Quote:
Originally Posted by JMononoetoe  Am I really going to say that it's basically her fault that she's in this mess in the first place?
Of course it's her fault, or rather her responsibility. It's just really hard to grasp that it is you who hurts you, even though it's objectively someone else who's shouting at you all the time. |
Don't confuse fault and responsibility! Argh! (Wow, am I in a mood this morning....)
This is one of the things about LOA/IM/magick/etc. that needs better wording. In almost every book I've read, the authors have treated "subconsciously" and "secretly" as the same. They make it sound like if you fail at something or have some problem, that deep down inside you're secretly grinning and rubbing your hands together like a cartoon villain. "Ha ha, failed again!"
"Secretly" is a conscious state, just one that we're not willing to admit to ourselves. "Subconsciously" is completely unknown to us, it's so far down that we have no idea it's there. Taking responsibility means acknowledging that something inside us has created this situation somehow. All it really is at its core is acknowledging the connection. Fault implies a conscious or semiconscious cause-and-effect situation.
Even taking out fault, it's a hard concept to accept internally, so you've got to jump on the "responsibility is not fault" bandwagon immediately whenever explaining IM. ("I'm going to say the word 'responsibility,' but this is not the same as 'fault,' so let me finish before you draw conclusions.")
Christine Kane's blog has some good explanations of this (and her blog is where I found out about Steve Pavlina's blog, too):
The 6 Snarkiest Misconceptions about the Law of Attraction: #1 | Christine Kane
Your mother might not be ready to hear about IM anyway, especially if she's in a negative state of mind. There may be openings, later on, when you can start to hint that she can change her world.
And now that I've written that: This is something I've been trying to verbalize (graphicize?) for several months on my blog! I'm gonna reprint it there and link back here....