Something About Floors

​“If only you cared a little less about floors, we could have perfect floors” - Jerry Hicks to Esther Hicks.

When I first read the books of Abraham-Hicks, I was transfixed. I loved the way this book series described seeing the world from the other side. I even went to one of their speaking seminars once. They have such a powerful message. If you believe that there is a veil beyond our own, a spirit world or a dimension of pure consciousness, heaven, whatever you may call it, then you may find this post interesting. If not, feel free to move on. 

I certainly consider myself a spiritual being. I believe we choose our human experience. And I believe every one of us has a direct line to the other side. 

When Jerry Hicks uttered these words, the context was something like this: ​

Jerry and Esther Hicks were installing floors, either in their new home or in their new convention center, I can’t remember which - maybe it was both! No matter what, the floors always seemed to cause problems. Again and again, the installation was wrong, the wrong type of flooring arrived, or some other mishap occurred. Both of them were exasperated. I recall them pointing out the irony: they taught people how to manifest pure joy in their lives, yet they couldn't even install a floor without giving themselves a headache.

Jerry: “You really care about floors, don’t you?”

Esther: “I do! I care a lot about floors!”

Jerry: “If only you cared a little less about floors, we could have perfect floors!”

You’ll excuse me if I was unable to find the exact phrasing - Abraham-Hicks has published over 600 books, and I have only read about a dozen of them. 

I may have read this years ago, but the conversation stuck with me. When we want something, I mean really want something, we can end up with an experience of the exact opposite of what we want. Why is this? 

It seems counterintuitive. When you really care about something, you pay extra attention to it, right? You take extra good care of it? Well, yes, but you also become incredibly attached to it. Napoleon Hill, in his famous forerunner book “Think and Grow Rich,” said that having a “burning desire” for something would bring it to you. But I have always found that when I had a “burning desire” for something, I would almost never achieve it! 

I suppose that’s why the Buddhists and Hindus always talk about detachment. The more detached you become from the physical world, the physical things, the physical experience, the happier you will be. They even say to become detached from the happiness you feel from good things, too. This part baffled me for years. If the point is to become truly happy, how is it “wrong” to feel attachment to that happiness?

Jerry Hicks hit that home for me. The things, experiences, and outcomes that we have a certain neutrality towards manifest themselves effortlessly and without delay. Most of the time, we probably don’t even notice. It’s like the talent I have for walking into a room, and computers magically start working again. Whereas other people I know huff and puff about it when technology around them stops functioning the way they want it to. I attribute my success in this area to having a comfortable neutrality toward technology. 

We can create wanted things, and we can create unwanted things. The things or situations we create are neutral in and of themselves; we are the ones who label them as “wanted” or “unwanted”, “good” or “bad”. 

As soon as we start getting invested in the outcome, that’s when problems start occurring. 

It isn’t wrong to feel attachment to anything, as long as we understand that our attachment could be the very thing keeping that thing from us. 

So when Jerry had that conversation with Esther, he didn’t want her to stop supervising the installation of the floors. Or to stop caring how it was done. He wanted her to energetically let go of the attachment she had to the outcome of the installation of the floors. He knew (and so did she) that this was the very thing interfering with their being able to get “perfect floors”.

It was a bit of a pretzel to unfold, but for me it really sank in. It was also comforting to know that even Esther Hicks had a hard time detaching herself from something she really cared about. Because when you really want something, this is almost impossible to do! 

One thing I have had some success with in a situation where I care too much about the outcome of something is to shift my focus. For example, right now, I am very attached to the fact that I really want to sell my house. The house has been on the market for almost four months without a single offer. It is frustrating. I really want to sell this house and move on. This attachment is getting me nowhere. It is also making me feel bad in the process, another obstacle to creating your desired outcome, according to Abraham-Hicks. Shifting my focus from what I can’t do to what I can do can sometimes help me momentarily let go of the attachment and feel better. 

The keyword here is “momentarily”. Sometimes you just can’t shift your focus, or at the very least, you circle back to the nagging desire for a certain outcome. 

Looking at these scenarios from a purely 3rd-dimensional perspective, meaning from a worldly view, Esther had no control over whether she was going to have problems with the installation of her floors. I have no control over the market, the interest rate, or anything else about the timing of our decision to sell. If you don’t believe in anything more between heaven and earth, then you are stuck with dealing with the situations presented to you and choosing different contractors, or a different time to sell. But that makes me feel like a victim of my circumstances, rather than a creator of them. It only gives me physical options to change my circumstances or learn from my experience. Taking into consideration the spiritual, energetic element helps me feel better in the process, and it gives me another option to work on the outcome I want from the inside out.

Whenever I find myself in this pretzel of unwanted circumstances, I always think back to Jerry Hicks and his matter-of-fact way of explaining the spiritual complexity of our experiences. And I feel better.