As I was putting together last week’s series on how to use affirmations to achieve your goals, I became obsessed with understanding how the Law of Attraction works. It seems so mysterious to me and so magical. And since there are countless celebrities who credit the Law of Attraction for their success (like Oprah, Jim Carrey, Will Smith, Jay-Z and Arnold Schwarzenegger – to name just a few) I’ve felt compelled to find out more!
I’m sure that most of you have heard of the Law of Attraction by now. And if you have, no doubt you’ve already formed an opinion about whether it’s completely wonderful or a complete load of garbage. The Law of Attraction is not without it’s criticisms and, in my opinion, The Secret just created even more misconceptions about how this mystical force works. But when something has helped so many people, you have to wonder whether it can help you too. Especially when all that’s really required is learning how to control your mind (which is a topic I’m ALWAYS fascinated to learn more about).
In this blog post I’m going to be sharing what I understand to be the basics of the Law of Attraction. But I’m still new to all of this and I’m definitely not claiming to have the answers to everything – just so you know! As usual, I’m sharing what I’m learning as I’m learning it because I know so many of you will be interested in playing around with this stuff too!
If you do believe that the Law of Attraction is nonsense, I’m sure my amateur explanation of the concepts will only leave you more skeptical. And I apologise for that. But I ask that you consider all that I’m going to share with an open mind, as the Law of Attraction will only work for those who are willing to believe new things. If you’re interested in learning more, make sure you have a look at some of the Law of Attraction resources I share in this post!
So with all of that said, here’s some of what I’ve learned about the Law of Attraction so far. And I look forward to sharing more with you (and my success stories) in the future!
THE LAW OF VIBRATION
The Law of Vibration is the foundation for all things Law of Attraction, so that’s where we need to start! The Law of Vibration states that everything that exists in our universe, whether visible or not, can be quantified as a frequency or an energetic pattern. Basically, everything in our universe is made up of subatomic particles which are in a constant state of vibration. This includes all dense matter that you can physically touch as well as less tangible matter like our thoughts and feelings.
In all honesty, I’ve been trying to wrap my head around the Law of Vibration and I’ve come to the conclusion that the Law of Vibration is one of those things that I’ll need to decide to believe in even though my five senses can’t perceive it. And since there are heaps of things I believe that I can’t actually perceive (like that we live in a universe with over 100 billion galaxies or that the world is round) I’m open to the idea. But you’ll have to decide for yourself!
Though if you are a little skeptical, here’s a quote from Albert Einstein: “Everything is energy and that’s all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but get into that reality. It can be no other way. This is not philosophy, this is physics.”
THE LAW OF ATTRACTION
The Law of Attraction is the law that like attracts like, meaning that vibrations of similar frequency are drawn together – like what Albert Einstein said above. Fundamental to the Law of Attraction is the idea that we can control the frequency at which we vibrate, and what we attract, by controlling our thoughts and feelings.
At this point in time, I still find discussions about ‘raising your vibration’ to be a bit hard to grapple with intellectually (just being honest!) so I personally like to think of the Law of Attraction more in terms of the idea that you get more of what you focus on. This is something that Law of Attraction advocates talk about a lot and I go through the scientific explanation for it in this blog post. Once I learned the science behind it, and experienced it working in a completely magical way, I had no choice but to believe in it!
I love this quote from Bob Proctor that summarises the Law of Attraction quite nicely: “If you can see it in your mind, you can hold it in your hand.” And this explanation by Napoleon Hill in his book Think and Grow Rich: “Truly, ‘thoughts are things’ and powerful things at that when they are mixed with definiteness of purpose, persistence and a burning desire for their translation into riches or other material objects.”
WHAT YOU CAN ATTRACT
According to those who teach the Law of Attraction, you can attract anything you want with the Law of Attraction including your dream job, a relationship, money, material objects and just about anything else you can imagine! Though it’s very important that you know exactly what you want, otherwise you won’t be able to get it!
MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT THE LAW OF ATTRACTION
I don’t have enough time to go into all of the misconceptions about the Law of Attraction (we’d be here ALL DAY) and honestly – there are questions I’m yet to find good answers to! But I thought I’d go over a few of the misconceptions that skeptics have just in case you have one (or all) of them:
The first misconception is that the Law of Attraction is just wishful thinking and all you need to do is think about what you want and it will materialise. But there’s a lot more that goes into it than that and the people who teach the Law of Attraction don’t hide it! While it’s important to think about what you want, there are many other things that are important too (I talk about some of them later in the post)! And as most of us live from a place of scarcity and lack, it takes some time to develop the skill set that’s required for the Law of Attraction to work.
