical work. So I had a part-time private practice and a part-time landscaping business.

Oh, okay.

So it's probably a Tuesday, it's around 4 o'clock, 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and in walks a client. And you never know just kind of what people will bring your way. And I always wished she had wore a t-shirt that said— this one says, "Do what you love," but I wish hers had said, "I'm really here to kind of destroy your dream." Wow. It would have given me a little bit of a heads up. Right, right. And, you know, it was a painful experience. It was a terrifying experience. Because she really started threatening my license, threatening my career, kind of I was incompetent, I didn't know what I was doing, I shouldn't be doing it, you know, all these kind of things. Now I'm in my early, late 20s, early 30s, my license is everything. It's like, right, you know, now I'm in my, my later 50s. And it's like, my license isn't everything. But at the time, to have that removed from me would have been like, what, what the hell do you do? You know? So, so it was a terrifying experience for me, and it was an emotional experience for me. But the worst of it all, as tempting as it was to just want to blame her for everything, you know, it's like, but really what was underneath there was I really did, I believed I wasn't good enough. I believed I really wasn't skilled enough, smart enough, competent enough. So So the, the only reason it really unraveled me was because those beliefs were there already, and, and it was really hard for me to regain my footing from it, right? So my practice just slowly started dwindling, and I really just felt like I just needed to get out of it. So I like, I closed that business down, I let go of my landscaping business, and I kind of went, I went back working for others and still in the counseling world. But it was back to doing stuff with teenagers and stuff I had done before. And then I ended up going to the corporate America for a long time with consulting and training. And it was all good. It's like I excelled at all those things. But I wasn't doing what I really loved during that time.

Right.

And when I did the corporate America thing, I thought I was just gonna take a break. Because I was, I was, I just needed a break. I was like, I was like, I want to do something where I can be with people during the day. But at the end of the day, I'm done with them.

Right.

So it's like, you know, training, training does that, right. And so, but actually, it was kind of cool. I pieced together this list of what I thought I really wanted in this job. And I kind of like I do, I go within and I kind of tap into the universe. And it's like, here we go, here's what I would like and Yeah, roundabout ways, synchronicities happen. I meet a person with friends of my brother, we're at a festival having some beers, and she's like, hey, I work for this training company, you know. And I go interview with them, I start on a Monday, and next thing you know, I'm in, I'm in New England on a Friday. And I began this international career as a consulting and training, right? But I never— that's not what I really wanted to do. So I guess it's, uh, I wrote the book in 20— my first book, Manifest a Better Life with God, in 2014. I was still very full-time in the corporate world, but it was, it was like I knew, I knew I was going to need to get out. Like, I knew this isn't what I want. Um, and the book was a beginning of just something back towards spirituality, personal growth. Right. And metaphysics, because that's always been kind of a little bit of my thing there. So, um, but I stayed with the corporate thing. And then I really— the fun thing was I actually visualized and started to envision how I wanted to be fired.

Whoa.

Because, okay, I knew I wanted to quit. I knew I wanted to do my own thing, but I also knew I still needed some kind of way to earn some money while I did this thing called Michael again. Yeah. And so I really, I envisioned like, you know, it'd be awesome if they would just fire me because then I could get a severance package. Right. And it'd be great if they immediately asked me to stay on as a contractor because then I could still have some work while I built my own business. Right.

Right.

And, and so December, it was 2017. It's a few weeks before Christmas. My boss walks in the door. He's just got this horrible look on his face because I was a great employee. It's not like they were— his firing me was not to get rid of me. It was just business was not going well. He had to deal with numbers. I was in a higher paying position. So, you know, there you go.

Yeah.

And but it immediately he he was letting me know he needed to let me go. That the way they do things today is, well, today is your last day. Yeah. And I'm actually, I'm actually working on a project for a client I've had since like 2008, 2009. A lot of my clients, they just know me. They don't really know this big company behind me. And he goes, you know, he goes, I'd really love it if you stayed on as a contractor. And, and he goes, you know, you just keep working the clients you have. And he goes, you keep 75% of what you bring in and we'll take 25% of it.. And so immediately I went from, I got fired, I got the contract offer. And they actually, the sweet part was he goes, and you know, and he goes, we really don't need this office space. So if you want to just keep showing up in this office.

Wow.

So I actually never had to pack and leave. I just sort of, one day I was an employee and the next day I showed up as a contractor. And then I did that for a bit while I kind of started, you know, yeah, growing what I call is Create with Consciousness was the name of my business.

Wow.

And then we can, we can talk about the why.

Absolutely.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But anyway, so that's a, that's a roundabout way of how I am, where I got it.

So I want to go back to the thing you said, you know, 30 seconds ago. Were you visualizing this like very like consciously? Like, did you know, or were you just like, oh, I wish this would happen? Or were you really being intentional with creating the vision of the future self and what you want to happen? Were you manifesting that specifically? Did you know exactly what you were doing so that that could have that outcome?

Um, yeah, I really wanted it to work that way because I knew if I quit, then I didn't get the severance package.

