February 28, 2007

The Top 3 Law of Attraction Secrets - Especially for Non-believers

Well, if we were in the movie “Wayne’s World” I guess the appropriate phrase at this point would be…

GAME ON!

Now that the Law of Attraction concepts have hit the mainstream, both the believers as well as the non-believers are coming out of the wood work.

A search on Google for the term “law of attraction” brought back well over 2 million websites, although it also won’t take you long to find plenty of people who who think it’s all a bunch of nonsense. Check here, here, and here if you would like some examples.

Now, any regular readers of this blog know my views on this whole concept, and this post is not meant to discuss my personal ideals, but rather to plug some of these concepts into a typical life scenario to see if they actually hold water.

To that end, I picked 3 specific practices that are commonly used by the LOA believers, who also call themselves “deliberate creators” since they believe that via these practices they can literally create their existence here on planet Earth.

So, whether you are a believer or a skeptic, if you truly feel that your point of view is the correct one, then you shouldn’t mind a little bit of close scrutiny to see if these concepts are worth considering.

If they are, then here are 3 possible ways to use them. If they are not worth considering, then you now have 3 great examples of the uselessness of these tools that you can use in your on-going crusade to debunk this whole affair. Here we go…

Visualization

One of the primary weapons of mass abundance that the teachers from the movie ‘The Secret’ endorse using in order to invoke the law of attraction is visualization. In fact, Joe Vitale goes even further to say that you should use “holographic visualization” which is basically the art of both mentally and emotionally putting yourself inside your vision of success. You experience those moments so precisely in your mind that it seems that you are actually there.

Proponents - From a believer’s standpoint, this type of visualization will send actual vibrations out from the visualizer into the Universe, and will in turn attract similar vibrations. Done consistently over the course of time with a high level of emotion and belief, and the vibrations will all coalesce into a series of circumstances, people, events, or inspired actions that will eventually lead to the visualizer actually being in the situation that they visualized.

Opponents - People who do not believe in this concept simply say that there is no scientific basis for this idea, and that there is no way to prove that doing this will be anything other than a complete waste of time. They believe that if you want to have an experience in your life, you need to take whatever action is needed in order to marshal the resources that will allow you to have that experience.

The Benefit for Non-Believers - Believers in the LOA do not need any further convincing of the validity of this practice. However, for non-believers, the act of visualizing has one very, very important side effect that has nothing to do with the Law of Attraction, and that benefit is FOCUS.

Even if you do not believe that some magic genie is ripping around town on a magic carpet finding ways to turn your daydreams into reality, any reasonable and logical person will agree that staying focused intensely and consistently over the course of time on any particular goal will bring about positive steps toward that goal.

Those steps may come in the form of financial or career maneuvers that will lead to the goal, or they may come in the form of the simple ability to keep from getting distracted by things that would normally take the person off track. Taking your eyes off the prize runs the risk of delaying or preventing the attainment of whatever it is that is being focused on.

A simple example of this is weight loss. It is a common belief that if you eat a lot of junk food, you will not have a body like a super model. If your goal is to have a body like that, and you consistently visualize yourself having that body, it is going to be very difficult for you to believe that scarfing down an entire pepperoni pizza all by yourself is a good idea.

Will your weight loss be “magic” or will it be a result of you continually taking part in healthy exercise and eating habits as a result of having a super model picture of yourself that is playing over and over again in your head? Well, once you have that super model body, who cares HOW it actually happened?

Affirmations

Affirmations come in many shapes and sizes, but in a nutshell, it is the act of writing down what you want to have in your life, and then repeatedly saying it either out loud or in your head for the purpose of changing your mental point of view regarding those desires.

Proponents - Believers in the power of affirmation basically think that by continually repeating something to oneself, that thing will eventually become a reality. Where the LOA comes into this part of the equation is that the common belief behind conscious creation is that the vibrations that are sent out into the Universe are acted upon in order to bring our goals into existence. However, as most people carry around years worth of self-limiting beliefs, the only vibrations they are sending out are those of NOT having whatever it is that they want. By consistently practicing affirmations, the vibration is changed to one of confidence and belief, thus attracting the object of desire.

Opponents - Non-believers in affirmations once again cite the fact that there is no evidence to support the belief that anything less than taking action will bring about goal attainment. They may even go so far as to say that by repeatedly talking about something that you don’t have will actually only serve to make you even more convinced that you’ll never have it.

The Benefit for Non-Believers - By repeatedly affirming that you want something, you assign the task of finding a way to bring that thing into your existence to your brain and your subconscious mind. In order to do this, though, you must ask for solutions, not affirm non-existent realities. For example:

“I am independently wealthy and I never have to work another day in my life.”

vs.

“How can I create a situation that makes me independently wealthy so that I never have to work another day in my life?”

The first example stated something that wasn’t true, and by continually saying that statement over and over again, you may not activate the amazing power of your subconscious mind in order to help find a solution.

