Ok, before I talk about the book I feel I must share something. I just returned from a full weekend conference given by Hayhouse where their most prominent authors gave lectures, usually about two hours long. All of them write in the self-improvement or new age genres and so all of them were inspiring and uplifting. The thing is, there was SO much information given to me at one time...and so much of it would slightly contradict what the previous author had said...that I left unsure how much I had even absorbed. It wasn't until I returned home that "The Power" popped back into my head and that's when I realized just how valuable a book it really is.
"The Secret" absolutely talks about our feelings being even more significant than our thoughts or words when it comes to attracting the experiences we want. It's in "The Power", though that this is examined even further. For those who don't know, this "power" the author refers to is love :)
When I first picked up the book, I scoffed. You see, I had read and watched "The Secret" years ago when it first came out (ok, I think it was like five years ago...let's not be that dramatic). And while I absolutely loved it, I didn't experience the best results. I also started getting tired of constantly affirming and focusing on manifestion...it just became exhausting. So when I stumbled upon this new book in B&N (sorry Amazon), I thought, "well, here we go again." So I turned to a random page...and forever whatever reason, I was hooked.
I don't know why I didn't understand the whole "feeling" portion of "The Secret" because they DO absolutey cover it...but "The Power" really drills this into your mind. What I love about this book is that the author keeps the concepts very simple and then uses the bulk of the book to give you examples that I personally found incredibly inspiring. The basic concept is that everything in the Universe is either positive or negative...love or lack of love...light or dark. If you want to attract more positive things than negative things, all you have to do is tip the scale of your FEELINGS more to the positive side than the negative side. That's it! (and for anybody who just thought, "what do you mean THAT's IT"...careful...because that's negative ;)
Feelings are REALLY important when working with manifestation and I will tell you why. No matter what it is you want or desire...I really don't care what it is...the ONLY reason that you want to bring that into your life is because you believe you will FEEL better once you have it. Period and end of story. The heart is a huge magnet in the body and the frequency it sends out is POWERFUL!!! So if you want those things that will bring you happiness tomorrow, you must think of them from a loving, joyful place TODAY!!!
Better yet, you don't even have to "manifest" things, per say. Instead, you can simply practice falling in love with everything that is around you NOW. When you see something you love, you can feel happiness deep within your heart for that moment and then let it go. Just don't be surprised if that certain something keeps showing up in your life ;) The bottom line is that whatever emotion starts your day will most likely snowball and that's the emotion that will attract the experience you refer to as your future. So even if you aren't working on manifesting specific things, you can instead use the concepts taught in "The Power" simply to discipline yourself into attracting happier experiences, in general. Interestingly enough, some of the most successful people in this world didn't start out saying they wanted to be famous or make a million dollars. Instead, they just went about life with an open heart and asked themselves how they could help other people be happy. So keeping your heart open and acting from love can STILL bring you the things many people dream about, but without obsessing about manifestion.
One concept that I LOVE in this book is that it's impossible to feel bad in the exact moment you are having a good thought. When I first read this I laughed and rolled my eyes and then made a sincere effort to prove the author wrong...and I couldn't do it!!! The moment I could make myself feel bad, I had already changed my good thought into a bad one. So I continued the experiment the next day and you would have been amazed if you saw what happened. Literally one amazing and happy event and interaction with people was followed by another and another and another! A presentation that I had been anxious about the day before went WAY better than I could have EVER anticipated. My teachers (I was in a yoga teacher training) had given literally everybody else notes and yet after I gave my teaching presentation (after hours of ONLY thinking positive thoughts) they said, "wow...that was GREAT...um, we really don't have any notes for you at all." As I was smiling ear to ear, another student said, "well, nobody's going to want to go after THAT." (and mind you, there was nothing out of the ordinary spectacular about the presentation other than my heart was wide open both before and during!)
As far as criticism is concerned...well, this book is about love and the power behind it. So really, the people who criticize it are simply proving the concepts of the book to be true. If you think, "this book is stupid...all these books are the same....what a bunch of fluff...you've got to be kidding me..." well, all of those thoughts are followed with negative feelings and so people who think and FEEL that will be attracting plenty of negative experiences, hence writing a negative review. So in my experience, it couldn't be a problem with the book but rather how disciplined the reader is in applying the concepts CONSISTENTLY in their daily life. Are they really starting their day with meditation and getting in the most amazing, joyful state before starting their day? When they visualize their dreams are they just seeing pictures or are they adding the emotions on top of the pictures? If something unexpected happens...traffic jam, spilled coffee, long line at the grocery store (all a result of PAST feelings, by the way)...are they able to stay either neutral...or better yet, positive despite what is in front of their eyes?
It does take discipline to apply the principles in the book, but the GREAT news is that it feels AMAZING at the same time! Why? Because LOVE feels AMAZING!!! As "A Course in Miracles" says: everything in the Universe is either an Act of Love or a Call for Love. When you learn to make everything you do an act of love, you will attract more and more of it into your life, in ways you could least expect :)
I recommend this book SOOOOO highly (I mean, clearly)!!! And while I love all of the other authors out there and think that it's great to hear many differnt perspectives, the bottom line is that love is truly what makes the world go round. So if you want to read a million books, make sure this is one of them. And if you only want to read one book this holiday season, buy "The Power"!!!!
Thank you, Rhonda Byrne...you rock my world.
:)
