Blog Post #12: The Law of Attraction: How Our Brains Turn Thoughts into Reality
Imagine this: You’re holding a cup of water that’s about to spill, repeatedly thinking in your head, “Don’t drop this, don’t drop this.” And then, of course, the glass falls out of your hand, and water spills everywhere. This happens because our minds can actually manifest reality, and the more we think about something, the more we are inclined to do it.
When most people hear about the “law of attraction” (LOA), they think about superficial things like how pretty they are, or how “attractive” they are to others. However, this law actually encompasses much more. According to this Verywell Mind article, “The law of attraction suggests that focusing on positive or negative thoughts can lead to corresponding outcomes in life.” The article breaks down how the law works and can be applied into three parts. First, like attracts like; people with similar interests and values are often naturally drawn to each other. This also applies to our thoughts and reality. The law of attraction explains how positive thinking is correlated with desirable outcomes, while negative thinking is posited to attract negative outcomes. Second, removing negative things from your life allows you to make space for more optimistic thoughts to fill in that space. Third, there is beauty in the present. In other words, the law of attraction emphasizes the present moment, encouraging individuals to always make the best of their situation. For example, instead of feeling sad or unmotivated because you have a lot of homework to do, the law encourages us to make the best of every scenario (i.e., thinking of the homework as a learning opportunity) rather than wasting our energy on negative emotions.
An article by Medium explains how “the Law of Attraction works on vibration.” Vibrations are our emotions and thoughts; the law of attraction responds to the vibrations we give off by bringing similar vibrations together and holding dissimilar vibrations apart. It is thought that every emotion functions on a different frequency, as you can see in this chart below:
Emotional frequency chart
Thus, it is thought that the emotional frequency we give off and fill ourselves with is what we will receive. In other words, if we are on a low emotional frequency (often feeling shame, insecurity, or anger), it is impossible for us to receive things that function on a higher frequency, like peace, joy or love.
The law of attraction is a mindset that we can all cultivate to improve our everyday lives. Training our brains to attract better outcomes and higher frequencies can increase our mood and productivity. However, humans are not all perfect, and we will inevitably always feel stressed, or sometimes lazy. Being consciously aware of the law of attraction means you’re already one step closer to bettering your everyday life! It is also important to note that the law of attraction only takes effect once you pair it with real action. In order to bridge the gap between our internal thoughts and physical reality, and really take advantage of the law of attraction, we have to focus on small, manageable tasks and consistent, achievable goals.
