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Law of Attraction:  Part 4: Gratitude

Another one of the key elements once one gets involved with the Law of Attraction is the concept of gratitude, that is being grateful for what you already have in life.  Yes, we may all desire something better in our lives, a better home,car, health, success and finance.  We might look around us and think, well, gee I don’t have the home I want, the car I want, the health I would like to have.  But now you’re focusing on those negative thoughts again of what you don’t have, and wonder why better things aren’t manifesting in your life.

One needs to start feeling grateful what they already have and believe it or not can pave the way to acquiring more in your life.  Be grateful that upon waking up in the morning you have one more day of life rather than grumbling and complaining that you have to go to work.  Heck, be grateful you have that job, even if it isn’t the ideal job you would like to have.

One way to bring a realization of what to be grateful for and of feeling gratitude, is to go out an buy some kind of memo book and every day list at least five things you are grateful for, from the simplistic to the more complex. Do you have your eyesight?  Be grateful for that, for it helps you to see the world around you…the clouds, the beautiful sunsets, the words flowing from a book or a computer webpage, your favorite TV show.  Gives thanks and gratitude you can hear:  the birds chirping  heralding the break of a new day, a child’s laughter, the purring of your cat, your favorite music.

As silly as this sounds also have gratitude even about the things you might grumble about.  Hate washing dishes?  Be grateful you have dishes to wash, as it meant you had food to eat.  Do you grumble about doing the laundry?  Be grateful for that laundry chore for it means you have clothes to wear.   Are you complaining when you have to write out that monthly check to your landlord to pay the rent?   Why?  It means you have a roof and shelter over your head, and your safe and sound and not homeless.

Of course we might not be thrilled about writing checks out for our monthly bills, but at least one has the means to pay those bills.  I actually give thanks that I have the means to pay my bills and in full each and every month.  I in particular have a greater sense of gratitude, as at one time, since I’m on disability benefits,  I had my SSI benefits completely cut off  out of the blue and only had $5.71 to my name.  Don’t ask what I had to go through to get my benefits reinstated, all those forms to fill out, the rather frantic phone calls to make,  but I’m also grateful for my mind and inspiration that led me to problem solve how to get my benefits back and in only a month’s time.  By some “inspiration” the thought struck me to contact my local Congressman who had a representative who handled SSI issues and intervened in my behalf.  If it hadn’t been that thought in my mind to contact this person, I would have had a much longer wait for my case to be resolved.  So you better believe how grateful I am to be able to send that money to my landlord for my rent each and every month, and I have the benefits to help me out to do so.

So next time you complain of what you don’t have in your life, turn it around and be grateful of what you already have.  It’s so uplifting and puts you in a more positive mind-set.

Law Of Attraction: Part 3

In this third installment of the Law of Attraction principles I want to address some of the pitfalls one might come across.

When one is first trying for a more positive mind-set of attracting what one wants in their lives, one has to be very diligent about the thoughts they think all the time as it is so easy to slip into a negative frame of mind again. What I mean is this. Say it is your hope to manifest more money into your life and you keep thinking positive thoughts that maybe a means and ways will open to you to get more money, say a raise or promotion. But then perhaps there is a major item you need to buy and your next thought is, “I can’t afford that.” Oops. You just counteracted that positive frame of mind for a negative. Or your desire is for better health, and you feed your mind with positive healthy thoughts, but then bump into a friend and start telling them of all your aches and pains. Once again you’ve slipped into a negative frame of mind.

Yes, continually thinking on a more positive frame of mind will take a lot of work at first, but keep at it. Why think negative thoughts at all, when it’s just as easy to think positive ones? So make a real conscious effort to control your thinking.

Also, just because you’ve decided to embrace the Law of Attraction concepts into you life don’t think things are going to magically appear without some effort on your part. Yes, sometimes wonderful things can crop up unexpectedly and in a way you might not have thought possible, but it does take work. For instance, maybe you have a desire to be a best-selling novel. You see it in your mind’s eye of having your book published, of being on the New York Times Bestselling list, of having book signings at book stores. Great, this is a wonderful visualization exercise, but it won’t work if your not sitting writing that book. YOU have to write it for it to become a reality at all. In other words, if you’re just pleasantly daydreaming about being a bestselling writer but not actually writing, how on earth will such a goal come into fruition?

Or how about money? A biggie here. Well, yes you can “daydream” about being rich and famous, have pictures on your Vision Board (which I discuss in Part 2) that represent the rich and successful lifestyle but money isn’t going to fall from the sky (don’t we wish) unless you find the means to bring more money in. In my case, I do live on a fixed income, and yes a tight budget. But I have found means and ways of earning extra money to come in, so again, it takes more diligent work. I happen to write a lot of articles for Associated Content, do reviews for Ciao, SharedReviews and so forth. If one does some research there are a lot of opportunities out there to bring more money in. If your a writer also do some research on finding other outlets, such as on-line e-zines or magazines that might accept articles that you write. Also, open your horizons a bit, that is don’t limit yourself to just one type of genre of topics to write about. Up until a year ago, I never wrote articles of any kind but was more a fictional writer. When I decided to start writing articles, I actually amazed myself at the scope and variety of topics I was able to write about, things I would never have thought to write about before. Bottom line: don’t limit yourself!

