Manifesting with the Law of Attraction

The Law of Attraction has been the subject of debates between the believers & the skeptics. Some people wouldn’t even call it a law. However, The Secret which is a documentary about the law of attraction, has gained worldwide fame and has become an immense business success. The owner of this site is a firm believer of the law of attraction & manifesting through her own experiences for 10 years now.

Simply put, the law of attraction states “what is within, is without”. That which is contained within your mind can be materialized in your outward reality. You attract whatever you focused your mind on or whatever you accept & believe with certainty.

For many centuries now the law of attraction has been used by successful men & women along with action. Long before The Secret came, there were already numerous books written about it. Even so much better than The Secret. Two of the most famous and the probably the most exploited in the internet’s law of attraction niche are the Science of Getting Rich & As A Man Thinketh.

The law of attraction is an application of the power of the subconscious mind and mind power phenomenons. The law of attraction has also been the basis for many spiritual practices, like magick spells, feng shui, neuro-linguistic programming & positive thinking.

On the downside, the law of attraction works even if your thoughts are negative & will not benefit you. For this reason, the law of attraction gave rise to the idea of deliberate creation or conscious creation. You own the power to control the situations in your life by changing the quality of your own thoughts through mind control.

For me, the first ingredient to successfully use the law of attraction is a good self-concept. Self-concept is your perception of yourself or your understanding or knowledge of yourself. Why? A poor self-concept can lead to low self-esteem. The law of attraction requires faith in the unknown and in your power to consciously change your life for the better. The law of attraction will not take the time to work for you (in a beneficial way) if you do not believe it could, and worst if you do not believe that you DESERVE what you trying to attract.

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(c) 2007-2008 J. Ang. Some rights reserved. Maybe copied & distributed freely but the resource box of the author must be published. No alterations to the article content, resource box & links are allowed. All links must be correct, functional & must point to the author’s site.

J. Ang is the owner of Law of Attraction blog and the publisher of iManifest iMeditate Ezine. Get free ebooks when you subscribe.

These days my happiness quotient feels like it’s sailing off the charts. Maybe it seems I’m always rather cheerful. Trust me, I’ve ridden my share of emotional roller coasters. I’ve prided myself in being “very human,” which — in my mind — meant feeling every human emotion. But, maybe my husband is right. Maybe HAPPINESS IS the default state. Maybe if all resistance is simply removed from life, happiness naturally emerges. Somehow, it seems to be flowing steadily into my life.

So why AM I so deliriously happy? Great question. This is the very question I was asking myself last week. What is different? There are several distinct elements which have come together. I imagine if you focused on these elements…you’d be deliriously happy too.

1. Weekly Check-ups. For my Success and Inner Peace Bootcamps, I recently created a weekly preparation form, supporting participants to integrate key elements of the program. Participants share progress toward top goals, and elements relating to “inner peace.” After seeing participants share for several weeks, I committed to completing the form too… and now send it to the group each week.

There is something profound about reporting your life to another, whether to a coach or group. This is where the happiness started to swell for me.

Some of my favorite questions on the Bootcamp Prep Form include:

* What has contributed to my sense of “inner peace” over the last week?

* What “inner peace culprits” interrupted my connection? How could I eliminate this “inner peace culprit?”

* How have I responded to Spirit over the last week?

* What new distinctions, realizations or insights have occurred to me over the past week?

* Where is my next opportunity for a breakthrough? (i.e. shifting a limiting belief, etc.)

2. Daily Gratitude. This isn’t a new concept. However, putting it CONSISTENTLY into practice IS new, at least for me.
At the Mega-Book Marketing conference in March, I heard Jack Canfield speak about the “gratitude rituals” of featured speakers in The Secret. Apparently, each morning before Rhonda Byrne gets out of bed, she connects with feelings of “gratitude” until a tear comes to her eye. When James Ray gets out of bed in the morning, as his right foot touches the floor, he says “thank.” As his left foot touches the floor, he says, “you.” And, all the way to the bathroom, he says, “thank,” “you,” “thank,” “you”, “thank,” “you”. Jack writes several “gratitudes” in his journal each morning before he gets up. I also know Oprah has been flexing the “gratitude” muscle for years. She writes down at least five things she’s grateful for at the end of each day. Hmmmm.

