Manifesting with the Law of Attraction

Are you lucky? Really, do you feel like you’re a lucky person? Not lucky in the sense that you have a good, or even a great, life, but lucky in the sense that things just seem to fall into your lap?

Whether you are lucky or not, you probably think that luck is just random, that people stumble into good things by accident. You may have heard that luck is “preparation meeting opportunity,” but how then do you explain a mere acquaintance calling you with free tickets to a show you’ve been wanting to see, but couldn’t afford?

What if luck isn’t random after all? What if there is actually a structure underlying luck? Ten years of research by Professor Richard Wiseman of the University of Hertforshire, England suggests exactly this. His research shows that luck is largely composed of four capacities:

1) Creating and noticing chance opportunities. You have to be out in the world, and you have to be relaxed enough to actually notice them.

2) Making lucky decisions by paying attention to your intuition. There is much more happening around us than we can ever grasp in our conscious minds. But beneath our conscious awareness, we are picking up all sorts of cues and clues to what is happening, which we call intuition.

3) Creating self-fulfilling prophecies by having positive expectations. When you expect things to go well, you will unconsciously pick up the cues that match what you expect – you’ll see it when you believe it.

4) Adopting a resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good. Lemons can be made into lemonade. You can learn from the worst disaster. If you’re always looking for the silver lining in the dark cloud, which is often a life lesson to apply going forward, your luck will improve continuously.

Other research of Professor Wiseman suggests that luckier people tend to have wider social networks than less lucky people. This is a kind of virtuous cycle. When you look at the first capacity above, you’ll notice that you have to be out in the world to be in the right place at the right time. Thus, if you want to be lucky, it’s a good idea to cultivate wide enough social networks that you’re frequently out of your cave and in the lucky zone. And how can your social network do anything but expand when you have positive expectations and a resilient attitude? Those vibes are bound to draw people to you.

So how can meditation improve your luck? Meditation helps cultivate the capacities for luck.

1) Meditation helps you relax. Numerous studies show that meditation increases relaxation, as measured by lowered heart rate and decreased blood pressure, even when the person is not meditating. There is also evidence that meditators recover more quickly from stress than nonmeditators. When you’re relaxed, you notice more of those chance opportunities. (These studies were reviewed by Michael Murphy and Stephen Donovan and are available online at www.noetic.org/research/medbiblio/index.htm.)

2) Meditation increases visual sensitivity, particularly improving sensitivity to visual stimuli before the meditator is consciously aware of the stimulus. Again, seeing before you know you’re seeing helps you notice those chance opportunities.

3) Meditation improves empathy, which is the ability to sense what others are feeling. This a big part of intuition – knowing what’s going on for someone else, so you know whom to approach, or when is the right moment to ask for a favor. It’s also a big part of having a large social network, which is related to luck.

4) Meditation improves visualization. The more you visualize something positive, the more likely it is to happen, or at least, the more likely it is that you’ll notice if it’s happening.

5) Meditation improves psychological health. In different studies, meditators have been shown to be less nervous, less anxious, less aggressive, less depressed, less irritable, less domineering, less inhibited, more sociable, more self-confident, more positive about themselves, more emotionally stable, more self-reliant and more field independent than non-meditators. Being healthy psychologically helps you have positive expectations and deal effectively with life’s setbacks – the resilient attitude that turns bad luck into good.

It’s often been said that “The harder I work, the luckier I get.” But sitting in the “not doing” of meditation may make you even luckier!

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Hollis Polk is a personal coach http://www.888-4-hollis.com, who has been helping people create lives they love for 15 years, using neurolinguistic & hypnotherapy techniques, decision science, clairvoyance & the common sense learned in 20+ years of business. She is an NLP Master Practitioner, hypnotherapist & has a BSE in engineering from Princeton & a Harvard MBA. She is also a successful real estate broker, investor & business owner.

Focusing on your breath can be a truly empowering experience. You may have a tendency to discount the power of noticing and using the rhythm of your breath because your breath is so much a part of you. It might just seem too simple.

Ordinarily, of course, your breath works in the automatic mode. Thank goodness for that! If your breathing needed your constant attention, you would not have time for other adventures.

