Tag Archives: Self-Improvement

Contributor: How Your Mind Can Heal Your Body by David Hamilton

In his popular compilation of stories of self-healing, How Your Mind Can Heal Your Body, author David Hamilton tells of Lynn, a chronic flu sufferer who in December of 1978 decided she’d finally had enough. That month, she made a vow that she’d never have this illness again … and  she never has.

How does she do it? The same way she achieves all of her important life goals: through visualization and affirmations.

“Ever since ’78,” she writes, “Whenever I feel what might be the beginning of a simple illness, I visualize my immune system as my own personal army.”

And not just a small one. At first equipped with only bows and arrows, over the years it’s grown into a strong batallion using beams of red light to attack the invaders. After that the healing lights–in gentle blues and greens–enter the scene, regenerating the body where the enemy once stood.

This photo courtesy lifecreations orf Flickr.com

Contributor: Anonymous

When I was growing up–well, okay, maybe just from about junior high school on–there was one day of the week that was my favorite of them all: Sunday. For a time, the reason was simple: That was the day of the week that I got to hang out with my friends. Later, though, there was another reason: It was the day on which I felt closest to God.

Either way, though, I loved it.

Then college happened and my ideas about spiritual things began to change–and fast. By the end of my 7 1/2-year college tenure, I no longer went to church–and my number of friendships had taken a serious dive as well.

Several months ago, though, something happened that changed that. I had been saying some affirmations regarding friendship while also attempting to be lead by my spirit in more of my small daily decisions when suddenly I felt led to go to the library.

There, my life changed, just a bit: A lady I happened to meet told me about Center for Spiritual Living.

I visited my nearest location as soon as I could–and I loved it.

Then, soon after that visit, I discovered that another branch–one much closer to my house–was opening up within weeks. I attended a planning session and felt so inspired by the people I met and the vision they espoused that I dove in right away.

Currently I’m participating in a small group, a weekly class and a volunteer crew there. I love the minister and the people . . . And Sunday is once again my favorite day of the week.

Contributor: Mollie Player and How Your Mind Can Heal Your Body by David Hamilton

In his popular compilation of stories of self-healing, How Your Mind Can Heal Your Body, author David Hamilton tells of Hayley, a patient who suffered from an overactive thyroid. As part of her condition, she had a small goiter on her throat that used to make her feel somewhat self-conscious. After attending a visualization conference one day, she was telling her friend about the self-healing exercise she did concerning this problem.

“Unconsciously I put my hand up and touched the goiter, something I know I tend to do when talking or thinking about it and … it wasn’t there!” Hayley writes.

Just that quick, the goiter had shrunk.

It had taken less than a single day.

Contributor: Law of attraction fan Jamal Saidi of jamalsaidi.wordpress.com

A while back, I lived in a rental home which was on the first floor. The landlord was an old woman who stayed on the second floor. One day, while on my way home, I looked for some bread to buy, but in vain–no bread was left in the stores nearby. Recently, though, I had learned about the law of attraction and, wanting to test the theory out, I decided to apply it to this dilemma.

“I am going back home and the landlord will give me two pieces of bread,” I said to myself as I walked. I thought about the bread, visualizing it until I was able to practically feel it right between my fingers. Note that since it was nighttime the chance to meet the woman was almost non-existent (or so I thought), for she usually went to sleep very early.

When I arrived home, I tried to open the door, but it appeared that it was locked with a key that I didn’t possess. In order to get in I had to ring the bell so that one of the residents of other apartments would open the door for me. This I did, and to my utter astonishment, it was the old woman who warmly received me. But that wasn’t all–after letting me in she insisted that I wait so that she could give me some bread.

The taste of that bread was so different from any other. And, after all, it should have been, for it was the fruit of a new system of thinking that later opened doors for many further achievements in my life.

Jamal

Contributor: Beverly A. Jensen, Ph.D. Jensen is the author of Letter to my Daughters: A Legacy, available at Amazon.com. She is president of WomensMedicineBowl.com. Experience the music of Luc & the Lovingtons at https://www.facebook.com/lucandthelovingtons

It was a year ago this month that I first heard the music of Luc & the Lovingtons. My daughter, Leila, had met him and heard his band at a concert at Doe Bay in the Washington San Juan Islands. Luc was the new sweetheart of her long-time best friend, Ndidi.