In my book, The Power of Inner Choice, and in my Bootcamps, I talk about the importance of keeping your energy vibration high. One of the most effective is through “daily gratitude.” I haven’t always been consistent. But, I got inspired. And, the Bootcamp Prep Form asks, “What Daily Ritual(s) did I thoroughly enjoy this past week? And, “What Daily Ritual would I like to give special attention to over the coming week?”

At the end of EACH day, I go to a Word document in my computer called “Gratitudes.doc” I type in my “gratitudes,” which for me, also includes the big and little successes of the day. Completing the day on a high note of appreciation is amazing. And, it’s much harder to forget the good stuff pouring in when you’re writing it down each day. The compounding effect of this simple choice each day has contributed significantly to my happiness. And, it seems to be attracting more and more items to include on my ever-expanding gratitude list.

If you like to journal, you may want to pick up the 365 Days of Gratitude journal by Sherrie Austin. On her website you may also sign-up for a “daily dose of gratitude”. (She’s also a Bootcamp participant!)

3. Focus on your STRENGTHS. One of my coaches Ken Abrams, MCC, was raving about Marcus Buckingham’s latest book “Go Put Your Strengths To Work.” Next to this book was “Strengths Finder 2.0″ I bought both. Like many people, I’ve put A LOT of attention on my areas for improvement, and glossed over the strengths. Wouldn’t it be egocentric to focus on your strengths? As silly as it sounds, it didn’t seem obvious to me what my “strengths” were. Thank goodness for Strengths Finder 2.0. Seriously.

At the back of Strengths Finder 2.0 is a code, allowing you to take an assessment online. There are 34 strength categories; they call “themes.” The test reveals your top five themes. It turns out my top five strength categories are:

1) Connectedness. Hopefully, you feel my authentic “warm and fuzzies” beaming at you through this email. Those with “connectedness” as a strength have faith in the links between all things. We believe there are few coincidences and that almost every event has a reason.

2) Input. This means I like to take in and archive LOTS of information and input. That fits. I love gathering mass amounts of information to empower and enlighten. I love hearing about people’s lives. And, ask my husband, I love “talky-talk” time.

3) Futuristic. As much as I teach “living in the present,” I am inspired by the future, and love to inspire others with their visions of the future.

4) Relator. Hmmm. This one fit too. Those with the Relator theme enjoy close relationships, and find deep satisfaction in working hard with friends (or clients) to achieve a goal.

5) Ideation. I never recognized myself as a big idea person; although it’s true…I’m fascinated by ideas. (Look at me go on strengths!). Our strength is finding connections between seemingly disparate phenomena. And, I guess creating my new program “Conversations with the Masters of Coaching” reflects that strength.

I’ve found, focusing on strengths allows me to own them on a deeper level. Life feels easier. I feel even more authentic. It’s certainly one of the key elements which has boosted my happiness factor. Funny how we can resist our strengths. I’m also recognizing and owning other strengths (why own just five?).

4. Grounding in Stillness. A few weeks ago, my husband and I attended Adyashanti’s Five Day Silent Meditation Retreat. I’ve NEVER been a big meditator. It’s actually been my intention to meditate as a “daily ritual” — for well over a decade. However, spending five full days in silence with Adyashanti is a great way to kick-start a meditation practice. It was for me.

There were six 30-40 minute meditations and two satsangs each day. At the satsangs, Adya spoke, and then answered questions from the group. The focus was simply to relax into the silence and stillness, without resisting any thoughts. Since my life is typically rather intense, I was ecstatic to turn my brain off for several days. I left in a rather dreamy, peaceful state.

Once home, impulses would call me to meditate, which was a bit surprising at first. However, I’ve come to realize that “grounding in silence” is one of my keys to happiness.

Several days after the retreat, I was on a training call where I was inundated with information. I got off the call, and instantly wanted to go meditate. But, I didn’t. I continued to work and work through the end of the day. Finally, before going for a walk with my husband, I said, “I must meditate first.” Fifteen minutes of silence and stillness, and my profound happiness returned. Now when I finish a long series of coaching calls or hop off of an intense training, I claim 10-20 minutes of silence. From this “connected space,” happiness naturally emerges.

