Oprah, the Law of Attraction and Weight Loss

Oprah Winfrey became the focus of world news again when she hit the scales at 200 pounds as many speculated about what "went wrong" with her. On one teleseminar I heard the course leader say, "Well, she was really into the Law of Attraction and now she attracted 200 lbs. I don't have a problem with New Age stuff, but it seems that they have a lot of things backwards."

A psychiatrist responded: "It shows you that the Law of Attraction isn't everything. If deep down you have self-loathing, you will do things to sabotage yourself. The key to self-loathing is to perform esteemable acts. Then you will feel better about yourself and stop sabotaging yourself." Some people agreed with this philosophy.

Another sharp observer chimed in, "Well if anyone has done esteemable acts it's got to be Oprah. She's done so much for the world with her dedication to make a difference. So how can you say that esteemable acts are the answer?"

Regardless of the cause of Oprah's weigh gain, I'm sure she isn't feeling good about herself, especially since she has been practicing the Law of Attraction and even uses a vision board--one of the techniques of the Law of Attraction. Winfrey said, "I had a dress on the vision board, but I'm not sure that's gonna fit. So I have to work on something else."

I have my own ideas about why Oprah has gained that weight. It may be that in spite of her perceived power, deep down inside she's not feeling all that powerful. From her perspective, she's a woman who has--with her top-rated TV show--tried to make a difference in the world for many years now, and what did she accomplish, really? About two years ago, she helped spread the message of The Secret and the Law of Attraction to almost every living room in this country and what did that do? In 2007 she helped launch Eckhardt Tolle's A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life Purpose, and where are we now? The world appears to be in a bigger mess than ever.

About ten years ago I heard my chiropractor say, "You're most powerful when you're at your lowest weight." This phrase stuck with me and, aside from a few exceptions, I would tend to agree. We eat to comfort ourselves when things aren't going as well as we'd like, we eat when we're feeling powerless about life and don't have clear answers about what to do. I'm sure that Oprah feels she ought to have made a bigger difference in the world and she's not happy about current world circumstances.

But it's not Oprah's job to save the world. Instead, what would make a difference is to give people a bigger picture, higher-level understanding of what exactly is going on here. Clearly, the Law of Attraction as it's understood by the public is both backwards and incomplete.

If people got the bigger picture, there would be a lot less fear and a lot more self confidence about this time that we're going through. For instance, I believe that as the crises facing our own personal lives and our world grow ever more daunting, the opportunities for not only the successful resolution of those problems but for a success that is unprecedented are actually getting better. Especially when you discover that your "higher self" has actually engineered your crisis so that you can get to experience firsthand who you really are. This means that you hold the key to the successful resolution of your crisis within. Knowing how to tap into that is what needs to be taught big time right now. Because once you do, not only do you tap into the key to your success but to your ideal weight as well.

"I didn't follow my own fundamental rule of taking care of self first," Oprah philosophized. Indeed, knowing how to take care of that inner part of you and how to tap into that power within is the key.