Thoughts and conclusions

So does The Secret work?  I’ve spent two weeks looking back over the past six months and trying to decide definitively whether the law of attraction is, as they say, as real as the law of gravity, or if it is a load of baloney.  Here is what I have concluded:

When I started this project, I was in a bad place.  I was jobless, had just had to move back home, was down to my last few dollars, and stuck feeling like everything was falling apart.  It felt dark, and confusing, and I really couldn’t see a way to make everything right again.

When I decided to start this Secret project, I had three very clear goals which I wanted to work towards.  Whether I achieved these goals or not would give me some kind of indication about whether The Secret was working for me.

The first of these goals was to get myself a job.  Not just any job, but one that I found interesting, which challenged me, and which, most of all, I enjoyed.  Having spent the past year and a half sending out CVs, writing cover letters, and attending interviews to no avail, I knew that this wouldn’t be an easy task.

My second goal was to move out of home, and into a nice house, in a nice neighbourhood.  Obviously, given that my bank account held the smallest sum of numbers I have ever seen, moving out had to come after I had found a job.

My final goal was to get a kitten.  It seems a strange thing to have as a goal, compared to the other two, but when I started this project these were the three things that I most wanted.

My first goal was achieved in March, when I was offered a temporary job with a large organisation.  This job wasn’t exactly what I wanted, but it held so many opportunities; this organisation is known for placing their temp staff in permanent positions, plus they have a massive communications department – which is where I want to be.  Two months later, when I was due to finish, the position was extended for another few months, and just recently I was offered guaranteed work for the next year. 

While I may not love my job as much as this guy loves his, I’m happy where I am, and I know that something else will come along that will be exactly what I’m looking for.

As winter began and the weather dropped to -4 degrees, I realised that for the first time since I first moved out of home four years ago, I was living in a warm house.  I’d become accustomed to living in houses so cold and draughty that your breath turned to fog while you were inside watching TV.  I realised that I’m happy at home, and while I am still looking at places to live, I’m not in any hurry.  In fact, I’m saving a lot of money by living at home, and in a few more months I might almost be able to afford to buy my own house.  So many possibilities.

My goal of getting a kitten is still on hold until I move out of home.  Despite my continuing hints (and outright saying) that I want a kitten, my Dad is still adamant that he is “sick of living in a cat’s toilet”.

So does The Secret work?  The Secret tells us to get clear about what we want, to focus on the positive and push away the negative.  It tells us to be thankful for what we have, and for what we receive.  It tells us to give, to help, and to bless others.  I have done all this.  Has it brought me what I want?  To some extent, yes it has.  But mostly it has made me realise that I am happy with what I have.  It has helped me to figure out what I want and to know where I want to go.  It has helped me to escape the dark place where I was before, and brought me back to a place where I am happy again. 

So in the end, does it really matter if it works or not?  If you’re happy, healthy, and have a positive outlook on life, then everything in your life is going to seem that little bit better.  The Secret is a way to ensure that you remain happy, healthy and positive, and I am definitely going to continue using it in my life.

Ask for a cat and the Universe will burn down a house

One of my goals for this year has been to acquire myself a kitten, and it seems that the Universe has been listening.  

The other night my Mum received an email from her friend, saying that she was moving out of her house for three months to rent it out to a family who need a place to live while they rebuild their fire-damaged home.  To accommodate this family, my Mum’s friend was trying to find homes for her animals, and wanted to know if we could house her new kitten.

The Secret does say that if you ask for something, and believe it is yours, the Universe will move people and events to bring it to you.  But really Universe, did you have to burn down someone’s house?! Couldn’t there just have been a Free Kitten Day at a pet store or something? 

As it turns out, the people moving into the house are going to look after the kitten, but I think this was simply the Universe’s way of reminding me that it is working on my side.  I just have to believe that the things I want are on their way, and the Universe will find a way of getting them to me.

But please Universe, don’t burn down any more houses.

It's a fun Secret

Life has been pretty good for me lately.  I think that comes down to me doing exactly what The Secret has been telling me to do, and that is to have fun.  A few weeks ago I realised how incredibly bored I was; I had become some sort of machine that gets up in the morning, goes to work, comes home, goes to sleep, wakes up the next morning and starts the cycle all over again.

From my experiences last year, I know that boredom causes me to be dissatisfied with life, and as I know how the law of attraction works, I know that thinking dissatisfying thoughts will attract more of that into my life.  And I have worked far too hard over the last few months to plummet right back to where I was when this all began.

The Secret tells us the importance of having fun and doing what we love.  It specifically says “if it ain’t fun, don’t do it”, and “do the things you love that bring you joy”.  So for the past week I have made a real effort to break my routine and find the time to do things that I enjoy.

