In 1993, I was 19 years old, I was in the Saint Michel district, near the fountain, to buy books for college at Gibert Jeunes. I was poking around in the eco-shelves when a book, very thin, caught my eye. It was published by “Presses du Management” and was entitled “Pensez Positif – comment réussir la vie personnelle et professionnelle grâce à la Pensée Positive”. This book by Gilles Prod’Homme normally cost 98 francs at a discount of 50. I bought it and started reading it on the RER back home.
It was the first time I had read a book on personal development with concrete exercises, and related to professional success. I was a pessimist at heart (I told myself that always expecting the worst would allow me to never be disappointed…), but it turned my vision of things upside down: thinking was much more creative than I thought!
All this to tell you that at that time I touched with my finger notions that I sometimes buried far away, but never completely forgot, and that sometimes resurfaced… This was the case when, a few years ago, I watched the documentary “The Secret” by Rhonda Byrne. This film was a hit on Netflix. Despite the haphazard editing, the tremolo music, the old grimoires, the actors in period clothing… you have to manage to extract the meat of it. Shortly afterwards, when discussing it with others, I saw two types of reactions: some had bright eyes and said “What if it was that simple? Just think about what you want to get it?” Others were adamant: “It doesn’t work, it’s rubbish!”.
In the first version of the doc, Esther Hicks is one of the masters of ceremony: she gets her teachings from Abraham, a non-physical entity, via channelling. So I went deeper into the subject by reading 2 of her books “Ask and it is Given” and again “The Law of Attraction”. I propose to explain the content of these books so that you understand how the law is supposed to work.
Law of Attraction
What is similar attracts to itself what is similar.
Everything that happens in your life and in the lives of others is affected by the Law of Attraction. It is the basis of everything you experience.
It reacts to the thoughts that you constantly cultivate, you create your own reality. Everything that you experience happens in your life because the Law of Attraction reacts to the thoughts that you put out. Whether you are recalling a past event, observing something in the moment, or imagining the future, the thought that occupies you in the present triggers a vibration in you and the Law of Attraction responds instantly.
There is no such thing as “no” to your brain: if an unhappy situation revolts you, it creates emotion in you, and that emotion will create more of the same. Attention to any subject amplifies it, because it activates its vibration and the Law of Attraction reacts to this amplified vibration. This explains why “it doesn’t work!” or why “it’s too difficult! We are much more used to reacting against something we don’t like, to focusing on what we don’t want to get… Whether your focus is on things you want or don’t want, materializations of your thoughts will abound in your direction. I have a friend for whom the law of attraction works like a charm… she attracts everything she doesn’t want! She puts so much emotion into it every time she talks about it…
The more attention you give to a subject, the more often you think about it, the more powerful it becomes; and the stronger the point of attraction that connects you to it, the more manifestations of that subject you will have in your life. Just like a magnet!
That’s why you shouldn’t focus on what is, but on what you want. You have to deliberately redirect your thoughts. But it is not enough to say every morning in front of the mirror “I’m rich!” “I have my driving licence!” or “I’m getting married this year” for this to work: don’t forget, your thoughts must be associated with a strong emotion for the vibration emitted to have enough power and therefore enough creative power.
Thoughts that you cultivate without a strong emotional energy associated with them have little magnetic power. So, in the end, the majority of your thoughts do not have much power of attraction. They merely maintain more or less what you have already attracted.
Exercice : the Creative Workshop
How can we do this? Our conscious thoughts are only a small proportion. If we have strong limiting beliefs about the subject in question (money, success, marriage…) they will be more powerful because they will carry the highest vibration.
Jerry and Esther Hicks recommend the following exercise, which I have personally tested and approved!
Duration: 15 to 20 minutes per day
Location: quiet, undisturbed
State: to be well, soothed before starting (listen to music, dance, pet a cat… to put yourself in a state of joy and serenity)
Task: to assimilate the beautiful moments accumulated during one’s life as well as the things one wishes to attract into one’s life, material or not…
Goal: to use it to feed the emotion during the visualisation
How: close your eyes and see an image of yourself as you wish to be, with all the details, feel the joy as if it were already there, BELIEVE IT.