The second misconception is that the Law of Attraction is a New Age woo-woo concept. As I mentioned before, the Law of Attraction pre-dates The Secret and was talked about by scientists such as Albert Einstein and also in classic books like Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill which was written in the 1930s. The Law of Attraction is not a new concept, though many are only just hearing about it for the first time now.
Another misconception is that you need to feel positive all of the time for the Law of Attraction to work. But that isn’t true at all! Negative feelings are part of being a human and if you resist negative emotion then you won’t be able to attract what you want. To use the Law of Attraction, you need to learn how to feel and process negative emotion rather than resisting it by procrastinating or eating or watching Netflix.
THE CONSCIOUS, SUBCONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS MIND
Earlier I mentioned that controlling your thoughts and feelings is an essential component of the Law of Attraction. And if you’re like most people, you probably immediately protest “but we have tens of thousands of thoughts everyday – there’s no way that we can control all of them”. And I hear you! Only a small percentage of the thoughts we have each day are conscious – apparently it’s around 10%. The other 90% is ruled by our subconscious and unconscious mind.
But the conscious mind can direct the subconscious mind and tell it what to do. At least, that’s what I’ve read! One of the main reasons that consciously thinking about what you want isn’t enough is because your subconscious mind needs to believe that it’s possible too. And our subconscious minds are programmed with thoughts and beliefs we don’t even realise that we have!
Basically, you need to learn how to be more purposeful with your conscious thoughts and beliefs (I like to use affirmations). And you can also do things to influence your subconscious beliefs, like repeating your new beliefs immediately before bed or after waking up, or listening to a guided meditation that reinforces the beliefs you want to create in your subconscious mind. As Earl Nightingale said: “Whatever we plant in our subconscious mind and nourish with repetition and emotion will one day become a reality”.
This is something I’m learning about at the moment so I can’t say too much more! But I have been listening to this free meditation mp3 from Youtuber Jake Ducey as soon as I wake up to see what impact it can have on my subconscious mind. And as I spoke about last week, I’ve had success with using affirmations to create new subconscious beliefs – you can find out more about that in this blog post!
LAW OF ATTRACTION TOOLS
There are many different tools that you can use to help you program your mind to focus on what you want. Here are some of them:
- Affirmations (read this)
- Visualisation (watch this)
- Guided Meditations (here are some on YouTube)
- Vision Boards (watch this)
- Acting As If (watch this or this)
And btw, I found this video about a woman who used the Law of Attraction to win 5,000+ competitions and contests and it’s not only completely fascinating (and the woman is super cute) but an amazing summary of how it all works.
LAW OF ATTRACTION ESSENTIALS
From what I understand so far, these things are all really important for the Law of Attraction to work:
Belief
You must believe that you already have that which you want. And I love the way Jim Carrey describes this concept. He said: “You get it when you believe you have it. People sit around and say ‘When’s it going to come? When it is going to come?’ But that’s the wrong way. You’re facing away from it. You have to say ‘It’s here, it’s here, it’s here’.” And side note – if you haven’t seen his old interview with Oprah about how he used the Law of Attraction to achieve his success – go and watch it now!
This one is challenging because your conscious brain will tell you that you’re just lying to yourself. But I love the way Lady Gaga described this: “You repeat it to yourself every day – ‘Music is my life. Music is my life. The fame is inside of me. I’m going to make a number one record and the number one hit.’ And it’s not yet, it’s a lie. You’re saying a lie over and over and over again but then one day, the lie is true.”
If you can begin to think and feel as though you already have it, it will be attracted to you (whereas if you focus on wanting it in the future, you will perpetuate the wanting rather than the having). People have called this ‘acting as if’ and I’ve found the easiest way to think about this is believing that I already have what I want but it’s just not reflected in reality yet.
