This article is an excerpt from the Shortform summary of "The Secret" by Rhonda Byrne. Shortform has the world's best summaries of books you should be reading.
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Are you grateful for the things in your life? Can gratitude help you live a better life and access the things you want? Gratitude and the law of attraction can help.
In the book The Secret, Gratitude is a way of life: all things can be done with gratitude. Learn how gratitude and the law of attraction can change your life in the realms of money, health, and relationships.
The Secret: Gratitude and the Law of Attraction
In the book The Secret, Gratitude is one of the most important parts of the creative process and the law of attraction. What you do in life is as important as what you think. Now that your mind is geared toward strengthening the Creative Process in your life, you can add appropriate behaviors to boost your success. Gratitude and the law of attraction can help you live every day to the fullest, and achieve the things you want in the long term.
Show gratitude for each day as it begins, as though everything you want to happen already has. Gratitude is the cousin of expectation. Showing gratitude for what is to come is linked to setting your expectations. Gratitude and the law of attraction mean thinking about the things you want and being prepared to receive them.
- When you are grateful for the day ahead, you set the expectation for a great day. This expectation creates the frequency of a great day, and a great day you shall have.
- Not showing gratitude for the day ahead means you are content to wake up and passively hope for a great day. You will wander from one action and event to another without any thought or control over how things will turn out.
Byrne says that by the time she is ready to face the day, she has said “Thank you” hundreds of times. Through this action, she is showing gratitude for the day ahead, powerfully setting her expectations for what her day will look like. In The Secret, Gratitude is one of the most important things.
- (Shortform note: Gratitude is so important that Byrne says if you only take one thing from reading The Secret, it should be learning to show gratitude daily.)
Gratitude and the Creative Process
When you give thanks for what is to come, you emit the frequency of knowing what you want is already yours. When you ask, believe, and feel the sensation of receiving, gratitude reinforces those thoughts and feelings. Be grateful for who you are and your power to change your life. Be grateful for the universe and the work it is doing to give you the life you want. Gratitude and the law of attraction can help the universe see where you stand, and give you what you want.
If you are ungrateful for the life you have, you won’t be able to attract a better life.
- As you feel ingratitude for the things you don’t like in your life, you become mired in negative thoughts.
- Whether it is envy, self-pity, resentment, or feelings of lack, those feelings (as you know with your knowledge of negative frequencies) will only attract pictures that emulate them.
- For example, if you want a new house but are ungrateful for the home you currently live in, your predominant thoughts are going to be negative. They will surround what you dislike about your current situation, rather than good feelings about what more might be out there.
- If you want a new house, being grateful for what you do have will strengthen your gratitude for the more you will receive. For instance, you might say, “I am so grateful for this starter home. It has served our family well.” Then, when you ask for your new house, it’s not mixed in with thoughts of “this house is terrible.” Instead, it’s mixed in with thoughts of improving your already lucky situation, which will bring about lucky results.
As you start to focus on all of the things you are grateful for, you’ll begin to notice more things to be grateful for. The more you communicate gratitude with the universe, the more the universe will bring you to be grateful for. When it comes to gratitude, the law of attraction works hard to help.
Showing Gratitude in Money
If you are married or in a relationship, think about what you are grateful for. Show gratitude for the way your partner uplifts your life. Make a list of all the things you love about your partner, and show gratitude for those things.
This is the amazing part about gratitude and the law of attraction. When you focus on what you love about your partner, even during times of strife, the universe will give you more to love about them.
- When you focus on what you love, you start to show more love. That love, the most powerful feeling, creates a strong signal for you and your life.
- Sit back and be amazed at how many more things you find to love about your partner. Watch how your partner begins to show you more love, as well.
When you focus on the negatives about your partner, the universe will conspire to bring you more of the same. Every couple has arguments. Every person has a list of things their partners do that drive them crazy. But if your thoughts are always on those arguments or things, the Law of Attraction has no choice to bring more into your life to make you angry. You’re not incorporating gratitude and the law of attraction.
- Ever felt suspicious about your partner’s fidelity? Ever let those thoughts become obsessions or deeply felt concerns? What was the outcome?
- If you believe your partner is being unfaithful, you are calling forth circumstances and events that perpetuate that belief. The universe is listening.
There may be good reason to doubt your partner’s actions. But rather than focusing on them and bringing that reality to fruition, change your thoughts. Focus on what you want the future to look like. Focus on what you want your relationship to look like.
- If you turn your thoughts to, “I want a marriage that honors our vows,” that picture will come back to you. It may not come back in the way you thought, but the Law of Attraction will conspire to bring that type of marriage to your life.
- If you say, “I want to trust my partner,” the Law of Attraction must respond by sending back a partner you can trust. Remember: the how is not your concern. The universe will conspire to bring you situations, events, or people who will allow you to experience the sensation of trust with your partner.
Relationships can be hard to maintain. Keeping your thoughts focused on the kind of relationship you want will ensure you receive and are able to maintain that relationship. One relationship might end, but be open to the possibility that the universe heard your positive thoughts and has conspired to make them a reality. There may be answers in places you didn’t expect. Stay positive in your thoughts. And stay open to receiving.
Money and Gratitude
Gratitude and the law of attraction also work with money. When you focus on a lack of money or the consequences of not having enough, you are blocking all the money waiting for you with your thoughts. If your thoughts are on not having enough, you will never have enough.
- The Law of Attraction will bring back those pictures of not having enough as experiences.
- For example, when you have bills stacking up and don’t know where the money to pay them will come from, focusing on those bills will only attract more bills.
- Even though it’s hard, focusing on abundance, despite the bills, will send out the proper signal. Say, “These bills will be paid. Life is abundant, and something will come through.” Then believe it and feel the relief of it coming true.
You can’t attract money if you feel bad about money. It makes sense that when you do not have enough money, money becomes a stressor. Your thoughts around it become negative. Gratitude and the law of attraction won’t work if this is the case.
- Those negative feelings about money are stopping more from coming to you.
If you can start to feel good about money and showing gratitude for what you have, you can create a new frequency. You must change your thoughts from lack-of-money to more-than-enough-money. Start to say and believe that you have more than enough. Feel it and show gratitude.
Remember the childhood game of make believe? Use your imagination to see and believe that you already have more than enough money. Imagine what you would buy with that money. All the things you will do. Imagine yourself spending, and feel the joy of it. Feel the gratitude, and law of attraction will do the rest.
- If you’ve ever thought, “I can’t afford it,” change those thoughts to, “I can afford that. I can buy anything I want.” Say it again and again, and believe it.
- When you see something you want, say, “I can afford that. I can buy that.” Better yet, look for things you want, and repeat those phrases.
- If you want to buy a Porsche, find the one you want, no matter how outlandish, and repeat, “I can buy that Porsche. I can afford it.”
- As you say the words, you will become convinced of the truth of those words. That expectation will translate into new pictures the Law of Attraction will mirror back to you.
There is abundance in the world, and your responsibility is not regarding the how of money coming to you. All you have to do is ask, believe you are receiving, and feel joyful about having received.
When it comes to gratitude and the law of attraction, there are many opportunities to show gratitude and improve your life. Gratitude, law of attraction, and focus all work together to help you build your best life.
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- How to visualize the future you want to increase your success
- Why visualization works, according to the laws of the universe
- Why thinking about negative things sabotages your success
