What is the Law of Attraction?
The law of attraction is the philosophy that your thoughts have the ability to change your surroundings and situations. Law of attraction works on the principle that like attracts like, so a positive thought can attract positive results in all areas of your life. Believers of the law of attraction suggest that thoughts are a form of energy and by mindfully choosing desirable thoughts you can align that energy with ideal circumstances. On the other hand, the law of attraction also states that negative thoughts or a negative mental attitude attracts more negative circumstances into your life.
If you remove negativity from your life, you open the possibility of attracting ideal people, situations, and circumstances into your existence. As negativity is pushed away from your mind, you make room for positivity to enter your mind. Meditation, positive affirmations, practicing gratitude, and switch thinking are all methods that can delete negative thoughts so you can start attracting desirable experiences.
Is the Law of Attraction Proven by Science?
The law of attraction is considered pseudoscience. Psudoscience in simple words is something described as being scientific, but not proven through the rigorous process of the scientific method. The gold standard in research is randomized controlled trials (RCTs) which when done credibly provides a high level of evidence with little to no bias.
An RCT shows the cause and effect relationship between an intervention (application of the law of attraction) and the outcome (proof that positive thoughts did or did not cause change in someone's life). An RCT also needs an experimental group (the ones practicing law of attraction) and a control group (those not practicing law of attraction) to measure the outcome over a period of time.
Looking at the gold stand for scientific evidence, how could a scientific experiment prove the existence of the effects of law of attraction in someone's life? The answer is simple. It can't.
I am a believer in the law of attraction, so stay with me.
First, we do not have the ability to monitor the content of over 6,000 daily thoughts a person consciously or subconsciously is experiencing. I'm not sure where the rumor of 60,000 to 80,000 thoughts was started, but research shows we have over 6,000 thoughts while awake.
To practice the law of attraction you need 100% faith in it's ability to create change in your life. We cannot measure someone's faith as what a person reports is not always what a person consciously or subconsciously believes. If someone in the experimental group had just a teensy weensy ounce of doubt in the law of attraction then the experiment is flawed.
No. The law of attraction is not backed by science, but neither is religion. Religion also requires faith and can't be credibly researched. Although the science is not there to prove the law of attraction, science has proven life changing benefits of law of attraction techniques, such as positive affirmations, gratitude, journaling, praying and meditation.
Who Can Benefit from the Law of Attraction?
Everyone can benefit from the law of attraction. The law of attraction suggests that a positive mental attitude improves your overall outlook on life which makes you a magnet for desirable circumstances. You only benefit from using the law of attraction if you control negative thoughts and experience not only positive thoughts, but the positive feelings and energy associated with positive thinking.
Saying "I am happy, I am healthy, and I am confident" are just words if you don't experience the feeling and belief associated with the statements. However, affirmations are a good place to start because you can fake it until you make it. Overtime, you'll start thinking less negative thoughts and allow these good thoughts into your mind. How could that not be beneficial?
What are the Law of Attraction Benefits
There are so many benefits to using the law of attraction to attract the life you want (too many to list on this page). Here is a short list of the law of attraction benefits:
1. By practicing positive thinking with the law of attraction you start finding the benefits to difficult situations and understand why the universe aligned certain circumstances into your life for your own personal growth.
2. You recognize and let go of thoughts that are no longer serving you.
3. WIth a positive mental attitude, you become optimistic about the present and future.
4. Through faith in the law of attraction you start taking more risks, start looking for more opportunities, and step out of your comfort zone where success and happiness are waiting.
5. You become a more pleasant person to be around which in return attracts positivity from others (like attracts like). Negative people will still exist, but the universe has a way of making these people have less impact on your life when you're focused on the good.
6. You start loving yourself. No, this does not make you a narcissist. As you start practicing self love your confidence and self-esteem improve which in return attracts desirable circumstances into your life.
7. Goals become achievable.
What the Law of Attraction is NOT
Negative thinking does attract missed opportunities, feelings of hopelessness, low self-esteem, a lack of ambition, feeling stuck in life, a tendency to blame others for your circumstances, and the belief your goals are not achievable. Bad things still happen to positive people, but positive people have more control of how they react to circumstances as well as a better ability to bounce back from undesirable situations.
Your thinking is not the cause of trauma, death, divorce, disease, rape, war, or any other life trauma that one could experience. Unfortunately, some teachers of the law of attraction fail to mention this which leaves people feelings of guilt and false sense of responsibility for a terrible event in their life (or someone else's life). Law of attraction techniques are available to build you up and help you be successful no matter what life throws at you. You can only control your thoughts and your own actions.
The Secret is entertaining and the movie gives a visual to how to use some of the law of attraction techniques as well as personal stories from some of the top law of attraction teachers. If you're new to the law of attraction, I highly recommend watching The Secret because it gives a good foundation for how the law of attraction works. However, The Secret makes it seem like a person doesn't have to hustle to be successful. According to this movie, you can sit on your couch and visualize your goals; by just thinking about what you want and knowing you already possess your desires will make all your dreams come true. If it looks like a get rich scheme and quacks like a get rich quick scheme, it's probably a get rich quick scheme.
You need goals, plans, and actions to be successful. If you just have visualizations, but don't develop a plan for how you'll achieve your goals, then you're just daydreaming.
Do you believe that Rhonda Byrne just sat around thinking about The Secret and through her thoughts people just started contacting her to be in a movie? Do you think her book magically wrote itself along with the publishing and marketing? Do you think the big names in The Secret just sit, think, believe, and receive? Absolutely not. These people hustle, knock out their personal goals and succeed while maintaining a positive mental attitude.
They have a thought, they know what they want, they know the outcome they want, they believe anything is possible, and they make reachable goals to make their vision a reality. That's how the law of attraction works. If you believe you have the power to be or do anything and you can visualize yourself achieving your goals then you will change your life.