How Law of Attraction Works—Manifesting a Perfect Life

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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Do you wonder how Law of Attraction works? Can you better understand the Law of Attraction and improve your technique? s

The Law of Attraction is the idea that when you believe in something and channel your energy toward it, it will find its way to you—that’s how Law of Attraction works. Keep reading to find some great examples and how it will work for you.

How Law of Attraction Works

The basis of The Secret is the Law of Attraction—use your thoughts to attract the things you want. But how does the law of attraction work?

Everyone is a creator. The power of your mind is akin to the power of a magnet. When you look at your current life, you can trace everything back to one thought or a series of thoughts. Your life is a reflection of your thoughts, and you can use them to create your future self. This is how Law of Attraction works. Below, you’ll find some key categories where people use Law of Attraction, and see how the Law of Attraction really works.

Law of Attraction in Action: Negative Thoughts influence Outcomes

You might be in a job you hate and have no prospects for change. If you think about the thoughts you’ve had since starting that job, you can see how they’ve helped create your current predicament. Likely, you often sat at your desk thinking how boring your job is. You may have thought the job was a dead end. You may have thought about how stuck you feel or how you don’t have the skills needed for a better job.

But this is how Law of Attraction works: those thoughts, based on the Law of Attraction, created a reality where your job was boring. Because you thought you were never going to find anything better, you didn’t.

You may have experienced negative circumstances in your past and felt you were simply unlucky. Those circumstances were likely a result of being unaware of the power of your thoughts. There’s no reason to blame yourself. Now you know to change the frequency of your thoughts to a positive one to create a positive picture of your life. If you believe you can be in the wrong place at the wrong time, you are attracting the wrong circumstances to you.

If you previously believed you had no control over outside circumstances, the underlying message you created was one of fear, separation, and powerlessness. That frequency had no choice but to bring people, events, or situations that perpetuate those feelings in your life.

Instead, if you believe that the outside world is yours to design, you will have the power to design it. Think “I am always safe and immune to external dangers,” and the universe will make it so.

Your negative thoughts about others create the same outcome. You cannot hurt another with your thoughts, just yourself. If you focus on what you don’t like about someone, you will attract more people with that trait. Likewise, if you focus on wanting something bad to happen to someone, all the universe picks up is the bad thing. Guess who that bad thing gets brought to?

The Power of Your Thoughts

If you think, “I hope Melissa fails her drivers test,” you’ve signaled the vibrations of failing. That vibration mixes with yours, as the owner of the thought, and you are now attracting failure to your life. Your vibration is how Law of Attraction works. The frequency you send out is what you get back.

Through the Law of Attraction, negative thoughts about another person draws harm into existence. By calling harm into existence through your thoughts, you are placing yourself on that frequency. You are attracting the harm back to you as the pictures you emit.

If you don’t want to be harmed, avoiding that negative frequency is a good way to ensure you aren’t. Considering the effect negative thoughts can have is important when asking yourself how Law of Attraction works.

There is no trick to subverting negative thoughts. Set your intention to only think good things. Declare that your negative thoughts have no power. Declare that your positive thoughts are the most powerful. Proclaim and believe the universe is a good place. The Law of Attraction will reflect pictures back that allow you to experience it as such.

Asking isn’t always about wanting something in particular. Sometimes asking is simply the act of seeking an answer. If you have to make a difficult decision and don’t know what to think or what to do, ask.

If you are deciding which of your friends to make your maid of honor, you might say, “I wish there was an easy way to decide who to choose.” The universe will conspire to send you the answer. It may come in a phone call that gives you some insight. Or it could be that one of your friends suddenly becomes unavailable.

The only thing you have to do is ask. The universe will take care of the rest. So how does the Law of Attraction work? With your consistent, positive thoughts and feelings and belief in yourself.

How Law of Attraction Works in Relationships

Relationships are so important in life, and you can probably think of some Law of Attraction examples from your own life or the lives of people you know. How Law of Attraction works for relationships is the same as how it works for other aspects of your life. You can have whatever relationship you want by calling it forth with your thoughts. Think about the type of partner you want. Visualize what that partner looks like. Think about what qualities that partner has. Feel what life with that partner feels like. Believe this partner exists in the world. Believe you have summoned them to you through your thoughts and feelings.

If your thoughts are about how lonely you feel, the Law of Attraction will mirror that loneliness back. You will block the love you want with your thoughts of not having love.

Here’s an example of how the Law of Attraction really works in daily life. every Friday night you watch movies and lament not having a date, the signal you are sending the universe is, “I never have a date on Friday night.”

If you can change your thoughts to, “It will be nice when I have a partner to share Friday nights with,” you’ll experience a good feeling, and the Law of Attraction will send back pictures that emulate that nice feeling.

Make sure your actions match your desire to bring love into your life. Make space to receive what you want through your actions. How does Law of Attraction work in this situation?

If you want a partner to share lazy Sundays with, make sure your Sundays aren’t full up. Don’t make Sunday the day you spend working.
Don’t overbook your Sundays with family and friends.
Keep your Sundays open. Mark in your calendar, “Lazy Sunday with my love.”
Do what you would do if you had the partner you wanted.
Feel how good it feels to being doing that thing with that person.
Hold that thought and feeling inside, and be prepared to receive inspiration from the universe.

How Law of Attraction Works for Money

To attract money, you must focus on money. To bring money to you, you must create a new thought message of wealth. This is how Law of Attraction works, and it can provide you with abundance.

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. This is how the law of attraction really works: your thoughts are powerful enough to create action no matter what.

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.

How Law of Attraction works is that it will bring back those pictures of not having enough as experiences.

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.

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.

So, how does the law of attraction work? It’s your power that makes it possible. Remember the most important part of how law of attraction works is your patience, and the energy you’re willing to put into it. You have the power, and you can choose how to use it.

How Law of Attraction Works—Manifesting a Perfect Life