The law of positive attraction
The law of positive attraction is a positive spin on the idiom – ‘you reap what you sow’.
The law of positive attraction is the idea that peoples attitudes and thoughts - both conscious and unconscious - dictate the reality of their lives. Essentially, it highlights the possibilities of ‘if you really want something and truly believe its possible, you can get it’.
By the same token, if people place a lot of thought and attention onto something negative, something they don’t want, they could get that too. That’s the antithesis of the law of positive attraction.
Author Norman Vincent Peale discovered this idea about 80 years ago. Here Nella introduces him and his thinking:
Norman Vincent Peale – a champion of positive thinking!
Nella Francom recently ‘discovered’ author Norman Vincent Peale, who wrote the book, The Power of Positive Thinking and is recognised as a champion of positive thinking. Even though she read the book some time after writing the lyrics to the Positive Attraction CDs, Nella was absolutely amazed and delighted to discover how closely related the messages are.
“For instance,” says Nella, “in The Power of Positive Thinking, Peale highlights the value of positive attitudes. Quoting a psychiatrist, Peale states that attitudes are more important than facts. He says, ‘That is worth repeating until its truth grips you. Any fact facing us, however difficult, even seemingly hopeless, is not as important as our attitude toward that fact.’”
Peale, born in 1898 in Ohio, USA, was ordained in the Methodist Episcopal Church. He pastored several churches and ended up as the pastor of the Marble Collegiate Church in New York City. According to the website, normanvincentpeale.wwwhubs.com, it was here that he gained fame for his sermons on a positive approach to modern living, which were regularly broadcast on radio and television.
“Peale applied Christianity to everyday problems and is the person who is most responsible for bringing psychology into the professing Church, blending its principles into a message of ‘positive thinking’. Peale said, ‘through prayer you ... make use of the great factor within yourself, the deep subconscious mind... Positive thinking is another term for faith,” states the website.
In the book, The Power of Positive Thinking, Peale says, “Go about your business on the assumption that what you have affirmed and visualized is true. Affirm it, visualize it, believe it, and it will actualize itself. The release of power, which this procedure stimulates, will astonish you.”
Here are some more extracts from the book that Nella felt were well worth sharing:
“You can permit obstacles to control your mind to the point where they are uppermost and thus become the dominant factors in your thought pattern. By learning how to cast them from the mind, by refusing to become mentally subservient to them, you can rise above obstacles which ordinarily might defeat you.”
“If your mind is obsessed by thoughts of insecurity and inadequacy it is, of course, due to the fact that such ideas have dominated your thinking over a long period of time. Another and more positive pattern of ideas must be given the mind, and that is accomplished by repetitive suggestion or confidence ideas. In the busy activities of daily existence thought disciplining is required if you are to re-educate the mind and make of it a power-production plant. It is possible, even in the midst of your daily work, to drive confident thoughts into consciousness.”
“Feelings of confidence depend upon the type of thoughts that habitually occupy your mind. Think defeat and you are bound to feel defeated. But practice thinking confident thoughts, make it a dominating habit, and you will develop such a strong senses of capacity that regardless of what difficulties arise you will be able to overcome them. Feelings of confidence actually induce increased strength.”
“And what is even more serious is the tendency to create, by the power of thought, the very condition we fear.”
“Ralph Waldo Emerson declared a tremendous truth, ‘They conquer who believe they can.’”
“Formulate and stamp indelibly on your mind a mental picture of yourself as succeeding. Hold this picture tenaciously. Never permit it to fade. Your mind will seek to develop this picture. Never think of yourself as failing: never doubt the reality of the mental image. That is most dangerous, for the mind always tries to complete what it pictures. So always picture ‘success’ no matter how badly things seem to be going at the moment. Whenever a negative thought concerning your personal powers comes to mind, deliberately voice a positive thought to cancel it out.”
“The essence of the secret lies in a change of mental attitude. One must learn to live on a different thought basis, and even though thought change requires effort, it is much easier than to continue living as you are. The life of strain is difficult. The life of inner peace, being harmonious and without stress, is the easiest type of existence. The chief struggle then in gaining mental peace is the effort of revamping your thinking to the relaxed attitude of acceptance of God’s gift of peace.”
“There are other practical ways by which you can develop serenity and quite attitudes. One way is through your conversation. Depending upon the words we use and the tone in which we use them, we can talk ourselves into being nervous, high-strung, and upset. We can talk ourselves into either negative or positive results. By our speech we can also achieve quite reactions. Talk peaceful to be peaceful.”
“The words we speak have a direct and definite effect upon our thoughts. Thoughts create words, for words are the vehicles of ideas. But words also affect thoughts and help to condition if not to create attitudes. In fact, what often passes for thinking starts with talk. Therefore if the average conversation is scrutinized and disciplined to be sure that it contains peaceful expressions, the result will be peaceful ideas and ultimately, therefore, a peaceful mind.”
Peale published 40 books in total, several of which were best-sellers, such as The Art of Living, Confident Living, The Power of Positive Thinking, and This Incredible Century.
The Power of Positive Thinking has sold more than 20 million copies in 41 languages. Peale died in 1993 at age 95.
