The Law of Attraction: A Review of How to Achieve Just Anything

Introduction

The law of attraction is a philosophy that holds that human being attracts what their subconscious mind believes in (Senn, 1971). The law of attraction is the possibility to attract to ourselves the things that we (our minds) are focusing on. Generally, the law of attraction uses the human brain to transform their thoughts and desires into tangible results. Basically, all human thoughts eventually translate into things. Byrne, Clore, and Worchel, (1966) demonstrated the law of attraction by studying human to human attraction in a love relationship. As their study revealed, people were attracted to what they believed to be the perfect person, for instance, if a person believes that a religious and faithful woman is perfect from their life socialization, they tend to fall in love with such a person (Byrne, Clore, and Worchel, 1966). The law of attraction, however, goes beyond the human to human attraction, and basically covers all facets of a person’s life. The law holds, that a person is attracted or attracts that which they believe about themselves for instance, a person who believes they should be happy ends up being happy, and about the world such as a person who believe they should be a leader ends up depicting leadership qualities and taking leadership roles in different aspects in their life (Senn, 1971).

Very few people are aware of the effect and the impact that the law of attraction actually has on their daily lives. John William (1964) posited that the human brain acts like a magnet sending and attracting thoughts subconsciously. William (1964) believed that the subconscious mind directs our conscious thoughts, behaviors and attitudes without one being aware of it. William was alluding to the idea that our actions are directed by the subconscious brain which psychologists have demonstrated that is controlled by our beliefs, wishes and aspirations (Kent, 2019). The law of attraction brings these concepts together and holds that our daily lives are a manifestation of our inner subconscious believes; a person is what he thinks, and a person thinks what he believes (Levitt & Dubner, 2014). Simply placed, what the human brain thinks, wishes that we make and even the perception of ourselves comes true eventually. True believers of the law of attraction believe that one can use it to achieve just about anything (Vitale, 2009). It is very unfortunate that the majority of us have no idea of the power hidden within us.

Everything that we see in the world and everything that humans see was essentially first found in our mind as an expression or thought then they manifested in the planet. Both the positive and negative things in our world have all originated in our brains. Hence if we are concerned about the result, we need to tame our minds to think the right things and have the power over our thoughts.

If one's mind is organized to a certain level of organization, it also organizes the whole system. The law of attraction states that one's entire system (the body, brain, emotion and the important life energies) is organized in uniformity, anything we wish happens with or without doing a single thing. The only problem right now is the diversity in our direction and thoughts, everybody keeps changing their directions hence the four dimensions are moving in different directions. Organizing our mind means moving from a compulsive to a conscious state of action.

The law of attraction is directly related to the human brain as the brain is the source of all thoughts and perceptions. Here we divide the brain into two segments where we have the conscious and the subconscious mind. All the information and habits that we processed as kids are found in the subconscious mind forming a part called a paradigm.

We think through our conscious mind hence building ideas. We can think of anything that we want. If we think Z type thoughts, this will give us Z type vibrations hence Z type results. The thoughts that we think are sent to the subconscious mind and they control the vibrations that we are in hence dictating the way we act and what we attract. If we desire to change the results, we first have to change the thoughts that we think. As Martineau (1958) observed, people, behave in line to what they feel about themselves, for instance, if a person walks into a retail store and feels that they are smartly dressed, they will tend to think that everyone who is staring at them is moved by their beauty and in the process enjoy the stares, on the other hand, a person who feels that they left the house without grooming themselves and are probably dirty, will fell that the stares are out of scorn and will be shy about it. Martineau (1958) observed that these reactions and judgments are not based on any facts, rather on one’s personal believes and thoughts. The mind jumps to a conclusion about just anything based on preconceived perception which arises from past experiences.

Also, we can say that everything has its own type and level of energy and each of these energies has its own vibrational frequencies. The energies with the same frequencies seem to attract each other and vice versa. This means that if we think positive thoughts, we attract positive results and at the same, we attract people with the same mindset as we do (Peacock, & Scott, 2000).

The law of attraction is everywhere, and it affects everyone whether they like it or not. A human being cannot help but have thoughts and in the same way, they cannot help but turn the thoughts into reality. Whether we think positive or negative thoughts don't affect the manifestation. For example, if we are consistently thinking about our financial issues and loans, we will constantly have financial problems. Continued ignorance of our thoughts slowly and undetectably manifest negative activities/results and also people in our life. As I stated earlier, it is as simple to attract positive results (people and things) in our lives as it is as negative. Hence it makes total sense to have the power of control over what we allow in our minds and the way they impact our future.