5. Honor Your Spirit’s Guidance. How have I responded to Spirit over the last week? Being attuned to my “inner voice” AND responding to it is another key to profound happiness for me. By honoring our “inner guidance” consistently, a natural rhythm emerges. My intellect believes it knows what my best path is. However, the “real me” knows better. I’ve learned to listen for it, trust it, and respond accordingly. My recent website launch, new Conversations with the Masters of Coaching, inspiration to take the Strengths Finder 2.0 assessment, and impulses to meditate are all a result of honoring my Spirit’s Guidance.

By the way, it’s easier to recognize this voice when your grounded in gratitude, stillness, your strengths, and you report in once a week about “How you’ve been honoring your Spirit.”

6. Intention. I remember reacting to my husband early in our relationship. I was upset. “You want me to be happy ALL the time! You want me to be like Elizabeth.” (Elizabeth is the friend who introduced us, and she seems happy all of the time).” In my mind, this wasn’t realistic. My reality was ups and downs. How could he expect me to be happy ALL the time?

Fortunately, I investigated this assumption more objectively. Hmmmm. “John wants me to be happy all the time.” That’s rather sweet. If I’m not all busy reacting to this thought “He wants me to be happy all the time,” maybe I would appreciate that he cares about my happiness. I turned the statement around,
“I want me to be happy all the time.” At the core of my being, this IS true. I hadn’t really thought about this possibility. Somehow, this idea stuck in my subconscious mind. An intention was born.

I actually forgot about this mini-realization until I began writing this article. Just creating the possibility of “being happy all the time” sets intention in motion.

7. And EVERYTHING. I could go on and on about other elements contributing to my happiness (but this is getting a bit long!). When you’re profoundly happy, it seems that EVERYTHING is adding to it. Some of the other biggies include laughter, living squarely in the present moment, aligning with reality (however it unfolds), being silly, snuggling on the couch, watching sunsets, daily walks, reading inspiring books, staying at choice and being surrounded by people you love.

One of the biggest bonuses of being profoundly happy is seeing the look on my husband’s face as he witnesses my happiness. I’m not faking it. Nor am I “trying” to be happy to please him. It’s the natural result of intention + responding to spirit + grounding in stillness + focusing on strengths + gratitude + weekly check-ins. It’s the natural result of dropping all resistance to life.

Maybe next month will be different. But, for now I wouldn’t trade any of these elements from my life. Maybe they’ll work for you too. Enjoy!

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Mary Allen, CPCC, MCC is author of The Power of Inner Choice. She hosts Conversations with the Masters interviewing best-selling authors via free, live conference calls. Visit www.lifecoachmary.com to learn about coaching, her popular year-long Success and Inner Peace Bootcamp and tap into a wealth of resources including her ezine SoulFULLY Living, and Your Daily Gems.

Honing your intuition can help you in making better choices in life because the more information you have about something, the better decisions you can make, the faster you may be able to reach your goals, and enable yourself to live more fulfilling life.

Intuition is defined as the power or ability of attaining direct knowledge or cognition without evident rational thought and inference. Intuitive knowledge is considered to be knowledge which cannot be gained either by inference or observation, by reasoning or past experience. As such intuitive knowledge is thought of as independent, original knowledge.

Many years ago I was in a coffee shop where I overheard a man having a spirited and very loud conversation with someone about the nature of intuition. He argued that intuitive knowledge is based on observational skills. While the information obtained through observational skills is excluded from the above definition about intuition, many times people do acquire tremendous amount of information purely through observation and then they appear to be “psychic”. Many “fake psychics” simply rely on their observational skills. These skills are also known as “cold reading” and are employed by stage magicians.

Our subconscious minds register all information from our surroundings and most of that information is gathered outside our conscious awareness. When some of that information emerges in our conscious awareness, it may seem that it came from higher realms because we had no awareness of ever acquiring it consciously.