If you have never done visualization or if it is difficult for you, you can help yourself with words. Here is a text that appears in the book and that may give you some inspiration.
“I see a complete representation of myself, which I know is the result of my own creation, my own choices. In this image of myself, I am full of energy. I see myself attracting only those people who are in harmony with my current intentions. And with each passing moment, I am becoming clearer about what I want.
I recognise that I am unlimited in all facets of my life; I have an unlimited bank account, and as I progress in my experiences, it is exhilarating to know that none of my choices are limited by money. I only make my decisions based on whether I want to have an experience or not, not on whether I can afford it or not. I choose absolute and continuous abundance, because I understand that there is no limit to the abundance of the Universe and that by attracting it to myself, I am not limiting anyone. There is enough for everyone. The key is for each of us to be aware of it and desire it, and then we will all attract it.
I see myself in perfect health. I picture myself enjoying absolute prosperity. I visualise myself overflowing with life, enjoying once again this physical existence that I so strongly desired when I was incarnated on Earth. And it is from this wonderful state of being that I now attract even more of everything I love.
I will now leave this Workshop with a resolution – for the rest of the day – to continue to look for the things I love.
When a negative emotion arises, gently shift to something you really want to experience, a bit like when you meditate and a stray thought arises: let it pass like a windswept cloud.
The idea is that little by little you will change your thinking habits. Whenever you can identify what you don’t want, you can also identify what you do want. In other words, you will gradually build bridges from your current beliefs, which deal with things you don’t want, to beliefs about what you do want.
The feelings you have are your point of attraction and the best way to understand the Law of Attraction is to think of yourself as a magnet that attracts more and more of the same kind of thing.
Rather than monitoring your thoughts (which is very difficult), pay attention to your feelings.
The Science of Deliberate Creation
What I think about, and what I believe in or hope for, happens.
You will get what you think about, whether you like it or not. And that’s really what you have to understand. It’s very difficult for people in trouble to be told that everything bad that happens to them has been invited into their lives.
Of course, we don’t invite these unpleasant things deliberately. And yet, we attract all this… by thinking about it. As we issue thoughts by default, the Laws react to our thoughts, causing results we don’t understand and don’t want.
Each of our emotions tells us in the present moment whether what we are thinking, saying or doing is appropriate or not. So, when a thought is not in vibrational alignment with our overall intention, our inner being causes a negative emotion. These emotions are actually super helpful! If you pay attention to your feelings, controlling your thoughts will prove useless. In short, whenever negative emotions are present in you, you are precisely creating negative, whether by your thoughts, words or actions.
The Science of Deliberate Creation is a delicately balanced Law. It has two parts: on the one hand, the thought of what you desire; on the other, the expectation of what you have created through thought, or belief in what you have created, or allowing your thought to materialise in your life: when you doubt, you stifle your creation.
If you focus on what you lack, you will attract more lack. Every subject is really twofold: what you want and the absence – or lack – of what you want.
Exercise to assist deliberate creation
There is an exercise in the book to help you focus your thoughts on what you really want and manage these two parts of the equation.
Take 3 sheets of paper, and at the top of each page, write down one thing you want. Then take the first page and, under the object of your desire, write: “Here are the reasons why I want this…”
Write down what comes to mind, in a fluid way: don’t force anything. Then, when nothing else comes to mind, stop.
Then turn the page over and write at the top of the back: “These are the reasons I think I would get this…”.
The front of the page intensifies what you want (which is the first half of the Deliberate Creation equation). The reverse side strengthens your belief that you will get it (representing the second half of the equation).
The best thing to do is to set aside some time each day to intentionally synthesize your thoughts into a kind of general vision of what you want to experience, to make a kind of journal for this purpose.