History of the Law of Attraction

A majority of people who know about the law of attraction think that it originated from the book and movie The Secret hence they think that the law is a recent discovery. The fact is that the law of attraction is centuries old. We can retrace the roots of the law back to a variety of ancient activities and teachings. Although it was referred to as the law of attraction, it is evident that it was referred to in Christianity and in the Buddhist information resources. This is explained by Buddha's famous quote that we are all made and shaped by our thoughts. Jesus also described our creative power as limitless (LeDoux, 2003).

Buddhism and the Law of Attraction

The ideas of the law of attraction are very similar to the teaching of Buddhism. There have been speculations that Buddha knew that the mind holds a sacred power that controls each and every facet of human life. Buddhism is based on the view that all powers and all the things that revolve around a person’s life come from within him. One of the most popular teachings is that “the activities of the mind have no limit, they form the surroundings of life. An impure mind surrounds itself with impure surroundings” (Kyōkai, 2005, p. 34). What Buddha meant here is that the energy in the mind attracts similar energy. This means like pole attracts, unlike the laws of physics. This resonates with the teaching of the law of attraction which indicates that human attracts what is within their subconscious.

Buddhism applies this teaching, one of the most important beliefs in Buddhism is that disciples of buddha should never forget or abandon his teaching rather treasure them and always practice them (Kyōkai, 2005, p. 8). By requiring this of his disciples, Buddhism tries to ensure that the teachings of buddha guide their daily life. More direct teaching maybe is, “the point of my teaching is to control your own mind. Keep your mind from greed, and you will keep your behavior right, your pure and your words faithful. By always thinking about transiency of your life, you will be able to resist greed and anger, and will be able to avoid all evils.” (Kyōkai, 2005, p. 8). This teaching is core in Buddhism and it solely focusses on the use of the mind to influence our actions. This teaching as Tara Springett (2011) observed seeks to guide all Buddhists that the power to control what they think, feel and do lies within controlling what they think. As such, Buddhism teaches that we should not look for enemies from outside, but from within.

Reviewing the teachings of Buddhism which have been in existence for more than two centuries indicate that the wisdom of the law of attraction is not a recent development, rather an idea that has been with the people for a long time. Buddhism teaches that for one to gain enlightenment, one must be able to harness their power from within (Kyōkai, 2005). To some extremes, early Buddhists believed that one could achieve everything by just harnessing their inner power. The Tibet Buddhists as did some other Buddhist sects believed that one could make their own heaven on earth by reaching down within themselves (Springett, 2011). This means that one could achieve total happiness by finding happiness within themselves. Buddhism’s taught that finding positive energy and happiness through meditation can lead to one being truly happy. This is in line with the understanding of the law of attraction. Thus, it can be argued that although they Buddhists did not give the ability to harness the power of our mind a name, they were conscious of the power that rests within our mind and how our thoughts can affect our lives as well as how we perceive things in life. Buddhism beliefs are very similar to Hinduism believes as depicted in the law of karma that teaches that “As you sow, so shall you reap” and its guiding principle that teaches that “what we think we become” and “our thoughts create our reality” (Kaufman, 2005).

The wisdom of law of attraction before the 19^th century

One of the ancient pearls of wisdom recorded in the Hermetic philosophy. Fortune & Knight (1999) while studying Hermetics in early Greece and Egypt found that Hermetics taught that what is within is manifested in our actions. Atkinson and Deslippe (2011) in their book title “The Kybalion” give the second law of Hermetics as “As above, so below; as below, so above.” This when applied to humans they say means that we manifest what lies within our subconscious. This means that human behavior is influenced by what they believe. The first law of Hermetics is however more direct, “THE ALL IS MIND; The Universe is Mental” (Atkinson and Deslippe (2011). This law is often translated to mean that human beings create their world using their minds. This generally means that a person tends to interpret the surrounding based on their emotions, knowledge and beliefs.

Law of Attraction in the 19^th and 20^th Centuries

This is seen as the beginning of the new thought movement which led to the introduction of manifestation and consciousness. Many authors played important roles development process of the LOA including Thomas Troward and Helena Blavatsky.

Helena was believed to be a spiritual instructor in many countries. She was believed to possess a spiritual gift. She wrote a book The Secret Doctrine which is believed to overlap with what is now the law of attraction. In her book, she argued that the thoughts we possess, and humans' identity are what describe who we can and cannot do and whom we become. She specifically emphasized on the possibility to control our reality and overcome our limitations. She quoted that "history is written by the power of ideas and that the world operates from within outwards".

Thomas Troward is believed to have influenced widely monographs of the law of attraction like The Secret. He like Madame Blavatsky believed in spiritual traditions. He stated that the brain is the medium of all divine activities and that believing in limitations is the core source and cause of limitations. Thomas also said that we cannot contradict our thoughts and actions and gave a secret of enjoying life by showing interest in it.

