I discovered The Secret a couple of weeks ago. I’ve actually known of it for a while now, but kept pushing it aside, sceptical of its content and supposedly life-transforming revelations. The Secret is in fact no longer a secret, having sold millions of copies worldwide, and taking its vision onto the big screen in 2006. The driving force behind the book was a lady called Rhonda Byrne who was first exposed to The Secret when she was given a hundred-year-old book by her daughter Hayley. In it she discovered that all the greatest people in history knew of The Secret and contributed to it in some way: Plato, Shakespeare, Newton, Hugo, Beethoven, Lincoln, Emerson, Einstein.
So what is The Secret? In my mind, The Secret is the law of attraction! Its underlying message states that everything you have accomplished, that surrounds you, including the things that you are complaining about, you have attracted. Therefore if you emit and radiate positive and optimistic thinking, and your intentions are good, by the law of attraction, good things will happen to you. If you want to change anything in your life, then you have the power to do so, you simply have to change the frequency by changing your thoughts. In other words, what you think about you bring about.
To add to this, when you are feeling good, you are on the frequency of receiving. Michael Bernard Beckwith states: “This is a feeling universe. If you just intellectually believe something, but you have no corresponding feeling underneath that, you don’t necessarily have enough power to manifest what you want in your life. You have to feel it.” I completely agree with this. You cannot just think up positive ideas, you must follow them and feel them. Inspired action will attract support. Equally, expect the things you want and don’t expect the things you don’t want, simple!
The book also touches on visualisation and the powerful signals you emit from such an exercise. Dr Denis Waitley explains: “When you visualise then you materialise. Here’s an interesting thing about the mind: we took Olympic athletes and had them run their event only in their mind, and then hooked up to sophisticated biofeedback equipment. Incredibly, the same muscles fired in the same sequence when they were running it on the track. How could this be? Because the mind can’t distinguish whether you’re really doing it or whether it’s just a practice. If you’ve been there in the mind you’ll go there in the body.” Embarrassingly, I’ve been victim of this ‘muscle twitching’ scenario numerous times on the plane on the way back from competitions. I’ve found myself falling asleep while thinking about the day’s events and out of no-where I hit my poor unassuming neighbour with a beautiful parry quart reposte. It just happens without me even realising the power of my thoughts!
The book is full of inspirational teachings and even sheds light on The Secret of the World! Lisa Nichols says: “In our society, we’ve become content with fighting against things. Fighting against cancer, fighting against poverty, fighting against war, fighting against drugs, fighting against terrorism, fighting against violence. We tend to fight everything we don’t want, which actually creates more fight.” Cheryl Cole’s ‘Fight for this love’ springs to mind. But seriously, resistance seems to be a futile pursuit. What you resist, you attract, because you put all your emotional charge around it, and furthermore “what you resist persists,” Carl Jung (1875-1961). Halle Dwoskin underlines “if you’re anti-war, be pro-peace instead...If you are anti-a-particular politician, be pro-his opponent. Often elections are tipped in favour of the person that the people are really against, because he’s getting all the energy and all the focus.” Again, Le Pen reaching the second round of the 2002 French elections springs to mind here.
I think the message is that you are the only one who can create the life you deserve. If you deliberately focus on what you want, the law of attraction will respond.
At first, I was sceptical about this ‘book on life,’ but now I know The Secret, I am convinced the teachings underlined in the book can help get the best out of you. So there is my secret tip of the week! Give The Secret a go! If you’ve already read it, I’d love to know your thoughts on it.
Your mind can make you physically ill and your mind can push you to great heights. Surely that is not a secret. Violent anti fascist demonstrations draw more supporters to fascist parties than they would ever get if we ignored them for the fool they are, surely that is not a secret.
ReplyDelete"I think, therefore I am" to which you could add "what I think determines what I am"
Most self help books use some theme around the power of positive thinking. I haven't read this book, but isn't it based on these lines. Does it need some spurious universal law?
However, whatever the trigger that reaches an individual and clicks them into the right mindset, it has to be right for them. You certainly had positive thinking in the final team bout in Melbourne!!
Paul, very well said and thank-you for your comment. Paul, what you say is true in general and as you mentioned, it is the message that each individual takes away from the book and uses for whatever he or she is attempting to achieve, that is important.
ReplyDeleteOn reflection, my main concern with the Law of Attraction is that it implies that everything that happens to us, we bring upon ourselves. Do we therefore blame ourselves for challenging circumstances that are beyond our control? Accidents, serious illnesses etc are surely out of our control? The Law of Attraction can explain for a great deal but it seems wrong to blame ourselves for every negative circumstance.
That said, while the powerful connection between our thoughts and actions is no great secret, the book has touched countless of thousands of people who believe the principles of ‘The Secret’ to be life-changing. Although the book has been cleverly and perhaps erroneously marketed as ‘The Secret’, it has helped many with positive thinking and clarification of goals, and therefore in my opinion, justifies its publication.