What is the Law of Attraction?

The basis of the Law of Attraction is that what you tend to think about, comes about. Seems so obvious, the effect can be overlooked. We attract things and experiences that match up with our thoughts.

This ancient spiritual law has become popular recently in the film The Secret but has been written about thousands of years ago in Hindu scripture and early Greek philosophy. This spiritual or mental law works on a mystical as well as an everyday level, in sayings such as “smile and the world smiles with you,” “attitude is everything,” “accentuate the positive/eliminate the negative” and many more.

The Law lends itself to merchandising ploys – “use the law of attraction to sell more real estate!” Many criticize it as simplistic and a panacea – “just be happy!” And perhaps it can seem that way, but we have to start somewhere as consciousness develops. The process doesn’t work like a gum machine in instant gratification, where you put in your penny of thought and out comes your gum. The process is a little more subtle, working on an energy level of consciousness. What you want is yours by right of consciousness.

Our consciousness must align with the feeling of having the desired product, whether a car or inner peace. For example, if we are desperately craving something, trying to lasso it in, we’re not in alignment with that desired effect, but in alignment with desperation and craving, so that’s what we attract. As Stephen Covey said in his famous book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, “Start with the end in mind.”  We have to start with the thing or experience we desire, and the work of consciousness is to create a real sense of that. Our mind attracts like circumstance.

Spiritual laws operate much like natural laws such as gravity, electricity, magnetism. You plant a seed, and that’s what you get; jump from a high building and gravity takes over. There are many spiritual laws, but they basically come under the major heading of the Law of Cause and Effect. We see this all the time. Stay up too late as you binge watch Absentia and are tired the next day. Overeat, especially sweets, you gain weight. Mentally, it shows up in thoughts of worry and fear tending to produce more of the same.

Louise Hay, a new thought pioneer, says that negativity can keep you from obtaining the things you want in life, and that you can transform your life by staying positive. "You have to start saying things that you feel really good about yourself. 'I love who I am. I love life. Life loves me. It's going to be smooth and easy. Life works for me.' And you just start doing that—it's planting seeds. You're not going to get it the first day, but you plant a seed and you water it and you continue the affirmations, and things start to shift and change in your life."
 
And yet look at a similar quote by an unlikely source, Groucho Marx: “Each morning when I open my eyes I say to myself: I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I’m going to be happy in it.”

Both quotes involve affirming the desired reality as real now. The process is like changing identity, from “have not” to an identity of “have.”  Yes, the Law takes some effort of changing consciousness from one to the other. Like the Bible quote from the chapter of Mark, “For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath shall be taken away.” Seems terribly unfair, doesn’t it? We want to be on the hath side. It’s about consciousness:  if you have a consciousness of have, more comes to you; if you have a consciousness of don’t have, even the good you have doesn’t exist.

But how can I feel I have when I don’t have it? That’s the whole name of the game, the work of consciousness. Some of the tools discussed involve affirmations, which is a positive description of the experience as happening now. “My life is opening to greater good every day!”  “I expect abundance and happiness.” “Everything I need is coming to me now.”  I am fulfilling my purpose.”  “I am a blessing to the world and the world blesses me now.” Make up your own words to describe experiencing what it is you desire.

Another powerful tool is gratitude. Adding gratitude to your affirmations gives a quantum leap. “I’m so grateful for all the good in my life.”  “I’m so grateful for immense love and abundance as my life now.”  “I give thanks for my dynamic health.”  “Thanks for my creative success.”  Right now, add gratitude to the affirmations you wrote.
Life can be seen as one grand experiment, where we’re always seeking greater good, greater purpose, and greater service. What are you attracting? What’s the state of your consciousness? Change your crave mode to have mode, right now.
 
For more information: http://www.oprah.com/spirit/the-law-of-attraction-real-life-stories_1/all#ixzz595rhJUul