Yeah.

And I wasn't at a space to do it without that. Right?

Yeah.

So, so really, I hung out in this space of, yes, I'm ready to move on. I know I'm ready to move on. I feel that. And but it was like, alright, so, you know, and I, I know folks in the woo-woo world, if you will. I still use the word God, the what that means to me has changed dramatically from my growing up version, right? Um, but I still kind of went within to that divine space and intelligence, and it's like, all right, here, here's really what I think or what I envision and my best scenario I can piece together on what I would want, right?

Got it.

And so I did— there was an intentionalness to holding that space. I didn't know if it was going to work out that way, but it, you know, and I didn't know when that was going to happen. That's right. But I knew I needed help in leaving, right? Because I knew I needed to leave, but I knew I didn't want to just quit, and I knew I needed help leaving. And that scenario was just, to me, my best way to do it. Right, if that makes sense.

Yeah, well, no, that, that does make sense. And so it goes to part of like, you know, when you say these things— well, oh my goodness, it's, it's so many questions already where I want to go with this. But before I get into that, because I want to talk about the manifesting and the law of attraction, because I'm so drawn into all of that, and 100%, you know, I'm woo-woo, I'm drinking the Kool-Aid, every bit of it, right? And so, but let's backtrack a little bit, you know, because I feel like, you know, you and I have some things in common, like sexuality. There was a period in my life where, you know, I was raised in Louisiana, you know, which is, you know, why we know Nat and Kat. Very religious family. And so brought up Catholic, then I went to Pentecostal when I moved to Texas, then I went to non-denominational, all just Baptist, you know, all those things. And there was, you know, for the majority of my life, it was, oh my goodness, homosexuality is a sin, you're going to hell. So I struggled with that for the majority of my life, Michael. And then, you know, and I have always, you know, identified as a Christian. I've always— and I was like, you know, I'm a good person, how can God not love me? How did you like weave those two together, you know, with your sexuality and your Christianity?

It's really interesting. I, I think, I think it was a real blessing my parents weren't religious. They were traditional, you know, I was raised Catholic, um, and they were traditional, meaning we went to church on Sundays, I went to catechism, we, we did the stuff we were supposed to do, right? Yeah. But they weren't religious in a way. And so in my own way, I feel that was a blessing for me, because when I dove into spirituality, it was my— it was because I— it was from in here. It had nothing to do with parents or upbringing per se. And, and so there was a real blessing for me. I never, I never went through this real big period of God hating me because I loved men. Okay. And there were struggles around God loving me and what is God and the realness of God. And I had a very intense argument once where God and I were fighting. And it was, and it was a clear day of you are fired. Like, I am over you. I'm done with you and you're fired. If the best you got is what I've been experiencing so far in my life, I'm over you. Right? So there was a real firing moment for me with God in this intense heated argument. And I— it was a— it felt like it was a real exchange.

Yeah.

And I was like, I need way more. I need one that helps me here, not like when I die and go somewhere else. It's like, if you can't deal with me here, then what use are you to me? And so, so I wanted more. And, and I remember clearly asking for more. And I remember clearly getting more. And, and that's from there, ended up moving to grad school and ended up in this little town called Victoria, Texas. Oh yeah, to do an internship during my grad— graduate program. And, and lo and behold, in this little town of Victoria, Texas is a little group, and, and they're all in the Unity Church and Science of Mind with Ernest Holmes. And, and, and it's this whole beginning of this whole other world of spirituality that I had no clue about. That kind of began for me. But to come back around to what you were talking about, my sexuality, I can honestly say I just— when I— sorry, multiple thoughts happening at the same time. That's what that looks like. Okay, got it. So one of those thoughts was, I was just real fortunate to not have a lot of that in me that way, from the outer world. And I grew up on a farm, so I went around a bunch of other people. And so there was just this way, it wasn't as much of a struggle for me. And when I wrote Manifesting Our Life with God, one of my— Yeah. One of my intentions in there was I know a lot of folks have struggled with God and the judgment and the, you know, do you love me? And, and the whole story. Well, I did not plan on writing this book, just so you know. I was gonna write, hey, here's like 10 reasons why Law of Attraction doesn't work and what to do about it. That was really my plan.

Okay, okay.

And I, but I, I go into meditation and prayer and then I would let it come and I would write, and this whole story started coming. And so I just kind of kept going with it.

Yeah.

And, and I was like, well, how the hell you want me to weave in this other stuff? I had a whole nother book planned, you know. Right. And, but the, that, that part one of that book was really my hope that that story would help people who have been hurt Heal in some way and know that that version of that God really does not exist and is false. And the immense love for you, like diversity is the plan, right? So, and you can look at nature and just see it everywhere. So it doesn't make any sense that when it came to us, all of a sudden it quits. Right, right. It's like everything around us has to do with diversity and contrast and difference. And so, so for me, that part of the story was, was around helping people to know their, their connectedness to that divine source. And then never once has it ever judged them for any of the stuff they think they are being judged about. Got it. Like sexuality.

Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. So when you talk about, you know, those things down Victoria, Texas, you know, you got you know, kind of integrated in these Unity Church groups and stuff. And that was at the beginning when you realized you were receiving more. Am I correct in saying that? Yeah. Okay. And so in receiving more, how were you able to discern that, oh, time hasn't just passed, I made this happen myself, you know? You know, because some people are like, I do this, I make it happen. How are you able to know that it was more, that it was God, like divine creation and consciousness. How were you able to discern that?

Um, you know, for me, it's just, it's, it's like I'm in the middle of God knows where, right? I didn't know where the hell Victoria was. Yeah, I was like, where the hell am I going? But, you know, I just took it because it was the best internship offer I had. Um, and, and, and then it's just these unfolding of— for me, the divineness was, it was just these synchronicities of you run into somebody and then they know about this and you go check this, you know, and then there was a support group and then I went there and then, hey, we also have this other group, and it's like, so I went there and then they go, you know, and that's where they were studying. There was A Course in Miracles study group in Victoria, Texas, and so that's how A Course in Miracles got introduced to, introduced to me was because I accepted an internship in a town I knew nothing about, right?

Yeah.

And but it was the only one I could afford to do. Okay, so that, that drove my decision. It's like the others were offering me internships, but I was going to go still have to work 40 hours after I did 40 hours with them. And it's like, I can't do that. This one was going to offer me a stipend, a place to live, and my internship. And it's like, well, you win now. Yeah, you know, and now I'm in Victoria, Texas, but then all this stuff starts lining up, you know. It's like, who knew there was A Course in Miracles study group in, in Victoria, you know?

Yeah.

Um, so Dan Mill— Dan Millman, Miller, Way of a Peaceful Warrior. I don't know if you've ever read that book.

I haven't.

I ran across that book, and that was this whole There were just a lot of those in that period of more. I don't know that at the time I connected it to my firing God moment.

Right.

Right. Because I went on with life, right? And grad school and, you know, but it was later that that all kind of came back around for me.

Right. Okay.

Of that moment and wanting more. And I remember another moment of, and I have moments of regret saying this one, but it was like, "And don't you let me off easy because my goal is I really want to know you." I, there's like a, I want this knownness, right? Not this just believe and hope and And so, so I was like, don't, don't let me off easy. And I remember clearly saying that. Right. And then, well, unfortunately, I clearly meant that. But it was like, yeah, I don't know if I should have said that.

Right, right. Wow, that is so crazy. So, Michael, I know that you talk about something that you call God consciousness. Right?

Yeah.

What does that mean, like, to you? And then what does it mean to someone who's not woo?

So the way it kind of evolved, right? So it's my original growing up, God was just an out there figure who knows where, very separate from me. Obviously a moody little bastard. Love you sometimes, judge you other times, you know, like, yeah. Maybe I will, maybe I won't, you know. And it's like, so this, this evolution for me, because it was really my evolution, right, was learning and really coming to know God as consciousness, intelligence, awareness, not a separate being in the sky. And in the book, I gave the analogy of the ocean and the waves. And it's like the ocean is expressing itself as waves. And so from the surface, there's millions of waves and they're all different sizes and shapes. But if you went into the wave, there's really one dynamic, alive ocean that's sourcing all those waves. And so that ocean is like that divine consciousness. Okay. It's expressing, and it expresses here in our world of matter, space, and time, in human form, in nature form, in kind of all form. So for me, we are that divine consciousness expressing itself in a very unique and deliberate expression. One named Michael who has, who has a certain perspective as it lives here, right? One named Travia, you know, Travia Steward, as she does her thing, right? Um, just like there's millions of waves, there's millions of us. Yeah, each one one divine consciousness expressing, um, just like the wave in the ocean can't, can't, can't be separate. No matter how I might feel about it, think about it, be aware, not be aware, there is really no separateness from that divine source that's causing these trillions of cells to do what it does, right? It's like, so like something intelligent enough knows how to take trillions of cells, put them together, and we, you and I, can talk over virtually on Zoom.

So true.

It's like, you know, and so that thing, that awareness, that consciousness, to me is not a being anywhere. It is an awareness. It is a consciousness. It's But when we tend to think, when we tend to think of consciousness and awareness, we're not thinking of it often as alive and aware and living and intelligent. And, um, but for me, my sense, and this is just my sense of what has come to me so far and how I kind of sense this to be, is that Divine Self is being me, but it's also— it still exists outside of time, space, and matter. It still exists outside of our, our world of humanness, if you will. I don't know if that helps explain the answer to that, but that's, uh, the, the ocean wave analogy kind of came when I was writing the book and the story. And it still is my best way of explaining that.

Or yeah, yeah.

Okay. Yeah.

