The Law of Attraction essentially states that “like attracts like” and that the thoughts you are having right now are the first steps in creating your reality.  In other words, your thoughts create outcomes in your life. Your reality today is a result of what you have been consistently thinking (and feeling) up to this moment.

So if you’ve been thinking positive thoughts, why aren’t all the things you’ve been wanting to attract immediately happening?  Well, there is a time period between you having a thought, and it manifesting in glorious reality.  This time period allows you space to get into ‘alignment’ with what you want so that the manifestation becomes a lasting part of who you are.  It’s the powerful and persistent thoughts that will manifest themselves in your future, and there’s no limit to what that future can be.  That’s right, no limit. The great news about the Law of Attraction is that you can shape your future by simply identifying the future you would like and thinking (and feeling) the positive emotions of having it.

There are four basic steps –
1.    Identify the future you want
2.    Set goals
3.    Think about your goals regularly
4.    Practice what it would ‘feel’ like to have achieved these goals.

A helpful strategy is to write down a description of the future you desire and list the goals you would like to achieve. You can do this by using a journal (there’s one available on the Day Spa for the Mind site).  Set time aside regularly to look at and add to your journal. Spend time visualising your desired future and allow yourself to feel as much of this future as possible. You’ll find it an enjoyable experience – more so when you see how quickly the Law of Attraction begins to work. You’ll soon notice that people or circumstances that can help you achieve your goals will be drawn towards you.

One of the biggest tools in your chest for manifesting what you want is ‘Gratitude.’ Feeling grateful for what you already have and recognising the great things that happen to you on a daily basis is the path to achieving the bigger things.  It could be as simple as being grateful for the cool breeze through your window to being grateful for that new home or sports-car you can now afford… Whatever is coming into your life, find a way to ‘feel good’ about it.

The more time you spend holding the feelings of gratitude, abundance and happiness, the quicker the Universe will bring you more of the manifestation (or things) that keep you feeling good.  One very effective way of doing this is to meditate.  Meditation clears your mind of clutter and makes way for positive feelings.  Spending as little as 10 minutes each day on a focused meditation, according to Law of Attraction experts will put you in alignment with what you want in life.

Watch how each day brings you more of the things that will make you feel great; and one day, you’ll go back to your goals list and realise you’ve achieved them all – and it didn’t even feel like hard work!   Time to aim higher!

In the early 1950s when a book entitled ‘The Power of Positive Thinking’ was published in America, elements of the scientific community rushed to discredit it and its author, Methodist minister Normal Vincent Peale. At the time, Peale was running a clinic with a respected psychiatrist Smiley Blanton and apparently even Blanton distanced himself from Peale’s work. Peale was criticised for promoting autosuggestion and self hypnosis.

Over the following decades, the scientific and medical communities began to seriously research just how much influence thought can have on an individual’s mental and physical health. Now, in drug trials, scientists expect to see what they themselves have labelled the ‘Placebo Effect’ in some subjects. They too have fallen victim to skeptics – with debate and further experiments suggesting that administering physicians and experimenters contribute to the Placebo Effect by believing in it, which I’m sure you’d agree is somewhat ironic!  Research on the power of thought continues and now even encompasses the power of prayer and faith.

Our thoughts are closely tied to our emotions.  This has not escaped scientists either, with the benefits of laughter having been researched by several groups with varying results. Browse the Internet and you’ll find that some sources credit laughter with the ability to heal, particularly when it comes to illnesses brought on by stress. There is some suggestion that laughter stimulates the immune system.

Exactly how thought and emotion influence our well being hasn’t been entirely proven to the satisfaction of scientists, but there seems little doubt that they can indeed have a significant impact.  Simple logic would suggest that if your thoughts towards yourself are positive you would feel better. Somehow, I think there’s much more to it than that – but not understanding the scientific ins and outs of my digestive system certainly doesn’t stop me believing that I have to eat.

