What We Don't Want

LOA has an interesting concept to consider in what we don't want.  They say that we often think about what we don't want and wonder why it shows up over and over again.  If we attract what we think, then the law of attraction doesn't care whether we perceive something to be good or bad, or whether we don't want it or whether we do want it.  It's responding to whatever we are thinking.  It's a law of nature, impersonal, not seeing good or bad, just giving you simply what you think about.  The law of attraction is working whether you understand it or not.

So, if we are thinking "I don't want to be late" for example, we are attracting the thought of being late.  Or,

I don't have enough time.
I don't have enough energy.
I don't have enough money.
I don't have enough talent.
I don't have enough friends.
I don't have enough patience.
I don't want to be fat.
I don't want to fail.
I don't think I'm smart enough.
I don't think I'm good enough.
I don't...
I don't....
I don't....

President Thomas S. Monson said, "We can lift ourselves, and others as well, when we refuse to remain in the realm of negative thought..." 

So of course "what we don't want" can seep over into our thoughts about others.  We can think things like:

He's really bugging me.
She makes me so mad.
Why is that person so rude?
Why does he expect so much out of me?

Or, as parents, especially with young children, we tend to point out all the "nos" as we try to steer them clear of dangers and troubles and mischief.  Can we incorporate more "yeses" into our conversations? 

I came across an interesting article, by Paul H. Dunn in the May 1987 Ensign entitled "By Faith and Hope, All Things are Fulfilled."

He talks about how we all need to develop lenses of vision that helps us see the positives instead of the negatives, thus making it possible to perform miracles. 

He said, "Why is it that as humans we tend to emphasize the negative when there is so much to be positive about? We not only constantly criticize our children and each other, find fault, are very judgmental, and often seek out and build up people’s weaknesses and failings rather than their strengths and successes, but in our own personal life-styles there are those of us who are incessant, chronic worriers. We worry about all the negative things that could happen, but usually don’t, rather than positively trying to face problems with some amount of faith and hope of success.  In our society, for some reason, we seem to dwell on the bizarre, the tragic, the profane, and the evils of our day. So often the newspapers and television reports center attention around the negative aspects of life: teenage suicides, drugs, AIDS, murders, infidelities, dishonesty, and a host of other social ills."

He said many of us fill our days with guilt because of the pressure of trying to accomplish everything we think is necessary and to be perfect right now...negative attitudes affect us in that way...consuming us with guilt and self-destructive thoughts.

He said that in many ways life is serious, and "we can’t help but worry sometimes; there are and always will be never-ending negatives existing all around us which must be faced, dealt with, and solved. But I wonder if the constant bombardment of dilemmas and challenges and the often seemingly hopeless situations, both personal and nationwide, don’t frustrate, discourage, and depress us sometimes to the point where our minds and attitudes are distracted from the very principles that would allow us to rise above the negative and find the positive answers we need."

He said we find many of our answers in the Book of Mormon and gave an example from the prophet Ether who said,

“By faith all things are fulfilled—    Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God”  (Ether 12:3-4)

Elder Dunn said, "Throughout the whole of this marvelous chapter we are taught the wonders accomplished by faith, love, and hope. It seems to me that dwelling on negative thoughts and approaches is, in fact, working directly opposite of hope, faith, and trust—in the Lord, ourselves, and others—and causes continual feelings of gloom, while the positive lifts and buoys us up, encourages us to forge ahead, and is an attitude that can be developed, a habit that we can cultivate."

I truly feel that is the key right there...develop and cultivate the positive--work at it persistently, bits and pieces at a time that will add up to tremendous accomplishments over time.

"As critical and judgmental as we often must be, as much as we will have to correct, as truly as we must face unpleasant realities all of our days, let us recognize and praise the thousands of beauties of life around us; the many wonderful examples of virtuous living; the strengths and the courage of so many souls; the exceptional talents and achievements of our family members, neighbors, and associates; the countless blessings that we have been given."

Let us follow the example of Jesus Christ, who came to lift us up, not put us down.

A Secret Garden to Tend

I came across this in a talk by President Thomas S. Monson in the Ensign 11/08.  It's a quote by Sarah Ban Breathnach and I was in awe of how well it fit in with the LOA and the Secret and shifting your focus and believing in yourself and staying positive.

"Both abundance and lack of abundance exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities.  It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend...when we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that's present--love, health, family, friends, work, the joys of nature, and personal pursuits that bring us happiness--the wasteland of illusion falls away and we experience heaven on earth."

So many of the very best things in life do not cost any money and are free to all.  It's all on what we choose to focus on.

So cultivate that secret garden of positivity, and fertilize it with loads of gratitude!

