How To: Adopt the Law of Attraction

I’m going to give you a very fair (and ironically very serious) heads up before you read this week’s article: I am going to sound like a flowers-in-the-hair-wheatgrass-drinking-hippie … and that’s okay! Maybe I am a wheatgrass-drinking fanatic — you’ll never know. What really matters here is your attitude. The law of attraction is a concept that, if approached with speculation and narrow vision, will simply wash over you as a piece of wispy fairy dust and a solid five minutes of your life that you’re going to spend forever trying to get back. BUT, if you keep reading with an open mind, a little curiosity and some seriously non-judgmental eyes, I think you’ll find some incredibly valuable, life-long lessons and ways of life embedded within that very same fairy dust.

So let’s just go for it, shall we?

The Law of Attraction centers around the notion that time is linear — that is, the past, present and future are all equal realities. In accepting the linear nature of time, you remove any barriers that stand between you and your desires, such as the time it takes to attain them, the difficulty of your realistic ambition and, most importantly, your uncertainty about whether or not what you want will actually arrive.

For example, if you want a milkshake from Ground Zero in the present, you actually already have that milkshake in the future — and because the future is simply an equal reality, you have the milkshake.

“But I don’t have a milkshake!”

(You’re yelling this at me right about now, aren’t you?)

Let’s phrase it this way: If you want the milkshake in the present and truly, wholeheartedly believe that you have that milkshake already in your future reality, then you’re going to take the necessary steps to attaining that milkshake here, now, today, aren’t you? If you believe you have the milkshake, then you’re going to get your shoes on, walk to Ground Zero, order a milkshake, pay for the milkshake (I hope?) and drink your milkshake.

Let’s try again with something a bit bigger: say your goal is to lose weight, tone up and be one of those gym-junkie girls that exercises every day and has a green juice for breakfast. If you want to be that girl in the future, and you adopt the belief that time is linear, then you understand that you are that girl right now. In which case, you’re going to start waking up, jogging, swimming, juicing apples and kale and lemons every morning. Ta-da — pretty soon you’re going to be that girl, right?

I’m aware that for a lot of people, this can be a stretch (maybe a huge stretch) — but it’s an important one. Once you realize that exuding negative vibes into the universe — stress, resentment, grudges, self-loathing, hatred, gossip — only returns more negativity into your life, your thinking begins to shift. You constantly exude more positivity — you spread love, starting only with yourself, and welcome love in abundance into your everyday life.

You see, it’s really very simple, when put like that: If you treat people badly, put little effort into your work and goals and focus only on incredibly superficial aspects of life, then you’ll find yourself in a life filled with bad people, laziness, low reward and an overwhelming amount of superficiality. You get what you give — you attract what you emit. It’s all the same.

In terms of actually implementing the law of attraction into your life, there is one last, key factor that you need to adopt: gratitude. When you are thankful for whatever you do have, then you will be rewarded with those things that you desire. No, money won’t fall out of the clouds and land crease-free into your wallet — but genuine, deep and thorough feelings of gratitude tend to bring positivity and ambition in their wake. It’s all or none, and if all it takes is a little bit of thankfulness for your luck, then why not aim farther?

There’s a catch: You can’t fake gratitude. Genuine, authentic gratitude runs deep within you and floods your every day. It takes tons of practice, a lot of self-discipline and some serious self-reflection. Whether or not it’s worth the effort is up to you to decide.

In saying all of this, it’s important to see and appreciate that this is a mere skim of the surface of the law of attraction. If this article were to give you all the answers, it’d turn into a book. I urge you to research further, challenge yourself and try to change your mindset. You’ll be amazed at how it changes your life, and how your life changes you.

Annabel Hickey is sophomore majoring in creative writing. Her column, How To, runs every other week on Fridays.