In 1906 William Walker Atkinson released his new book “Thought Vibration or The Law of Attraction in the Thought World”. This is where the term law of attraction first originated from. He specifically used the word vibration which was rarely used then. He introduced the basic concepts in the law which are thought, energy vibration and manifestation in a well-explained way. He also explained the importance and ability to manifest thoughts and wishes.

In 1910 Wallace Delois Wattles elaborated on the creative part that thought plays in the manifestation process and explained the huge role energy, in his book "The Science of Getting Rich". He explained the concept of gratitude in detail as a method to help in the manifestation process. Also, napoleon hill published a book "Think and Grow Rich" which explained how we can use our mind to actually achieve our dream, for example, wealth and happiness.

IN 1986, Jerry and Esther Hicks came up with the most important information resources on the Law of Attraction. They started by channeling information from non-tangible things that they called "Abraham". Both of them give workshops, advice, and seminars. Today even after the death of Jerry, Esther channels Abraham's response to any questions from the audience. This work was faced by difficulty since people were not on board with the fact that non-physical beings communicated to and through them. People slowly understood the concept and the law.

Perception

As with any other concept, perception does not have one agreed-upon definition. Tony Fahkry (2014) definition that “Perception is the brain’s way of interpreting ambiguous visual signals in the most likely explanation possible. These explanations are a direct result of past experience” is however reflective of the general understanding. Perception is simply what we think and interpretation of the current situation in order to understand the information present. This means that perception is the set of knowledge held within each percent that influences how they understand different situations.

Friedrich Nietzsche (1992) is famously quoted to have said “All things are subject to interpretation. Whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not the truth.” Here Nietzsche meant that things are not interpreted based on truths but rather based on power. For instance, in recent experience, a black guy was chasing after a lady who was holding something in her hand. The guy seemed so mad and ready to explode. Some other young men stopped him and called the cops. The guys who stopped him had already made perception and judged the situation. They assumed that the guy was just simply someone who was trying to hurt the lady. After the police arrive, they learned that the lady had snatched the guy’s phone and taken off with it. The guys had simply made a judgment based probably on their past experiences or based on the belief in the society at the moment.

Perception is thus a power through which humans understand ambiguous situations. Perception is built by past experiences. From the famous Pavlov dog’s experiment, it was discovered that the mind can be conditioned to form a particular understanding (walker, 2017). This understanding affects how a person behaves when exposed to a certain stimulus. For instance, kids learn from their parents by observing their responses, accordingly, if a kid is congratulated for doing something, they tend to want to do that thing often and avoid the things that they do not get a reward for doing. This behavior is evident in persons of all ages, for instance, during games such as football, scoring is cerebrated. If people find themselves playing, even for practice, they will then find themselves trying to score even when scoring is not to be rewarded and neither is it necessary because maybe the practice is simply to improve dribbling abilities. However, the brain has been conditioned to perceive scoring as something worth enjoying. Without even knowing, the players will feel a deep drive to score even when scoring is not important. Similarly, a person who experienced bullying in school and every time they stood to speak up, they were ridiculed, tends to be shy and reserved for the rest of their lives choosing to hold back their ideas even when they feel they are correct. In all life situations, human beings judge things based on their perceptions which are developed through past experiences. this happens subconsciously as Robert Cialdini (1993) demonstrates “Often we don’t realize that our attitude toward something has been influenced by the number of times we have been exposed to it in the past.”

Similarly, we find ourselves judging or making perceptions about others just by mere observation. Making the incorrect perceptions about other people without knowing/understanding the whole picture can be a problem in the application of the law of attraction for achieving one's goals, wishes, and desires (Losier, 2012).

In our day to day life, everyone has a different perception of the other. When we think that we know what happens in our partners, friends or workmate’s lives without actually knowing, we are just simply judging them. At that very time, this attracts to us a situation similar to the one we already made of others. This means that we should not be quick to make assumptions about others without actually knowing them. This also applies in that we could prematurely perceive someone as the perfect match to be in our lives, yet we don't really know them hence attracting negativity in our lives.

Simply put, if we define our perception by seeing positivity in others, the positivity will be attracted to us through the law of perception. It also applies to the negative perceptions which of others and their situations, the negative will get back in your life. This tells us that emotionally attached perception is powerful energy towards accelerating the law of attraction. But all is not lost, if one has had negative experiences that have over time led to the formation of negative perceptions, one can change this actively. Covey (2004) argues that “To change ourselves effectively, we first had to change our perceptions.” Supporters of the law of attraction posit that this is possible, they indicate that one can change their perception through practice, and this can help to form new perceptions.