Because I mean, nature, I get that. Because, you know, when we go on vacation, we watch the high tide, we watch the low tide, and we just go, this is amazing. You know, like how all of this stuff works together. You know, I love that. And so consciousness, and so when I think about that, I think about, like, as I take in everything that you just talked about, I think about, like, because I get up and I meditate every morning, and I think about, okay, if I just were still right now, what are the things that's happening? It's so much that's happening in our body and our minds, right? And that all of that, and I feel like being conscious of that, like, I have one, I have a client who he meditates a lot And, and he said, and I, and I asked him to do this mirror exercise at the end of the day with, you know, gratitude and stuff. And he was like, oh my God, he said, I was so conscious to that moment where I could feel like literally like, like, not in a, in a silly sense, but I could feel the air going in and out of my nostrils. And he said, in that moment, it felt cosmically profound. Right? Right. I was just like, whoa, you know, he and I had this moment.

I was like, oh my God, that's incredible.

And I know some people are going, really, girl, you know, I can feel the air breathing in my nose too. Right? But it was different.

Well, yeah, to me, what was different is the, the level, again, because we are divine awareness. And when he brought that level of awareness to something like I'm breathing.

Yeah.

He experienced it from that space.

Absolutely.

Right? Like his truest self was what he was aware of that was breathing. Yes. And that, it's like it's always there. It's really a matter of my level of awareness of it and not in the moment. Right. And the more aware and in the moment I am with it, the more— and I, I will— I like— there's a visceral— like, he had a visceral experience, right? Because that level of awareness has an energy to it that's very different than just this one.

Yeah, it does.

You know, like, so in meditation, when you're letting go of your focus, an external focus there, and you're, you're resting that. You're taking your awareness and you're resting it back like you're the wave and you're coming back to just hanging out and be in the ocean again. Well, that is a whole nother level of consciousness, but it's also a whole nother level of energy. And, and because it's residing here, we've— this— there's a visceral experience we feel. There's surges of energy, there's chills, there's, you know, people describe it different ways, but they feel it. They have a true experience of it.

Right? Oh, I love that. And so thank you for sending me your books. And I've already started using them. As a matter of fact, like when you're saying, and I, you know, I love that you suggested with Divine Dirt, that you sort of, you know, take a breath, you center yourself, get grounded, and then it's like, okay, turn to a section that you're led to turn to. And that's what I used to do with the Bible. And I turned to a page and I was like, oh my goodness, this was just what I needed. It was about the negative thoughts in your mind and all those things. And, you know, do we focus on those things? Which of course led me to Joe Dispenza. And then I did the exact same thing with your book. Right? And so I was like, what is this section that I'm drawn to? And Michael, it's chapter 4, right? Because I want to talk about this, you know. So here is what your emotions and feelings really mean. You in physical form have the ability and free will to focus your intent, your attention on life and perceive it and think about it however you choose, right? That was me. You can think of it and perceive it in ways that align with your inherent God nature, or you can think of it and perceive in ways that do not, or anywhere in between. Your emotions therefore let you know at any moment whether you are aligned with your inherent God nature and to what degree you are allowing it. Holy smokes, that is profound. And I love that, you know, because it's, it's, it's how I know, and it's how I work with my clients to know, yeah, something's wrong, you know, you feel the tension. But you explain it the way Michael works in it and teaches it with his clients.

So Esther Hicks, Teachings of Abraham, yeah, is really one of the first places I ever kind of heard emotions started being like spoken of that way. And I really, you know, something, when something resonates, right, it's, it's, it, it's just, it resonates. And to me, when something resonates, then I'm I'm gonna— I want to know. Okay, let me hone in on that.

Yeah, yeah.

And so, and that was all back in the— I don't know, I've been on the journey spiritually and intentionally since probably '89, '90, so it's been a while. And yeah, um, but the way she explained it just resonated with me, and, and I've come to work with that.. And so I shared that in the book. And it's really— so again, if I'm divine awareness, right, hanging out as you, hanging out as me. So from this perspective as Michael, I really can place it in many different ways. I can focus on many different things. I can focus on many different thoughts, right? But if everything is part of this divine consciousness, as I focus, if I linger my awareness on something. It could be a thought, it could be a situation, it could be the news. Let's just say it's a thought, like you're a big fat loser. Right? You know, but as I linger, my divine awareness, which is what it always is, whether I'm aware of it or not, and I linger it on that thought inside me, hey, you're a big loser. It's like a magnifying glass. If I linger it there, the thought itself is consciousness, it has a vibration, it has an energy, and now I'm focused on it. So it's like I'm, I'm like a laser, a magnifying glass. But if I linger it there long enough, like that pile of leaves will start heating up, right? Like the magnifying glass.

Yeah. Yeah.

If I'm all over the place with my magnifying glass, nothing really catches fire, if you will. But if I linger it, the energy of that gets very activated. And so you're a big fat loser. The energy of that thought, as I linger my consciousness on it, will start getting ignited, if you will. But my feelings will let me know. It's kind of like my feelings to me let me know how to taste it. Mm-hmm. And if it's good for me or not.

Okay.