Also, have patience with yourself. While we would all love to have a more positive, rich and successful lifestyle it might not happen overnight. How often do we hear about an upcoming actor that makes it big seemingly overnight. There usually is no such thing as an overnight success actor or singer, or entertainer in general. You can just bet prior to becoming an “overnight” sensation, that person was struggling in B-type movies, with small almost non-existant roles and maybe worked part-time as a waitress or bartender. So if great things don’t manifest for you right away, don’t then think to yourself, “This doesn’t work” You’ve just said a negative and negates any positive thoughts you’ve been working on with the Law of Attraction.

My next entry will be another big part of the whole Law of Attraction concepts and principles: Gratitude.

Part 2: Law Of Attraction: The Vision Board

First off, the whole Law of Attraction principles or concepts are by no means new, and actually date back centuries, yet the ideas seemed to have resurfaced again by several “New Thought” writers during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Many books were written by such authors as Genevieve Behrend (Your Invisible Power, 1921), Wallace D. Wattles (The Science of Getting Rich, 1910), Madam Blavatsky (Elena Petrovna Gan, August 12,1831- May 8, 1891)…the list is endless. You also had the more esoteric mystery schools, such as The Rosicrucians, and even the Unity School of Christianity, founded by Charles and Myrtle Fillmore in 1889, which all had their basis on “New Thought” or what would now be termed “New Age” concepts, in other words how powerful the mind can be to manifest whatever it is you want in life.

The concepts of Law of Attraction came and went but were never quite forgotten. They seemed to re-emerge again in popularity during the late 1970s and early 1980s with the popular bestselling books such as Creative Visualization: Us The Power of Your Imagination to Create What You Want in Your Life, by Shakti Gawain, and Louise Hay’s You Can Heal Your Life. Then the ideas seemed to have gone dormant again until of course the popularity of the book and DVD The Secret.

One of the key elements to all the principles of Law of Attraction that have been introduced over the centuries including the ideas brought forth in The Secret is visualization. That is to visualize in the mind’s eye what one wants in life, whether for good health, wealth, a loving relationship, success in business and so forth. Now while some people might be successful in truly seeing images in one’s mind, that is visualizing what we what using only mind power, most of us need a little help in that department, and here is where the Vision Board comes into the picture. In some cases what is now called the Vision Board was once called a Treasure Map.

What is a Vision Board? Simply put, it is a collage of images one cuts out and pastes on a large poster type board. And this can actually be a lot of fun to do. Take a large stack of magazines, and its important to get a nice variety of them, such as home decor, health, fashion and travel. Then, spend time cutting images out of those magazines that appeal to you and are representative of what you want in life. Is it a better, more healthful you? Then cut out an image of a healthy looking person smiling. Do you wish to take a cruise to Europe, then cut out a image of a luxury cruise liner and photos of England, France, Germany, whatever country you would like to visit. Do you dream of one day owning a Jaguar car? Cut an image out of such a car.

Nowadays one doesn’t even need a stack of magazines to help them create a Vision Board. Look around websites and if you see an image you like, save it to your photo library and print it up. Since you are doing this for your own private usage you won’t be infringing on a photographer’s or the magazine’s copyrights. Some of the best websites to hunt around for that dream luxury home is one I frequent, Unique Homes which does publish a magazine but now has images of luxury home for sale on their website. Do you wish and desire a new high tech digital camera? Go to the camera’s website and save the image of that camera you long for. Do you long for better fiances? Cut images of money out and also include that on your vision board.

The whole idea of the Vision Board is obvious. Once you have created it, and I suggest making several, place them where you can readily see them on a daily basis. Look at the images you have cut out, have those images soak in your mind of what you want in life. Place one near your bed, so the moment you wake up you see it. Place a smaller version on your refrigerator, place one near your computer desk, in other words…everywhere!

I’ve actually gone two steps further with the Vision Board concept, not just my poster board type ones. I did a composite of images saved from my computer, did a little tweaking at Photoshop, and created my own virtual Vision Board as my screensaver. So now, every time I turn on my computer, my virtual Vision Board is the first thing I see. The second was to put together a DVD from my iDVD function of my computer, filled it with images, positive words, and even added a soundtrack from a piece of music I love.

Whichever way you decide to create your Vision Board, it will be a great way for you to saturate your mind with the positive things you wish to manifest in life. Now you might be asking yourself? Does this really work? Well, first off, don’t expect whatever it is you desire to manifest presto overnight, it might take time. Am I a millionaire, do I have my luxury home and car? No, not yet, but I’m working on it . But has it worked for me in other areas? A most affirmative YES.

As a personal note, I’ve only have had my own computer for a little over a year. Prior to that, I had to rely on the free usage of computers at libraries, or on occasion went to a Cyber Café. My earlier Vision Boards included images of a computer system. With the finances I had, there seemed to be no way I could ever acquire a computer system, not even the lowest priced Dell. Yet I kept creating Vision Boards with images of a complete computer system. Well, I can testify that Vision Boards do work. A means opened up to me in a way totally not expected and not only did I get my computer system (an iMac) but a film scanner as well, which I also needed to transform my thousands upon thousands of photographic images that were on either slides or negative and into the digital format.

