Oprah and The Secret

Here I go again.  I feel so passionately about this topic, I'm writing about it twice in one week! 

I wrote my opinion of The Secret just a couple days ago.  Now, I've just been told that Oprah's talk show tomorrow (Feb. 8) will focus on The Secret. 

I just popped on over to her web site to read what readers there are posting about The Secret and it appears that my views about The Secret as a slick marketing strategy that misses the boat by not addressing service and roll-up-your-sleeves, stick-to-it work and are in the minority. 

I'm crossing my fingers that Oprah does justice to the subject by emphasizing that just because we want something, we're not automatically entitled to it.  I am curious to hear what Oprah's viewers' opinions will be, but alas, I won't be able to watch it because I'll be out in the real world working to attract shortbread customers.  Hopefully I'll be doing some good in the world by tithing some of my earnings and time along the way.

When I taught childbirth classes years ago, students often would come to me and say, "When are you going to teach us how to breathe?"  I'd respond, "You already know how to breathe." 

My intention for my students was that they explore how their beliefs about pain affected their experience of pain.  There's no denying that childbirth hurts.  And there's no denying that what you get is well worth riding the pain and trusting the process and believing in the innate wisdom women's bodies possess without ever reading a book or watching a movie about childbirth. 

I believe we are doing our youth a huge disservice by teaching that the kind of attracting The Secret embraces "should" be effortless, just as we do laboring mothers a disservice by teaching them that they can avoid pain by breathing "correctly".   When we market "secret" techniques to life, we're merely setting people up to feel that they've failed when they experience childbirth...or life...in a way that doesn't always feel good.   It's irresponsible. 

Yeah, maybe work, life, and labor feel effortless when you're passionately engaged, but work is work and pain is pain.  It's part of being human.  Of course, the other unique and cool thing about being human is that we are free to choose how we experience pain.   THAT'S The Secret we should be teaching.   

The Secret's message is inherently good, but like Lamaze breathing for childbirth, it sets us up with the unrealistic belief that if unpleasant things happen to us, we somehow "attracted" them by not breathing or thinking correctly.    

I maintain that the secret of The Secret is nothing more than brilliant marketing.   

   

Comments

[Ellen Schultz]

Thank you so much for expressing your opinion. I agree with you about The Secret. When I first saw two Larry King Live shows about it I ordered the movie. After viewing it, I felt a bit annoyed with Larry King and now I'm even more annoyed with Oprah. I love Oprah, but she has some blindspots. She does tend to get swept away by things and people that are popular. That's okay. She's wonderful in other ways.
For me, everything about The Secret could be summed up by calling it "The Big Hype." I congratulate the woman who put this thing together because she's a marketing genius.

[Lana]

Hi Ann,
You're not alone! I can't seem to give this topic a rest. After a few more posts, I hope I can put it out to pasture. :-)

http://www.you-unplugged.com/blog/

Sidenote: I have a background in technical communication as well; left brain and right brain get equal time.