And what's going to start happening as I linger on a thought like you're a big fat loser, is I'm going to start feeling like shit. Yeah, yeah. And, and I should, right? Because, because the energy of that thought is not aligned with the true nature of Michael. It's not aligned with the true nature of the divine, right? And, and what I'm noticing as I linger on it, it's now activated, so its energy's, let's just say, pulsing. My energy is always activated because I'm divine consciousness, and there's a resonance going on between that and this. But if that resonance registers as a negative feeling, it's really, to me, it's the divine's way of letting me know, hey, in this moment, your awareness, you have it lingered over here. You might not be doing it on purpose, but you kind of are. Yeah. And that thought does not serve you, basically. And it should feel bad because that's my way of letting you know it's not serving you. Right?

Right.

Now you can linger it there for 20 years and it's going to still feel crappy for 20 years because the source of you never goes anywhere but with you, and it's focused with you at the same time. Yeah, as you focus on that thought, the source within you is focused on that thought, and you're going to know constantly it's, it's not a thought that tastes good for you, right? It's absolutely supposed to feel bad, right? Right. Now what we— free will, right? It's like, I can, I can take this divine magnifying glass that I am, right? I could come over here and place it on something else, like, you know, you're of tremendous value, you know, you're enough.

Absolutely.

But the thing is, when I first move it over there, I'm not going to feel a thing. Well, this one has a lot of momentum, right? I've been doing it for years, right? So this one's just, you know, it's got some juice. Yeah, yeah. But this one over here just feels— it doesn't feel true. It doesn't have any juice. But it's only because I'm not lingering on it. If I linger on it, again, it's, it's divine, it's consciousness. I'm divine consciousness. The energy of it will get activated if I linger on it, right? And as I linger on, I am enough, I'll start tasting what that thought feels like. Oh, absolutely. And the feeling will be an improved feeling over the other one.

Yeah, yeah.

So a lot of times with my clients, what, what I, what I, what I'm laughing about is my sister just jumped in my head. She's like, I tried thinking a better thought and it just didn't do anything, you know, kind of thing, right? You know, and it was about somebody she was just really mad at and she had just like, I was like, now how long have you been mad at this person? It's like for years. And it's like, just because you thought one thought improved thought.

Yeah.

You know, that's like a car traveling 100 miles an hour and I'm just going to say, well, stop. And it's like, no, it won't. There's momentum. It will roll you over.

Absolutely.

But I can slow it down. Right. So that's part of what I teach and what I do. A lot of guided meditations. To me, it's like I want all my clients to have an experience. It's like we could talk all day, but if you can have an experience, There we go. Boom. So part of it is, well, how do I journey out of my analytical mind and into that more divine, that, that divine space, right? I learned centering prayer many years ago. I've kind of vamped it a little bit, but it's really, if you use your, your, if you use your ability to sense, don't think. So sense your breath, okay? And sense your breath in your heart center. When you sense something, like if I sensed a person next to me, I'm not really thinking that. I'm truly sensing it. I'm using a different faculty, if you will. Right?

Right.

And so as I sense my breath and I sense it here in this heart center, I sense it breathing in and I sense myself breathing out. What starts happening is I start interrupting my analytical mind. I start if, so if I'm caught up in a negative belief because I've been having my divine magnifying glass on it for years.

Right.

So it is traveling at 100 miles an hour. And I can't just stop it like that. But as I linger and I sense my breath and I sense my heart space, as I sense it, I'll interrupt my thought.. And if I interrupt my thought, I start slowing it down from 100 to maybe 90. If I keep at it, I can go from 90 to 80. If I keep at it, I can go from 80 to 60.

Right.

And if I, if I do a real daily practice, then I really can rewire myself. Yeah. Because as I, as I center more, my neurology will follow suit. My biochemistry will follow suit, my brain will improve, right? So, right. And there's tons of research, you know, that shows the power of meditation. Joe Dispenza does tons of his own research. And, um, anyway, I kind of went somewhere there, but that's okay. That's okay. Bring me back. Bring me back. Bring me back.

Yeah, real Michael back in. Here we go, Michael.

Okay, where are we?

So where I want to go now is you were originally going to write— before you wrote Manifest a better life with God. You're going to write why the law of attraction doesn't work. Is that still your belief?

Well, it, it, the realness is it's always working.

Okay.

But there are reasons we keep getting the same stuff. We can't—

yeah. Can you talk to that?