Now I really don’t pay much attention to young music groups, but this music captured my heart. I don’t even know what genre it falls into—but Luc & the Lovingtons made me want to dance, to play—it gave me the joy and hope of a first kiss.

Recently, while visiting the Pacific Northwest, my daughter and I joined a large, happy crowd enjoying the band, and we “danced like an elephant” on the bandstand. It was a joyful evening. Later that night, over dinner, I learned that Luc’s dear friend and band member Felipe Canete had died of a heart attack two months earlier, age 36.

A few days after the concert and dinner, Ndidi and friends of the band were giving a birthday party for Felipe’s widow, Katy. Leila and I went to the house an hour before it was to start to help string up lights and colorful streamers in the backyard to create a happy space during a time of such sorrow for friends, the widow and infant son. We couldn’t stay for the party but we wanted to lend a hand somehow.

While we were setting up candles, one friend told the story of how Felipe had been leading a group of high school students, and they had just been served a lunch of soup.

Catching them with mouths opened and spoons posed to ladle into their bowls, Felipe said, “Let’s pause a moment and give thanks for each individual who made this soup possible. For the farmers who sowed the seed and nurtured the tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, and onions; for the workers who harvested the crops and carried them to the trucks that brought them to the store, where we bought them…” The young people’s mouths hung open in awe of Felipe’s simple prayer of thanksgiving.

As we were saying goodbye, Leila, Ndidi, and I hugged, and I said, “When everyone arrives, have them join in a circle and each person tell a wish for her birthday. Have the wishes be about a joyful future, not the sadness everyone is feeling now.”

Ndidi pulled back from our hug, “That’s a beautiful idea. That’s just what Felipe would have said.”

As I walked away that warm, summer evening, I realized, “Felipe did say that. His spirit was there for her birthday.” I had given no forethought to that directive to Ndidi. As I hugged her, a beautiful young woman I have known since her early teens, the words just came forth through me.

This was truly a birth-day for the rest of Katy’s life. All birthdays are so—we only need to remember.

Beverly Jensen

Contributor: Anonymous

Normally, I am not a TV or movie watcher. Don’t get me wrong: I like TV, and I don’t blame anyone for watching it and enjoying it on a regular basis. But with the way my life is right now–a new(ish) baby and a serious lack of personal time plus the need to crank out a couple of books a year and all–lately, it just hasn’t been a very big part of my life.

The other day, though, as I was taking a walk, I had one of those moments I described earlier. “I need to watch a movie,” I realized. Maybe my stress level had gone up a notch or maybe I just missed this form of entertainment after months without it, I’m not sure.

Of course, normally, I probably would’ve just made the decision to rent something online and then moved on, but at the time it wasn’t quite that easy. Due to lack of use, my husband and I no longer subscribe to Netflix, and even if we did I don’t know how to hook it up to the TV. In addition, our DVD player broke recently and we haven’t gotten around to fixing it, so Red Box was also not an option. Basically, then, if I wanted to watch a movie, I needed my husband’s help to do so.

Here’s the thing, though: I didn’t want it to feel for him like a chore; with a new baby around, there were enough of those already.

I just wanted the whole movie experience to actually feel like fun.

And so, as all of this information dashed through my mind, I decided to say an affirmation about it. My affirmation went like this:

“My husband will feel inspired to watch a movie with me.”

It sounds silly, I know, praying about a tiny little thing like this. And I admit that the only reason I said it at all is that I felt a (sort of unexpected) inner urging to do so.

Then I forgot about it–the affirmation, I mean.

I didn’t forget about my need to zone out with a movie, though, and so that night, I asked my husband if he wanted to do so, and he said yes. The next day we did, and it was great. After it was over we had a brief conversation about making the cable permanently hooked up to the TV so we could watch online movies anytime, which would require some major rewiring. Then, after this discussion I again thought no more about it.

After that: a surprise. That weekend, my husband went to an electronics store for a new computer, and when he came home he had something for me as well: a new DVD player. Then, the same weekend, he rewired the entire family room as well.

We still don’t have the cable hooked up (that’s a separate process, of which the room rewiring was just the first step). But we have watched several movies over the past few weeks, and I’ve learned a wonderful lesson: Affirmations–especially inspired ones–are just so much more effective than nagging.

