Have you ever wondered how things show up in your life? I’m sure you’ve heard the term “Law of Attraction” in one conversation or another. It’s also talked about in the movie The Secret and has been mentioned in many books such as Ask and It is Given by Esther Hicks. Well I don’t talk about it very often and if I do, I like to reference the Law of Attraction in a scientific perspective since it can sometimes be seen as an unbelievable concept. During my studies to become a Certified Professional Coach, I took another training program to get certified as a Master NLP Practitioner. NLP stands for Neuro – Linguistic Programming. 
This isn’t a blog about NLP but I do want to mention some information that I learned while I took that program. It had to do with the Unconscious brain or the Unconscious mind and of course the Law of Attraction since this blog is about that. There is what is called the “Prime Directives of the Unconscious Mind” which is what the unconscious mind is hard wired to do. So these Prime Directives are in essence what the unconscious mind does or what is important to it. You now might be wondering what this has to do with what happens in our life and how much control over it we really have. Quite a bit. I learned it as a list of twenty-one items but I’m only going to mention two in this blog about the Law of Attraction. 1. The unconscious mind enjoys serving and needs clear orders to follow. In other words, it’s like putting up an antenna on the top of your head and tuning it to a frequency to attract what you want. In essence, this is your “law of attraction.” The unconscious mind needs and responds to clear instructions. The way I explain this to people is to imagine that we have an imaginary friend. Some of you may have had one growing up, and if you did, you were probably one of the few who really tapped into the workings of your unconscious mind and were using your imagination the way it was intended. Even if your parents thought you were a little different. This imaginary friend (aka your unconscious brain) is always with you and is waiting for you to give it instructions about what you want. Now the key is specificity. The more specific you are the better. If you have your own business and you just state that you want more clients then sure you might get more clients. You also might get the client who is hard to work with, demanding, impatient, and doesn’t pay their bill on time. You get what you focus on so focus on what you want. Not on what you don’t want. 
So then how do things manifest or get generated into our lives? Here is the second Prime Directive I want to share with you. 2. The unconscious mind generates, stores, distributes, and transmits “energy” You’ve also probably heard that everything is energy. One of the ways that energy is created is by the thoughts that we have. If you’ve ever seen What the Bleep Do We Know, then you’re familiar with this. It’s an educational and quirky movie/documentary that talks about this concept in the realm of Quantum Physics and the brain. In simplicity, when we think a thought, an electrical synapse or relationship in our brain is created. If you have similar types of thoughts then those synaptic relationships in your brain are being reaffirmed over and over. This is especially true for those who worry, focus on what isn’t working in their life, what is missing, what’s wrong, and so on. Moving on with how that creates what shows up in your life… Think of it this way…imagine that you are in a dark room and the lights are off. You then walk into the room and turn on the light switch. When you look at a light bulb it illuminates a certain area of a room that you can now see that you couldn’t before. Our thoughts work in a similar manner. When we think a thought, that thought now illuminates into our life the content of what it’s about. Here is another way to think about it. These days most of us have a smart phone of some kind such as an iPhone, Droid, or a Galaxy. They all have the capability to take a picture that can then be sent to ourselves or someone else via email or text. So imagine that you just took a picture with your phone and you then send it to your best friend. Your friend will pull up that picture which is going to look just as crisp and clear on their phone, as if they took it with their own phone. Our thoughts work in a similar way. When we think a thought, our brain creates a picture or an image. It might be a still or a movie; it might be in black and white, or in color. Either way, a picture or image is created. That picture is an electrical synapse that has been created and is now being sent out into the world. If you’re not specific with who you would like to attract it or what it is that you want, then you will get a generalized version of it. Which may not be what you really wanted. I want to share one more piece about this. In the Limbic part of our brain – when we think a thought and create an image, this part of our brain can’t tell the difference between what is real, and what is imagined – so it interprets everything as if it’s real. This same part of our brain also can’t tell the difference between the past, present, or the future. So it interprets everything as if it’s happening right now. I’m hoping this hasn’t been too confusing and that some light bulbs are going off for you right now. I love the power of our brain and as much as I can, I practice being intentional or purposeful about how I can influence what shows up. When I have an experience that didn’t turn out the way I initially wanted it to or hoped it would, being that I’m human, I too can get upset, frustrated, angry, or disappointed. I also know that I don’t need to stay in that head space and can coach myself into moving through it. When I’m ready. How do I do it? If something shows up that I didn’t want, then I can choose to see it as an opportunity to dig deeper at what types of conscious, or more importantly unconscious thoughts I might be having that are manifesting those people, situations, or circumstances into my life. 
What light bulbs are you illuminating in your life? I once heard that “God gave us light to see with”, and of course Thomas Edison gifted us with his invention of the light bulb. The power each and every one of us has starts with the gift of thought. You are the inventor of your own life. What will you illuminate? I always appreciate your feedback and thoughts. Please feel free to share your comments below!