As an intentional practice, for short periods of time, giving your full attention to your breathing can be a very powerful, brief meditation. A “short period of time” might be measured:

* By numbers of breaths, for example, three in-breaths and three out-breaths;

* By minutes, for example, one minute or two or three; or

* By the time viewed through or measured by an event, for example, sitting at a traffic stop light.

Choose whatever measurement you want, and then practice focused, intentional breathing many times throughout the day. This practice will keep you balanced, filled with extra oxygen to help you to maintain greater stamina. This technique is the perfect answer to the often-stated claim “I don’t have time to meditate.” I consider it a supplement to meditation, but you can also consider it an abbreviated meditation. Focusing on your breath is also an excellent way to begin a meditation session.

One interesting dynamic to notice is the actual shift between automatic and intentional breathing, in other words, notice the movement or transition from automatic (unconscious) breathing to intentional (conscious) breathing and vice versa. Noticing such dynamics makes you more aware of your own process of breathing and of shifting your attention.

In addition, notice that your breath becomes different when you are giving your full attention to it. I have read that humans use different muscles when breathing in these two different ways. Perhaps that is true. My own personal opinion is that you use the same muscles, but you use them differently in these two modes. I consider that this is similar to the difference between using your gluteus maximus muscles to walk down a hill as compared to walking up a hill.

Another dynamic to pay attention to is the pace or rhythm of your breath. There are many aspects of the breath that you can give your attention to. The rhythm of the breath is only one. It is one I particularly like because it has a discernible resonance. Examples of other dynamics are texture, sound, depth, length, evenness.

I like to help people to find the rhythm of their breath because it helps them to attune to other rhythms and movement in their lives. For example, they might notice a particular breathing pattern that is replicated in other situations. After making the association, they change the rhythm in the breath, usually rather easily, and then they notice that changes in the other situations follow naturally.

I notice this correlation frequently with my clients. Of course, discerning such connections does require the ability to read subtle energies. Usually, after I have identified and articulated the correlation to my clients, they relate to the idea. The key is to make changes in the least invasive, most natural ways. Here are two specific examples:

Deidra was having trouble communicating with her boss, characterized by interrupting each other and half-stated ideas. I noticed in her breathing the same pattern of hesitation and shortness, as if she rarely completed either the in-breath or the out-breath. I suggested some exercises that helped her to be more aware of the rhythm of her breathing, which helped significantly, along with some other strategies, to manage herself more effectively with respect to her boss.

Tomas had great difficulty when he had to stand in front of a group to speak. He felt unbalanced and had less acute thinking. This, by the way, is a very common dynamic because making stand-up presentations is very stressful to many people. I decided to start with the easiest strategy: some simple breathing exercises to neutralize the old pattern and establish a new rhythm. He practiced daily, and especially before each presentation. The difficulty ceased immediately.

Sometimes the simplest strategies are the most powerful. So, remember to breathe! And, even more specifically, remember to find the rhythm in your breath.

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Copyright 2007 Marshall House. Jeanie Marshall, Personal Development Consultant and Coach with Marshall House, http://www.mhmail.com writes extensively on subjects related to personal empowerment, meditation, and effective use of language, including her free Mini Course, Meditate Now: 21 Days to Meditate Regularly at http://www.jmvoice.com/free-meditation-course.html You may republish this article at your web site or blog, provided you include this paragraph and make all links active.

This very informal yet powerful meditation can be done while drowsing in bed as you are waking up or going to sleep, resting on the couch, or sitting with a straight posture. The premise of the meditation is that heavy energy caused by emotional trauma is lodged in the body, in particular in the energy centers called chakras. These spots of heavy energy become blockages of chi, ultimately manifesting in emotional and spiritual problems, and sometimes physical illness. The purpose of the meditation is to dissolve and dislodge the blockages.

Spiritual healing can have a very profound effect on your life, and this technique is one that will help no matter what your experience with energy work may be, whether you are old or young, sick or healthy. Learn how, here:
1. Get comfortable. Take a few deep breaths to get centered. Take a few minutes, or as long as you need, to settle, connect with yourself, and quiet your mind.

2. Visualize the golden light of the sun and ask it to stream into the part of your being that needs healing golden light now.

3. Observe where the light settles in your body, and merge into it, be with it.

4. If the golden light moves elsewhere in your body, follow it where it goes, and be with it there.

5. Continue following and being with the light, for up to an hour.

Annie Bond. Author of Home Enlightenment.