I know it probably seems really obvious, but this really has made a huge difference to my life this past week.  I’m in a better mood, it’s easier to get out of bed in the morning (marginally easier, but I still reckon there’s a difference), people are nicer to me, time moves faster while I’m at work.

There are people out there who will tell you The Secret is a load of baloney, a bunch of new-age rubbish.  I know this is not true, but even if that was the case, what harm could possibly come from having a positive attitude?

Secret clues

I have some exciting updates relating to my goals for this project.  My number one goal - to get a good job - was partly achieved earlier this year when I was recruited by a temping agency and placed in a two month long position within a fairly well known organisation.  I've been in that same position now for three months, and they've just offered me further work for the next year.

To begin with, I wasn't sure that I was going to accept this further year of work.  The type of work that I'm doing isn't really what I want to do, and to stay there for another year would put me another year further away from the job that I really want.

When you're clued up on The Secret and know a little bit about the way the Universe operates, you start to notice signs where before you might not have.  While I was thinking the offer over, my boss took me aside and said that he's been thinking about my qualifications and the area that I really want to be working in, and that if I do stay on he would talk to the manager of the Communications department to see if he could arrange for me to get some work experience.  Sign number one.

The same day I was offered this extra work, I received a call from a woman working for an organisation that I had applied for a job at.  The message quite bluntly stated that I wasn't right for the position, and my application had been "denied".  Sign number two.

I started thinking about these things, and realised that the Universe is trying to point something out to me.  All the pieces are being lined up for me to accept this job, and eventually this will lead me to where I really want to be.

So I think I can officially say that goal number one has been achieved.  Goal number two - to find myself a house - is already beginning to take shape.  Although after four years of living in houses so cold you can see your breath while sitting in your lounge, I'm thinking that living at home where it's warm and dry might be a great idea over winter.

It's July now, which means this is the last month of my Secret project.  In honour of this I watched The Secret on DVD yesterday.  Soon, I'll be updating my Things to Achieve with the very last set of tasks, and it'll be a busy month as I attempt to achieve the final things on my list. 

'I am' Megan, hear me roar!

I’ve been working on some of this month’s Things to Achieve for about a week, and I’m finding them quite interesting.  My particular favourite so far is “...begin to use the two most powerful words, I AM, to your advantage.”

The reason I’ve been finding this so interesting is that it’s only now that I’m aware of these words that I realise how often during a day I’ll say ‘I am’ in relation to how I’m feeling.  If I’m at work, I’ve discovered I’m often saying ‘I am tired’ or ‘I am bored’.  So really, it’s no wonder I find my day’s slow and dull when I’m constantly telling myself to feel that way.

The other day I was almost falling asleep at my desk.  I was taking some very long blinks and thinking about how I felt so very, very tired, when I remembered something that I’d read in The Secret that says “all power is from within and therefore under our control”.  It occurred to me that I am in control of me, and that if I didn’t want to be tired then I didn’t have to be tired.

All I said to myself was “I am awake” (in my head of course; my boss already suspects I’m nuts, I don’t need to add evidence to his theories).  And just like that I really did feel awake.  I wasn’t expecting the effects to be so instantaneous, and it took me by surprise.

So this technique is one that I’ve been using a lot lately.  Every now and then I’ll stop and ask myself (once again, in my head) how am I feeling?  And regardless of how I might really be feeling, my response will always be a positive one.  It’s definitely one of the most effective methods I’ve discovered so far for switching my mood around.

No Moan Zone

Seriously, it’s June already?  Where is the time going?! Well, as it is now June, that means it’s time for me to begin the next chapter of The Secret: The Secret to You.  In a few days I’ll post my new things to achieve, but first I want to reflect on how last month went with The Secret to the World.

At work last week, we had a talk by Dr Tom – a doctor who specialises in the benefits of healthy thinking.  As a practising medical doctor, Dr Tom’s talk was more about the scientific, physical benefits of thinking healthy thoughts, rather than the ability to manifest items by focusing your thoughts in a certain way.  What struck me throughout this talk was that there is a very physical connection between brain health and physical wellbeing, and thinking positively.

The Secret states that thinking positively will allow us to create the life that we want, and while Dr Tom takes a medical point of view, he is effectively stating the same message.  Dr Tom has a method for turning a negative situation into a positive one, which I particularly like.  The Secret tells us that we must not dwell on the negative, or we will attract negative things back to us, but I have always had difficulty switching from negative to positive. 

Dr Tom says we should look at negative situations as opportunities.  For example, if I dropped my toast on the floor one morning, instead of seeing it as a negative situation where I have lost my breakfast, I could see it as an opportunity to try something new for breakfast.  Or as an opportunity to go out for breakfast.  Or as an opportunity to eat the toast and see how clean my floor is.