So, so Manifest a Better Life with God, I talk as everything is consciousness, and it's this conversation with God and I. And one of the things that comes through there is if I want something new out here in my life, and I'm just going to use an example, a simple example. I currently have a really beat-up car. I really want a new car, right? Let's just use a simple example like that. I have to let go of the thing called a car. I'm not dealing with matter, space, and time when I want to shift my world. I got to realize my true nature does not— is not limited by does not truly all exist in this world of matter, space, and time. It's existing here, it's having fun here, it's playing here, it's living here, it's doing a life experience called you, it's been a life experience called me. And as I want to have a new car, what I have to go within is to realize— and this is where visualization— I don't like mind movies, I've tried them, I they don't work for me. But it's all about— it's not about the thing, it's about I have to become Michael who owns a new car. I have to know what that feels like. What does that Michael think like? What is the experience of Michael who has a new car? Because that consciousness, that state of being is so not the same as the Michael who owns the junker and, and wants a new car. Michael who wants a new car, that is a state of being in itself. There's feelings, there's energy, there's consciousness wrapped up in that bubble. The bubble over here that Michael is driving a new car, has a new car, is loving his new car, is enjoying his new car, That is a whole different state of consciousness. It's a whole different state of being. So the work is really, I gotta let go. I gotta become that Michael, right, who can get that car. I gotta become the Mike— no, who has the car. If I'm still in getting mode, I'm still over here. So I'm gonna say this differently, and I'm gonna switch stories. A client of mine came in, she wanted to grow her business. And she uses visualization. She's well familiar with Law of Attraction, Esther Hicks, and all these various people, right? But part of her— I said, well, take me into what you do, like, let's dive in there. And she was sharing with me what she was sort of envisioning. But what she was envisioning is, is attracting business. I said, I said, there's, there's the nuance, and there's the problem. You haven't gone far enough. You haven't gone to the end. In the end, from the end, you are already in that state of business. You are already having those clients. Your clients are already thrilled with you. They love you. They're so excited to tell their friends about you. I said, that's— you're here. You need to come here, and you need to feel and tap into that state of being. Right. Because as long as she was still trying to get more business, she was not in the state of being, of living in a place where I have more business. And as subtle as that sounds, from a consciousness energy state of— it's, it's, it's whether you will or you won't.

Yeah, yeah.

You know, but the beauty was the moment we kind of cleared that up and she was able to envision a client, she was able to like hear that client be so happy with her work and sharing the news. It was really just a— it was a couple of months later, she's like, one of our follow-up calls, she's, all right, I got enough business, I don't need any more business.

Don't say that, girl.

But it was a— it was just a nuance, but it was so significant, right? You know, um, and so To me, when I— for a lot of folks, what I feel they get caught up in is they, they don't realize it, but they're in this place of still wanting something. They're not feeling into the true nature of what it means to have it. Your Divine Self, it's already— it's— it is done from your Divine Self's perspective. So the work is, well, let me join it. I need, I need to linger there. I need to take my little magnifying glass. I need to linger it in that space of me. Like for her, it was with her business, or it's me. I'm already in my car, already own my car. All the details are figured out. Everything's figured out, right? But I need to linger there till I feel it. And so different pieces that people— why visualization doesn't work, or it seems like Law of Attraction doesn't work, is one, I stay in my head. Mm-hmm. Two, I don't feel it consistently. Okay. And third is I'm doing the visualization to make something happen. If I'm doing it to make something happen, that means I'm still in the place if I don't have it.

Got it. Yeah.

And you can't trick the universe. It, it still feels the dominant vibration, the dominant consciousness within you is still, you don't have this, and you're doing visualization to try to get it, right? But your dominant vibration is, I don't have it. So you can visualize for years, you know, and it's like, hey, this stuff just doesn't work.

Yeah. And how do you help people increase that vibrational frequency?

Is that through gratitude?

What's your method?

I really— so I guide people through meditation. I, I go with people in a guided meditation. We— I do a heart-centered meditation first. I want you— you have to get out of your headspace and into your heart space. This is not an analytical game. It's not an analytical— if you're gonna— if you're gonna be in your headspace and visualize just go do something else, right? Just— it's, it's— yeah, yeah, yeah. It's— you got to go to a different state of being, a different state of consciousness. So I guide people into this heart space, into this guided meditation where we leave your analytical mind, we rest in this divine space. And then first, and you will feel the difference. There is a literal— you feel yourself settle, right? I like when you go in meditation, there's a point where you will feel it starting It's, it's shifting. The feeling means I am shifting my consciousness. If I wasn't, I wouldn't feel different, right? Feeling different only because I'm entering into a deeper or different state of consciousness. I'm, I'm honing back in on my divine self.

Got it.

So part one is I do that with my clients. Part two is let's just rest every piece of the struggle you are trying to fix. So you worrying about X, or you worrying about the car, or you worrying about your business and the business itself. Let's just, as we're in this divine space, this heart space, let's rest every single piece of it. You let your hands go, you leave it all alone, right? We're not, we're not dealing with it anymore. You just let that be for now.

Love it.

The energy of your struggle and the energy of your solution are completely different energies. So if I can stop holding on and beating the drum and, and keeping alive my energy of my problem just for a moment, I at least start allowing something different to happen, right? So part one of the meditation I guide people through is come into your heart space Part 2 is less rest, all these things you're trying to fix, right? And then the third, if we do the complete chunk of the process, is I really have— I— so this is a Neville Goddard kind of piece, but it kind of gets over-missed. Neville will always kind of like just hone in on one small act but it could only happen if you were already living from that new state of being. So if it's your car, it's— you could only have that conversation with that friend if you owned and were driving and enjoying the hell out of your new car, right? With my friend with the business, it's like you could only have that conversation with that client if you were already succeeding in your business. But what tends to happen is people— so the trick, stay with that one little nugget. Your mind's going to want to go on all these different places related to this, but it's like taking your magnifying glass and now you keep moving it around, and so really it doesn't heat up the leaves. Yeah, right. And, and it's all related. Like, so if she were Going within, she was still, she was now in that place, like be still and know, right? So there's your simple instructions. First, do the be still part. If you haven't done the be still part, you can't do the know part.

