About six years ago, roughly sometime in mid-2007, I was
exposed to a book called “The Secret” written by Rhonda
Byrne. It is a collection of philosophical ideas as it relates to positive
thinking by a slew of experts in the field, including Michael B. Beckwith, Jack
Canfield, Bob Doyle, Dr. Joe Vitale, and Dr. John Gray to name a few. It was a
great read and the timing could not have been more perfect as I was going through
a transitional time in my life. This
powerful little book forced me to take inventory of my life and assume
responsibility for who I had evolved into. I could no longer blame my parents for
not equipping me with what I needed to face life or for the negative energy
which had consumed me to the point that I blamed everyone else for how my life
had turned out, the choices I made, and outcomes thereof, including but not
limited to my happiness – had my first husband not left I would not have found
the need to remarry and thus would not be going through a divorce. Yeah – silly
things like that.
The Secret, was very thought provoking. As I read through it, it forced me to reflect
on my pass experiences, my current situation at the time, and it connected the
dots of my experiences in a way I had never done before. To the point where I
realized that with every thought I had emitted, I inadvertently drew things to
me that I did not want. I had no idea that I controlled my life through my
thoughts. It’s like a light bulb went on and for the first time I was able to
see my life through someone else’s eyes. I grew up in a household where
negativity ruled the day. I don’t think my mom consciously set out for it to be
that way, but every word out of her mouth had a negative connotation, i.e., “you gonna miss the bus” “you ain't never gonna be nothing”, “self praise ain't no praise”, “you ain't going back to school”, “you gonna have an accident”, etc. What
she did, without realizing it, was to help condition my mind to always expect
the worst. So I always looked at my external circumstances as the norm and believed,
for most of my life, that what happened to me was pre-destined and no matter
what I did, I would always have a hard life. So guess what? I had a hard life.
No matter what I did it was always a struggle. No major "good thing" ever happened to
me so I grew accustomed to that and never expected anything good to happen to me.
Oddly enough though when I would reflect on my life as an adult,
I would take great pride in the fact that I was not strung out on drugs, did
not prostitute myself, and although I was a teen mom, I finished school, got a
job, moved into my very own apartment at 18, bought a car, never received
public assistance, and after three years of living on my own I built a house in
the country. Life was good and I told my
mom just that, to which she replied, “Self praise ain't no praise”. Not, "Great job. I'm so proud of you." So I
learned to secretly congratulate myself for my small wins. Yet despite my best
efforts success seemed to always elude me – that is until I read the secret!
As
I read the secret it became very obvious to me that most of what was being said was
based on Biblical principles. Sure the author was careful to use words like “the universe” and “a higher power” but if you have been exposed to any religion you
knew what she was saying. For the first time in my life a lot of what I had read in
the Bible actually made sense to me, especially the parts about having faith. I
never got how “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things
not seen.” (Heb 11:1) Especially when you are taught that if you do
anything to obtain what you had faith for, then you had no faith. Yet “Thus
also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” (Jam 4:17) How
could you show you had faith? Better yet, how do you exercise faith? The Secret
taught me that positive attitude fostered positive outcomes and by visualizing
myself with what I wanted or expected was
my faith at work. Bottom-line I learned that I was in control of my thoughts
and with practice; I could retrain my mind to think only positive things which
in turn would bring what I was thinking about into manifestation. Seemed easy
enough but proved to be more difficult because the only positive thoughts
coming my way was the one’s I was generating or attempting to send out, which
were few and far in between.
Everyone I knew was spewing out negative vibes into the air with their words. Co-workers would say I couldn't do this or that, friends would shoot down ideas as being too difficult or not achievable and I quickly realized that my mom was not the only negative influence in my life. Turns out just about every person I was exposed to, whether it was a teacher, co-worker, or a family friend, all seemed to be operating on negative energy. This only served to confirm what I was reading in the book. Because they had not yet been exposed to the secret, like me, they spent their lives thinking about what they didn't want and it manifested. If you spend your life only seeing negative things then you expect negative things and once that cycle keeps repeating you convince yourself that is what your life is.
The good news is you can change your life for the better if
you want to – I did. Like I said before, it was not easy but with perseverance
I was able to achieve a more peaceful existence. It cost me some friendships because
not everyone was receptive to my new found “thought
revitalization program”, but it was worth it. Before exposure to the secret I expected the
worst possible outcome given any situation, i.e., be late for work, can’t find
a good parking space, not receiving promotion on the job, struggling to pay my
bills, not enough money, you name it. Now
I expect the best out of every
situation that involves me, i.e., on time for work, prime parking spot,
promotions on the job, all my bills are paid because there is no struggle, etc.
The fact is my faith has been increased and strengthened. I now know how to exercise my faith to the
point that I expect what I am asking for to be granted to me with no
exceptions. It may require some patience on my part for some things, but as
sure as I am sitting here, it will come to past. Your thoughts are very
powerful and they shape your life as you know it. As a result, your life is a combination of all the thoughts you have had and is also influenced, to some
degree, by the thoughts of others towards you. Thoughts become things and what
you think about you bring about. What are you thinking? I’m just saying - I got
issues. What about you? )i(
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