Positive Thinking Activates the Law of Attraction
Positive thinking and the Law of Attraction are inextricably linked to my writing life.
Positive thinking was not an ingrained behavior that resulted from my upbringing, however. I was 35 years old before I finally recognized and accepted that there is real power in positive thinking. I had to learn about the New Thought Movement the hard way, though: by seeking answers for chronic pain.
A couple of years ago, I stumbled across the photo of Tiger Bunny, and I made him the mascot of my writing life. Much rarer than the Texas Jackalope, the elusive Tiger Bunny prowls the jungles of my mind, reminding me to tap the twin powers of Imagination and Perseverance to make my dreams come true.
"No one thinks in your mind except you," Tiger Bunny whispers. "Choose to focus the power of your mind on what you want to achieve. Imagine great things, and great things will occur!"
When I first announced to my friends and family that I was determined to become self-employed, living the writing life, I was approximately 13 years old. I'll never forget my father's reaction to my dream of becoming a published novelist. A nuclear physicist with a PhD, my father has always based his decisions upon what he describes as "reality” -- in other words, those things that are physically evident and therefore, can be safely cataloged as fact.
Positive thinking, in my father's opinion, makes one "feel good," but positive thinking has no quantifiable impact on accomplishment. My father, who was raised on the Puritan Work Ethic, insists that hard work and self-sacrifice are the keys to success, and that positive thought is merely imagination -- the "mumbo jumbo" of the New Thought Movement.
About a week after I professed my ambition to become a published novelist, my ever-practical father returned home from work and handed me an IRS document. This document reported the average salaries of the most popular professions. At the top of the list were the highest paying jobs; at the bottom of the list were the lowest paying ones.
Without saying a word, my father pointed to the last entry in the report. “Writer” was listed as earning 7 cents per hour.
The year was roughly 1975.
Since that time, I've met writers who are happy and successful. They're focused on the New Thought Movement rather than the Puritan Work Ethic. With their encouragement, I began studying the Law of Attraction and the power of positive thinking, reading such ground-breaking books as Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill; You Can Heal Your Life by Louise L. Hay; Creative Visualization by Shakti Gawain, and You Can't Afford the Luxury of a Negative Thought by Peter McWilliams.
As I educated myself in the New Thought Movement, I began to accept that the Puritan Work Ethic was not only making me miserable, it was limiting my ability to create the writing life that I'd always dreamed of. I came to believe that if hard work was the only criteria for accomplishing my writing goals, then I would have been a New York Times Bestseller by the age of 21.
Still, something was missing. My goals were slow in coming even through I was focusing my Imagaination, practicing creative visualization, and engaging in postive thinking.
Last year, I met a man -- a healer – who has performed miracles in public venues. He teaches his students (from heads of state, to professional athletes, to Hollywood celebrities, to authors like me) to consciously and deliberately focus the power of Imagination upon what they want, as opposed to what they don't want. Whether we choose to embrace the concept or not, he says, our minds are powerful magnets. What we focus upon is attracted into our lives.
He goes one step further, though. He has the courage to talk about the often unseen experience of "energy," the subtle vibrations that exist in all animate and inanimate matter, even though many people aren't sensitive enough, or aware enough, of such subtleties to recognize this energy in action.
As my healer friend and I were talking about the power of positive thinking and the Law of Attraction, he pointed out that if one always focuses upon what is physically evident (“the facts”), or if one accepts an existing circumstance as immutable (“reality”), then change cannot occur. Healing and prosperity cannot be achieved. Dreams cannot be made real.
“No one has more experience than a Writer at imagining a Reality into existence,” my friend encouraged me. “Believe what you want into form. Do it by taking action. Just one small step every day."
My healer friend has shown me that my positive thinking does change my personal energy. That my positive thinking activates the Law of Attraction. That it brings me the opportunities that eluded me earlier in my writing life.
Now the rest is up to me. Do I choose to recognize the new opportunity, or do I choose to use my Imagination in a negative way, letting fear blind me? Do I take action, or do I revert to the limiting beliefs that did not serve me earlier in my writing life?
There's an old adage, "If you keep doing what you've always done, you'll get what you always got."
As you read this post today, my challenge to you is to use your Imagination to create what you really want -- not what you think is possible, based on old, limiting beliefs that created your experiences in the past.
Choose to focus the power of your positive thinking upon the outcome you want to achieve, not on what you worry about. Not on what you haven’t accomplished yet. Use the Law of Attraction to make your dreams come true.
And while you're waiting for opportunity to knock, stay focused. Keep writing. Use the power of your Imagination to believe in your goals.
“Beliefs are not facts, but they do shape our reality.” ~ Dick Sutphen
“Beliefs are often other people’s opinions, and you have chosen to adopt them.” ~ Louise Hay
“The Intuitive Mind is a sacred gift, and the Rational Mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.” ~ Albert Einstein
"To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong." ~ Joseph Chilton Pearce
The journey of 1,000 miles starts with a single step. What small thing can you do right now, this moment, toward your goals?
Do it. Start now. Act today!