One of the most important methodologies to change from negative to positive perceptions is the use of positive thinking. Napoleon Hill and Stone (1991) argued that through positive reaffirmation where one replaces negative thoughts with positive thoughts, one can change their perception about just anything. This process follows replacing thoughts such as, “I think I will not pass the interview” with a positive thought such as seeing oneself being congratulated after passing the interview such as “Congratulation’s, we are glad to welcome you into our team”. Hill and Stone (1993) argue that it is important to not only think positively but think of the positive outcomes. Thinking of the outcomes resonates with the vision and the dreams that one holds, and this acts as a positive energy that strengthens the vision and gives it life.

Positive and Negative Thought Waves

Firstly, we need to understand what positive and negative waves/energy is and also know how to identify and differentiate between the two. Positive energy is just a group of attitudes, emotions and thinking patterns that are significant and helpful to us, while negative energy is the above activities but, in this case, they cause harm and/or hurt us in the long-run.

Positive waves tend to create positive vibrations. This could lead to a change in attitude and even the way we perceive different circumstances and even others. When we tend to create positive energy around us it lights us up and this means that we will have positive thoughts hence positive perceptions. In the same way, negative thoughts tend to induct negative energy around us. This causes bitterness and negativity in our activities hence negative perception and judgment of situations and others. We need to identify different waves and differentiate the positive waves from the negative.

I am first-hand testimony that waiting on a manifestation can be very frustrating. Sometimes this frustration leads to doubt which then tends to create a crisis in the mind. All this leads to manifestation and circulation of negativity in our subconscious mind. We might not be aware of what is going through our subconscious mind. The problem is that we constantly feed our minds with negative thoughts without even knowing.

Human beings face a lot of different activities in their daily lives. These activities and circumstances are either positive or negative. The situations seem to induce thoughts into our conscious mind. Then the information is processed and fed to the subconscious mind. It is our subconscious mind that then sends the thoughts to our bodies causing vibrations that lead to desired results.

The results that we get are mostly what we might have desired. This is because we do not have control over our minds and the thoughts that we think. Also, perception and misjudgment play a very huge role in the results. Most of us perceive a situation and other people wrongly and hence affecting our thoughts and in the long run our desires and results.

We need first to differentiate between positive waves and negative waves. In order to do this, we must learn how to make the right perceptions. I know this seems confusing and even maybe I am overlapping sometimes. Our subconscious mind in this phase the most important one. Theta is a part of the mind that downloads information and thoughts into the subconscious.

In order to decide and focus on the positive and significant situations, we need to have total control over our subconscious mind. Easy right? It might seem easy but as a fact, it is not as easy as it sounds. A few years ago, I met a man, James, who was in his mid-40s. The man was giving advice to cancer patients since he himself was a cancer victim. I later came to work with him, and he amazed me by the way he did not fear death or that cancer would grow to its final stage. Every time I could hear him say "I am healthy and strong, and I'll be taking the conference until I grow old". I could not understand why he seemed so happy, yet he had stage 3 cancer.

I finally asked him why he does that, and his answer seemed crazy at that moment. Now that I am familiar with the law of attraction, I understand very well, and I wish all human beings can emulate James. James said that he was always speaking health and strength in his life repetitively so as to convince the subconscious mind that he was actually healthy. This is because our subconscious mind is the strongest and it has its own power. Our minds can do anything that we want them to do. James 10 years later is stronger and cancer-free, and he is still speaking and sending positive messages to his mind.

I think that for us to gain control over our subconscious mind we need to first be aware of how it works. We need to know where our awareness and perception goes in our mind. We need to speak a positive word about ourselves. People actually do this, but the problem is that they don't do it enough. Most of us only think positive thoughts for only 5% each day. For us to master our mind we need to not only think positive thoughts but also speak positivity on ourselves. We at least need 90% of positivity spoken to our subconscious mind every day. When we think negative thoughts, they cause negative energy and vibrations. The energy determines a lot of things in our life i.e. whom we attract and what happens to us and our desires.

Another factor that assists us in identifying and differentiating between positive and negative waves is awareness of our desires. We can shift our awareness of our surroundings and circumstances. We need to have the power to where our awareness goes and to what kind of waves, thoughts and even people. This determines where our energy is flowing and where our energy flows are where is what manifests in our lives. To create what we want in our lives we need to control and focus our awareness on one single thing.

Synchronizing the Right Waves to Get the Right Mindset

As aforementioned, the proponents of the law of attraction believe that it is possible to achieve everything through the formation of the right mindset. This seems easy, yet not everyone is successful or not everyone lives the lives that they aspire to live. This begs the question why?

The law of attraction might seem repetitive since it always revolves around the human mind. This is because to change your life for the better and live your desired and dream life, we need to set the right mindset. Everybody has a mindset, yet we have poor people who are homeless and in the same world, we have billionaires who are can’t go broke even if they spend a million each week in their lives.