Okay, okay, I get that.

So be still. Once we're still, now let's move into knowing, right?

Right.

Source knows you have a car. Great. Let's— Source knows the version of you driving the car. So what's one small— Neville would talk about what's one conversation you would have? What's one thing you might do that you can only do though from that new state of being? Right. But rest in that moment and keep coming back to it if your mind wants to keep going all over. And the way of it is the why is again, your awareness is divine consciousness. If it keeps moving around, it's not going to ignite really much of anything, right? If I rest it in this one moment and I'm feeling it as a now moment, I'm feeling me in my new car as a now moment. I already own it. I already have bought it. I've already figured all that's been done. All those details my brain keeps wanting to figure out are over.

Yeah.

And so let me rest in this moment. I'm, I'm just sitting and smelling the hell out of this new smell, and I just love it.

Absolutely.

And the trick would be don't go anywhere else. Don't just have that moment and feel like you got to go, well, let me go take it for a drive, and let me go camping, and let me go right now. Now I've got my magnifying— it's all related, but it's still moving it all over, and I'm really not bringing it to life. Got it. Smell, snort that damn thing. Right? Yeah. But so much so that in this moment, in this now moment, it is all that's going on. And what will happen is you will move into a whole different world of feeling and sensation about that, that you've been missing. Perfect. And then the moment you start feeling the strength of that, you kind of know that is what's going to get expressed out here. Got it.

I'm with you.

Because the power of that dominant intent, that dominant experience, is what's going to shift matter, space, and time. Perfect, perfect.

Well, since we are— I feel like we are segueing right into this right now because I know you have like a, a quick 5-minute heart meditation that can improve like your heart, like your brain function, and also help regulate stress, right? Like, like downregulate it. And I know there's probably people on here like, oh, I need that, you know. Is there like a quick version that we could do right now to where somebody could bookmark this, this episode and go, when I need to be less stressed, I'm gonna go and Michael's guiding me in this process right now and I'm going to feel so much better.

Yeah, no, absolutely. One of the— in centering prayer, one of the centering pieces is to use your sacred breath as a way to, when you drift off in thought, come back to that breath. I have a lot of training in Reiki and other energy work, so I purposely focus on the breath, but I bring it into my heart center.

Yeah.

I encourage people just to sense the breath, in and out of the heart.

Can we do it? Can we do it like in like, like 2, 3 minutes?

A quick version? Okay, okay, let's do it.

Okay, I'm with you.

So really, just invite you to just close your eyes. I tend to invite people to place their hands on their heart because it lets you— it helps you focus. And all I want you to do is begin to sense your breath in and your breath out just in a normal way. But I want you to sense that breath in, sense that breath out, but sense it in and out of your heart space. And just a sensing of the breath in and out, but from this heart space. And if you drift off, you go off in a thought, your mind's got something going on, just Sense your breath again and bring your awareness softly back and gently back and sense your heart space. And just keep doing that gently, easily. You don't need to try to make anything happen, just sensing your breath. Sensing your heart space. Now your being, your body, it knows how to breathe when all is well. And I want you to deliberately breathe a breath that equals all is well. But I want you to also sense that in this heart space. I'm breathing a breath of all is well in this heart space and out of this heart space. So just in your own way, take that breath, but that breath will equal all is well. And feel it breathing in your heart space and out of your heart space. Just do a few more of those. Sense the breath. Make it a breath that equals all is well. Your being knows how to breathe that way regardless of anything going on in your world. So just deliberately sense your breath, sense that all is well breath. You go off in thought, come back, sense your breath again. It doesn't matter how many times you need to do that. Once more, just another full breath. That equals all is well. And then you can make your way back.

Thank you for that. Now I'm like, I think we're all drugged up, right?

Well, what helps is when people realize the moment I breathe here and sense here, I start improving the rhythm of my heart. And I start improving the coherence of my heart. And what research shows is 90% of the communication is actually from your heart to your brain and not the other way around. So when we're in states of stress, anxiety, even anger, hate, that kind of stuff, right, affirmation or a positive statement doesn't reach into those primitive parts of the brain. It doesn't know how to shut off my fear and my anger and So I can think a positive thought and still feel crappy below the neck, right?

Right.

But the moment I breathe into my heart space and I start improving the coherence of my heart, my breath and my heart starts sending different signals, and those things can reach into that part of my brain and it can start shutting down that fight-flight response, right? You can start chilling down, chilling out all that. And so it It's a better way. It's a more efficient way than any affirmation ever.

Yeah.

To improve how you feel and get yourself more centered.

