The secret to happiness and riches?

"Your thoughts and your feelings create your life. It will always be that way. Guaranteed!"

The past few months I have had so many bad days. So many days that I woke up in a bad mood and throughout the day my mood never changed, nor did I attempt to change it. I was so sick of it though! I did not want to be in a mood daily for no real reason. I needed to find a way to lift my mood on days whenever I was feeling less than happy.

I desperately needed a change though because each of us only gets one life and we all need to spend as much of it being happy as we possibly can. Happiness is contagious and makes you feel so much better as a person. I looked into different books in the self-help genre. I hate that it is called self-help. They should be called positivity books or something more socially acceptable. 

One of the books I ordered was The Secret by Rhonda Byrne. I had also ordered 2 others but I chose to start reading this one first. At first the book seemed like bullshit. It was almost like a scam because it just seemed too good to be true. It was almost like the book was a sales pitch and someone was going to swoop in and try to sell you something. That is not the case though.  There is nothing to buy, except the book of course, which I had picked up for $4.

The book starts by explaining the law of attraction. It is very simple, whatever you put into the universe through your thoughts will in turn be what you attract back to yourself. So if you are thinking negative and bad thoughts, eventually something negative and bad will happen to you. Likewise, if you are thinking positive and good thoughts, something good will happen to you. At first I was not buying into this… Then Byrne used the example of people who have a bad morning and the rest of their day is just total garbage. I can think back to a time when I woke up late, rushed to school or work, and just had a terrible day overall because I was in such a bad mood after having a bad morning. I can say that anytime I have ever woke up late I had a bad day. Any time that I woke up in the morning refreshed after a good night sleep, with plenty of time to get ready for my day, I had a good day.  I suddenly began to believe in a lot of the concepts and principles mentioned in the book.

After a few days of reading I decided to practice a few of her techniques. One technique is to make a list of positive things that make you happy and feel loved, so that whenever you are having negative thoughts you can read through the list and make yourself feel better. Another one is focusing on the positives in every situation, like going to work or exercising. They really do work! If you want to have a good day, you can in fact have a good day. If you want to be a more positive person, with a better outlook on life, you can be whoever you want.

Even when I think of myself versus my boyfriend, Jon. I am more of a realist. I see the world for what it is. If I had to lean town optimist or pessimist, it would be pessimist. Jon, however, is an optimist. He is also one of the luckiest people I know. Maybe it is not really luck though. Maybe he brings these good things to himself through the frequency he emits.

Another concept Rhonda Byrne writes about is love. Love is one of the most powerful feelings we feel as humans. If we all could just have love for each other that alone would make us very happy, but then the law of attraction comes into play and the feelings and thoughts you possess will in turn come back to you, so you will also feel the love that you put out. It is literally a win, win, win situation.

Reading the principles in the beginning of this book and discovering many of the powerful passages makes me want to be a happier and kinder human being. Not only will I reap the rewards of maintaining this behavior, but so will the people who surround me. Everyone could be more positive and overall better people.

Now, do I believe that if I picture checks coming to me and pretend like I have wealth that I will suddenly come into money? No. Do I believe in everything in this book? No. And even if the stuff I do believe in does not make out the way the book claims, does it really matter? No. Because this book has given me something to believe in and that is exactly what I needed right now.

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