As your day unfolds, set the intention to notice the things you like. And as you collect this data, you will increase the resources that you can then use in your Creative Workshop (see first exercise).
The Art of Allowing
I am what I am, and I am willing to allow others to be what they are.
To apply the Art of Allowing, one must understand that everyone has their own map of the world, everyone has their own truth. We are not here to impose our vision. In fact, what makes the richness of humanity is precisely our differences. Nature does not encourage sameness and conformity. On the contrary, diversity stimulates creativity.
Only when you realise that such and such a person cannot be part of your life experience unless you invite them into your thoughts (or pay attention to them), and that such and such a circumstance cannot come into your existence without your thoughts (or observation), will you become the Enabler you aspire to be.
The reason so many people are unwilling to allow others to do what they do is due to a lack of understanding of the Law of Attraction, which leads them to believe that another’s experience – which is not suitable for them – could contaminate their own. Because they have undesirable experiences, or see others having them, they conclude that since it would never occur to anyone to deliberately have such bad experiences, the threat must be real.
Beware! When I tolerate others, I am not practising the Art of Allowing.
A Tolerator experiences a negative emotion. A Permitter does not. And that makes a very big difference, because it is in the absence of negative emotion that freedom lies. You cannot know freedom as long as you have negative emotions.
Your present thoughts are preparing for the future: there will come a day when you will have achieved what they foresee and you will then enjoy the results of what you are thinking now, just as you are now experiencing the consequences of the thoughts you have cultivated in the past.
Exercise: Intent by Segment
I love this exercise, it has become a habit. It’s easy, no need to isolate yourself, visualise or take a pen and paper. It’s a process of identifying specifically what you want at a particular time.
For example, when you wake up in the morning, you start a new segment. The time when you are still in bed, but already awake, is also a segment. The time when you prepare your breakfast is another segment. When you get into your car to go to work or to the shops, you enter a new segment, and so on.
Whenever you are aware that you are moving into a new segment of your life, pause and say out loud, or in your head, what you want most for that segment. This will avoid confusion due to the influence of others or your own unintentional thoughts.
I can either orchestrate my life or live it by default. Which do I choose?
The reason Segmental Intention is so effective is because there are so many things to focus on and if you try to deal with all of them at once, you get scattered. By focusing on certain topics at each segment, you allow the Law of Attraction to react more strongly.
For example, before I get up in the morning I say to myself, “When I set foot on the ground, I will be full of energy to have a wonderful day.”
When I get into my car: “The journey will be smooth and there will be a parking space waiting for me when I arrive”.
When I’m about to make a phone call to a prospect: “Mrs X will be delighted with my explanations, the connection will be superb and she’ll ask me to give her a quote.”
To conclude
So, you get it. There is not ONE Law but MANY Laws. And no, it is not so simple to give orders to the Universe thanks to our thoughts because sometimes our unconscious fears do an undermining job behind our backs! But we are the leaders! We have this creative power, let’s use it deliberately.
A negative thought comes up? First step: become aware of it! Step two: replace it: this is what I don’t want, so what do I want instead?
If I don’t really know what I want in my life, if it’s too general and I feel anxious thinking about it? No problem, I do the segment exercise: how do I want the next hour to go?
Finally, a last piece of advice, I do things consciously, I linger on the pretty things, I notice the smiles, the nice smelling flowers, the kind gestures instead of focusing on the price of petrol, the crowded metro or the appalling character of the new colleague…
What does all this have to do with Feng Shui? Seriously? you don’t make the connection? 😉
Remember the Cosmic Trinity: the luck of Heaven, the luck of Man (Law of Attraction) and the luck of the Earth (Feng Shui).
According to these precepts, we can act on 2/3 of our potential destiny, via our life choices, our thoughts, and via the places in which we evolve. The key to success, in order to be able to seize the opportunities generated by a favourable environment, is to have a constructive and positive attitude, to make changes consciously, with our objectives in mind, in short, by deliberately creating what we wish to see happen in our lives.