Contributor: The wonderful Scott Vannatter of Kindredspirit23’s Blog, from which the following law of attraction story was excerpted.

I have done a lot of study and a lot of reading on the subjects of the mind, of intention and its power, and of creation. It is my full and total belief that we create our world by thinking about it. Quantum physics is piecing all of this together and a lot of science is coming around, too. It has now been proven that a subatomic particle (electron) can be in multiple places at once. I would postulate (as have others) that each of us has the power within our brains to bring thoughts into reality, and that we do so constantly.

The Magic of Believing by Claude M. Bristol and E-Squared: Nine Do-It-Yourself Energy Experiments That Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality by Pam Grout are just two of the books that deal with this wondrous topic. The first book deals with it from a time several decades ago. Pam’s book is more current and contains exercises that help you to achieve this intention power.

Here is a description of the experiments I did while reading through this book.

Law of Attraction Experiment One

At 9:48 p.m. on Friday, July 12, 2013, I began a 48-hour experiment to prove that the God-Force exists. I began by making the condition that within forty-eight hours the God-Force would create something wonderful for me. It had to be something that was not coincidental. There was no specification as to what, but that I would somehow know.

On Saturday, July 13, 2013 at twelve o’clock noon, I began my book signing at the library. I had been told to bring ten copies of my book, The Dead Sea, as that is normally a good selling amount. I also had one copy each of the other three anthologies my stories were in, so I brought and displayed them with the hopes of taking a couple of orders. I was warned that I might not have anyone show up and that I might not sell any copies at all.

When the book-signing was over at 2:30 p.m., I found that I’d sold twenty-three books at a profit. Eleven sales came from family members, which still meant that I sold twelve copies to non-family members! That, I was told by the library personnel, is HUGE, and could be considered a miracle.

Law of Attraction Experiment Two

Around midnight on Saturday, July 13, 2013, I began the second 48-hour experiment to prove that God-Force exists. This one had two 24-hour portions. In the first, I made the condition that I would see an extraordinary amount of green cars. I passed three car lots and did not see one; however, I did see eleven before getting on I69 at Anderson and four more by 96th Street, all before Saturday night was done.

The second 24-hour portion was to intend that I would see a yellow butterfly by Sunday night. This one worried me more as I have seen a couple of orange Monarchs since winter but no yellow ones. Saturday night, I went with my friend Autumn to see “Despicable Me2”. Near the end of the movie, the characters are singing a song in French and, well, one very yellow butterfly was on the screen and appeared several times in the rest of the film.

Law of Attraction Experiment Three

Experiment Three was to choose something relatively small but miraculous and intend for it in forty-eight hours. I requested to have $200. I was on vacation at the time in Portland, Oregon to visit my son. I had been given a little money to help with food and such, and while there I spent like I do now: conservatively. When the forty-eight hours was up, I looked in my wallet. I had about $162. I thought this strange, but simply accepted it as the answer. However, I was still interested by the differing amount from the $200 I had asked for. After a long sleep to catch up, I sat down to do my bills. I found that I had over-budgeted for two bills: about $34 and $4. This made $38 which, when added to the $162 was exactly $200!

How do you feel about the power of the mind?  Have you read much about it?  What do you base your thoughts on?

Scott

Contributor: Law of attraction believer Lou Castro

About eight years ago, I was working as a bartender and just sort of living my life with no defined structure or plan. I was twenty-four and very single, going out a lot but with no long-term relationship on the horizon. However, I knew it was time for a change. I wanted to find someone I really meshed with–it just hadn’t happened on its own. I would tell my mother that I was probably going to end up single for the rest of my life because I had set the bar too high. Here is the list I made of the qualities I was looking for.

I wanted someone who:

1. Cared about staying healthy,

2. Was family-oriented,

3. Shared some of my traditions,

4. Had a good sense of humor,

5. Had a great upbringing, and

6. Was either working or going to school.

In other words: I wanted the perfect woman.

When I shared this list with my friends, they would tell me with more than a bit of sarcasm, “Good luck with that!” Well, little did they know that this woman I was describing was right among us all! That’s right: I ended up meeting my wife at my best friend’s family gathering–a friend I’d known for over ten years.

This is how it happened: We had been at the same gatherings a number of times, yet had never been introduced; later, we didn’t even remember seeing each other at all. Then one day, I did see her–for what seemed to me like the very first time. I remember watching her as she entered the room and, well, what can I say except that old cliche: It was love at first sight. As soon as I saw her, I was stuck on her. From her smile to the way she carried herself, everything about her just seemed right for me.