Shifting Your Focus

The LOA talks about "Secret Shifters"...things that can change your thoughts from negative to positive.  They are all pretty amazing, I think.   Here are some of my favorites, many of which I added as I thought about it:

*Close your eyes and SMILE for one full minute.  Focus on your feelings as you smile.  (this works!)
*Think about what makes you feel good?  Focus on what works.
*Feel what you want, even if it's not there.  i.e. health, love, joy, peace.
*Listen to some beautiful music.
*Look at beautiful pictures.
*Laugh!  Think about some funny moments.
*Think of someone you love.
*Think of great memories.
*Think of an exciting future event.
*Do something for someone else.
*Create something beautiful.
*Enjoy nature.
*Think happy thoughts.

"A simple shifting of emotions can change your whole day."  (LOA)

In the scriptures we read about fruits of the spirit. 
Love
Joy
Peace
Hope
Faith
Goodness
Gentleness
Patience
Virtue
Knowledge
Humility
Obedience
And more.  Shifting to and cultivating a positive frequency yields these fruits.

In James 3:17-18 says, "But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.  And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace."

I came up with some spiritual shifters that I call "To Lighten My Burden Through Christ."  They are:

-stop comparing myself and start changing myself
-maintain habits and order so that my faith remains unshaken
-take care of myself
-don't keep myself in the middle of a "storm"
-concentrate on my own journey (what is the Lord teaching me through this experience?)
-be kind to myself (don't blame myself for other's choices)
-seek the comfort of my places of peace when and how I can
-read good books
-exercise
-take time to do the little things I enjoy
-toss away self scorn (feelings of worthlessness)
-refuse to be drawn into daily drama whenever possible
-actively seek for peace
-keep my spiritual reserves from being depleted
-control my own actions and reactions
-the blessings of my covenants will continue for me in the needed ways
-concern and sadness is expected: misery is optional
-feed the good, stave the evil
-walk by faith, not by sight
-become alive in Christ
-sharpen my spiritual tools/work on my testimony
-cultivate a sweet sense of humor
-keep a merry heart
-find quiet joy in small things
-look forward to better days
-keep faith and hope in tact
-accept His truths
-follow Him
-humble myself
-pray for continued guidance and keep praying
-go to the scriptures for understanding and answers
-My continued faithfulness will pay eternal dividends.

Shifting my focus to that of a positive, spiritual, eternal nature makes all the difference.

Visualize

Visualizing is considered an important part of the LOA.  I'm going to try to convey their concepts without quoting so much out of the book (The Secret) as I feel concerned about overstepping the bounds of proper copy-right.

I love this concept of visualization.  I wonder if I have somewhat taken it for granted my whole life.  But what I do know, is I love "mediums" i.e. paint, colors, fabrics, paper and so on.  I love to create.  Creation and visualization go hand in hand, because you visualize as you create.  The LOA says as you visualize then you materialize.   They also said that is how some of our great inventors invented their inventions!!  They created them in their minds first and somehow brought them about.  (explain any of modern technology and how it works!)  What a glorious age of miracles we live in when visualization can be taken way beyond anything this earth has ever experienced.  (i.e. television, internet, digital photography...)

Women are better visualizers (in my experience) than men.  (I have heard that's the difference between the right brain, left brain concept)  For instance, I can visualize a change I want to make in my house and then make it a reality.  If I tell my husband about it, he can't see it and he'll be against the idea, so often, I have just went ahead and made the change without discussing it, and then when he sees it, he likes it.  (nothing major mind you---except that time I bought the refrigerator and had it delivered without telling him, and that time I....well, never mind!)

Getting out into our beautiful world and seeing all the wonders about us is a great way to visualize and FEEL GOOD!  How can you not feel good when you watch the waves roll in at the ocean, or see and hear the wind rustle the leaves in the trees, or watch birds fly across a blue sky?  LOA says that "visualization is simply powerfully focused thought in pictures, and it causes equally powerful feelings."

Once you've seen something your mind captures the image like a photo.  You can bring images up anytime you need them to bring all those powerfully good feelings you felt when you first saw that image...like flowers, your child, animals, a painting, a spectacular view--whatever you've seen that you've loved.

When you can visualize all that good and wonderful stuff you love, and then throw in feelings of joy, abundance and love on top of that, then you have an even more powerful experience of feeling good. 

Our Heavenly Father has given us eyes to see.  They really are an amazing thing if you ever stop to just think about them, or study any written word on how our eyes actually work---it's like a miracle in and of itself.  And then Heavenly Father sent Jesus Christ to create all these wonderful things in life for our eyes to behold.

"Yea, all things which come of the earth, in the season thereof, are made for the benefit and the use of man, both to please the eye and to gladden the heart."  Doctrine and Covenants 59:18 

To gladden the heart...now there is a really superb explanation of feeling good!

Visualize it!

Truth

Truth gives us the power to believe in ourselves.  Truth gives us the power of good over evil.  Truth radiates with the light of positivity.

"Truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come; and whatsoever is more or less than this is the spirit of that wicked one who was a liar from the beginning.  The spirit of truth is of God...He that keepeth His commandments receiveth truth and light, until he is glorified in truth and knoweth all things...intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be.  All truth is independent in that sphere in which God has placed it, to act for itself, as all intelligence also; otherwise there is no existence.  The glory of God is intelligence, or in other words, light and truth.  Light and truth forsake that evil one."  -Doctrine & Covenants 93:24-37

Satan is that wicked, evil one.  The very definition of Satan is "one who lies in wait."  He is the opposite or the antipathist of truth.  Brigham Young said, "Satan is capable of counterfeiting every true principle."  Satan is the master of lies--it is his essence.  He will create a false universe to fit any desire.  All darkness and negativity come from him.  Satan wants to deceive us about truth and light and God and who we really are.  Satan will do everything he can to convince us to not believe in ourselves, or in what God will do for us.  He seeks to destroy us, and he knows it can begin with a simple thought--any negative thought.  It is through our sense of vision that Satan seeks to take control of our thoughts. 

Satan is the great destroyer of our peace.  One of his greatest tools is distraction.  He wants us to be distracted from God and what our true purpose in this life is--from seeking light and truth and living in righteousness.  

But know this.  EVERY mortal is greater than Satan.

And why?  Because we have the power to choose.  We can choose to be miserable, if in our thoughts we believe all (or any) of Satan's lies about us.  Or we can choose to cast out his lies and negativity and seek for light and truth and move ourselves, with the power of the free agency that God has endowed us with, into a positive frequency.

Our free agency is the very thing the whole war in heaven was about.  It continues now.  Everywhere you see examples of people seeking for ultimate power and to take away the rights and choices of others.   And while there may be some in mortality who actually do succeed in taking away that precious gift, they can never take away our power to choose our attitude and our response to any set of circumstances.  Victor L. Frankl called it "the last of human freedom."

"One of the most powerful lessons to come out of the incredibly vicious experiences in the concentration camps of World War II was from the quiet heroes who exercised the one human freedom of which they could not be deprived—their capacity to choose the way they responded to the wickedness of their persecutors. That choice for some of them was to bring comfort to others, often giving away their last small piece of bread, and jeopardizing their own lives in so doing. This inner decision permitted those few who made it to retain their human dignity in foul circumstances. The few who managed to rise above their degradation and suffering by exercising their right to choose their attitude were proof enough that “man’s inner strength may raise him above his outward fate” (see Victor L. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning, 3rd ed., New York: Simon and Schuster, 1984, p. 76)."   As quote by Elder Marion D. Hanks

"We are free to choose liberty and eternal life...or captivity and death...for he seeketh that all...might be miserable like unto himself."  2 Nephi 2:27

The closer we draw to God, the harder Satan is going to work on us.  If he can't get to us directly, he will get to us through others.  Even when he knows we are not backing down, he will find ways to attack us and our integrity and everything good about us.  He wants to hurt us.  Satan increasingly tries to overcome the Saints with despair, despondency, discouragement and depression.  All negative.  All on a frequency we can get off of by changing to a positive one.

C. S. Lewis said that "Satan sends errors in pairs of opposites to encourage us to spend time thinking which is worse--drawing us into the other.  Keep your eyes on your goal and go straight through between both errors."

This battle will rage until mortality is over.  Do not surrender or retreat!  Not even in a moment when you think you cannot do it.  Hold your ground!  Close ranks!  Maintain the fort!  Satan will retreat in the face of great courage.  It is the fear that he generates in which he hopes to defeat us.  Remember when he confronted Moses and told Moses to worship him?  And Moses said,  "Who art thou? For behold, I am a son of God, in the similitude of his Only Begotten; and where is thy glory, that I should worship thee?"  And Satan ranted and raged and "Moses began to fear exceedingly; and as he began to fear, he saw the bitterness of hell.  Nevertheless, calling upon God, he received strength, and he commanded, saying: 'Depart from me, Satan, for this one God only will I worship, which is the God of glory."  And Satan did depart, because he had no choice, but not without making a big scene.   Moses 1: 12-22

When we resist evil, Satan will flee.

And we don't have to do it alone.  As Moses did, we call upon God and His Son Jesus Christ, and he gives us strength and the ability to do it.

And while we may choose good and seek to do right, beware.  Satan will sneak around to the back door, and he will flatter us that we are very righteous as we feed off the faults of others.   Pride is Satan's tool.  Satan doesn't care if we think good about ourselves or bad about ourselves, as long as we are only thinking of ourselves.  Both are forms of pride.  Part of pride is selfishness, and selfishness is part of that natural man that we need to work at casting off.  And selfishness generates negativity about ourselves and everyone and everything.

Tuning into that positive frequency and living God's laws [or the law of attraction--it's the same], we live a life of gratitude, being kind to others in thought and deed, blessing and praising everyone and everything, utilizing the power of love, creating our day with cheerfulness and joy and all good things---this is TRUTH!

And truth conquers!  No matter our circumstances.