Do you believe in law of attraction/thoughts create your reality?

[raincheckrosemary]

Do you believe you manifest everything, so for example a lot of it says you choose your romantic partner and attract that cause of your thoughts - what do you think?

do you think you create every bad thing that happens to you?

Yes, in so far as you practise gratitude, which gives you headspace to think and plan, which gives you clear vision, enables you to know yourself better and thus listen to your intuition, enabling yourself to make better decisions and grasp opportunities. Isn’t it really just a positive mindset and clear goals?

No about relationships but yes about life.

Not in The Secret sense of the meaning. But I do believe by focusing on what we want we raise our own awareness of potential ways to achieve it and spot opportunities. Reading up on manifestation techniques can help us do this. I had a meditation teacher years ago who made us do manifestations one day after meditation so I asked for a big pot of money as I had applied to do a second degree. When I went to the degree interview, I asked about scholarships in a super confident way because of the manifestation, with a mentality, 'the money exists to give someone a free place on this course, so it may as well be mine' . I got offered the scholarship. But that is using manifestation as a springboard not as a passive wish or fantasy.

In relationships, if you clearly visualise exactly what you most want from a partner, you might notice that someone you'd not really thought about before possesses those exact qualities, or you might realise that you are more likely to find such a person in a specific setting and get active there.

I used to believe in woo manifesting and for a long time feared I must be really bad at it because success and money wasn't being delivered to me on a plate. Then I read another manifesting thread on Mumsnet where someone very wise (and to who I will always be grateful) suggested we all look up RAS, which is the brain's Reticular Activating System.

Talk about a lightbulb moment. The RAS is a complicated structure of nerves in the brain stem that filters out the millions of bits information we absorb every day so our brains don't become overwhelmed and go into meltdown. The upshot is that when we focus on something enough, the RAS recognises that as setting an intention to achieve something and hones in on it. So if you decide, say, you'd like to buy a mint green Fiat 500, you'll start spotting them everywhere. It's your brain doing that, not the Universe!

All these woo 'gurus' who peddle manifestation know about RAS and use it to exploit vulnerable people. Know I know what my RAS does, I've become a much more positive thinker and it's fired me up to do better in my job – that's ME achieving success, not the woo. It's far more satisfying than outsourcing to woo, which really is a load of bollocks.

Understand the science and you'll feel so much better, OP, trust me!

In the midst of my panic - I actually looked this up! And it makes complete sense. I really wish I could read that thread too. I’ve spent weeks practically making myself sick. It’s insane there are “coaches” and books and all sorts peddling this - it just doesn’t make sense.

I listen to Louise Hay everynight. I like her voice and affirmations.

I don't believe in the secret, but I definitely think creating goals, figuing out what you want and taking steps to get there and doing things like vision boards can help streamline it for you. So it does work but not because of woo.

I'm glad it's helped!

These 'coaches' and 'gurus' are simply seeing £ signs. We live in a time when everyone's looking for a quick fix but don't necessarily want to put the work in. So if someone says, 'hey, I can teach you how to chant for a few times a day and your wish will be manifest' then of course that's going to sound like a brilliant, easy option!

I think your mindset makes an enormous difference to well-being and how we live, which in turn means we’re in a space to be able to maximise the opportunities that come our way. I like growth mindset work - focussing on the positive and potential but nothing has come into my life by thinking it into being, it’s taken hard work and purposeful actions, as well as a positive mindset.

Well, you think about something before you do that thing, so in that sense, I suppose so. And it could set you up to be prepared to take hold of an opportunity because you're looking for it, but that's just confirmation bias. It can be skewed towards positive experiences or negative ones.

Willing something into being, just by focusing on it enough? Nah. That's not how reality works. If it did we'd all be completely fucked, because there are some right weirdos out there.

No, but I'm sure all of those with cancer will be delighted to know it's their own fault.

Louise Hay's book of symptoms and their cause has fascinated me for many years.

