The Backwards Law, coined by philosopher Alan Watts, is the belief that often you need to do the opposite of what you believe to get the result you desire. In many situations, struggling and pushing makes the situation worse, where stepping back can improve things.
Alan Watts was a British writer who took Eastern philosophy and translated it for the Western world. He once wrote, “wanting a positive experience is a negative experience; accepting a negative experience is a positive experience”. This was referred to as ‘The Backwards Law’ – the idea that the more you pursue feeling better all the time, the less satisfied you become. Pursuing something reinforces the fact that you lack it in the first place