That evening, I asked my best friend who she was.

“Oh, that’s my cousin,” he replied.

My response: “Whaaaat??!!!” Before this time I thought I had met his entire family. What a surprise it was to learn otherwise.

That night, I made him introduce her to me. He did, and we talked for a while. Weeks later, I saw her again and that is when I learned, much to my dismay, that she had a boyfriend. I wasn’t surprised by this at all–just disappointed. Reluctantly I decided not to pursue her in any way at that time, respecting the fact that she was with someone else. Then I let it go–or tried really hard to, anyway.

Of course, I still couldn’t stop thinking about her and soon after our meeting, funny things started happening. We started bumping into each other more and more, sometimes under the oddest of circumstances. When I went out she would often end up in the same place I was in, even though as I said, before this I’d never noticed her around at all.

After a number of these coincidences, we started to become good friends. As I learned more about her I realized that the way I had seen her that first day was not an illusion: she was exactly the person I wanted to be with and much more. At some point I remember telling all my friends that I was going to marry her and they would just laugh and remind me that she was already taken. Deep down inside, though, I just knew it would happen.

Months went by. My feelings for her grew stronger until all I could think about was her. I would spend hours imagining us hanging out and what it would be like–the law of attraction in action! Eventually, I couldn’t take it anymore. I was sort of frustrated with myself that I couldn’t move on from these thoughts. So, I decided a change was in order: I needed to tell her how I felt.

So, that’s what I did. The next time I bumped into her–we were at a bar–I explained to her that I could no longer be her friend. I was too stuck on her, I said, and therefore I couldn’t seem to get myself to open up to anyone else.

Telling her how I felt was a relief and after doing so I started trying to just avoid her; I didn’t want to deal with the feelings I was having that couldn’t be returned. I remember telling myself that I was thankful just to have met her but it was time to move on.

Almost a year went by. During this time we did not see or hear from each other. Then one day I was invited to a going-away party for friend who was also related to my wife-to-be. As I knew she would be there I was unsure and uneasy about going. At the same time, though, I knew I wanted to see her.

Well, the day came and I decided to go, and sure enough she was there–and so were my same old feelings. We sat down and spoke for a while, catching up with each other. And then she said it: Since I saw her last, she had ended things with her boyfriend.

After that meeting, we kept in touch and within weeks we were dating. A year later we got engaged and a year after that we were married.

Today we are just about to hit the five-year mark. We have two beautiful daughters and I could not be happier. The mind-boggling thing about all of this was that she had been right there in my life years and years before we had even met. It wasn’t until opening myself up to my true desires and deciding what I really wanted in life that I could see what had been there, waiting in the wings, all along.

The other reason I know the law of attraction works is that all the time we were apart, I somehow knew that we would eventually be together. With this calm understanding I was able to respect her choices and not do anything to interrupt her life, no matter how badly I wanted to. Then, when the timing was just right, we got together.

Lou Castro

This photo courtesy Gerry Dincher of Flickr.com

Contributor: Lou Castro, who shares a law of attraction success story about overcoming major life obstacles.

About five years ago my life was headed in the wrong direction. I wasn’t doing too well at work, making just enough money to get by. I was facing a felony charge for making a poor judgment as to who I hung out with. And to top it all off, I had recently had my identity stolen as well, which left me in more than $5000 worth of debt. To make matters worse I was dating my soul mate at the time and I really did not have much to show or give her. It was very hard and embarrassing when we went out on dates and I could not pay. (By the way, connecting with her is in itself is an amazing story and I know the law of attraction definitely played its part–but I’ll leave that tale for another time.)

The result of all of these problems? First, really bad depression. Second, anxiety attacks. As time went on I felt myself digging deeper and deeper into a hole. Then, I made a decision that served me well: I decided to watch The Secret.

Mostly, I just wanted to see what the big fuss was about. However, to my surprise I absolutely loved the movie. Some of the things it talked about I already knew but for some reason, hearing them explained in the way they did just helped it make more sense. And so, as a result I made another decision, namely: from that day forward, I would avoid feeling negative and when I did I would try my best to change that feeling.