What is the difference between billionaires and the poor and homeless? This is a question asked by a lot of people all over since the beginning of time. Others wonder why there even exist difference classes in the world and worse than they are in a low class, yet their work rate is similar or even higher than those in the high class. The only difference is the diversity in mindset between the members of different social status.

Billionaires have a positive mindset and mostly they have power over their thoughts, and they control awareness. This gives them power over their subconscious mind hence they control vibrations and energy around them. This helps them attract the right people who help them achieve their goals. Their perception of life is different and more positive. This is because their surroundings are better and that they can filter out the negative energy in their lives because they have already found a way to identify them.

On the contrary, poor people and the homeless live in a surrounding full of pain, agony and mostly negativity. Most of these people allow the negativity, struggles, and judgment from other people to take control of their subconscious mind. If we have a negative and poverty paradigm in our brain, then we can never escape the poverty world. We need to change our mindset to start seeing differences and the manifestation of our desires in life.

How can we set the right mindset? I asked myself this exact question for countless times. This was before I knew about the law of attraction. It is actually easy. In this book, we are going to learn more about setting our mindset right and achieve our desired thoughts for example money, fancy houses, and cars, happiness and love. This a process that takes time but eventually we see the manifestation. Here we cover all the steps that anyone can take and by end experience manifestation and achievement of their desires.

Scientific psychology has shown that the brain is designed to optimize itself. It achieves this by learning from experiences and taking this lesson and converting them into reflexes (Gazzaniga, Heatherton, & Halpern, 2010). By doing this, the brain avoids rethinking everything every other time that it experiences it. This optimization is critical to the daily functioning because it would be redundant to criticize every situation so as to make a decision about it. This brain optimization is designed to prioritize protecting the body. It is a defensive mechanism. This is why human beings react to danger more readily than to other stimuli such as excitement (Gazzaniga, Heatherton, & Halpern, 2010). For instance, if one was to throw an object towards your eye, one automatically brinks or jerks to the side. This automation applies to all aspects of life, for instance, if a person invests into a project but ends up making a loss, the greatest take away is often the pain the felt from the loss made than the excitement they felt in pursuing a dream they have had for a long time. In the future, the person will tend to shy away from similar investments even before they have had a chance to carefully examine the investment and understand what its risks and its promised benefits are. This brain optimization is thus helpful in helping develop protective behavior but also curtails our ability to look at opportunities presented to us in an unbiased way. There is little that one can do about this because it is a biological setting within our system, however, psychologists believe that one can improve how the brain functions so that it optimizes itself not only to fast perceive negative stimuli but also not recognize the positive ones and react to them in equal measure as it does to the negative stimuli (Hill, 2011). In his book, Napoleon Hill (2011) believes that it is possible to condition the mind so that it can react to stimuli by generating positive reactions. He recommends that each person can replace negative waves that are generally developed as a defensive mechanism with positive waves through positive affirmation.

Growth Mindset to Building a Successful Lifestyle

A theory put forward by Carol Dweck (2008) suggests that the mindset that a person holds affect how successful they end up. According to the theory, a person can have two mindsets, a fixed and a growth one. The fixed mindset is static-resistant to change and holds firm beliefs that inhibit its ability to learn new things. Dweck (2008) argued that when a person with a fixed mindset encounters a challenge in life, they rate it according to the preconceived perceptions and this inhibits their creativity. As a result, a person with a fixed mindset approaches a challenge with a negative attitude and ends up falling in it. Over time, a fixed mindset leads to performance decline. Dweck (2008) suggests that this could be the result of affirmed failures due to failing often. A study using primary school students confirmed this where students with a fixed mindset who were made to believe that they cannot pass ended up failing. No matter how smart the student was in the beginning, holding a fixed mindset led to a perpetual decline in their performance (Claro, Paunesku, & Dweck, 2016). Dweck’s mindset theory is in line with the ideas of the law of attraction which holds that we depict what we hold inside. Believing that one will fail, leads to one failing and continually underperforming.

Dweck suggests a solution to this, is adopting a growth mindset. Dweck insists that there is power in ‘yet’. She insists that what is important to any person is keeping an open mind and being ready to improve. Dweck (2008) suggests that this can be achieved by focusing on the process instead of the results. Focusing on the process helps a person develop a strategy that they can alter as they have control over it, whereas focusing on the results leads to a person blaming themselves for an outcome that they do not have control over. Consider a forex trader who is trying to beat the market and become an elite trader. If the trader focuses on the results, they will feel excited and smart if they make a profit, but also, they will feel stupid and angry if they lose. If the trader makes several losing trades, they end up believing that they are stupid and cannot succeed in forex, which will be followed by them quitting. By so doing, they develop a fixed mindset. Dweck (2008) warns that it is often easy to fall into this trap because failures affect our emotions and emotions shape our beliefs about ourselves. She suggests that instead of dwelling so much on the results, one should focus on what they can control; the process. in the example above, if the trader wanted to maintain a growth mindset, they should focus on their strategy of trading. By so doing, when the trader makes a loss, they will blame it on the strategy and seek to develop the strategy. In the process of developing the strategy, they will open up their mind to learning something new. In addition, they will stop blaming themselves and developing negative beliefs. Instead, they will replace this with the desire to come up with something better. This will drive them towards taking action and it might lead to eventually coming up with a winning strategy.