People who are working on developing their intuition often practice different ways of improving their observational skills. Honing one’s observational skills is one of the essential skills in the practice of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), where you learn to pay attention to minute changes in skin color, pupil dilation, slight changes in lip size, referred to in NLP as “minimal cues”. These skills come in very handy when people play poker, for example. Since poker players have vested financial interest in the outcome of the game, they pay attention to “minimal cues” of other players, in order to notice when other players may be bluffing or when they might have a winning hand.

NLP Practitioners sometimes engage in the following exercise, which I believe started with Dr. Milton Erickson. One person would hide an object, and the other would play the role of a “psychic” by holding the wrist of the person who hid the object. The “psychic” would rely on slight changes in the pulse of the person who hid the object, to guide him toward the recovery of the hidden object.

Some people are more “intuitive” by nature. Some are intuitive in a way that they find it easier to absorb the information from their environment through what seems like osmosis. They may have difficulty focusing on one thing and may be labeled with attention deficit disorder, yet their way of processing information may be perfectly suited to certain occupations. For example, I have a friend who is an extraordinary private investigator. He excels at what he does perhaps mainly due to his ability of being aware of the information that other private investigators miss. He naturally absorbs information from the environment as if thorough osmosis. From the perspective of brainwaves, people with this talent have predominant theta brainwave activity.

Some people are more naturally intuitive in a way that they can access the information related to different times, places or dimensions of experience, which are clearly not in any way associated with where they may be physically. On the level of the mind, there is no time and no space and we are all free to access the information about anything we greatly desire to know, from any dimension of existence, from past, present or future. The only obstacle in this process are the “filters” we have placed in our subconscious minds.

The secret in acquiring this kind of information is in allowing it to emerge into your conscious awareness, in having your mind blank, open and receptive like a crystal clear glass, so that the information gained is not colored by your preconceived ideas or emotions. Genuine spiritual masters, who have no more any self-interests, who have nothing more to emotionally protect and have fully opened themselves to the infinite, can access the information that to the rest of us borders on miraculous. On the other hand, there are so many people who may be “channelingl” the information from different realms, however the information that comes through is polluted by their own preconceived ideas and is no better than any guess they might have made based on their rational understanding. True spiritual knowledge is always rooted in love and in the principle of oneness - there are no exceptions.

We are all intuitive to a greater or lesser extent and whatever your level of intuitive ability, you can develop it further. Developing intuition is based on learning to pay attention to the information within you. For example, if you were trying to decide between two job offers, as you imagine yourself working in one position and then in the other, the right choice would look brighter, it would feel more joyous, it would make you feel lighter and it would bring with it a great experience of inner peace and contentment. If you were picking lottery numbers or stocks in which you desire to invest, or winning horses at the racetrack - again through experience you would learn to distinguish between the information that comes from your intuitive knowledge and the one that comes from your rational mind. As a general guideline, when this information comes from your rational mind there is a sensation of tension, a sensation of your energy shrinking and condensing as you are subconsciously trying to protect your financial self-interest. When you are in a state of mind where you are trying to protect your ego-based self-interests, you are closing the door of your intuition. What opens you to your intuition is getting into a state of love, into a state of giving, into a state of relaxation and expansion, where you feel at-one-with-everything and particularly at-one with the subject of your intuition., where you become it inwardly.

One simple way of practicing intuition on daily basis is choosing for practice subjects in which you don’t have any vested interest and the outcome is not important for you. This makes it easier for you to maintain an open state of mind necessary for practicing intuition. You may try to intuit what someone you are going to meet is wearing, or if the phone rings who may be calling you, or if you are going to some new place, try to intuit how does that place look like before you go there; or you can pick a magazine with pictures and try to intuit what picture or information will you find several pages ahead. In this way you will condition your subconscious mind to provide you with the information that is not ordinarily accessible to you through your physical senses.
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Dr. Laura De Giorgio is the author of over 2,000 self-help hypnosis, motivational and inspirational recordings in English, French, Spanish, German and Italian. On her website http://www.deeptrancenow.com you can access many free articles designed to help you use your mind power effectively, many free downloads and inspiring movie presentations.