My last post in this Happiness series showed how we can direct our thoughts to attract things that make us happy. Feeling happy, in turn, enables the power of thought. We can create an upward feedback spiral.
But as quoted in The Secret, John Assaraf says, “You… attract what you think about most… Here’s the problem. Most people are thinking about what they don’t want.”
Bob Doyle adds, “The law of attraction doesn’t care whether you perceive something to be good or bad, or whether you don’t want it or whether you do want it. It’s responding to your thoughts. So if you’re looking at a mountain of debt, feeling terrible about it, that’s the signal that you’re putting out into the universe… You feel it on every level of your being. That’s what you’re going to get more of.”
Telling yourself not to think about something doesn’t work. Try this: Don’t think about a blackbird. In your minds eye, you pictured a blackbird, right? The way not to think about a blackbird is to think about a bluebird or a carrot or a house—focus on something else.
Focus on what you do want. So if you’re thinking, I don’t want rain, switch to, I want sunshine. If you don’t want chicken for supper, visualize spaghetti.
Jack Canfield says, “It’s okay to notice what you don’t want, because it gives you contrast to say,’This is what I do want.’ But the fact is, the more you talk about what you don’t want, or talk about how bad it is, read about that all the time… Well you’re creating more of that.”
I live on the Gulf Coast. I watch the weather forecast every day during hurricane season. If there’s a storm in the Gulf, I get enough supplies to last several days, gas up the car and charge the phones. That much is prudent. But once we’re prepared, I turn off the TV and read. I check the forecast a couple of times a day, not a couple of times an hour.
I bet some readers are thinking things that begin with, “But…” Please send them to me. I’ll address them next time.
View and purchase my latest book Love on the Rocks with a Twist here.
View and purchase Bridges to Consensus here.