One of the most important teachings in Hypnosis and NLP is that our words really matter. The things we say to ourselves have power; they are a subconscious level trance that we are constantly playing and if we are not purposeful about what we listen to (or say to ourselves), we may not be programming ourselves for success.
When it comes to manifesting things, I truly am a master! I've often had people tell me I'm hard to say no to, or I have a certain energy that is contagious, or that they knew if anyone could do something it would be me. And much of this is true for better or for worse...You see, I wasn't always aware of how powerful my thoughts and words were. I went through a darker period of my life where I'd often say things like "I'll try" and then wonder why I wasn't succeeding at something. I even had an inner dialogue for a while that said things like: "I'll never be able to ____" "I'm a failure". "I'm just not good enough".
Now any time you say I am (Fill in the Blank), you are really attaching that something to your very identity. This is powerful stuff! It is possible to fail and not be a failure, afterall! And we in NLP believe there is no failure only feedback. It is certainly more plausible to say, I didn't succeed at something that time than to say "I am a failure", yet we do this quite often. Instead of I am feeling down or sick, we say I am sick, I am sad, which anchors those negatives to our very identity.
And there really is no "trying" either. Try implies failure. there is only doing and not doing (thank you, Yoda)! So, it can be a very powerful lesson to mind what you say not only to others, but also to yourself. If you find your inner dialogue saying "I can't be happy" or "I don't deserve _____" or "I can't get no Satisfaction", then you are correct and this is exactly what you will manifest over and over again just like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day.
If, however, you are ready to utilize the Law of Attraction to manifest the things you do desire, then you should be aware of certain things. The first of these is that Like Attracts Like. We often like to say opposites attract, yet likes really do attract more often. Wealthy people tend to have wealthy friends, successful ones have prominent, successful friends, etc. One of my favorite ways to attract more of the things, people, and places that I do admire and/or want more of is to really appreciate them. You cannot become successful, or happy, or wealthy if you spend your time being jealous of people who are that or have those things you do desire.
Another key concept is that Nature Abhors a Vacuum. If you create time and space in your life, something will fill it! Make sure you know what it is you DO want! Thirdly, there is the concept that the present is always perfect. We just don't tend to spend very much time there. We often time travel to regret the past or to anticipate and worry about the future. Once you do learn to program yourself more positively and mindfully be more present, life does become more fun. And comical. Not too long ago, I decided I was going to win Powerball. I bought my ticket and excitedly watched them call out 3 of my 5 numbers and then the new PowerPlay number. I was ecstatic. My winnings were a whopping $31, but I definitely did manifest winning PowerBall, just not the jackpot! Still, I had a good laugh and felt remarkably lucky anyway.
I decided to list 10 Mental Laws and The Power of The Mind here for you with a reference and my own input on them. Enjoy. :)
10 Mental Laws & The Power of the Mind:
1. The Law of Cause and Effect: In order for something to happen, there must be a cause. Everything comes from somewhere or something. Thought is the cause of all creations in your life.
2. The Law of Free Will: Thought causes creation and you are the only thinker in your mind.
3. The Law of Focus: In every situation you can choose what to focus on. If you have a sore toe, you can constantly bring your attention there and truly become miserable or you can focus on the other 99% of you that is feeling terrific and forget about your toe (assuming it’s not a medical emergency, of course).
4. The Law of Sponsoring Thoughts: Your belief patterns determine your experience. You will see some folks have belief systems that make them out to be victims and others whose belief systems make them out to be martyrs, etc.
5. The Law of Individualization: Whatever you think the world looks like, that is indeed what the world looks like to you. We call this mapping in NLP. That is your map of the world. You have nothing to deal with but your own thoughts.
6. The Law of Creation: Since you are thinking most of the time, you are creating most of the time (or attracting most of the time). Be mindful of your thoughts.
7. The Law of Emotion: You can’t have an emotion without having a thought first. A Course of Miracles has this one exercise where you look around the room and you start naming objects. All of these things are just things or objects, but you will find after only a few moments, that you soon start to associate some object to something you have experienced in the past and the mind then experiences emotions. A chair is just a chair. However, you might look at a certain recliner and get the warm fuzzies because every Saturday evening you sit there and read a lovely novel and put your feet up. The chair itself is incapable of giving you the emotion...it is the associating thought to something that happened concerning the chair, and these can be positive or negative as we see with certain PTSD cases.
8. The Law of Substitution: You can only change your thinking by replacing old thought patterns with new ones. So, in the case of the weight management client, we don’t tell them to not have or not think about chocolate cake. We get them to enjoy perhaps a full glass of water before even taking a bite of chocolate cake. We get them to step into what it feels like to be lighter and what they’d be doing then...riding a bike, doing yoga, nature walks...whatever is right. Still doesn’t mean they can’t have the chocolate cake, but that’s no longer their focal point.
9. The Law of Mental Equivalents: Like attract like. (Sound familiar)? Our outer experiences are equivalent to our deepest thoughts. What you think about is what you get.
10. The Law of Manifestation: Thoughts are real. They are things.
Cause and effect are the same when you take out the relative construct of time.