And so it began: my total life turnaround. To make an incredible story much, much shorter than it should be, this positivity practice completely changed my life.

Here’s the list of what happened:

1. I married my soul mate, a person whom at one point I did not even think I would get a date with after trying for over a year.

2. My debt to the IRS was paid off almost instantly.

3. The felony charge that I was facing disappeared–unexplained–after three years of check-ins every Friday!!

As if all of this wasn’t enough, soon afterwards I got a job doing what I love the most–a job I never even dreamed of getting (due in part to my decision to drop out of high school several years back).

Today, I’m happily married with two daughters and a home that to my surprise has almost doubled in price since purchase. Yes, there have been some struggles over the past half-decade, but I’ve taken them all on with good and positive thoughts. I am so happy with what I have now and don’t expect more, and yet . . . I just can’t get over how well the law of attraction continues to work in my life.

Lou Castro

Contributor: Anonymous

“Today, I made a decision: I decided to get happy.” That’s the first line of a journal entry I wrote about four months ago, and today, as I sit here, I am happy. I really am.

For a long time I had the belief that the depression I had suffered with ever since I can remember would never completely go away. No matter how hard I work at it, I thought, my brain would never allow me to be as happy as other people.

Then, through a series of realizations–most of which came to me through books like Neale Donald Walsch’s Conversations With God, I started to believe otherwise. And when I wrote the above statement, I was finally ready to try to experience simple, daily joy on an ongoing basis.

Previous to this, I wrote happiness-related affirmations in my journal, too. Affirmations like “I am happy and at peace every day” and “I am deeply happy. There is nothing not to be happy about in my life” and “I love waking up in the morning and I love the work I do every day” and “I am becoming enlightened.”

Today, my depression is gone. I have simple joy. And I feel closer to God, and more inspired, than I’ve ever felt before.

I’ve never asked for this much joy before, because I’ve never really thought it possible for me to have. But once I asked and believed, I did.

Contributor: Law of attraction fan Joelle B. of Fort McMurray, Alberta

The first time I read The Secret, I was on top of the world. Everything in my life started going amazingly well as I applied what I was learning through what I was reading. My dreams were coming so close to me that I could nearly taste their sweetness.

Over time, though, something changed: I fell off the Secret wagon.

After that, life as I knew it turned around on me and things were going back to the way they were. Some aspects did get better because some of my thoughts had changed towards life, but still, it wasn’t an abundant life, and it most certainly wasn’t the life I dream of and desire for myself.

After a year of letting my spiritual books sit on my shelf and collect dust, I went on a trip to Toronto to visit old friends. I thought I would take The Secret with me to have something to do on the plane or elsewhere during the trip. I started reading it and fell in love with it all over again, remembering how amazing life was when I was applying these teachings to my life. Well, on my way back to Alberta I came across the book The Magic in an airport bookstore. I thought about buying it, but even though I never did, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. So the next day I went to the local bookstore and hoped it would be there, and there it was sitting in all its glory looking at me, pretty much screaming “Buy me! Buy me!” So I purchased the book.

Upon reading it my whole life changed again, as I started to be thankful for everything in my life as I had before. It has been over a month of writing every morning what I’m grateful for and being grateful throughout my day and my life is so much different in so many good ways than it was a month ago.

An example: I had just caught a bug that was going around, and I thought to myself “I can’t put my attention on my illness, because the truth in life is perfect health, and that’s what I need to focus on.” I directed all my energy to feeling completely healthy right here and now, and I gave thanks to my perfect health, and how healthy I feel.

As soon as I did that, the stuffiness in my nose went from “stuffed turkey” to totally clear–instantly! Immediately I felt ten times better.

Joelle

LiLi Roquelin in music video directed by Arnaud Muller

Contributor: Multi-award winning independent singer-songwriter LiLi Roquelin. Largely inspired by her spiritual beliefs including the law of attraction, LiLi’s music is featured in documentaries, TV shows and here on the internet, of course. Her new album is called “Beautiful Sun” and is available at all online retailers.

“Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful.” – Buddha

When I was growing up, every time I would receive a gift from someone I remember my mother always telling me “Tu as dit merci?” (“Did you say thank you?” in French). Like a lot of us in our society, I learned to say “thank you” when I’d receive a service–to a salesperson in a store or in other situations when I was given something.