I felt like this talk was particularly relevant to my Secret project this month, particularly in relation to one of my things to achieve: “Learn to become still, and to take your attention away from what you don’t want, and all the emotional charge around it, and place that attention on what you wish to experience.”  Looking at all the opportunities takes the attention away from the negative situation, and places it on all the positive opportunities the situation has given me.

There was one final aspect of Dr Tom’s talk which I particularly liked, and that was his concept of a ‘No Moan Zone’.  He makes up posters to put up around the workplace to discourage people from complaining about things, because complaining has a bad impact on people’s health.  The Secret tells us that we shouldn’t listen to people complain as it will bring us down with them, and we will attract depressing and negative things.

So from now on I live in a permanent No Moan Zone.  If you’ve got any complaints, please send them elsewhere.

The Secret of all time

I had one of those moments last weekend where all of a sudden something started to make a whole lot of sense.  There is a concept in The Secret that until last weekend I found to be a complete enigma.  I’m sure to many people it makes perfect sense, but I really struggled to get my head around the idea, and I’d pretty much written it off as a lot of nonsense.  

The idea is based in quantum physics (which goes some way to explaining why I didn’t understand it) and states that all things happen simultaneously.  So if I’m thinking about how I really want a donut, at the same time I am also buying the donut and eating the donut, because everything happens at the same time.  I know, right, it’s confusing?!

I think I’ve finally found a way to understand this.  On Saturday night, I asked Duncan if he was going to check the lotto numbers to see if he’d won anything, and he replied that he didn’t want to know, because if he didn’t know what the numbers were there was still a possibility that he might have won.

Suddenly, the cogs started turning in my brain, and everything made sense.  If everything happens simultaneously, then until Duncan checks the lotto numbers he could still have won because the numbers haven’t been drawn yet.  Even though it was 8.30 and the lotto draw takes place at 8, the draw hasn’t actually happened yet until we acknowledge that it’s taken place by checking the numbers.  Because everything happens simultaneously!

I know that my little explanation is probably just as confusing as the idea itself, but it makes sense to me.  I’ll tell you something else about this idea: once you do get your head around it, it really is quite a freaky concept.  There is no such thing as time....

I'm going to manifest myself a woolly mammoth

“I want you to set a goal that’s so big that if you achieved it, it would blow your mind, and you would know it’s only because of what I’ve taught you that you would have achieved this goal.”

The above comment was made by W. Clement Stone to one of the teachers in The Secret.  I was rather taken by this comment the first time I read it, and it immediately made me want to pick the biggest, most ludicrous idea I could think of, and try to make it happen.

It's nice to know that no matter how carried away I might get with an idea, there is always a part of my brain that stays firmly grounded in logic.  In this instance, the logical part of my brain pointed out that it would be a bad idea to jump straight into trying to manifest all the wildest things I could think of while knowing very little about The Secret and how it works.

I'll be honest and tell you that I don't always obey that logical voice inside my head, but on this occasion I'm really glad I did.  If I'd jumped straight in and started trying to manifest something epic while in the state of mind I was in prior to starting this project, I know without a doubt that it wouldn't have worked out for me.  To get to this point in my Secret project I've had to go through a major mind shift and drastically alter my thinking patterns.  It has not been an easy task.

I've managed to manifest my small object and I've successfully achieved the first of my goals.  Every day there are little things, like getting myself a parking space, that remind me The Secret is working.  I think, finally, I might have reached a point where I can start thinking up a massive goal that will, without a doubt, prove that the law of attraction exists.

The Secret to taking over the world

I know, I know, this blog post has been a long time coming.  It’s already seven days into the new month, which means this blog post should have been written seven days ago.  But better late than never, and just because I’m not vigilantly writing doesn’t mean I’m not still practising The Secret.

April ended with me still perfectly healthy, so I think it’s safe to say The Secret to Health was successful.  Even now, as we’re dealing with a very moody Mother Nature going through some major weather swings, I’m still feeling great.  Usually by now I’d be fighting off my first winter cold.

This month is all about The Secret to the World.  This brings with it some new Things to Achieve, mostly looking at how we can use the power of the law of attraction to benefit the world around us. 

One of the major ideas in this chapter is about not giving attention to things we don’t want.  Focussing on the negative, the things we don’t want, is something that happens far too often in this society, and I think news and current affairs media are partly to blame for this.  After all, it’s the bad news that sells the newspapers and gets the TV ratings.  While I agree that we need to be informed about world events, we definitely shouldn’t be dwelling on the negative.  Giving our attention to something will only attract more of it.

It was nice to see a break from this trend last Friday, when what felt like half the world tuned in to watch the royal wedding.  Hopefully, with so much global attention from all around the world, we will have attracted more reasons to celebrate.

