It’s time for another installment of “Ask Melody”. You ask, I answer. One of my awesome readers, Derrek, sent me this amazing question. I’ve been pondering the answer for a couple of days, and have decided to push some other blog posts aside to upload this right away, because I think it’s so powerful. Here’s the question:

I believe in the Law of Attraction. I believe in the spirit, in the subconscious mind, in our boundless energy. But sometimes, just sometimes, the brain plays tricks on me and makes me question if this path is any better than any path at all. I guess my question is, how do I know what I’m doing is real? How do I know any of this will work, and if these laws are real, and if they mean anything? I’m confused, and I’d love to have an answer.

Here’s my answer:

We’ve been trained pretty well to look for validation outside of ourselves, so adopting a philosophy that builds on listening to our own inner guidance is a lot to ask. I’m fully aware of that. And believe it or not, we all go through this type of existential crisis every once in a while. Spiritual healers, energy workers, channelers, and spiritual seekers who have found some answers all have moments where we ask ourselves “Is this real?” There’s no physical proof, nothing we can replicate in a laboratory (yet, but we’re SO getting there). And if we can’t touch, taste, smell, hear or see it, is it real? How can we know for sure?

The Proof

There’s one piece of “proof” that most people in today’s world that have ever done ANY spiritual growth or personal development work do agree on: When you focus on the positive in your life instead of the negative, when you think thoughts of what you want instead of what you’re afraid of, it makes you feel better. In many cases, it makes you feel a lot better. Why is this important?

Everything we do or want, and I do mean EVERYTHING, is because we think it will make us feel better. Do you want more money? Why? Because you think you’ll be happier. Want to lose weight? Why? Because you think that you’ll be happier as a thin person. We want relationships, cars, clothes, other people to like and respect us, promotions at work, a bestselling novel, a Jacuzzi, etc., etc., because we think that if we get those things, we will feel – say it again – happier. So, what we really, truly want, what all of us want, is to feel better than we currently do. That’s what drives the human condition.

The Problem

The problem that a lot of people have with that answer is, well, that being happy doesn’t seem like it’s enough. It’s not tangible. You can’t show it to your friends, or post pictures of it on Facebook. “Sure, being happy is great”, you say, “but where’s my Ferrari?” And yet, the only reason you want that Ferrari is because you think it will make you happy. Freaking paradox…

Now, even if the Law of Attraction doesn’t work, do we really want to dismiss a philosophy that actually brings us peace of mind, joy and happiness?

You have to find your own proof

I have proven to myself that this stuff is real. On countless occasions, I’ve deliberately shifted my energy and watched my reality follow suit. And I continue to do so. I write about many of these examples in painstaking detail on this blog. I can tell you my stories. I can explain the whole process to you over and over again. And yet, I can’t prove to you, beyond a shadow of a doubt that it works until you’ve experienced it yourself.

Manifest something

I’d suggest you manifest something. This is more about the manifestation of stuff, rather than the entire philosophy of the law of attraction (more on that below), but it works wonders for reminding you of who you really are.

Go for something small, something rather insignificant, something you have no resistance at all to, and something you don’t care all that much about. In other words, make sure there’s no pressure. You’re still learning the ropes, so start with something easy.

Then, spend 1-2 minutes (I’m not kidding, that’s all it takes if you have no resistance) focusing on this item. Think about all the positive traits of that item and talk about it. Why do you want it? How great will it be when you have it? Notice that you won’t feel a lot of emotion here. That’s ok, since you have no resistance, you won’t have anything to shift. But you’re still gathering the energy just by focusing on it. Just think and talk about it for a couple of minutes.

And then, forget it. Just let it go. You can expect it to come into your existence, but be careful not to place any pressure on it (as proof that LOA works, for example). Just look forward to it coming and go on about your day. The Universe will bend over backwards to bring you your manifestation in the most wonderful of ways.

I came across this exercise a couple of years ago. I decided to test it out, by thinking of a butterfly. I like butterflies and I have no resistance to them. They’ve become a frequent symbol for me when I’m trying out or developing new techniques. This was a day or two before I went off to spend a month in the Peruvian Rainforest. I kind of expected a butterfly to show up immediately, but when it didn’t, I let it go. After all, I wasn’t attached to the idea, it was just a little exercise. The second day I was in Peru, through a series of completely unplanned circumstances, I was taken to an animal reserve with, get this, a butterfly farm. The Universe hadn’t just brought me one measly butterfly, it had brought me thousands of them. They were swarming all around me. One even landed right on my hand. And when I recognized the manifestation, the rush of energy was amazing. To realize that I had that much power, that I had drawn these butterflies into my existence was immense.

Now, you can think that this was just one, huge giant coincidence (no such thing), but I’ve repeated this little experiment in small and larger ways many times before and since (that was a pretty good one, though). In short, I’ve proven it to myself. You can, too.

Pay attention to resonance

Again, ultimately, there is nothing I can say that will convince you that the law of attraction is real. And it’s not my job to do so. I present my truth, the information I’ve discovered in various ways that has allowed me to find happiness, peace, joy, a better life than I could’ve ever imagined (and getting better all the time), and a way to make sense of everything. All I do is lay it out. You have to know if you resonate with it, or not. You have to find your own, individual truth. You have to figure out what makes sense to you, what feels right to you.

Because this is about energy; energy that we can’t see or touch, at least not in the conventional way. It’s about learning to use something other than our five senses – our intuition. It’s about learning to listen to that little voice in the back of our minds, that’s always been there, but which we were taught to ignore. It’s about re-learning to use our innate skills, like our imaginations (which allow us to visualize) and our ability to have faith (so we can believe in something that isn’t yet present in our physical reality). It’s about de-programming ourselves and stepping out of the paradigm that tells us that we’re powerless little humans who, if left to our own devices, would all end up rioting in the streets and eating each other (how many movies and books have illustrated that in detail?), and so had better be controlled by something larger and wiser than us. It’s about remembering that we’re immensely powerful creative beings, that our natural state of being is pure love, and that we truly do create our own reality. Every second of it.

We are meant to be happy. This is why we try so hard to get there. We’ve just been given the wrong map.

We are meant to love. This is why when we hate others or judge them, we feel so horrible. When we do hurt others, it’s from a dark place of powerlessness, and we only do so because we think it will make us feel better (getting power over another feels better than having no power at all.)

We are meant to remember, and we were born with all the tools we needed to do so.

And who “meant” all of that? We did. Because we’re not powerless. We’re not insignificant. We are love. We are freaking amazing. We are God, each of us and collectively. We’re not the side show, we’re the main attraction!

If any of this resonates with you, if you’ve felt that wonderful rush of recognition, then THAT’S your proof. But beware. Once you really get this stuff, you can’t go back. You can never look at the world the same way again. Once you realize how powerful you are (whether you know how to fully work that power or not) and that it’s all about you, you can never again blame anyone else for your unhappiness, judge others or yourself, or bitch about your day without knowing that doing so will just create more for you to bitch about. You’ll know unequivocally that nothing needs to happen for you to be happy and that if you’re not, it’s because you’ve chosen, inadvertently, not to be. Are you ready for that? If you are, buckle up. It’s gonna be one hell of a ride. 🙂