Manifesting with the Law of Attraction

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!

Tags: happiness quotient, inner peace, Jack Canfield, life happiness, oprah, realizations

If you have followed all the talk about the law of attraction and the DVD (and book), ‘The Secret’, then you will realize that must shift your brain into a position of visualizing your desired outcome. The ancient wisdom said to ‘believe that you have received.’ In other words, start seeing your dream or goal ‘as if’ it has already happened.

Some people find it difficult to do this while also feeling the emotion of their desire as being accomplished. Nonetheless, this aspect is vital to allowing the manifestation of it in your life.

I want to give you a simple yet very powerful exercise that you can do that will help you vividly experience both the visualization and the emotion. Follow this exercise and practice it as often as you can. It will work in a powerful yet quite natural way for you.

Project yourself sometime into the future. Depending on how large your desired outcome is in comparison with what you truly believe can happen, you will have to set the time limit. I will let you know that the power to bring this about in your life, whether you consider it the universe or God or something else, doesn’t operate on a time schedule like you and I. So whatever time you assign to this future point, doesn’t really matter. As the ancient scripture says, ‘According to your faith, let it be done unto you.’

As you project yourself into the future, imagine yourself looking backward in time, recounting the thing that you now desire, as having already taken place. What you are doing is projecting yourself into the future and seeing yourself give testimony of the thing you now desire. The difference is, you are looking backward in time ‘as if’ it has already happened.

Let me give you some examples of this.

Today is December 4, 2007. I will (in my mind’s imagination chamber and eye) project myself 2 years from now. Let’s say that I want to have a $1 million net worth at that time.

First, I imagine the turnaround in my thinking, looking back to today, December 4, 2007. In my imagination, it is December 4, 2009. I’m talking to a friend, doing an interview, standing up in a group that I’m a part of (perhaps even your place of worship) and recounting my turning point, two years ago.

I like to project myself as a host on Oprah. Oprah is telling the audience who I am and what significant work, event, invention, etc., that has brought me to this point of success in my life.

She says something like, “My next guest is Michael Murphy from Sherman, Texas. Michael used the power of the law of attraction to begin doing a free email service, simply empowering people through the power of encouragement. He began in February of 2006 to send out an email that directly gave amazing and powerful encouragement. Today, (December 4, 2009) he is reaching over 1,000,000 people through his 3 time weekly emails and giving them amazing encouragement and affirmations that are changing thousands of lives. He is also the author of 4 books, two of which are completely personalized books embedding the reader’s name in over 100 pages of what he calls, ‘Powerfirmations’. He has opened up a new field in book publishing by creating personalized books that no one has ever done previously.” Then, Oprah brings me on and begins the interview.

Now you may not see yourself going on Oprah. I do. I also see myself creating 1,000 personalized Powerfirmations books per week. I go into how my life turned around and how I’m living my dream by helping encourage and empower hundreds of thousands of people around the world.

As Mark Victor Hansen puts it, I’m creating my ‘Future Diary’. You may see yourself telling a friend or doing an interview with a journalist. You may see yourself telling your children or grandchildren what you’ve done and accomplished. The key is, give your testimony in detail of exactly how you want it to be.

My next suggestion is to write out your story in detail and review it often.

You’ll find that as you take action in doing what I’m sharing, you will feel the excitement and trigger emotions of hope, faith, confidence and clarity. You will begin to do what Dr. Covey said in his great book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. You will “begin with the end in mind”. You will find this as an amazing tool to bring about the manifestation of what you want in your life. You find yourself ‘living your future, now’.

I am writing my autobiography. I’m not stopping it at today. I’m going ahead and telling my whole story. I’m telling how I want my future to be. I actually plan to self-publish it and put into a bound book.

You too can predict your own future. In fact, recognize it or not, you are the prophet of your own life. You create your reality. I heard people tell me for many years, “Michael, if you fail to plan then you are planning to fail.” Well, the problem I had was, I didn’t know how to put together a plan for what I wanted to do. I didn’t know ‘how’ to do what I wanted to do. So how could I make a roadmap to go somewhere that I’d never been before.

That’s when I came up with this exercise. It is an amazing tool that anyone can do and use.

I encourage to take action in getting started on your own future. Start dreaming about where you want to be. Start writing it out. Start telling your ‘future’ story, now. Start planning your life and describe how you want it to be. Stop living haphazardly and start living on purpose. You and you alone will create your amazing life and live your dreams.