My first Thing to Achieve for this month will be, “You have all the power.  Focus on everybody being in joy.  Focus on abundance of food.  Give your powerful thoughts to whatever is wanted.”  The idea behind this task is that if we are sending out good thoughts into the Universe, we are benefiting those around us, and attracting good things back to ourselves.  It’s a win-win situation.

That's a healthy stomachache

It feels as though time has been caught up in a vacuum lately.  It's being sucked up awfully fast and I'm struggling to keep up with the days.  They seem to disappear before I've even really realised they're here.

And so the end of April is fast approaching, despite feeling like it's only just begun.  I think I can safely say that out of all the months so far, this has easily been the most successful in relation to my Secret project.  April is the Secret to Health, and I'm pleased to report that I'm feeling absolutely superb health-wise.

With the exception of a stomachache last night, I've had no health complaints to speak of so far this month.  Whether this is a sign that I'm on the right track with this month's project, or simply a tribute to my immune system, I still think this is quite an achievement.  Last night's stomachache can be entirely attributed to a pre-Easter overindulgence on Easter eggs and other assorted unhealthy foods.  I very quickly began telling myself I felt great, because I knew no one would believe me if I called in sick to work the day before a four day weekend.  Within a few hours I was feeling back to normal again.

Speaking of four day weekends, I'm now off to enjoy my holiday.  Have a happy Easter!

Knock knock, Penny?

Generally, at the end of the day i am so exhausted from work that I can barely even eat my dinner, let alone blog.  But today my boss shared his packet of jelly beans with me and right now I'm feeling rather energetic.  I'm dreading the moment when this sugar high wears off, so before that happens I'm going to use this energy to do something productive.  Like write a blog post.

So remember how I said I was trying to manifest something small, and I settled on a one cent coin because they're not very common and it's good luck and all that?  Well last weekend as I was adding April's Things to Achieve, I remembered that I was supposed to be focusing on manifesting my coin.  Somewhere in amongst the excitement of getting a new job, thinking about manifesting a coin must have completely slipped my mind.  I resolved to start focusing my thoughts on the coin again

About two hours later, my Mum was cleaning out an old desk drawer when she started laughing.  She said, "look what I found!" and put a small wooden box in front of me.  Inside was a collection of old New Zealand coins, including a one cent coin.

Sceptics might say it doesn't count because I didn't find it myself, but I'm counting it as a win.  After all, I had just been thinking about it, and according to The Secret, you have no control over how the things you want will manifest.  You let the Universe know what it is that you want, and then it's up to the Universe how it will get it to you.

So manifesting something small = achieved.  Now it's on to the bigger things.

Healthy thoughts, healthy me!

Japanese researcher Dr. Masaru Emoto studied the effects of positive and negative energies on water crystals.  The water crystals were subjected to either positive or negative written words, spoken words, and music.  Dr. Emoto’s results showed a very clear difference in the health of the crystals which had been subjected to the negative energy, in comparison with the ones receiving the positive energy.  The water crystals receiving positive energies grew in bright, colourful snowflake patterns, where as the crystals receiving the negative energies were dull and grew in incomplete asymmetrical patterns.

The human body is made up of three-quarters water.  These results show us exactly what effects negative energy can have on our health and reflect what The Secret states about the correlation between our thoughts and our physical well-being.  According to The Secret, illness and disease come directly from our negative thoughts.  As Bob Proctor states, “disease cannot live in a body that’s in a healthy emotional state.”

I found The Secret to Health to be a particularly interesting chapter in The Secret.  There were plenty of real life stories from people who had overcome some pretty serious health issues.  By far the most interesting is the story about Morris Goodman, who was paralysed after a plane crash, and told by doctors that he would be a vegetable for the rest of his life.  This accident occurred in March 1981, and by Christmas that year Morris Goodman walked out of the hospital under his own power.

After his accident, Morris Goodman was left unable to move, eat or drink, or breathe without a respirator.  The only thing he had left was his mind, and through his persistent positive thoughts and visions of recovery, he was able to cure what the doctors believed to be incurable.

According to The Secret, happiness is all it takes to stay healthy.  Laughter, love, and gratitude can help conquer any sickness or disease.  And on that note, I’ve added a few new Things to Achieve to help me stay healthy.  Without even realising it, these are all things I’ve been doing for years.  Like most people, I absolutely hate being sick.  Whenever anybody gets sick, I think ‘healthy thoughts’ in an attempt to prevent myself from getting sick.  Generally this works, so it’s nice to know that I’ve been on the right track with something from The Secret.

Secretly, I'm going to be healthy in April

It’s April, which means I’ve now moved on to The Secret to Health.  In a few days time I’ll be adding a new bunch of things to my Things to Achieve list.  It’s probably good timing too because this new job of mine is making me exhausted, and when I get run-down the viruses start checking into the Megan Hotel. 