Ok, it is a little easier said than done, but here are a few things to be aware of that will help to boost your ability to attract the things you want in your life:

Our conscious mind is bombarded with varying degrees of negativity during any normal day – there are all the challenges of family life or work, often followed by half an hour of mostly unpleasant television news, and listening to our loved ones as they recount the frustrations of their day.  If we filter out all the negative thoughts and replace them with positive ones, it will create profound improvements to our daily reality.

Its also important to understand that thoughts create things, that is; our current thoughts set the tone for the upcoming events in our lives and in fact, can create (or manifest) those events.  A continuous stream of negative thought will manifest a continuous stream of negative events.  However, if you set aside 15-30 minutes a day to input positive information you’ll soon discover that you can create a reality filled with positive events.

How does this work?  Well, the universal law of attraction says that ‘like attracts like,’ meaning that essentially, what you put out into the universe in the form of thoughts, emotions and actions are what you will receive back… not necessarily the same things, but you will attract events that will cause you to feel more of what you send out.  If you don’t make time to improve the thoughts you are sending out you will continue to unintentionally accumulate negative thoughts and your life will be a reflection of these feelings.

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So spending a set amount of time each day on consciously creating positive feelings, through meditation, hypnosis or goal setting, will help you to ‘consciously create’ your reality.  We all need to understand that time devoted to this activity is not a luxury but a necessity.  If you want to improve your life and attract positive events, you simply must make the time to do it.

If you’re unfamiliar with meditation, it can take some practice.  The important thing to keep in mind is to not feel angry or upset that you’re not able to ‘get in the zone.’
If you do find your mind wanders, visualise a box, and happily file the thought in the box for later.  Gradually, you’ll be able to retain a quiet mind for longer periods.  Even a few minutes of meditation can refresh you by removing the negative clutter. You may also find that insightful thoughts turn up unexpectedly when your mind is not cluttered with negative thoughts!  See previous article on the universal unconscious.

The second step is to ‘add’ positive thoughts. This can be done with affirmations or hypnosis techniques to send your mind positive messages not only to your inner self but out into the universe. If you do this regularly, you’ll soon understand the amazing power you have to take control of your life, and manifest positive events on a regular basis!

Meditation and hypnosis have been practiced for centuries. Some eastern religions consider meditation to be the pathway to enlightenment.

Meditation and hypnosis share a common goal – to quieten your conscious mind. They operate on the same principle – that quietening the conscious mind opens the door to the unconscious. During meditation you quieten your conscious mind to receive peace or enlightenment. Under hypnosis, you open the pathway to the unconscious (sometimes referred to as the subconscious) to alter your beliefs or retrieve repressed information.  Both hypnosis and meditation strive to improve our conscious lives by accessing the unconscious.

To understand how meditation and hypnosis work, it helps to understand your different levels of consciousness.  We all understand what our conscious mind is, but when we attempt to define the unconscious we get a little lost.

Famous psychiatrist Carl Jung worked daily with the unconscious minds of patients he treated and he wrote a great deal about it. He concluded that there were two levels of the unconscious mind. The first, he described as a personal unconscious which contains all the things we’ve forgotten, whether accidentally or intentionally (repression).  The second, he referred to as the ‘collective unconscious’ which contains hereditary material, like our instincts, and other information somehow available to all human beings.

Jung knew that the unconscious was a powerful thing. Not only could it provide us with insights and knowledge not available to the conscious mind, for example ESP and premonitions – but our unconscious knowledge seemed capable of manifesting particular physical experiences in our conscious life.

His research suggested to him that in states where the conscious mind is at rest, material from the unconscious has the opportunity to slip through, and does so.  In other words, you can open a pathway to the ‘collective unconscious’ and a volume of information your conscious mind cannot possibly imagine!

Your conscious mind is at rest during sleep, hypnosis, and meditation. In the coming weeks, we’ll explain some of the ways you can use the power of the unconscious to improve your life - so check back regularly!