However, in the rush of modern life in the 21st century, “thank you” has become too much of a habit, something hollow that you say because it has been anchored into our everyday lives, almost like saying “hello” when you pick up the phone.

Through my life’s journey, growth and spiritual awakening, I have had the chance to learn about many things: the law of attraction, the power of thoughts, the awareness of synchronicities, and trusting my path in life while listening to my heart, to name a few. A couple of years ago I became more aware of the feeling of gratitude, almost like an epiphany, and I started to notice “my blessings.” It intensified little by little and about a year ago I started to do a gratitude practice. In this practice, which I do each morning, I count my blessings and then put heartfelt gratitude into what I want my future blessings to be. As a result, I have seen many changes take place in my life.

The biggest thing I manifested for my music career are TV placements. Here’s what happened: During my gratitude practice I had been asking for exposure for my music and in particular TV placements because artistically they are so much fun to see and they bring a lot to an independent musician.

At first I received a few small placements–no small accomplishment in itself. After that, though, stuff really started happening, and BAM! I got my first mainstream TV placement as a featured song on “Dance Moms” on Lifetime. After that I was just so grateful for that one that I got two more on the same show on two different seasons! Now I am asking for more, or something equally as huge!

“If a fellow isn’t thankful for what he’s got, he isn’t likely to be thankful for what he’s going to get.” – Frank A. Clark

And so, a little advice for you: Just ask yourself what you want. Do you want to feel miserable, down and grumpy, or do you want health, joy, excitement and happiness? There is no reason to sabotage your own life, and complaining or focusing on the negative things does that. This simple question can make you stop these negative patterns. Everyone’s life purpose is happiness–all we have to do is realize it is already there. Once you open up your eyes and stop taking your life for granted, you can look at what you have and feel gratitude from the heart. That sets you on a frequency that will allow you to receive even more.

Remember: We are infinite. Anything is possible.

LiLi Roquelin

Contributor: The gorgeous, inspired law of attraction teacher Pam Grout. Pam is the author of E-Squared: 9 Do-it-Yourself Energy Experiments That Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality.    

Like you, I love law of attraction stories. I’ve been using LOA all of my life, way before I even knew what it was. Very consciously, when first out of college, I made the decision to be a writer, a successful author and a world traveler. All of these things have come gloriously true, even though I started life as a preacher’s kid from a small town in Kansas. Today, I write regularly for People magazine, Huffington Post and CNN.

Over the years, I’ve witnessed dozens and dozens of LOA stories in my own life (manifesting, in a short two hours, the entire $2000 I needed to attend a workshop in Cape Cod, trips to exotic locales and a new car, to name just a couple) and now, with the launch of E-Squared: 9 Do-it-Yourself Energy Principles that Prove your Thoughts Create Your Reality, I hear heart-opening manifestation stories from readers on a daily, if not hourly, basis. It’s the coolest thing in the world to open your email each morning and hear from readers in India and South Africa and Sydney, Australia that are re-sculpting their lives one happy thought at a time. This stuff really does work!!

Which gave me pause when trying to decide which of many hundreds of story to share with your readers. Finally, I just reached into my magic top hat and pulled out this manifestation story that I was reminded of last week.

I was visting Patti, a dear friend who now lives in Sedona. We met 20 years ago in Connecticut when we were both doing a rebirthing program. It was an intense six-month personal transformation program that involved lots of sharing, lots of breathing and lots of rather “out-there” experiences. Among other things, the 20 participants in the program along with our fearless leaders traveled through Greece with the songwriter who co-wrote “Express Yourself” with Madonna.

Anyway, Patti, who went on to have a successful rebirthing practice in Sedona, reminded me of something I had said two decades ago. She even remembered the park we were walking through when I said it.

“I remember it as plain as day,” she said. “I can’t believe you’ve forgotten.”

While most of the participants in that six-month training were there to become rebirthers, I evidently told Patti “I want to teach that thought is creative.”

So wow! A clear intention that I made 20 years ago, sent out into the universe and then promptly forgot, focusing instead on being a travel writer, a mom and a proud PTA member.

So here I am, two decades later, with a bestselling book on the very topic I’d inadvertently told Patti I wanted to teach.

A coincidence? Absolutely not. The intention I made twenty years ago (without obsessing about, without slaving over, without worrying whether or not it would come true) slowly gathered enough energy and, at the perfect time, came back home to roost.