If I had to give an evaluation of how I thought last month went in regards to The Secret to Relationships, I’d have to say that the only noticeable difference is that I’m now somewhat politer around people than I was before.  I’ve caught myself, on more than one occasion, saying “oh my goodness”.  Goodness.  It’s not ‘oh my god’, or even ‘oh my gosh’, it’s oh my goodness.  It’s like my vocabulary has aged about 60 years.

Whether this has anything to do with my attempts to think only good things about people, I can’t honestly say.  But regardless of what has caused it, I find it more than amusing.

There’s one final thing I want to share today.  From the beginning of this project I’ve signed up to the Secret Scrolls on the official Secret website.  This is basically an email mailing list that Rhonda Byrne uses to send out little snippets of Secret wisdom.  I received one last week which I thought was particularly relevant:

From The Secret Daily Teachings

If there was a particular house you wanted, or a particular relationship or job you wanted, and you didn't get it, the Universe is telling you that it was not good enough and did not match your dream. It is also telling you that it has something BETTER and more worthy of you.

Something better is coming . . . you're allowed to be excited!

Some Things to do

I think it’s about time I crossed some more things off my Things to Achieve list.  There’s only a little over a week left until April when I’ll be adding some new Things, and I’d like to cross some things off before then.

Achieving my first goal of getting a job has really helped my confidence in The Secret.  I can’t quite explain it, but last week I just kind of knew I was going to get a job soon.  It wasn’t until I really started believing that what I wanted was on the way that I started to receive anything.  I think this means I can finally cross off “You must believe that you have received.  You must know that what you want is yours the moment you ask.  You must have complete and utter faith” and “Trust your instincts.” 

On that note, I think it’s about time I started this Thing:

“Decide what you want.  Believe you can have it.  Believe you deserve it and believe it’s possible for you.  And then close your eyes every day for several minutes, and visualise having what you already want, feeling the feelings of already having it.  Come out of that and focus on what you’re grateful for already, and really enjoy it.  Then go into your day and release it to the Universe and trust that the Universe will figure out how to manifest it.”

I think initially I was put off by the length of this task, but if I can work it into my routine it won’t seem so intimidating.

Finally, because March is supposed to be focussing on the secret to relationships, I’m also going to start this Thing: “For relationships to really work, we need to focus on what we appreciate about the other person, not what we’re complaining about.”  I think I’m already working towards this by doing my list of things I appreciate, but I’m going to start making sure that I’m not also complaining about people.

At long last!

It finally happened.  I got a job.  Excuse me for just a moment, but there’s something I need to do...

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

... Right, well now that I’ve got that out of the way, let me tell you all about it.  It’s a temp job which was set up for me by the recruitment agency I talked about the other day.  It runs for two months, and is with a fairly large organisation that has a reputation for hiring temp staff for permanent positions.  I start on Monday.

It’s hard to explain, but the other day I just had this feeling that I was going to get a job soon.  Somehow I just knew that something was going to happen.  The Secret does say Ask, Believe, Receive, and I think, finally, I may have got this believing thing right.

When it rains, it pours

Life is strange isn’t it?  It can take 18 months of applying for jobs, sending out your CV, and painstakingly writing cover letters, and then all of a sudden everyone is interested in you at once. 

Yesterday I was expecting to hear about the job I was interviewed for last week, but instead I received a call from a recruitment company specialising in temp jobs which I sent my CV to about three weeks ago.  The recruitment lady wanted to know if I was interested in a temporary position which begins on Wednesday.

Because I still hadn’t heard from the other job, I was reluctant to agree to take the temp job.  It seemed foolish to accept a two week long job when it might jeopardise my chance of getting a permanent full-time position.  Instead, I agreed to contact the people who had interviewed me and ask whether they had made a decision, and if I was not the preferred applicant I could contact the recruitment lady and we could arrange a temporary job.

I’ve had no job offers for a year and a half, and then all of a sudden I have two potential jobs.  Based on my experience of just about everything in life, it is either all or nothing.  A flood or a drought.  When it rains, it pours.  Look at Japan for example, they’ve been living safely for year after year, then all of a sudden they get not one, but three disasters all at once.

Obviously, having two potential job offers is nowhere near as catastrophic as what is happening in Japan at the moment; but to me, after a year and a half of rejection, to have two companies interested in me at the same time does feel like it should be on the six o clock news.

UPDATE

I’ve just received an email from the company I had the interview with last week to inform me that they have offered the position to someone else.  I called the recruitment company back to let them know I’m officially available for any temporary jobs, and I’ve got an appointment to visit them on Thursday to find a suitable temp position for me.  Apparently, after talking to me yesterday, the recruitment lady thought I would be more suitable for some other jobs she has coming up soon which are more relevant to my degree and what I want to do.  Some windows might have closed, but I think a door just opened.