Dweck holds that this philosophy can be applied to basically everything. For instance, if a person fails an interview and feels that they are dumb for doing so, this will prevent them from looking for more opportunities. However, if they blame their preparedness, then they will look forward to the next interview so that they can be better prepared. So does an investor who invests and fails. They will look forward to making the next investment so that they can research the market better before opening the next business.

Keeping a growth mindset is not easy because accepting failure is often very hard, however, practice makes perfect. Human emotions are psychological, but they have similar characteristics to our biological selves. Charles Darwin found that biological organisms adapt to use and disuse. By using a particular part, often, Darwin observed that the part grows bigger. Jabr (2011) showed that taxi drivers hippocampus grows bigger so that they can be able to memorize routes more effectively. The ability to memorize routes also improves their general cognitive ability and they have improved memory in basically anything (Jabr, 2011). By maintaining a growth mindset, a person learns to approach everything with a learning attitude. They stop blaming themselves and hold the belief that everything is possible with some improvements and this leads to attracting positive outcomes.

Positive Affirmation

Positive affirmation is a strategy that is proposed as a solution to forcefully train the brain to think positively instead of the automatic negative thinking. this process seeks to train the brain to be blocking negative waves and switching automatically to positive waves every time it encounters them. Most of the brain activity is done in the subconscious, and the subconscious is the home to negative and positive waves. The subconscious holds long-term memory. This is why for instance if one develops a phobia when they are young, the phobia tends to affect them for the rest of their lives, and it might never be overcome since it is in their subconscious. However, one might forget a lyric to a song they have learned a few minutes after they learn it. This is because the song gets implemented in the conscious mind, and not the subconscious. A human being is programmed so that it stores some of the things learned in the subconscious while most of the things are stored in the conscious mind. Experiences or events that evoke emotions tend to be implanted into the subconscious, whereas all the other learnings tend to be stored within the conscious. This is why when a person meets a person, they tend to fall in love almost immediately and this feeling does not go away. Accordingly, every time they see or talk to that person, they evoke some excitements and continued interaction with them tends to affirm the love. Probably why love is more intense in the old age than among children. Since most of the things that a person would want to learn are not emotional, this makes implanting knowledge into the subconscious hard. But psychologists suggest that this can be achieved through continuous positive affirmation.

The subconscious mind is responsible for the majority of our daily decisions. Although people often feel that they have free will to make decisions, these decisions have been made by them by society, their life experiences and the accumulation of their everyday interactions and experiences and are stored in the subconscious mind. This is why a person finds it hard to change a habit. For instance, if you are a fan of football, you cannot wake up one day and at the snap of a figure say that you hate football and just like that hate it. In a similar manner, you cannot wake up one day and decide to love dancing and within a snap of a figure love dancing. However, one can decide to love dancing and then practice it every day and if one finds joy in so doing, they will end up loving it. In short, although one cannot decide to do most of the things in an instance, one can train their subconscious brain to love it. For instance, if you listen to a certain song over and over again, study shows that the song will become nostalgic to that person and regardless of whether one started loving it all not, they will end up loving it (Quinn, Pascoe, Wood, & Neal, 2010).

The fact that repeated action can leave a permanent imprint on the subconscious brain can be taken advantage of. Just like repeated listening to music leads to one loving music, one can train their brain to respond to any stimuli in a particular manner. For instance, it is true that for most people when a person stares and their eyes meet, they end up smiling. However, for a person who is feeling down and hates themselves, they would tend to frown wondering what wrong the other person could be seen in them (Quinn, Pascoe, Wood, & Neal, 2010). Apparently, such thoughts lead to lower self-esteem and self-hatred. However, if a person could repeat in their mind a positive affirmation such as, “I am perfect” or “I am good looking” or “I am happy and I emanate happiness” then over time, this idea will come to replace the bad negative thoughts. Over time, the person will tend to be more confident and if one makes a conscious decision to smile at people and tell themselves these positive affirmations when they are stared at, they will stop being bothered by stares and start enjoying them, even often inviting them.

