Coué explains this idea in the fourth experiment in his book.

Try this one out for yourself.

Close your hands into a fist and squeeze very tightly.

Keep squeezing until your hands start to tremble a little bit.

As you squeeze, repeat to yourself, “I cannot do it…I cannot…, etc.”

Do this for a few seconds until the phrase keeps repeating in your mind.

Try opening your hands while repeating the phrase.

You will notice that you can’t open your hands.

You can open them only if you stop saying the phrase.

This is an example of imagination dominating will. (Imagination is simply another word for subconscious.)

When you say, “I cannot, I cannot”, you are programming the subconscious to hold your fist tight.

It’s following a command, and the conscious mind can’t do anything to override it.

Only after you stop saying the affirmation can the subconscious let go and restore control to the conscious mind.

Alan Watts Explains The Law of Reversed Effort  – The Backwards Law

“I have always been fascinated by The Law of Reversed Effort. Sometimes I call it the “backwards law.” When you try to stay on the surface of the water, you sink; but when you try to sink, you float. When you hold your breath, you lose it—which immediately calls to mind an ancient and much neglected saying, “Whosoever would save his soul shall lose it.”

Alan Watts was a Zen philosopher who taught many Eastern concepts to a Western audience. 

His interpretation of The Law of Reversed Effort is more universal.

Watts shows us that when we try too hard to control our lives, we inevitably ruin our experiences of it.

Try to hold your breath for too long and you will perish.

The idea is inspired by the Daoist philosophy which promotes the idea of ‘Wu Wei’.

Wu Wei translated from Chinese means ‘effortless action’. 

This is a state of flowing through life whilst keeping your attention on the present moment.

When we do this we are one with the Dao.

In one of his lectures, Alan Watts explained The Backwards Law through the example of playing an instrument.

“If you force the learning of technique or force the performance of it, everyone will hear it and you will hear the forcing of it yourself – it will be unmusical.  So you have to address yourself to the playing of an instrument without hurry and never never force anything. You will find there is a point then where the instrument seems to play itself.”

All great musical artists understand the power of letting go.

Musicians and artists throughout history have explained how they are simply a vessel through which the music is expressed.

Many artists have talked about how songs write themselves or simply come to them.

When the conscious mind moves out of the way, the muse can talk directly to the subconscious and magic will happen.

Aldous Huxley – The Law of Reversed Effort for Creative Work

Aldous Huxley popularized and is believed to have coined the term ‘The Law of Reversed Effort’.

He explains it beautifully in the following quote.

“There is a Law of Reversed Effort. The harder we try with the conscious will to do something, the less we shall succeed. Proficiency and the results of proficiency come only to those who have learned the paradoxical art of doing and not doing, or combining relaxation with activity, of letting go as a person in order that the immanent and transcendent Unknown Quantity may take hold. We cannot make ourselves understand; the most we can do is to foster a state of mind, in which understanding may come to us.”

Aldous Huxley famously wrote one of the most popular works of fiction, the book ‘Brave New World’.

The book tells a story of a dystopian world where humans are divided by class.

What many don’t know about Huxley is that he was a psychonaut, an avid user of psychedelic drugs as means of exploring consciousness.

He chased altered states of consciousness which likely helped him in his creative work.

His conception of The Law of Reversed Effort might have been influenced by his transcendent experiences.

The ‘Transcendent Unknown Quantity’ might be what Charles Haanel referred to as ‘The Universal Mind’.

The Universal Mind is a source of unrealized potential where all geniuses get their ideas.

When we stop pushing so hard with the conscious mind the creative breakthroughs come to us.

According to author Robert Greene, this is what supposedly happened to Albert Einstein when working on his theory of relativity.

“After ten long years of incessant thinking on the problem of general relativity, Albert Einstein decided one evening to simply give up. He had had enough. It was beyond him. He went to bed early, and when he awoke the solution suddenly came to him.”

— Robert Greene (Mastery)

Einstein, like many great geniuses, learned the art of balance between doing and not doing.

When he worked, he would dedicate all of his energy to solving problems.

When he rested, he took his mind off work.

He was known for playing the violin, taking long walks and sleeping for many hours every night.

Einstein’s use of the subconscious mind was enhanced by an understanding of The Law of Reversed Effort.

Neville Goddard Explains The Law of Reversed Effort  

“People fail because they are unaware of a law known to psychologists today as ‘the law of reverse effort’. When you assume the feeling of your wish fulfilled it is with a minimum of effort. If there is effort in the control, and you are compelling it in a certain way you are not going to get the results. You will get the opposite results.”

— Neville Goddard

The mystic teacher Neville Goddard was a fan of The Law of Reversed Effort.

He encouraged his students to use it when they were ‘assuming the wish fulfilled’.

This technique involved students using their imagination to see the end result of the thing they were trying to manifest.

So if a student wanted to sell their business, they might imagine signing the contract with a buyer and shaking the buyer’s hand.

Neville suggested that this visualization be done without effort.

The less effort, the easier it would be for the subconscious mind to accept the scenario.

Once the subconscious mind has accepted the idea, it will influence the student until they have realized their goal.

How To Use The Law of Reversed Effort  

1. Let Go

Whenever you feel stuck and are not getting the results you would like from conscious exertion, let go.

Letting go and relaxing will allow you to shift focus from your conscious to your subconscious mind.

When this is done the answers you are seeking will come to you.

Rotate periods of work and rest like Einstein if you wish to get the best results.

Simply waiting for things to work out without ever putting in any conscious mind work will not result in success.

It’s an intricate balance but the rewards are immense.

2. Use Inversion

We know that focusing on the conscious lowers the subconscious. We also know that while stuck in subconscious regions of the mind, our conscious mind takes a backseat.

We can use this principle to break bad habits.

What we call habits are merely subconscious programs, so to remove the program you need to shift to the conscious mind.

Let’s say you have a habit of overeating.

On a typical day, you turn the TV on and begin to binge eat.

Instead of doing this, eat mindfully and put all of your conscious attention on every bite.

You will quickly find that you get fuller quicker and will be less likely to binge.

Removing habits is all about applying conscious effort to create new programs.

This is easily understood through The Law of Reversed Effort.

Do this, and you will be one step closer to living and dying well.