I was first introduced to Marianne Williamson and her book The Law of Divine Compensation: On Work, Money, and Miracles at the first group meeting for Real Life Book Club. Our book club leader, Susannah Campora, warned that while Williamson’s words could be inspiring, her writing about God and prayers might not be everyone’s cup of tea. As a spiritual—but not religious—person, I wondered how I would interpret this type of writing. But, due to the amazing content and Williamson’s clear and friendly writing style, I found myself embracing her words and simply replacing “God” with “universe” to make it more relatable to myself.
This book is a great read—easy to get through and filled with both lovely anecdotes about Williamson’s own experiences and practical stories about her clients’ lives. She breaks down the process of evaluating and developing your own abundance in the following steps:
- Align yourself with love. As you start to understand the Law of Divine Compensation, it is revealed that the universe is set up to work in your favor. As you accept love into your life, you have more access to infinite possibilities from the universe. Williamson writes, “The thinking of the world is simply upside down, with the naturalness of love feeling almost unnatural at times and the unnaturalness of fear feeling natural.” This was a mind blowing moment for me.
- Embrace your faith of the positive. As we all know, our thoughts are incredibly powerful and shape our reality. Whether you are religious or not, your faith can activate or deactivate the Law of Divine Compensation. If we have faith in love and positivity, we activate our abundance and set in motion activities to support our goals.
- Transform your negative sense of self. Have the courage to dig deep and consistently acknowledge and reveal the fears and scripts that you may have been buying into. Fears are limiting and deactivate the Law of Divine Compensation, and painful thoughts that we have arise from over-identifying with the material plane. Be aware that negative thoughts can come from 1) a negative sense of self, 2) anger, and 3) guilt.
- Continue to release anger and see beyond guilt. Anger can be a powerful and helpful emotion, but often our anger is misguided and simply a projection of our own fears and resentments for people and triggers around us. Find the freedom to forgive yourself and others—by forgiving, we do not grant victory to those who wronged us; instead, we surrender the aspect of mind that is blocking divine correction.
- Practice shifting your thoughts and actions from fear to love. This is an incredibly important step, and where I really feel the “meat” of the work comes in. You can be aware of your current state and set your intentions until you’re blue in the face. The real action comes when you are triggered and become aware of the fear and then consciously choose to acknowledge, heal, and persist on. Even if it happens in a split second, it’s still incredibly powerful. I’ve been using The Tapping Solution to help process these feelings in the moment. They even have a specific financial webinar to help accelerate the process and activate your abundance.
- It’s never too late. Any miracle you might have deflected is “held in trust for you until you are ready to receive it.” The universe has an inbuilt insurance policy.
- Remain positive. Williamson writes that there are four rules for miraculous work creation: Be positive. Send Love. Have fun. Kick ass. This is by far my favorite takeaway from the book, and I’ve been using it as a mantra ever since.
As a small business owner, I found this book to be a perfect fit with my busy schedule—it was a great conversation starter for our book club meetings, and Williamson’s beautiful and practical writing was refreshing and inspiring.
Are you looking to take your abundance to the next level? What steps have worked best for you?
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Jenny Wiley is co-owner of an advertising agency in Wichita, Kansas, called Apples & Arrows. She began practicing yoga in 2007 as a way to balance her high-energy job with her grounded essence. She and her husband, Dave, are both active in the Wichita community and love to volunteer and attend local events for yoga, art, and music. Along with their two kiddos, Penny and Orion, their family tribe lives on yoga, love, and whole living. When she’s not at work or on the mat, you can find this Midwest-born girl attending music festivals, making and practicing with hula hoops, and camping and enjoying the Kansas countryside with her family.