Believe, and the Universe will pay for your parking

On Tuesday I travelled up to Auckland for the spontaneous interview I mentioned in my last post.  Despite Google map-ing my entire journey and noting important details like which exit to take and what streets I needed to turn down, I managed to get lost.  No, lost is the wrong word.  I knew where I was (sort of), and where I needed to go, I just couldn’t work out how to get there. 

My sense of direction and navigational abilities are certainly not my strongest points.  I’m fairly certain that if you took a penguin, blindfolded it, spun it around ten times and asked it to find its way home, its navigational skills would still be better than mine.  If I get this job, I’ve resolved to buy myself a GPS thingy.

My detour around the city resulted in me arriving a little later than I would have liked, and with the stress of trying to find the right way, I hadn’t been visualising myself a parking space.  I drove around the block a few times looking for somewhere suitable to park, but the only space available was in a pay and display area, and I could not for the life of me see anywhere to pay.  Eventually, after a few more unsuccessful loops around the block, I realised I was going to have to take this space.

As I was gathering up my belongings I noticed a woman walking in my direction with a parking slip in her hand.  I was so distracted trying to see where she had come from that I got a bit of a fright when I realised she had stopped right next to my car.

As I wound down my window she asked if I would like to use her parking slip. Her plans had just changed so she no longer needed it, and it still had an hour and a half left on it.  I thanked her, she said it was no problem, and left me to go to my interview.

I can’t help but laugh every time something like this happens.  It feels like more than a coincidence, and I’m choosing to see it as a sign of the Universe in action.

Yes sir, I WILL be happy!

The Secret mentions that in order for us to get what we really want, we first have to be happy with ourselves and with our situations.  I think maybe this might be one of the reasons why things haven’t been working out for me.  This whole job hunt thing has really been getting me down, and it’s been going on for so long that it’s hard to just flick the switch back to being happy.  But this month is all about improving relationships, and the number one relationship I need to improve is my relationship with myself.

Ideally, I’d like to get rid of the negativity which sometimes holds my mind hostage, to be happier in general, and to not let rejection from job applications get me down.  To do this, I’m going to keep doing meditation as a means of quieting my mind, and I’m also going to revisit the idea of thinking only good thoughts before I go to sleep.  Lately my last thoughts have mostly been about how I’m tired and wish I was asleep, but I’m going to start making a real conscious effort to think about good things again. 

There are a few Things to Achieve which I believe will help me see the brighter side of life.  The first is “BE and FEEL happy now.”  This particular Thing makes me feel like I’m in some sort of happiness boot camp, and some huge, beefy, army sergeant is yelling at me: “You WILL be happy, do you hear me? You WILL be happy and you will start RIGHT NOW!”  The last person I want to upset is someone who has access to weapons, so yes sir, I WILL be happy.

The second Thing which I believe will help me is “You must change your focus and begin to think about all the things that are wonderful about you.  Look for the positives in you.”  I think I’m going to complete this task in the same way that I’m making my list of things I appreciate about Duncan.  Each day I’m going to write down one new thing which I like about me.  It sounds horrible and cheesy, but if it’s going to make me happier and help me achieve my goals, then I’m prepared to give it a go.

I’m editing this to note that as I finished writing this, I got a call from the manager of a company I’d applied for a job with a few weeks ago.  At the end of last week I received an email saying that the position had been filled, but I’ve just had a phone call to say that the person they’d offered the job to has turned the position down, and they would like to see me tomorrow afternoon to interview me.  It feels like the Universe gives me a little sign every time I’m on the right track with something.  This is hilarious!

March - new month, new theme

Today is the first of March, which means “The Secret to Relationships” has just begun.  I’ve added some more Things to Achieve to my list, and these will be my focus until the end of the month.

Initially, I thought this month was going to be about improving my relationship with Duncan (possibly the most patient boyfriend the world has ever known); however, since re-reading the relationship chapter in The Secret, I now realise that this month is about improving my relationships with everything and everyone, including myself.  The Secret says that we need to feel good about ourselves in order to attract good things to us, and this month I want to focus on feeling good about myself. 

In any job hunt it is inevitable that you’re going to receive some rejection letters.  Rejection letters don’t make you feel very good about yourself, and the worse you feel, the worse the situation becomes.  This cycle escalates until you almost can’t face applying for jobs because you can’t stand the thought of receiving another rejection letter.  In order to succeed at anything, you first need to feel good about yourself.

I also want to focus on my relationships with the people around me, and for the next thirty days I will attempt to see only good things in people.  As The Secret states, we should be focusing on what we appreciate about other people, not our complaints about them.

On that note, my first Thing to Achieve this month is “take a piece of paper, and for the next thirty days sit down and write all the things that you appreciate about that person.”  I’m going to adapt this slightly, and write down one new thing each day, rather than writing the same list for thirty days.  This way, at the end of the month I’ll have a long list of thirty things which I appreciate.