Tags: desire, desired outcome, Dr. Covey, faith, imagination, Law of Attraction, manifestation, Mark Victor Hansen, Michael Murphy, oprah, visualization

Did you know that every thought that we think creates a vibration? Negative thoughts create negative feelings that lead to low frequency vibrations, whereas positive thoughts create positive feelings that produce high frequency vibrations. According to the universal Law of Attraction, “vibes” attract like “vibes”. Have you ever noticed how, when you’re feeling down and depressed, you attract situations that are in line with your state of mind? So logically, the key to attracting only the things that you desire into your life, is to vibrate positive energy. Okay, that sounds simple enough…but how do you DO that?

“If you want your life to be more rewarding, you have to change the way you think.” – Oprah

We spend far too much time worrying — about the future, about paying the bills, about upcoming exams, about our health, about getting that promotion. What we’re actually doing when we worry about any situation, is concentrating all our energy on something that we don’t want. Hate, worry, fear, jealousy, anger, sadness are all emotions that make us vibrate negatively. By focusing on unwanted situations we are actually attracting the exact situations that we want to avoid! We would be doing ourselves a favor by focusing only what we DO want, instead of wasting time and energy on the things that we DON’T want.

Opposites Do Not Attract

Obviously, no one can feel good all day long, every day. The key is to do the things that make you feel good as often as you can. Play uplifting music while you drive to work, avoid the television programs that produce negative feelings, don’t read the newspaper if the content affects you negatively, interact only with positive-minded people… just let go and have fun! Learn to monitor your thoughts…if you notice yourself thinking a negative thought, immediately negate its effect by focusing on something that makes you feel good. Remember, there is nothing more important than feeling good! Keep a photo of your kids or pet or favorite actor nearby to help you make that switch. Be grateful for the things that are going well in your life. Do whatever it takes to generate that upbeat feeling, because opposites do not attract…but like certainly will attract like. The Law of Attraction is on the mark each time and it does not make mistakes!

“Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe it can achieve.” – Napoleon Hill

In order to get what you desire in life, you have to give those desires regular attention. Fantasize, dream, imagine, focus… for what you create in your mind, you create in reality. If it’s a specific car that you want, order a brochure of it and look through it every day. Think about what color you want and which accessories and options your model has. If it’s a fantasy vacation in the Maldives or the Caribbean, compile your own colorful screensaver, fantasize about those white beaches and crystal clear waters abundant with tropical fish. Paste pictures of your dream home or that sleek yacht that you desire on a board and look at it often. Be excited about it! Focus wholeheartedly and with certainty on what you want, and do so in this moment. Believe that you have what you desire now, today, in this present moment. Focus on how good that makes you feel, and try to generate that feeling as often as you can.

Don’t confuse the Law of Attraction by being inconsistent in your desires. Don’t keep changing your mind, otherwise there’s no way for what you ask for to find its way to you. Be consistent, be determined…but leave the “how” out of it. If you decide the method and schedule by which your desires will come to you, you’re limiting your possibilities to only what you can think of. After all, what if there’s something better out there than what you can imagine? Just trust that it is happening now and allow it to come to you. Follow where your intuition leads you. Don’t worry about it, don’t look for proof, don’t start doubting.

Affirmations are a form of advertising

If you do find that doubts and negative self-talk are getting in your way, you can apply positive affirmations. When used consistently, affirmations will do away with your limiting beliefs and replace them with thoughts that will help you achieve what you desire. Does advertising work? Sure it does – there’s a multibillion dollar industry that proves it and affirmations are a form of advertising with only you as the target audience. Affirmations must be stated in the “I” form, in the present tense and always positively. They should also invoke a positive emotion. For instance: “I deserve large sums of money that allow me to have more fun with my family”, “I choose to effortlessly earn $100,000 per year”, “I enjoy working out regularly and maintaining a trim and slim body that turns heads”, “I choose to attract only healthy and positive people into my life who help me achieve my goals”; “I choose to create a positive, healthy and joyful lifestyle for myself”. You can write them down everyday, or use them as a screensaver, or buy special affirmation or goal setting software that you can use on your computer.

If you’re skeptical about how the Law of Attraction can affect you, just try being happy and positive for a month. It will amaze you how easy it is to get things going your way in that short period of time. A lot can be achieved in relatively little time — why waste any of it by being negative? Get out there and manifest what you want!

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Chonticha Marijne enjoys working from her home in the historical city of Gouda, the Netherlands. Her blog goal–setting.blogspot.com/ offers content on goal setting, affirmations and the Law of Attraction as well as a free “7 Part Affirmation Course”. This article is copyright © 2006 by Chonticha Marijne and may be reprinted in its entirety as long as both byline and copyright statement are included.

Tags: emotions, Law of Attraction, napoleon hill, negative feelings, oprah, Positive Affirmations, positive energy, positive feelings, positive thoughts, universal law of attraction