As I mentioned before I am kind of curious as to how and if the phenomenon known as The Law of Attraction works. We talked about the use of the right kind of affirmations (see previous post) to oneself as a component in this manifestation theory. But an equally large part of it involves using your mind to create mental “movies” of events or situations that you would like to happen.

What we think about and subsequent events that occur in our lives are sometimes too close to be regarded as coincidence. You think to yourself, “I knew that was going to happen”. What you think about dictates your behaviour and attitudes, and consequently our actions and the lives of the people around us. As are our thoughts, so are our lives so it is important to be careful about what we think about, especially repeated thoughts.

Our thoughts are accompanied by a visual image and what we see with our “inner eye” on a repeated basis shapes our lives. It is like watching the same DVD repeatedly. But if we want to change what we see on our mental DVD we have to change the DVD. New mental images if played over time will foster new behaviours, attitudes and actions and attract these new thoughts will attract the corresponding  people, events and situations into our lives.

This mental process of repeated playing of your new DVD is known as “visualization”. New ways of thinking cannot occur overnight with just one thought but need to be repeated often to gain strength and a strong root in the subconscious. This might sound like hard work requiring deep concentration but it is actually quite easy. All that is required is to choose the right thought and KEEP repeating it.

It is a little like daydreaming, where you are (often randomly) imagining a certain scenario you are involved in. Except that this is more like a practical form or daydreaming where you actively choose what to daydream about. Not only that but you can pick the details of your perfect scenario, right down to the colours, sounds, even smells of the scene in your mind.

If this created scene is played often enough in your mind, your subconcious will accept it unquestioningly, and naturally work on making the changes to your life to move it closer to this imagined reality.

In this way you can bring about changes such as developing new habits, gain new skills and pretty much anything you truly desire. This really can happen but you need to give it enough time and be sincere in your efforts, giving over the necessary time for your new way of thinking to gain power.

Visualization techniques do require mental work but they are not difficult. You may not realise it but you have probably used this power many times in the past without being consciously aware of what is happening internally. Now that you have an understanding of how it works, decide what it is that you want to achieve and start “daydreaming” about it during the day or a specific times, and with a little time these thoughts will get stronger and bring about inner and outer changes.

Thoughts are real things and can cause real change. Now you know how to use them in conjunction with affirmations, you have the ability to effect real improvements and transformations in your life.

Not long after becoming involved in the self-development/positive thinking area I came across a phrase that I had seen a number of times in the past but never taken any notice of. I’m referring, of course, to something called “The Law of Attraction”. I have to say I am usually none too struck on these kind of “new age” kind of philosophies that have no real scientific or hard anecdotal evidence, and are usually based on some kind of superstitious belief or half baked mysticism.

But the sheer weight of interest that there appears to be out there has eventually brought me round to the point where it needs some investigation and how it relates to the topics within this blog. A good place to start would be with a quote from the great Jim Rohn who says:” Success is not be pursued, it is to be attracted by the person you become”. Read that  again. It is a very profound statement, which kind of reverses the accepted notion that people need to get motivated to go after success, like it was some kind of quest.

Rather he is saying that if you concentrate on the qualities and attributes you acquire on your journey, you can’t help but arrive at your intended destination. I think! Whatever it is that you give your attention, focus and energy to will naturally be “attracted” to you because it is a like force. Of course this can either work in a positive, life-fulfilling manner or in a negative one where whatever negative thoughts you dwell on manifest themselves in unhappiness with your lot.

Unfortunately a lot of what we think to ourselves about day-to-day is not of a positive nature. I don’t know why, but our default mental self-talk setting is set negatively. Maybe its some kind of  self-protection that developed to keep us in our comfort zones from times when the world was a much more dangerous place than it is now. The problem is that this Law of Attraction (which is governed by our subconscious) doesn’t  distinguish between good thoughts or bad ones and embeds them regardless. Basically, whatever you think you will attract.

So how can we develop “success thinking”? You simply have to ask yourself-”What, exactly, is it I really want?” Define and write down exactly what it is you want to achieve in every aspect of your life. This would include your home and family life, business, personal goals and ambitions etc. Don’t hold back on this, be brutally honest about your hopes and dreams in an ideal world, even if they seem too far fetched and unrealistic to your negatively programmed subconscious.

Instead, use techniques like affirmations or visualization to literally flood your mind with positive, motivating thoughts and feelings, that over time will be accepted as fact by your subconcious. This will lead to a process whereby you begin to develop a success thinking habit that will ultimately attract the things that you told yourself you were going to achieve.