This month, the person I’ll be appreciating is Duncan, but I may continue this task over the next few months using different people if I feel I need to.

Searching for my good luck charm

Lately, I’ve become increasingly slack with this whole Secret project.  I’ve only been putting in about half the effort and energy that I really need to, and I’ve only got myself to blame.  I’m letting myself down, and it’s no wonder I’m not happy with the way things are at the moment.

Last night I made the resolution to resume putting all my efforts into this project.  This morning I made myself get up early, and I’m going to go back to my original routine of doing work between the hours of 9 and 5.  And just to clarify, ‘work’ does not mean making virtual hamburgers on the Internet.  It has to be actual, real, productive work.

I’m going to miss that hamburger game.

Today is the last day of February, which means ‘The Secret to Money’ month is coming to an end.  Tomorrow I’ll be moving on to ‘The Secret to Relationships’.  I’ve found February to be really hard.  My thoughts over the last four years have revolved around my lack of money, and I don’t think 28 days is long enough to break these persistent thought patterns.  I do believe it can be done though, and I will continue to work on this over the next few months.

Tomorrow I’ll be adding some more Things to Achieve to my list, so today I want to cross off some of my current ones.  Firstly, “you must focus on the abundance of money that you bring to you” feels like a good way of reminding me to think abundant money thoughts, once February is over.

To help overcome some of the difficulties I have had in changing my thought patterns, I’m also going to set the intention, “I am the master of my thoughts”.

Finally, I think it’s about time I started working on attracting that something small I have mentioned several times, but done nothing about.  I’ve decided to focus on attracting a one cent coin.  Why?  Because when I think of something small, that is what comes to mind.  Also, because one cent coins haven’t been included in New Zealand currency for decades, it is not something that I can easily find. 

There’s one final reason why I’ve chosen a one cent coin:

See a penny

Pick it up

All day long

You’ll have good luck

A Secret disaster

This is where I start to question The Secret.  The Christchurch earthquake on Tuesday brought destruction and devastation to everyone in the Christchurch area.  It is believed that hundreds of people have lost their lives, while others have lost their homes and jobs. 

Attracting a car accident - yes, I believe that is possible.  Attracting money – yes, I believe that is possible too.  But attracting a natural disaster that has destroyed the lives of thousands of New Zealanders - this I don’t understand.

I remembered reading something in The Secret about disasters like this one.  On page 28 (of my 2006 edition) Rhonda Byrne writes:

“Often when people hear this part of the Secret they recall events in history where masses of lives are lost, and they find it incomprehensible that so many people could have attracted themselves to the event.  By law of attraction, they had to be on the same frequency as the event.  It doesn’t necessarily mean they thought of that exact event, but the frequency of their thoughts matched the frequency of the event.  If people believe they can be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and they have no control over outside circumstances, those thoughts of fear, separation, and powerlessness, if persistent, can attract them to being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

What I understand this to mean is that EVERYONE in Christchurch on Tuesday had to be on the same frequency.  Otherwise the Universe would have directed them to be somewhere else at the time.

The part about being in the wrong place at the wrong time does make some sense to me.  On the news I saw footage of two women who had been going back to their office after lunch when the earthquake struck.  When they got back to their office, they found it was now just a pile of rubble. 

If we believe what The Secret tells us, these two women had to be on a different frequency for the Universe to ensure they were out of the office during the earthquake.  They were saved from being trapped or crushed by the building, but they are still very much affected by the earthquake.  They had to watch as their friends and colleagues were carried out of the building, some with very severe injuries.  Their homes may have been destroyed, and their family members may have been hurt.  Regardless of what frequency they were on and what thoughts they were thinking, their lives have been changed forever because of this event.

Perhaps the earthquake was inevitable, and the Universe had no control over whether or not it happened.  Instead it was able to move individual people depending on their individual thoughts and frequencies.

All I know for certain is that I don’t understand it.  I’m sending all my positive thoughts towards Christchurch; you need them more than I do right now.

Job application, you make me sick

The end of February is approaching, and I still have some money related Things to Achieve to complete before March arrives.  I’m still finding it a little hard to consider myself as being abundant in money, but I’m working on it.  My brain just can’t be tricked into thinking I have lots of money when I know for a fact that I don’t.

I’m no closer to manifesting myself a job either.  I know that no matter how much I ask the Universe for a job, it’s not just going to give me one.  I still have to apply for jobs in order to receive one.  The trouble is, I’m having a hard time applying for jobs right now. 

Yesterday, I had the intention of applying for a few jobs which I’d seen advertised, but as soon as I started to look up the job ads, I started feeling really sick. My stomach started churning and my head was aching.  Interestingly, these symptoms disappeared as soon as I’d stopped attempting to apply for those jobs.