In business, these positive affirmations work the same. If a person tells themselves that they are good at what they do, or I understand this concept the best, or I will do a good job in this, or I will put all my efforts and I will succeed, then they start believing this. And if a person maintains a growth mindset, even if they fail at the beginning, this positive affirmation combined with a positive mindset will lead them to attract success.in his Think and Grow Rich book, Napoleon Hill (2011) argues that success comes from the mind. He says that once one thinks that they can do something, they get motivated to do it. But a person who thinks that they cannot do something, then they get demotivated and despite the best efforts, succeeding will be a surprise and surprises do not happen often. What Hill is implying is that one attracts success through their positive thinking. Think of a party, if one person is confident about dancing and wakes up to dance and makes some silly moves that they enjoy, the people around him/her senses the positive energy and hails him/her on. although some might do it for malice to see the “dancer embarrass themselves”, the dancer gets motivated by the crowd encouragement and keeps trying to impress them with his/her ‘silly’ moves. If he/she does this often, then they end up learning a move and improve their dancing. However, if the dancer is not confident and has negative thoughts, regardless of how good he is, when the crowd hails him on, he will think, they are laughing at me and seatback. Instead of improving his dancing moves, he kills his spirit.

In the business world, some people come up with good intentions, but they do not see them blossom to fruition. On the contrary, some people never discover something, but they basically turn what they touch to gold. In think and get rich, Hill (2011) found that the rich are not innovators, rather persons who are able to convert innovations or any business into something great. He concludes, that the only thing that is common in successful people, may it be the most renown artists, the best athletes or the best business persons, is not talents, but their belief about the talent they possess. This is why it is very easy to find a person with an impeccable voice in karaoke but with no recorded music and find a person who has a ‘bad’ voice being a famous musician. This is because, it is not the voice that matters, but the bearer’s perception of their voice and what they feel the voice can achieve. One behavior in successful people, may it be business persons, celebrities, athletes or politicians is that they have high esteem, and this is depicted in how they receive and some time demand compliments. It is rare to find a successful person trashing off a compliment, but this is a so common thing among the unsuccessful. This is because the successful feel that they have high esteem and understand that compliment is not an exaggeration but a well-meant appreciation of their ‘good work’. on the other hand, like the shy dance, unsuccessful people tend to take complements as a sarcastic attack on their character. Positive affirmation helps one overcome these insecurities by helping one teach the brain to appreciate oneself and to view things with a positive mind. If this is combined with a growth mindset, then one can learn just about anything in the world and excel in it.

Dream boards

Project managers understand the power of a good project charter; it gives them direction. In a famous quote, “Peace-time plans are of no particular value, but peace-time planning is indispensable.” Dwight Eisenhower (in Garcia Contreras, Ceberio, & Kreinovich, 1950). Eisenhower meant that although it is hard to predict tomorrow and hence plan accurately for it, one cannot manage to go into tomorrow without a plan. Imagine waking up in the morning without knowing what to do; life would be confusing. Even a street person wakes up with a plan, go to a particular joint, borrow or hand out with friends or even steal. This is a plan. Everybody has a plan, but the plan changes with time. One can wake up planning to go to work but then they catch a fever in the night and fails to show up for work. A plan gives our daily lives a meaning.

Dream boards are also planning. They house our life plans. They hold our aspirations, and it is this aspiration that gives our lives meaning. Let’s assume that a person has a dream of being a chef and maybe having a restaurant. This is a dream. One may know nothing about cooking or running a business, but they have this dream. In analyzing the Dream Mandala Garfield (1979) observed that a pictorial representation of the concept in a mandala acts as a symbolic reminder of one’s aspirations. The mandala reminds one what one stands to gain if they follow through with their plan. It acts as a source of motivation to keep the person going. Similarly, writing down one’s dream, or posting it in your digital or physical dream boards leads one to be motivated to achieving the dream. Often coming into contact with the dream generates a long-lasting desire in the mind to achieve it, and this gets imprinted into the subconscious and leads to one working towards achieving the dream even without knowing. This is supported by the use of subliminal messages. Baldwin (2014) observed the placing subliminal messages relevant to the observer helped them achieve the desired goal. For instance, placing subliminal messages about eating habits, and desired body shape helped one reduce weight over time. Baldwin (2014) observed that the brains pick up these messages subconsciously and over time learns to make them a reality. In the same manner, placing your dream on a dream board, whether you spend time staring at it or not will lead to your subconscious brain-picking it up and learning to implement it. Eventually, the brain will work subconsciously and lead your toward achieving the goal. For instance, using the example of a chef, even if one does not go to college to learn cooking, the dream board might drive the you to learning about different cuisines, different recipes and experimenting with different ingredients when you cook for yourself and might end up becoming a self-trained chef and if one ever puts up a business, then most certainly, it will be a restaurant.

In essence therefore, dream boards act as a subliminal message that guides the subconscious towards achieving one’s aspiration. Care should, however, be taken to ensure that the dream board is not overloaded as this will lead to confusion and might impede the subconscious implementation process. it is thus critical to carefully select the dreams to post in the dream board else the tool be turned useless.

