"Law" of Attraction?

Years before I was introduced to Yoga, I was introduced to the "new age" movement and the principles of metaphysics. These include the concept that your thoughts and vibrations create the realities of your life and that, by controlling them, you have the power to manifest the reality that you want. Norman Vincent Peale in "The Power of Positive Thinking" was one of the early pioneers of this movement. It's a vastly appealing concept and one that, once you start practicing with it, can have exciting and inspiring results. Like any other "law," however, once you start probing a little more deeply, you start to encounter some very tricky edges. For instance, any doubt or any "negative" thought or vibration can be seen as the obstacle towards achieving what you want. This puts a tremendous amount of pressure on us to maintain a "perfect" energy field, as well as putting the blame squarely on our own shoulders when things don't go as we wish. It can be empowering to realize that positive thinking tends to create positive outcomes, especially if you are someone who has never really been conscious of your thought patterns and how they affect you. But positive thinking does not control everything that happens to you and around you -- rather, it helps you maintain a positive attitude that changes your experience of what happens to you. The clearer you are on what you want, and the more focused and persistent, the more likely you are to get it. But other people have their own agendas and their own processes and we're all working together wihtin the same web -- so do your best, but don't blame yourself if it doesn't all go according to your plan. If you see where you can do something differently, then adjust -- but realize also that a huge part of learning to live with the flow of energy in this world is to let go. Practice having faith that you can get through it; cultivate a mindset that "this or something better" is manifesting for you. This way, you will truly feel that you are attracting the best things for your life, while knowing that part of the swimming is always going to be upstream. On shanti.