Got it. Oh, I love that. Thank you so much for that. So, Michael, as we wrap up, what is— how can people find you? How can—

what is the work?

They're like, what's this dude going to help me with? Right? You know, he's going to help me, you know, gather more abundance in my life. If I want to make, you know, a 6-figure salary this year, can Michael help me with that? How do you help your clients? What is the— what is the result you offer with your coaching, and how can they get some of that?

Sure. So really, the, the, the why people come to me is different, right? Yeah. I mean, I have people who are starting new careers, people who just want to like improve a relationship, or they want it— some of them want to improve, like this client wanted to improve her business and her finances, right? So, so the why varies, but my— what I do is it is a spiritual approach, it is sort of a metaphysical approach, but it is a— my talent is I hone into nuances. Hmm. But I also provide experiences. So in my sessions with coaching, in my workshops I do around my material, around my books and stuff, it's all about an experience. So I do guided meditation with people. I'll customize them. So if you're trying to improve your business, that's the meditation we'll focus on. Right. But it's going to be customized. It'll be guided. We'll talk about what we're doing. We'll hone in on that moment. Um, and really how to bring that to life in the meditation, in the moment. And I'm doing it with you. And what that means is I'm joining that divine consciousness, and I'm also seeing your dream fulfilled. So, so now there's two in the game, and there's a lot of power in that. I even, um, so sorry, I won't go there just yet. So, so a lot of my work is around I want you to have an experience We'll do the meditations. I record those. Your homework is you use the hell out of those. Because again, it's about— it's not about the money. It's about I've got to shift my state of consciousness. And as I do that, I will feel that. And that's what needs to become dominant within me is the new feeling state of the new state of being, of me living from there. Not wanting it, not figuring out how to get it, not figuring out the strategy and the steps to it. I need to go all the way to the end. I'm living it. What the hell does that dude feel like? Right? What does she feel like? And hone in on one moment in time and let's amplify that, the magnifying glass, right? Let's quit moving that sucker all over the place. Yeah. Zero it in. Those leaves catch fire.

Right.

Keep consistently doing that. And I teach, it's a true self-agreement. So it's how to do this work with your eyes open, if you will, and how to journal it, how to do it standing up and record yourself and things like that. Because again, the more I can be that, the world has no— its only option is to express that.

Yeah.

So it's almost like there's a law of expression rather than a law of attraction, because as I, as I become in here the consciousness of me successful in a very felt way, the only option for this world of matter, space, and time is to start mirroring it to me.

Yeah.

And bringing that stuff. And so it looks like attraction, but it's really that new being is getting expressed, right?

So, got it.

Um, so yeah, so, so anyway, createwithconsciousness.com is my website. Divine Dirt is my latest one, but divinedirt.net. I, I just took my photography and I took inspirations from my writings and I created products with it. So you can kind of go and, and get inspirational products. Yeah, so cool. Because to me, words have energy, photos have energy, right? So let's just kind of— why not wear that and use that kind of stuff, right? And then I do, I do a membership every 3 weeks where we actually practice meditation. We practice a lot of what I've been talking about. Um, I do a little one-on-one in those membership moments.

Yeah.

And we do— Lynn McTaggart does a Power of Eight. So we do an ending meditation where we bring in, like, if you're in the membership and you're improving something, we'll go in and kind of like see— the group will go into this heart space and see you with your dream fulfilled.

Oh yeah, yeah.

We'll hold that space as a group for like 5 minutes, 6 minutes and stuff. So we kind of do that as a meditation. So anyway, so I do have a membership as well.

Perfect. And I will have all of those details down at the bottom. Michael, thank you so much. Everybody, you have to— I don't know if this is mirrored for you, if you can read it the way it is, but these are great.

The Abundance Factor— no, we can read them. The Abundance Factor was a chapter I have in a Joe Vitale book.

Yeah.

So the Manifest God for Better Life with God is my own The Vine Dirt is my own, and this is the one that you were talking about. Yeah, open it up. Yeah, more photography. And, um, so yeah, so cool.

Perfect. Michael, thank you so much. I've got to have you back on because I didn't have to ask you half the stuff I wanted to ask, because, you know, you get— you just start talking about all these great things and all these commonalities, because, you know, I think it is possible for people to create abundance and create the highest version of themselves and the life they want to live. And thank you for being an advocate, a worker, a server, a trainer in that realm as well. And thank you for sharing all that you shared with us today.

You're welcome. Hey, and I just was watching a Joe Dispenza webinar recently, and there's a— there's another guy, he's coming out with a new book, and it's called Why WooHoo Works. Okay, I love the title.

Yeah, why woo-hoo? I like Woo-hoo makes me feel good. I know. So there you go.

Thanks a bunch for having me on. And, uh, absolutely.

If you like what you're hearing and perhaps you're interested in having a complimentary conversation with me, click the link at the bottom of the show notes. Thank you so much for listening. If you even want to know more about what I'm up to, head over to traviestewart.com. And if you like seeing the videos of the podcast. Every episode is on my YouTube channel. Take care, guys.