However, by continually asking yourself that question over and over again, your mind will be constantly looking for a solution as you go about your day to day business. Eventually - maybe sooner or maybe later - you will get slapped in the face with a great idea or the beginnings of a plan of action that will lead you to that life of riches and relaxation.

Positive attitude

This is probably the oldest and most well-known tool that is in the bag of tricks that believers in the LOA carry around with them. Long before today’s gurus were touting the power of positive thought, yesterdays authors and visionaries were extolling the benefits of this practice.

Proponents - People who believe they can activate the Law of Attraction by living in a constantly positive state of mind will once again point to the power of their vibrations as the catalyst for attaining their desires. By staying in a constant positively-charged state of mind, they also maintain a constant positively-charged emotional state. In so doing, they will only attract vibrations that are in resonance with theirs, thus attracting “fuel” that will drive their machines of success. That fuel may come in the form of intense coincidences that are in line with their desires, or they may take the form of opportunities or circumstances that will eventually bring forth their dreams.

Opponents - Non-believers in the power of positive thinking will say that just thinking about good things will do absolutely nothing to bring those things into your existence. They will point out the fact that everyone wants health, wealth, and happiness, so if just thinking good thoughts about those things was the key to having them, everyone would already be living happily ever after.

The Benefit for Non-Believers - Having a positive mental attitude is something that can - and does - benefit everyone. Even if you don’t believe that your positive state of mind will help you to actually attract good things into your life, at a bare minimum, keeping a good attitude will help you to enjoy life more.

This could fall under the umbrella of what people call “managing their expectations” or it could simply be called being “mentally prepared” for any given situation.

For example, if your job is lame, and you know that it is lame, you can’t simply “think” yourself out of having to go there. However, by setting your mental set point to one of being prepared for the experience, you will help yourself to not be as miserable as you otherwise would be. On the other hand, if you just sit around thinking about how bad your job is, there is no way that you are going to see anything but how bad your job is when you get there.

Another example is finances. You could sit around thinking about how much you don’t enjoy watching prime time on your 19″ television with bad reception because you can’t afford cable and a big flat-screen TV, or you could turn the situation around to actually be glad that you have that opportunity. In order to do so, just consider how bad it would be if you couldn’t even afford your own home or apartment, or if your electricity had been turned off because you couldn’t pay the bill.

You can apply that same formula to any situation in your life in order to receive the benefit of positive thinking. By simply taking on the habits of mentally preparing yourself for a potentially negative situation, or by showing gratitude for the fact that things aren’t worse (and they always could be), you will slowly but surely pick up the habit of being happy about situations that in the past made you miserable.

Who Wins?

Now that you have seen some common ways that the LOA is used by people to “magically” manifest the lives that they want, you should also see that there is really no magic to it. The same practices that the believers are using to bring success into their lives will help non-believers to improve their quality of life as well.

Also, there are 3 potential benefits that a non-believer gets from this whole process:

  1. All of this is completely free of charge. You don’t have to spend a dime to visualize, affirm, or to keep a positive attitude.
  2. Each of the practices that were discussed will have a positive impact on your life, even if you are just using your copy of ‘The Secret’ as a coaster or a Frisbee
  3. What if it works? What if the Law of Attraction actually works, and you stumble upon that truth by practicing LOA techniques, even from a non-believers standpoint?

After all, not only are these techniques free, but no one even has to know that you are doing them. How cool would it be to achieve some amazing success in your life without having to admit to anyone - even yourself - that you ever considered whether or not the magic actually works?

Something to think about…..

4 comments:

Veronica Stowe said...

Excellent layout of the Law of attraction. I have to admit when I first heard of it I was really not following it- Just the thought of anything that I could manifest by myself was truly impossible and I really and truly believed that we already had our lives planned out for us so why change it? I now know that this was a misconceived idea and that we CAN change things and that if we look at it like a big monopoly board- we have the
CHOICES in our lives that we make everyday and from those choices and thoughts and actions becomes our life- so you either win or lose the monopoly game- but when we are playing, we all play to win- so why don't we do that in our own lives- because we only live once!
Thanks for all your great information.

Veronica
http://doesthesecretwork.blogspot.com/

Aaron said...

Thanks, Veronica! You hit the nail on the head when you talked about how the choices that we make everyday end up defining our lives. It seems simplistic to say it that way, but it really IS simple!

Even if someone doesn't believe in the Law of Attraction, they can't deny that a life filled with negativity and bad decisions will not be as enjoyable and fulfilling as one that is filled with a great attitude and a defined and consistent goal to work towards!

Marcia, Your Confidence Coach said...

i like the idea of writing something down. that can definitely give you clarity and focus.
your thoughts do have power over you.

Aaron said...

I write down EVERYTHING, Marcia! Especially in today's hustle and bustle world, even the best idea or inspired action can get lost in the shuffle if you don't stay focused on it.

I use a program called EverNote on my computer that let's me record everything from minor reminders up through formatted text and hyperlinks. I loop at that program several times every HOUR.