The Law of Attraction and How you can Harness it's power today
The law of attraction states that like attracts like. Our emotional vibrational energy attracts more experiences to match with that emotional vibrational energy. Thus, if I'm constantly complaining, feeling like I don't have enough time or enough money, my emotions will draw in more experiences to continue that feeling of not having enough. Thus, I will never have enough. Wayne Dyer said "You don't attract what you want, you attract what you are". Meaning, I don't attract what I want, I attract how I feel. If you want abundance, you must first feel abundant. If you want to attract a relationship which makes you feel whole and secure, you must first feel whole and secure. The concept of the law of attraction focuses less on our thoughts, and more on our emotions. Yes, thoughts affect emotions, but your emotions are the most powerful tool to attract what you want. Nothing is too big to attract according to the law of attraction. It's only the impossibility our mind assigns to big dreams that make them impossible. If you focus on what you don't have, you'll continue to have less than what you want. If you focus on the negative parts of life, you will continue to attract negative experiences, objects, and relationships into your life.
You can't focus on your wants with a "wanting" feeling, because that wanting feeling will only reinforce the emotional vibration that you don't have it, and thus won't have it. People always say the moment they stopped looking for something be it a husband, job, or opportunity, it found them. This is not a coincidence. This is actually in alignment with the law of attraction. This, however is easier said than done, because the concept doesn't mean you stop working towards goals, it simply means you change your emotional relationship to the goal. While I don't allow my life choices to be dictated by the law of attraction, I have cultivated some specific rituals to harness its energy because, it can't hurt. Below are a few practices to get started harnessing the law of attraction:
- Create a vision board. Matt and I made a vision board about two years ago on New Year's Day. This is a fun activity to do in general, but also a great way to begin thinking about future goals, and what you want to attract into your life. The idea behind a vision board, is that simply by looking at the images/words you've placed on your board, you increase your focus on those things, thus attracting them into your life. It is a little freaky, looking back at our board we made and thinking about how our lives have already fulfilled some of our visions. Check out my vision board tutorial here.
- Practice a gratitude meditation. Every morning, Matt and I burn palo santo in our home, set our meditation timer for 10 minutes (we use the insight timer app) and practice a gratitude meditation. My meditation consists of thinking of the relationships, things, experiences I'm grateful for, one by one, truly conjuring up that feeling of gratitude and/or love for the object of my focus, and then saying a "thank you" in my mind. After I've finished feeling grateful for the things I currently have in my life, I imagine myself living what I want to attract into my life (e.g. waking up in the home I want to own one day with Matt, our dog, our child, taking walks as a family). I also practice conjuring up feelings of gratitude for those future relationships, experiences, and things. After those 10 minutes are up, at the very least I feel truly grateful, and full of positive energy. At the most, I'm actually drawing in more abundance in my life. Either way, it's a win win.
- Practice positive affirmations. Affirmations are commonly used in psychology to reframe negative thinking. For example, if I'm always criticizing my body, I may use an affirmation which celebrates my body such as "I'm grateful to my body for carrying me through yoga", or "thank you body for carrying me through life". The use of affirmations can be an effective tool to improve depression and/or anxiety, but we can also use it to attract what we want into our lives. First rule of affirmations is they must be believable. If you feel hopeless and you just say "I can do anything" as your affirmation but don't believe this, it doesn't work. Sometimes affirmations can simply be little reassurances. For instance, if you are working hard to achieve your goals, simply saying something like "I am attracting abundance into my life everyday", or pairing it with gratitude "Thank you universe for providing me a job I love" may be an effective affirmation. You may post inspirational quotes in places that relate to your goals and say them out loud or write them repeatedly as an affirmation practice. You might choose an affirmation and meditate on it using a mala, repeating the affirmation 108 times.
- Write about a day in your life. The life you want that is. Write a few pages in as great of detail as you can, chronicling a day in your life, and include every aspect of your life you want to attract. For example, write about getting ready for your job, the one you dream about, waking up in your beautiful home, how you will feel in the ideal world, what you will do, who you will hang out with etc. Don't leave out any details. Seal it up and don't open for 5-10 years. I still need to do this, but I've heard too many stories swearing by this method not to give it a try. At the very least, it will help you clarify what you want in life, and may be a fun writing exercise. At the most, it will all happen.
Use the law of attraction to your benefit. Cultivate at lease one daily practice to increase the positive vibes in your life, to increase the positive emotions, and see if you don't start attracting more positive experiences. At the very least say a positive affirmation to yourself 10 times a day (probably totaling 1-2 minutes of your time), or try all of these. The upcoming new year is a perfect time to begin attracting what you want, clarifying your goals, and setting intentions!!