I shall continue discussing Law of Attraction in further parts, especially touch on the pitfalls many will and might come up against once they decide to give these concepts a try.

Well, folks this is my very first entry in my blog here. What I hope to accomplish is to write a little bit of anything and everything, from my passions, beliefs and loves. What you’ll find here are writings about my pets, animals in general, world issues, and recipes.

PART I: LAW OF ATTRACTION

Perhaps the first issue I’d like to discuss today are my beliefs in the Law of Attraction principles of which I’m a real enthusiast about and I’m going to write about this in several parts, rather than one long entry.

I guess I can thank my great-grandmother, for she was the one who was into the whole Law of Attraction concepts long, long before the popularity of the book and DVD The Secret. While raised a strict Catholic, she had a very open mind, and began getting involved with Unity, Science of Mind, Dr. Norman Vincent Peale’s positive thinking ideas, and yes, Law of Attraction. Since she was involved with all these concepts, my grandmother, mother and I more or less believed in them also. Without realizing it, Law of Attraction must have been working for me on an subconscious level, but somewhere, as time went on, I forgot about them, that is, I didn’t practice it faithfully. Then came The Secret phenomenon and was reintroduced to it all over again in the beginning of 2008, when I got both book and DVD. In fact, oddly enough, it must have been Law of Attraction in a sense that allowed me to get the DVD to begin with The DVD is by no means cheap, and when on is on a limited budget as I am, since I’m a recipient of SSI monthly benefits, the prospect of getting the DVD was rather slim. Then by chance I decided to go to ebay, you might say a hunch told me to try my luck there. Sure enough, The Secret DVD was up for auction by several people. I picked out one person in particular who was offering the DVD at a drastic fraction of it’s near $30.00 price tag. I then began watching the clock, not yet bidding on it until the last five minutes, and yes won it.

I then fell in love with The Secret and the messages it was telling me, and was watching the DVD nearly every night, to let the Law of Attraction principles soak in this brain of mine. I still watch it on a regular basis. Now for those who don’t know what Law of Attraction is, in a nutshell, what ever thought are rummaging in your mind, over and over again, whether positive or negative is what will manifest in your world and life, in other words, like attracts like. Too often the average person focuses on what they don’t want in their lives and wonder why it keeps coming into their lives. You’re in essence attracting the very think you don’t want by constantly thinking about it.

The whole Law of Attraction thing is basically a mind-set thing and people don’t often realize how negative they can be. For instance a person might not have a clue and wonder why they feel sick all the time. Then you start listening to them talk in general. Haven’t you ever met a person like this? You’re going along your way on some errand, and you bump into someone, and ask “How are you?” Now most people will do the customary answer back, “Fine, thank you.” But then you bump into that one person, who after you ask how they are proceed to tell you every illness, ache, or pain since birth. Then you wonder why you asked. I actually have known people like this, in particular one woman who never, ever had anything positive to say when I met her. Not only that, but she always had some illness, took scores of medications for every health problem going, and besides her being sick all the time, her husband would be sick, mother, mother-in-law, and even her cat was always sick with something! Is is any wonder why though? Her mind set was a purely negative one and focused on illness all the time, so it didn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out why…she was in effect attracting illness and sickness by constantly dwelling on it. This is how Law of Attraction works on the negative level.

Now I may not exactly be in the best of health at times, but I honestly don’t dwell on it. If someone asks me how I’m feeling, I’ll just reply back, “fine.” I could be walking around with a fever, feel pain or so forth, but I’ll still say, “fine”. From the moment I wake up I give thanks for waking up to a new day, and one thing I’ll say is a saying I heard from the Lousie Hay’s You Can Heal Your Life” DVD, which is “My body now restores itself to it’s natural state of good health.” And believe me, I sometimes say it with gritted teeth if I’m particularly having a lot of pain in my body. But something wonderful does happen. By saying this simple saying over and over again, I actually do start feeling better. Ever since I started saying this phrase upon waking up, I’ve been relatively pain free and hardly even take aspirin anymore. Try it. If you too are in pain whether arthritic like mine, or have those backaches, joint pain, whatever, try saying those word over and over, and over again, and you might wake up one day amazed as you discover, wow I feel great today!

Another favorite saying of mine comes from Mike Dooley, a participant in The Secret, and they are only three words: thought become things. And it’s true. Whatever you think about comes about. I’ve only scratched the surface here about Law of Attraction, and will discuss these concepts in following continuations. The point is however, instead of always thinking and dwelling on negative aspects of your life, turn it around and start thinking more positively. Yes, it does take work and effort, but you just might find more positive things begin to manifest in your life, I know I did.

This image I have below is my virtual vision board, one of the vital parts in the Law Of Attraction principles. I designed this myself and is now my screensaver. As soon as I turn my computer on, it’s the first thing I see. I’ll be discussing visions boards in following parts of my blog.