How The Law Of Attraction REALLY Works
Tim on July 29th, 2008
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I look around every day and see so many people totally confused about the law of attraction, as mentioned in the movie The Secret As well as heavily mentioned on blogs about personal development such as Steve Pavlina’s and Inspired Money Maker.
The source of the confusion is that of “How does what I think in my mind affect the world around me?” and I think the problem is with how it is explained. The secret honestly over hyped what the law of attraction was and said some things that just aren’t true.
One of those being that you’ll get whatever you think of (like the girl getting the necklace) and the other being “your thoughts will affect your immediate environment”. What they got right was that the law of attraction works. I’ve been using the law of attraction over the past year or two to great success, bringing much more abundance where I’ve needed it and it’s helped me a hell of a lot. However this doesn’t mean you should let it rule your life.
The main theory is that in any one situation you have up to one million different things to focus on, yet your mind can only focus on about 5-7 of these. If you are negatively minded you will probably focus on 5-7 negative things around you, while if you are more of a positive thinker, you’ll notice 5-7 positive things around you. Hence why you can place a positive thinker and a negative thinker in the same room and both will have completely different impressions of that room.
Knowing this we can start to realize that what we focus on the most will appear more and more in our world. If you believe you have a lot of money you’ll start seeing your world tell you that you have a lot of money (such as finding something like: the global rich list). If on the other hand you think you are poor, the world will tell you you are poor (You’ll probably read about a lot of rich people and start comparing yourself and getting jealous).
The problem is this law of attraction has been taken too far and some believe it is simply the cause of everything, which is where the confusion begins.
The belief that you’ll get exactly what you want is the first thing people get confused by. In that they think “How is it possible to get exactly what I want just by thinking about it?” We’ll you can’t. Yes you can get what you want, but not in the way you think. To get the law of attraction to work you have to be open minded about what the universe will bring you.
If you say “I want that iPhone and I want my girlfriend to buy it for me”, there’s a 99% chance it will never happen. Why? Because you weren’t open minded about what you wanted (perhaps there’s something better than the iPhone out there for you?) and Secondly because you weren’t open minded about how you will receive it (the universe could give you an opportunity to work with a guy who will help you start a business which will make you enough money to buy an iPhone).
How does this work? When you start wanting something your subconscious mind will start working on ways to acquire it. Then when you go about your day you’ll start to notice anything that could possibly get you closer to getting that item. If you act on these things popping up you’ll often find yourself with what you desire.
It’s not that the object magically appears in your world with no effort required (as the secret suggests). But by thinking about it you become more attuned to getting that item and soon enough you’ll get it. The thing to remember is that:
You cannot get what you want just by thinking about it
You must want something, but it can’t be one single specific item (like some girl you were checking out), and you can’t focus on only one way to get it. Simply because your mind will create avenues for you to acquire what you want, but it can’t do magic tricks and/or seduce women for you. After you’ve figured out what you want simply focus on things that pop up and tell you “Hey look at me, I could bring you closer to those cool shoes” and go for them. You can also seek out specific advice or research into what you want and perhaps find different avenues to getting what you desire.
It’s also good to keep in mind that perhaps what you want isn’t what’s best for you and the universe is nudging you in a different direction. A common occurrence of this is people wanting to get back with their ex’s. If it’s not working perhaps there is a reason for that and you should probably go for that other girl who’s been trying to get you to notice her for over a year… things like this occur all the time that we just don’t notice because of our tunnel vision. You need to be focussed on your goal, but at the same time, open to the possibility that it could manifest in a multitude of different ways.
The theory of “Your thoughts will affect your immediate environment” is one wrought with skepticism, simply because it sounds silly. Although there are quite a few people who fully believe its true, this is why:
Your thoughts create your immediate environment simply because that’s what you focus on.
Just like when thinking about things you want, your mind will focus in on the things you want to pay most attention to in your immediate environment. Lets take the example of being late for work and getting stuck in horrible traffic (as mentioned on the secret). Whenever you drive to work your time averages out to be pretty much the same plus or minus a few minutes. The reason that you seem to be getting stuck behind slow idiots when you are late is simply because you are focusing on all the slow people on the road. You aren’t making them appear, they have been there every other day of the week, just now you start to notice them because you want them to get the hell off the road.
The law of attraction doesn’t work through magic tricks and wishing for what you want as many people think, but simply that by focusing on what you want your mind becomes attuned to that object and will help you find a multitude of ways to acquire it. Get out there and explore the world keeping what you desire in mind and tell me how many events have entered your reality now that you know they are out there.
Most of all, put the law of attraction into use and start thinking about what you desire, then see the results for yourself. It won’t give you what you want right now, but if you hold the intention to get or do something soon enough you’ll start to see opportunities and with action you can get what you desire.
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