You can see the list in the attached site by scrolling down a few pages
alchemyofhealing.com/causes-of-symptoms-according-to-louise-hay/

I cannot believe you've shared this nonsense.

Cancer: Deep hurt. Longstanding resentment. Deep secret or grief eating away at the self. Carrying hatreds.

To claim people have inflicted cancer upon themselves is disgusting.

Plus, some of the happiest, most well adjusted people I know have suffered from or have died from it. Where does that fit with Hay's theory.

Cerebral Palsy: A need to unite the family in an action of love.

Muscular Dystrophy: “It’s not worth growing up.”

Tell that to the parents of children with CP and MD. Honestly, you should be utterly ashamed for peddling this crap.

They affirm over and over that they are already together and just do crazy things similar and weirdly.. there are success stories?!

I presume they're measuring "success" by merely engaging in a relationship with their "specific person"? Who's to say the relationship itself is successful?

There's a specific category of stalkers in which the stalker truly believes they're already with their victim. It's such an unhealthy and toxic foundation for a relationship. It's obsessive and disgustingly entitled. I'm fairly certain these "success stories" ultimately become incredibly abusive relationships.

@Gooniez what do you think children born into warzones and famines did to attract that into their reality? I guess they should have thought more positively whilst in the womb ...

Thinking about this you have to be immensely privileged to believe this.
In the UK we are lucky that, for the most part, our basic needs (like food, healthcare etc.) are taken care of to the point where we don't really need to worry about them. However, most people in the world are not in that position because of where they are born. Do people really think that the reason for this is positive thoughts.

I do and don't. I don't think if you really really wish and wish so hard it'll happen etc.. But I do believe in the positive mind set. If your happy and positive you'll always see the good things and the negatives won't seem so bad, if your always miserable then of course you'll focus more on the little and big things that go wrong. It's just a state of mind

No I don't

My mum died when I was 9 too of breast cancer - this has put it into perspective for me how cultish it is. Victim blaming at it's best.

Exactly. It's basically saying it's a person's own fault if they develop a terminal illness, their child dies, their partner has affair etc – they didn't manifest hard enough to stop it happening or they brought it on themselves. I feel embarrassed I ever bought into it.

I'm starting to feel this way too. A lot of bad things happened in my life early on and I remember last year thinking "I've found the answer!" after years of therapy. Things became great when I followed it, but now because things are bad, I will end up in a vicious circle if I continue to believe this is ALL my doing and I didn't think positively enough. I have OCD, and I actually had a friend from an LOA group tell me if I keep emphasising I have OCD, I will actually suffer more so maybe stop that. Bloody hell. She's also a coach who charges a good £100 an hour!!!

Actually there's lots of new studies correlating certain types of cancers correlating with resentment and stress. Check out Gabors Mate's new book - when the body says no, the hidden cost of stress.

Cancer cells occur in our body all the time. When our nervous system is overwhelmed with stress the white blood cells can turn inwards. Stress is also linked to autoimmune diseases.

I don't believe in Louise Hay's list of symptoms. But the new studies coming out - esp ACEs and the proven link to ill health and early death and stress on the nervous system are very interesting.

@SnowWhitesSM - mental health affecting physical health is not the same thing as attracting bad things from the universe via "vibration".

Just google Rhonda Byrne and ‘fraud’ and that will tell you everything you need to know about LOA.

Of course not @KylieKoKo that's why I said I didn't believe in Louise Hay's list.

I found for myself, dealing with stress and having a better positive mindset has reduced my chronic pain. Curable app has helped me massively with my chronic pain. There's a few studies around MRI results and bulging discs where people have bulging discs and don't notice any pain and someone could have a slight one and is bed bound. Those symptoms often come on after a big stressful life event - so I got sciatica after a horrendous relationship and divorce. 7/8 months later I'm getting better. So I don't think people bring things on themselves. I do think stress is very much linked to physical health, inc cancer and Louise Hay's affirmations work for me. I don't believe it's the woo that makes it work, it just helps me destress.