Imagination
As I mentioned, you need to be willing to believe things that you don’t yet see. I honestly felt a bit delusional when I was first doing this kind of thing (that Lady Gaga quote describes it perfectly) but then I realised that I have THOUSANDS of thoughts each day that aren’t ‘real’ either (like all of my limiting beliefs) so why not at least imagine myself in a way that will help me achieve my goals? As Albert Einstein said: “Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.” Also this video about how Conor McGregor used imagination and visualisation to achieve his success is SO inspiring.
Emotion
It is important not only to believe that you have what you want but to also generate the emotion of already having it – as this is what makes it real. I’m definitely still practicing this!
Gratitude
If you’ve spent more than two seconds researching the Law of Attraction you will have heard mention of the word abundance. Which I think is basically the same thing as gratitude. When you are grateful for what you have, you are not in a place of scarcity or lack. And scarcity or lack will stop the Law of Attraction in its tracks. Start to be grateful for, and focus on, that which you do have and you will attract more of it into your life. I talk about my daily gratitude practice here.
Letting Go
While it’s important that you have a burning desire to get what you want, it’s also important that you’re not attached to getting it in a certain way or within a certain timeframe. And it’s super important that you don’t believe your future will be better than the present – as this is all coming from a place of scarcity and lack. Which is a big no no if you want the Law of Attraction to work its magic.
It takes time to learn how to desire something without being attached to it. And how to be grateful for what you currently have while desiring more (since we’re taught to want things from lack rather than abundance). This is something I’m definitely working on at the moment! But it’s not really a new concept – it’s something that people talk about all the time. You get what you want when you’re not being desperate and needy about it! Here’s a really helpful video that goes into more detail.
Persistence
Persistence and repetition are hugely important when it comes to the Law of Attraction, as it takes persistence to direct your thoughts for long enough to get the desired result (newsflash: it won’t happen overnight) and repetition to rewire your default thought patterns. You also have to stay strong in your belief, and not let any doubts in, when you come up against obstacles and experience setbacks. It takes real skill to believe in something when your reality is pointing to the opposite being true, but it’s essential! I loved this Jay-Z documentary on how he used the Law of Attraction to achieve his success!
Patience
As I mentioned just before, it will take time for your desires to materialise in the real world and they will often not happen in the way or timeframe that you had planned in your conscious mind. Be patient. And when things don’t turn out the way you want, think to yourself “if not this then something better”.
10 WAYS YOU’RE UNKNOWINGLY BLOCKING SUCCESS
I know all of this can be quite a lot to take in and it’s hard to know not just what you should be doing but what you shouldn’t be doing. So I recorded a podcast episode about 10 ways you’re unknowingly success to help you make sure that you’re not undermining all of your hard work without even realising it!
You can listen to the podcast episode below, you can click here to download it and take it with you or you can find it anywhere you listen to podcasts – just search for The Smart Twenties Podcast and find Episode 25.
MY FAVOURITE LAW OF ATTRACTION YOUTUBE CHANNELS
I’ve learned most of what I know about The Law of Attraction by watching hours and hours of Youtube videos so I thought I’d film a video about the most helpful channels I’ve found! In the video I also share why I love each channel and the exact videos I recommend watching. You can click here to watch it!
LAW OF ATTRACTION BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS
If you love reading, there are some incredible books that have been written about the principles of the Law of Attraction. Here are some great ones to start with:
- Ask and It Is Given: Learning To Manifest Your Desires by Esther and Jerry Hicks
- As A Man Thinketh by James Allen
- Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
- Get Rich, Lucky Bitch by Denise Duffield-Thomas
- The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo
GET STARTED WITH THE LAW OF ATTRACTION
You guys know that I create a workbook every week to help you dive into the topics we discuss but since I’ve found that using affirmations has been the best entry point for me, it’s hard for me to recommend anything else!
If you haven’t downloaded last week’s Affirmation Workbook yet you can click below to download your copy.
HAVE A QUESTION
Let me know in the comments below. I hope you’ve found this helpful!
Sam xx
These are some amazing tips on applying the law of attraction for beginners. I loved all the books on your list and learned alot from them. I will add that my favorite tool for manifesting with the law of attraction is a simple pen and paper. First thing I do is I write down all the things I am manifesting in my life. After that I make a list of all the problems that are in the way. When I do this I uncover limiting beliefs that hold me back. And also with time solutions to the problems I am facing come into my mind through my subconscious. I look forward to reading more about you in the future and hearing about your results! If your interested check out my site http://desiremanifestation.com