Pam Grout

Contributor: Anonymous

Often, when I think of the law of attraction and affirmations, I think of the concrete stuff of life–the jobs, the money, the house. As we know, though, there’s more to life that our “life situation,” as Eckhart Tolle calls it.

Here’s a story about how affirmations have aided my spiritual journey.

Here are some of the most important spirituality-related affirmations that I wrote in my journal in 2012:

• April 27: “I will pray regularly and deepen my spirituality.”
• May 7: “I am happy and enlightened on a continual basis. I love jokes and I appreciate all the beauty that surrounds me.”
• June 19: “I am ready to go to the next level spiritually.”
• June 30: “God is speaking to me all the time” and “I hear God’s voice every single day.”
• September 12: “I have been looking forward to doing my spiritual practices more” and “I am getting closer to God every day.”
• September 26: “My relationship with God feels light and easy, not like a burden or a ‘have-to,’ a responsibility” and “I am becoming enlightened.”

The result? Well, I’m very happy to say that today, I enjoy a level of spiritual fulfillment that I have never experienced before. I pray every day. I’m in tune with the Divine much more frequently. Sometimes I call it inspiration, and sometimes I call it semi-enlightenment, but either way, it does me a whole lot of good. (Like I said: practical.)

Contributor: Author Michelle Dobbins, who shares tips, “spells” and true stories of magic, creation, law of attraction and love in everyday life on her blog at www.dailyalchemy.com. You can connect with her and get her Magic Question of the Day on Facebook and Twitter.

I’ve been doing this law of attraction gig for over twenty years and I’ve manifested lots of incredible occurrences, but I can still get stuck when I really want something.

This is not a story about that.

This is a story about what happens when you don’t give a flip.

I had recently been reading Pam Grout’s book, E-Squared: Nine Do-It-Yourself Energy Experiments That Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality, and had interviewed her on my blog.

I wanted to do all of the experiments in her book and be supportive of her. The second experiment asks you to intend to see sunset beige cars or butterflies.

I always have to do things my own way, so I decided to intend to see white feathers. I’d done this experiment in the past, after reading Richard Bach’s book Illusions, and I’d seen several white feathers in a few days. I figured it should be easy to repeat and I’d have a good story to share with my readers about Pam’s book.

Easy peasy.  I made my intention and promptly forgot about it.

It wasn’t a big deal to me.

I didn’t need to see a white feather, but I felt certain one would cross my path with no more effort on my part.

The next day my family and I drove to Columbia, South Carolina and had a great family day. We went to a park and enjoyed nature, did some geocaching, met a retired couple who volunteered at the park teaching about nature. On our drive home I was feeling blissful thinking about how perfect the day had been.

Traffic came to a sudden slow down and my husband grumbled that maybe there had been an accident.

My daughter said “I think someone must have hit a white bird.”

I looked and there were thousands of white feathers on the both sides of the interstate stuck to the grass. This continued for at least four miles. We were all giggling about the massive amounts of white feathers. I don’t know if a down truck lost its cargo, or what, but I’ve never seen so many white feathers anywhere before. Once we got to the end of the feathers, traffic picked back up again.

We arrived back home and I found one white feather lying on our welcome mat, confirming the answer to my intention. It was like the universe said, “Look, I can give you so much more than you are asking for. Just relax, have a good time and I’ll take care of the rest.”

The moral of my story is set your intention and then go have fun. The universe has your back.

If you can let go of the vibrations of worry and want, the universe can deliver a hundred thousand fold. Or more.

Michelle

Contributor: Anonymous

This year, I made it one of my goals to straighten out my husband’s various investment accounts, rolling them over into a single brokerage firm. This turned out to be a lot more work than I anticipated, but it was very, very necessary. (My husband doesn’t much like dealing with this kind of thing.)

Around the same time I said the following affirmation: “I will receive an unexpected gift of thousands of dollars.” As I said it, the number $20,000 came to mind. It felt right, so I said it a few more times while taking my walks.

The following month, I discovered something: Sitting in a fund my husband didn’t even remember existed was an additional (approximately) $20,000 worth of stock.

At first, I just thought it was kinda cool. It didn’t feel like real money to me since it wouldn’t be spent, and I didn’t make the connection between that find and my affirmation.

Until I did. And it is real money–almost the exact amount I asked for.