Maybe you’re a person who totally believes in what the book says – that like attracts like, and that with positive thinking you can create health, wealth and happiness.
Or maybe you’re one of the people who thinks that the whole thing is a big pile of hooey.
I’m not sure which side you might think I’m on. Personally, I think that the idea of “something for nothing”, or getting things just because you visualize them, is kind of ridiculous.
But at the same time – I DO believe in visualizing the things that you want. And I DO believe that through visualization, you can make the things you want real. You CAN turn your thoughts into things.
That’s sounds like I just said two completely opposite things, doesn’t it?
But I didn’t!
What I’m saying is that all the visualization in the world isn’t going to make something come true until you…
TAKE ACTION
To make it happen!
Here’s why I believe that.
Imagine that you want to lose 25 pounds. So you visualize a thinner you. You visualize yourself wearing cute little sundresses and bikinis, and imagine yourself hiking up mountains or going skiing – things the you(-25lbs) will be able to wear and enjoy that the current you(+25lbs) does not.
But all that visualization isn’t going do any good if you keep eating crappy food and sitting around on your butt in front of the computer.
So what’s the deal with that? Part of the problem is that the whole time you’re visualizing a thinner you, there’s another part of your brain that’s whispering “Yeah, remember the last time you tried to lose weight? Remember how you couldn’t stop thinking about food? Remember how much it hurt to exercise and how you ended up gaining 5lbs? You’re a failure and you’re always going to be fat.”
So simple visualization isn’t going to be enough. You need to start with identifying the beliefs that are stopping you; you need to change your mindset and create thoughts that will help you succeed.
And this is where visualization can work wonders – instead of visualizing “I’m 25 lbs lighter” – start visualizing yourself doing 30 minutes of exercise and feeling good about it. Start visualizing yourself eating healthy meals and enjoying them. Keep tweaking those visualizations until they are things that make you feel really good – and that’s when those visualizations will actually start coming true!
But that’s not the only way that “The Secret” works for you.
You may have heard of the “Red Car syndrome” – where, when you buy a red car, suddenly you start seeing red cars everywhere. Or perhaps you’ve heard of the “Blue Feather manifestation”… where you’re supposed to go about your day with the intention of having a blue feather appear in your life sometime within the next 48 hours.
These things are real – and they are one of the many functions of a part of your brain known as the reticular activating system (RAS). This particular function is called “confirmation bias”. You see, every day in your life, you’re exposed to so many BILLIONS of different stimuli that it’s absolutely impossible to pay attention to all of it. There’s so much information around us all the time, it would drive us crazy if we couldn’t filter most of it out. And that’s what the RAS does – it decides what things you need to pay attention to and what things you can let slide.
And by visualizing, focusing and concentrating on a certain object – like your brand new red car or that blue feather – when one of them passes by in your life, you notice it. It’s not because you “created them with your mind” – what you’ve actually done is created the circumstance in which you were more ready to recognize them when they came around.
Get that? You didn’t CREATE the blue feather, you created a mindset that was more attuned to seeing the blue feather when it passed by.
And this is how visualizations, manifesting and setting intentions can bring us wealth, happiness or love. There’s no magic to it – you aren’t making things appear out of thin air. But through your visualizations, you create a mindset where the path to having those things becomes more clear.
So, what The Secret and the law of attraction really do is get you to focus your attention on the things you truly want – goals that make you feel 100% good! – so that you can spot situations that will help you achieve those goals.
Visualizations help you create a mindset that moves you towards your goal, and manifest your desires.
It’s still YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to take action on those opportunities – and being 100% aligned with your goal helps you follow through.
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