When you are taking action you are in fact hindering the universe to do something

This could happen when we can't seem to feel better no matter how much action we take. But the way you describe your experience, it seems like you do feel better when you take (uninspired) action. You believe that there is sufficient action that can make you happy. So it does.

It's only when we don't believe there is a sufficient amount of action we can take to be happy that it becomes a game that we can't win. So I would say, taking uninspired action now can cause you to take inspired action later. Let me explain.

If we have a strong belief that says that we must take action in order to get what we want then, we have to take action. Because believing that we must take action and not be taking action would otherwise be like slapping ourselves in our face all the time and hoping it to go away when we turn our head a little.

In order to be able to stop ourselves from slapping our face then, we have to take action. It doesn't matter if the action is inspired or not.

Because then we neutralize our self-criticism (as long as we keep taking the required amount of action we consider "sufficient") which causes the self-slapping. And so, like magic, we suddenly stop slapping ourselves when we do take action.

With this immense relief that comes from no longer being slapped, we open up to better feeling thoughts and emotions. And so we are in a neutral state in which inspired emotions and actions can come to us. You see, taking uninspired action can be very beneficial if you believe that there is a way for you to take sufficient action to get what you want.

By the way, this slapping-analogy might sound very weird but this is actually what's going on within us. We do create and choose the rules for pain and pleasure ourselves.

Sounds like Manifesting Experiment 3 could be for you.

IMPORTANT EDIT: To make the analogy above even weirder, I'm adding a video version of the image. You are welcome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qSVb9bQeqM&t=3s

I don't think anyone is advising not taking action. It is just that alignment is primary. In a world where we constantly hear, "Just Do It," this may seem counterintuitive. But Abraham has made the point that procrastination can serve a good purpose. If you don't yet feel like doing something, you aren't aligned with it as yet. You can push yourself through to do something when the inspiration isn't there, but it's more upstream. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcfYZ8VZ-rg

Maybe you are a rare one who is always in alignment and you are always ready to take action. That's great! Go for it. :)

I have given a lot of thought to this, because, until recently, I have experienced a lot of problems with this concept.

Let me explain. Up to a certain point, I was a very normal person, meaning: I lived my life as a feather in the wind, going back and forth towards no destination at all and feeling good about it.

However, at that certain point, I decided to make changes. I read some books that inspired me to believe that I had not acted enough and convinced myself that that was the cause of my not having what I had always dreamed of.

I changed into a very industrious person and started to study like crazy. At that time I thought that all that action would somehow attract what I wanted and manifest my dreams into reality.

I was absolutely convinced of that when I learned about Abraham's Teachings, which I have been studying for nine years so far.

I studied and studied all kinds of things (math, history, languages, literature, whatever, but my real wish was to learn how to play the piano very well, and for that I believed I should turn into a genius - laugh!) and really felt I was becoming smarter (stupid, really!) I don't regret that, because it helped me to understand my life a bit better, so that when I found Abraham's Teachings, I could relate to it in a personal way.

However, I realized I was not getting what I thought I should be getting from my wordly studies. I "took score", which, I know now from experience, is the worst thing a person can do.

During the last five years I could not cope with the fact that I was not getting those results.

I asked myself and the Universe: didn't I "sacrifice" all of that time dedicating myself to the accomplishment of that one goal? Didn't I focus enough? Didn't I wish enough? What is wrong?

Smarter as I thought I was (I wish!), I could not lift the veil from my face and understand what the problem was. I thought that since I have wished, focused and acted in one direction, "by law", I should have become what I had set to become.

It didn't matter that Abraham said all the time that action is not the way into manifesting. I had that fixed idea from the books I had read previously and thought that my action would not get in the way of my wishing and focus - my action could only add to my "positive thinking".

During the last five years I wrestled with the Universe, telling It, every single day, that it was not fair, after years of dilligent study, not to be able to play the piano as some Chopin or Mozart would (I can laugh of that now, but all of us have their crazy fantasies!) That was the "positive thinking" of my later years: since I had focused, wished and acted in that direction, I felt entitled to the result.

It was only two days ago that the light penetrated the veil - it was more like lightning strucking the top of my head, really.

And I thought of this question, because ever since I read it I wanted to contribute, but didn't feel I could, because I have ever believed effort and action was something that should be taken into consideration by the Universe...

But the answer finally came, and it was this: Abraham has always stated that action is not the way into manifestation. I have never heard they saying that the Universe takes action into consideration. This means that my stubborness in not accepting this concept came way before I learned their teachings, it came from books I have read twenty years ago! And those books had such an influence on me that they not only changed my life, which was something good, but also created within me a resistance to accept that I cannot create reality with action, only with thought.

That is not the same as to say that I can create my reality with thought, but if I can add some action it will be a lot better...

No, it isn't better. We create our reality with thoughts and feelings - and it didn't help I believed my action would take me there; my belief in action didn't create that reality to me.

But why is that? The reason, I think, is that the action I took was not action based on pleasure and feeling good, it was action focused on achieving a certain goal. As I understand it now, and I want to try to express it accurately, so that it may help others, the fact is that all action taken with the specific purpose of achieving a certain and definite goal is more likely a way of killing the manifestation of that goal.

So, action, per se, even those tasks of a boring nature, things that we have to do in everyday-life, is not the issue Abraham is talking about - as I understand it now. You can do whatever you love to do every minute of every day of your life, or you can do what you hate to do - it doesn't really matter - although it's best when you love it :) What is really getting in the way of manifestation are those actions that we force ourselves to take because we think they are key to manifest that determined goal we want manifested.

So, I can throw all my years of study in the garbage can together with my exercise books and start all over again, from scratch, learning how to derive real pleasure of playing the piano - as, I am sure, from their biographies, such people as Mozart and Chopin did as children (their adult lives are some different matter).

I hope this personal thoughts and experiences help people in search of an answer to this paradoxical question. The answer to me seems to be that the less your action has to do with the goal you want to manifest, the better. And I think Bashar has touched that point, saying that we should act on our highest excitement even when it has nothing to do with what we want to manifest - I can understand it clearly now.

It would work like this: do A, or B, or C (action) because either you love it or because you have to. Don't do A because you want to get some B result.

People are free to object :)

I've just found this! Exactly what I was trying to say...

Amazing how we do attract things when we are aligned with them!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HFRPrWZCgk