Meditation

Meditation is regarded as one of the world's most powerful brain tools. Meditation leads to brain quoting which results to the removal of all positive energy, meditation is often accompanied with positive chanting which leads to a positive affirmation and by taking a person to a liberation state, meditation helps synchronize the right and left hemispheres of the brain leading to a whole-brain which learns faster. Two aspects of meditation are critical in the law of attraction, replacement of negative energy with positive energy through positive affirmation and brain synchronization which leads to faster subconscious learning.

The goal of meditation is to calm oneself down. This means letting go of all excitements whether positives or negative and focusing on the now. Kahneman and Tversky (2003) demonstrated that happiness is found by focusing on the now moment. Thus, by forgetting the deepest worries and taking oneself in a state of now, meditation helps a person replace the negative waves with positive waves. This positive energy lasts even after the meditation session. One carries it outside the meditation room, and it influences their experiences thereafter. Often, meditators are the happiest people because they are filled with positive energy which gives them the zeal and energy to face their daily challenges.

The second aspect is the synchronization of the two spheres of the brain. Psychologists indicate that the brain functions as a unit when one is very young and when one is just about to sleep, or in a hibernation mode. In this state, brain activity is optimal and the conscious trains the subconscious. It’s for this reason, that things that one does just before sleeping tends to stick into their mind. For instance, if one listens to a song just before falling asleep, they tend to remember the song the following day and often love the song. This could also explain why people fall in love with people they have slept with as opposed to those they have sex and leave immediately after. For this reason, one can use meditation as a learning tool to train the subconscious. By exposing oneself to subliminal messages such as positive affirmations in playing in the background or recanting them, one can implant them very first into the subconscious brain (RYT, 2004). Thus, meditation in combination with positive affirmation can help one replace negative thoughts with positive thoughts very fast.

Gratitude Journal

Gratitude Journal is a catalog of things that one is grateful for (Ackerman, 2019). It is often considered a self-congratulation diary. It is a place where one records their daily achievements and what they feel proud of. Consider this, at the end of a stressful day, you sit back and reflect on what you feel you achieved. This leads your brain to filter out the negative energy and focus solely on finding traces of positive energy. If a stranger walks your way wearing a warm inviting smile and opening up their body to invite you in, it is often hard to resist this and one is more often than not likely to respond with a welcoming smile regardless of the frustrations they may be experiencing (Ackerman, 2019). This is because, as the law of attraction predicts, emotions are contagious. Our body is designed to sense emotions and imitate them. in a similar manner, just thinking about a happy moment in the day, leads to our body being happy. It is hard to live a day without finding a moment of excitement. And if the moment is not within that day, then one can always read the journal and relive the past moments. By reliving this moment, our bodies perceive the happy you in an earlier time as a stranger and imitate the stranger’s emotions (Ackerman, 2019). This leads to shedding off negative energy and replacing it with positive energy. Reliving these moments increases the happy moments in a persons life and leads to increased positive energy and this results in one feeling ready to face challenges as they have enough stock of positive waves to counter the negative ones that life holds for them.

Magic check

The magic check was introducing by Byrne (2008) in her book The Secret. The magic check is supposed to be a tool that helps us visualize the use of money. The magic check is a blank check from the universe written to the bearer who can write any amount of money in it and spend it the way they wish. Before using the money, one needs to feel grateful for having the money. The idea here is to love what you have. To be grateful for what is in the hand and then enjoy spending it to fulfill one’s wishes. The magic check creates a positive feeling and helps one keep their dream alive. By putting down a figure, one sets a goal, by spending it one a thing they desire, one reminds himself of their dream. Thus, the magic check acts as a two-way sword, it sets a goal to achieve and a dream to act as a driving force. It also gives a person a sneak into the life they would lead if they were to achieve their dream. One lives the dream in the mind through the help of a magic check. This visualization of a fake reality creates mental images of what one lives. Byrne (2008) holds that these experiences whether fake or real help shape our behavior and subconsciously the mind aligns itself to lead the life in accordance with the experience and this takes a person closer to the achievement of the dream.

Conclusion

The law of attraction boils down to one thing, by carefully selecting the life one leads, one can use the mind to attract their dream. The law holds that it is not enough to just think of a dream, but one must visualize it, actively train the brain to appreciate the dream using different approaches and the brain will automatically find a way of actualizing the dream. Failure is disappointing, and sadly, one cannot choose to be disappointed or not, however, one can train the brain to perceive failure in a different way and focus on generating positive instead of negative energy. This can be done through adopting a growth mindset, positive affirmation, use of dream boards or magic check and visualization. Regardless of the technique chosen, if one successfully trains the brain to be staying off negative energy and focusing on positive energy, then one will surely attract success over the long run.

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