The only conclusion I can draw from this is that the thought of having to go through that whole process again - sending in the application, waiting to hear about an interview, getting an interview, preparing for the interview, waiting to hear if I’ve got the job – makes me physically sick.  Just writing about it is making me feel nauseous.

I don’t know what I can do about any of this, so until I figure it out I’ll work on manifesting myself some money.  I haven’t really utilised the cheque I made for my vision board yet, so I thought I’d tackle this Thing:  “When you look at the cheque, feel the feelings of having that money now.  Imagine spending that money, all the things you will buy and the things you will do.”

Also, because my mind tends to start questioning how I’m going to get this money, and when it’s going to arrive, I thought I’d also focus on this Thing: “It is your job to ask, to believe you are receiving, and feel happy now.  Leave the details to the Universe on how it will bring it about.”

An epiphany while having my annual haircut

I finally tried meditation.  Previously the closest I had come to meditating was sitting outside the Work and Income building at The Mount and pretending to meditate for the amusement of passing pedestrians.  Why?  Because I was 14 and it made sense at the time.

So, to sum up real meditation:  it made me feel sleepy, but that’s ok because I like sleep, and it probably just meant I was relaxed.  Although, the day after I meditated I was in an especially good mood for no apparent reason.  Whether meditation had anything to do with that, I don’t know. 

One thing I can confirm, I will be doing it again.

That’s one more thing I can cross off my Things to Achieve.  I have been working on the Things I mentioned the other day – about feeling good about money.  I was finding this really hard because I really don’t have a lot of it at the moment.  It wasn’t until yesterday, when I was slightly freaking out about having to pay for a haircut, that it occurred to me how I’m supposed to feel good about money. 

These days, I only spend money on things I need (and yes, I did NEED a haircut.  It had been a year since my last one.  Please don’t judge me).  So instead of worrying about the fact that I’m spending my last few precious dollars every time I buy something, I should be focussing on the thing I am buying, and how that makes me happy.

So, I’m very happy with my much needed haircut.  The money I had to spend to get it is irrelevant.  From now on, money = happiness because I’m spending it on things I need, which makes me happy.

Does this make any sense at all outside my head?

Last week I said that I thought I needed to try attracting something small.  I want to start working on this.  As a side note, I find this idea a little baffling.  The Secret states that it is as easy to manifest one million dollars as it is to manifest one dollar.  In other words, it is as easy to attract something big as it is to attract something small.  So why does The Secret also state that I should start by attracting something small?

I suppose it is not my job to question, it is just my job to do.  I’m still thinking up something suitably small to try attracting.  When I do, I’ll let you know how I get on.

Oops, half of February has disappeared

I’ve just realised that it’s half way through February.  I’ve been incredibly slack; I need to start working on more of my Things to Achieve.  I’m supposed to be working on attracting money to me, not worrying about the fact that I don’t have a job and have very little money in my bank account.

So, my missions for today: “You need to go for the inner joy, the inner peace, the inner version first, and then all the outer things appear.”  This is probably the best place to start; it’s hard to focus on attracting money when my brain is blabbing on about how I have no money and how that should make me sad.  This would be the best time to start doing that meditation I talked about weeks ago.  I’ve researched all sorts of different meditation, but I am yet to start using them.

Next, “You have got to feel good about money to attract more to you.”  I’m currently not feeling so good about money, mostly due to my lack of it.  Working on changing this.

Finally, “Start to say and feel, ‘I have more than enough’.  ‘There is an abundance of money and it’s on its way to me.’  ‘I am a money magnet.’  ‘I love money and money loves me.’  ‘I am receiving money every day.’  ‘Thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you.’”

I’m not feeling very enthusiastic about this.  But unless I actually put the effort in, this thing is never going to work for me.

The letter

It came in the form of a letter.  Short and simple, to the point.

Your application has been considered and I regret you have not been successful on this occasion.

Where did I go wrong?

It’s impossible for me to view my actions objectively.  What I need is a Secret teacher who can guide me, and let me know where I am letting myself down.  They could view the situation as an outsider and let me know where it all turned to crap.  And then they would pick me up off the floor and re-motivate me to keep believing. 

I feel it would be very easy to give up right now.  I can’t say I have as much faith in the Universe as I did a few days ago.  But I can’t give up.  I promised myself I would stick with this thing for six months.  Plus, if I gave up now I’d be right back at the beginning.  No job, and no hope.  At least with this Secret project I have a tiny little ray of hope, even if the brightness of that ray has faded over the last few days.

So for now I’ll just tell myself over and over, until I believe it again: Ask, Believe, Receive.

Ask, Believe, Receive.

Ask, Believe, Receive.

Ask, Believe, Receive.