we're gonna get a little woo-woo today, folks.
i've always been quite drawn to the mystical and spiritual. i bought my first tarot deck in middle school, and was only further enamored after my older cousin brought me into boston for my 15th birthday to visit the tremont tea room and have my cards read. i wrote everything down afterwards, held onto that piece of paper, and i'd say about 95% of it came to pass. like, even things i didn't understand at the time, like "when you're 21, your father is going to want to spend more time with you" (i'm adopted, and met my birthdad at 21).
this past may, as a 31st birthday gift to myself, i returned to the tremont tea room. wouldn't you know? i had the SAME GUY. once again, raymond blew my mind, predicting the location and date that i secured my current job, my trip to seattle and portland, the state of my love life--which was basically just him fake-sobbing--and a ridiculously specific comment (including initials and hair color) about a certain person in my life.
anyway! ever since viewing the secret about a decade ago, i've been pretty heavy into the law of attraction. many of you may roll your eyes, but the concept of the LOA is actually pretty simple: what you think about, you bring about. or, more accurately, what you FEEL about, you bring about. like attracts like. positive energy attracts positive people/things/experiences, and that goes for negative stuff, too. have you ever thought about someone totally random that you haven't talked to in years, and they contact you an hour later? that's the LOA, baby. sure, part of it is probably heightened awareness, but there's honestly no explaining some of the experiences i've had with reason.
i still remember the total magic i felt after watching the movie for the first time. like, "i can have anything i want just by wishing for it? dope!" i immediately set out to make my first "vision board" which sounds super-lame but is actually pretty fun. you simply make a collage (online or from magazine cutouts) of stuff you want to attract. i honestly don't remember much of what was on my first one except for a big headline that said "music festival"... and my friend invited me to a music festival the very next day. i was also inexplicably in love with that dirty musician cisco adler at the time and threw a photo of him on there and he like, DMed me on twitter a few days later or something crazy.
since then, i've attracted too many things to count, but in the past couple years, i've tried to keep track of the best ones so i can remind myself of how well it really does work. in fact, when i started thinking back, i realized just how many times i had experienced the law of attraction in my life before i knew there was a name for it. hopefully these stories inspire you as well!
- perhaps my favorite one because it is soooo weird: i had just started college in poughkeepsie, new york, and made friends with a girl in my history class the first week who was also from new hampshire. livejournal was hitting hard at this point, so we added each other and as soon as i walk into class the next day, she starts freaking out. "i was looking at your LJ and saw in your last entry that you were listening to the adored (a pretty obscure band from LA i was into at the time). how do you know them?? that's my brother's band!"
- i was working at a restaurant in college and a bunch of us wanted to go to the sold-out tegan and sara concert that night. after spending the entire brunch shift asking our manager to call his connections and pull some strings, we were unsuccessful and gave up. i clock out, check my phone, and have a voicemail from this random dude from myspace i'd met once about six months prior. he has an extra ticket to tegan and sara and invites me to go with him, obviously. COME ON.
- when i first joined facebook, it seemed like everyone from elementary/middle/high school was adding each other. i was totally creepin' on this guy whom i'd gone to elementary school with, but didn't add him because we weren't super close friends or anything. woke up to a friend request from him the next morning!
- i met taylor hanson (the secret actually published my story on their website lolol)
- after moving into my last apartment and starting to decorate, i hung these cute little silver decorative measuring spoons that my friend gave me above my sink. there were only three, and i had a fourth hook that was empty. "i'll need to get another little spoon to hang there," i thought. i shit you not, the next day at work, a coworker came back from mexico with souvenirs for everyone on our team and mine was a little silver spoon. WHAT THE FUCK?
- when i first found out i was moving to JP, i randomly thought of some guy i dated like, three years ago that lived there. again....the very next day, i go to a coffee shop (not in JP), sit down, and dude is typing away on his laptop 20 feet away from me. twilight zooooone. relatedly, two days after i finished writing a story about the woooorst guy i've ever known, i saw him at a bar. be careful what you're thinking about, guys!
- for some completely unknown reason, while looking for jobs a year or so ago, the name of this company popped into my head and i went to their website to look for opportunities. there weren't any. oh well. the next morning? yeah. they emailed me to discuss my application and i was super confused. um...because it was a position i'd applied to FOUR MONTHS EARLIER. y'all.
- one kinda funny almost-manifestation: for a while some years ago, i visualized meeting my favorite athlete, shaun white. more specifically, getting a picture taken with him. i closed my eyes and saw the red hair, imagined smiling for the picture and telling him i was a big fan. six months later in new orleans, i ran into josh homme from queens of the stone age on the street and got a picture with him. later, i realized that it was pretty strange that i happened to run into another ginger that i loved. still working on the shaun white thing, but i'll keep you guys posted.
if you're skeptical, i invite you to give it a try, because...why not, right? think of something completely random that you want to manifest. small things usually work best, since you're not as attached to them. a lot of people suggest a cup of coffee, but i think that's too easy. pick something that would seem odd to see/get/do and intend to attract it.
here are some tips i found that have worked well for me:
- write it down as if it's already happened: like, "i'm so happy and grateful now that ______."
- or, take a minute or two to picture your desire once you've accomplished it. feel it and see it in your mind with as much detail and emotion as you can. i always listen to a feel-good song while doing this.
- then...FORGET ABOUT IT! this is always my problem, because when you really want something, you tend to think about it 24/7, right? this is another reason that small things tend to appear faster. the key is to act like you already have what you want, and usually, this just means being happy and relaxed.
