THE LAW OF ATTRACTION

This is a concept I was introduced to recently through a documentary called The Secret. The movie itself is the usual cheese you'd expect from a film claiming to offer a secret that has the potential to change your life. Even so, I'm not one to discard a theory simply on the presentation alone, so I watched it, and to tell the truth I felt far more inspired after watching it than what I did beforehand, so surely that's a good start. I felt inspired, because although I was reluctant to buy into everything the film claims, much of what was said already sat well with my current beliefs. This secret, the alleged answer to everything, is the law of attraction.

I had never come across this theory before, but after watching the film it became apparent that it was far from a carefully guarded secret that no one knew. I was on amazon.com the next day looking through self-help books and I put a search in for a general self-help term (which I forget now) unrelated to the law of attraction. Out of the first ten or so books returned from my search there was at least four on the law of attraction. Around this time I had also been reading Steve Pavlina's blog regularly who was delving deep into the theory of subjective reality. A few days later, he includes an article on the law of attraction. Am I the only one that doesn't know about this? Or did I attract it? It's an interesting theory, so I thought I'd share it with you. First, a little background information on objective and subjective realities.

Objective Reality

The objective reality model is the one most of us have been brought up to believe in. It states that everything within our universe is a fixed object, it's absolute, it exists just as we see it. This computer is real, your books are real, your partner is real... They are all real in every sense of the meaning in the word to you.

Subjective Reality

The subjective reality model is extremely difficult to grasp if you're used to looking at things objectively and suggests that everything is created by our own concsiousness, and that you are in fact responsible for everything you create. It's easy to dismiss this without even giving it any thought, but more and more scientists are opening up to the possibilities of a subjective model due to an inability to prove the objective model whilst holding evidence which points towards the subjective. Quantum theory dictates that sub-atomic particles react differently when being observed as if they are aware. Don't believe me? The famous double-slit experiment. The concept of a subjective reality is an ever increasing one in modern physics.

So what is the law of attraction?

The law of attraction dictates that you create what you think. In other words whatever you focus on you receive. Of course, this isn't always true. I'm sure many of you put your thoughts into winning the lottery each week. You haven't won it yet, have you? There are a few steps you have to take to ensure productivity here, let's use some simpler examples.

Imagine you're having problems in a relationship. You have all these fears and insecurities so you push forward in attempts to gain more stability, but you're primarilly focused on your fears. What usually happens here is that you push in all the wrong directions and this seems to be very common with the socially anxious amongst us. When you push in the wrong directions it creates tension and your partner will inevitably become uneasy before eventually bailing out. On the other hand, if you continually focus on what is good about the relationship, putting the insecurities aside, you will almost certainly become a more enjoyable person to be around and the relationship will work a lot better. This brings forth an argument, and it one that's occupying my mind right now: Is the relationship working better because you're creating it, or because you've simply become more fun to be around and it is merely a reaction to the re-creation of yourself? This is interesting, because the way I see it, this method works on both subjective and objective reality models. Nah, I'm not sure if I believe in that subjective mumbo jumbo crap either. Either way, you're creating something positive through your own positivity (or negative through your negativity). Obviously, under the subjective model, you have the power to create, which is infinite in possibilities, whereas under the objective model you're bound by objective laws. Don't let that put you off.

Is there anyone in history you can think of that made a significant impact without focusing on the impact they wanted to make. Sure, we all wanted to be rock stars and astronauts growing up too, that didn't happen did it? Why not?

There's a difference between day-dreaming and being focused on what you want. The law of attraction suggests that you must focus on what you want, mentally and emotionally. You must be able to feel it as well as think it. You must be able to tune in with it. If you're thinking about winning the lottery all week, or about becoming a rock star, no doubt there is a thought somewhere in the back of your mind saying 'no way, that's never going to happen!', in which case it's not going to happen. If you're thinking about what you don't want all the time, then that is what you're going to get. You must tune in and believe it. If you're getting angry, or frustrated or feeling any other negative emotions, then you're shifting out of balance with your natural flow and your thoughts and emotions are out of line. How new age does that sound? I'm not a hippy, honest! Still sound like a load of crud? When I first watched The Secret, one of the main reasons I kept watching is because of how closely the law of attraction related to what buddhists call karma. I later learnt that the law of attraction is also known as the law of cause and effect. Karma, is best (and often) described as cause and effect. This is a philosophy dating back thousands of years. What you sow, you reap. I had a friend who had little trouble when it came to meeting the opposite sex. I remeber him giving pointers once and his sole advice was this: 'Picture that they are attracted to you, and believe they are attracted to you. Everytime I do this, they become attracted to me'. Whether you're creating the attraction itself or whether they're becoming attracted through your display of confidence that your thoughts are giving to you is irrelevent, it will help regardless. Imagine going to do a presentation. Would it be better to go in thinking about everything you don't want to happen, like jumbling up your words, or having a mental block, or would it be better going in and visualising everything you do want to happen? Olympic athletes have been vividly visualising their perfomance before the event for decades now.

I'm no expert on the law of attraction, so if you're interested I would recommend you look into this yourself. The Internet is abundant in articles on the law of attraction (unlike social anxiety), so there is no shortage of information. There's a lot of common sense in it.

And yes, I'll get back to the SA stuff as soon as I get more involved again.