What is the Law of Attraction? A Guide to Making Change Happen

The universe is like a mirror: it reflects your thoughts, actions, and intentions back to you. Put positive thoughts out into the world, and your life will be filled with love and abundance. Consistently send out negative energy, and you’ll end up surrounded by toxic people and situations.

This is the foundation for the law of attraction — a cosmic force that’s constantly at work. Learning to harness the law of attraction can help you instill lasting, meaningful change that leads to the life of your dreams.

Life doesn’t happen to you, it happens because of you. In order to use the law of attraction to make changes in your life, you must first adopt this principle. Instead of blaming external forces when things don’t go your way, look inward. This is challenging because it’s much easier to blame other forces for our current circumstances.

While you won’t be able to control everything that happens (the universe often has bigger plans for us, anyway), you do have control over how you react to it all. And therein lies your greatest power: taking responsibility for your actions, thoughts, and feelings puts you in the driver’s seat of your own life experience. You control your life because you control your thoughts. This is fundamental to understanding and practicing the law of attraction.

The law of attraction is primarily used to create more positivity in a person’s life, which in turn leads to abundance and prosperity. When you’re seeking to attract something specific (and it is important to be clear) it can help to understand when and where the law of attraction works.

Let’s say you use it to attract financial abundance, for example. Does this mean that if you ask for one million dollars, you’ll win the lottery tomorrow? No – that’s not how the law of attraction works. Instead, the law of attraction provides a seeker with that which they seek in a way that will suit them best.

Think about it: winning the lottery would come with a host of its own troubles. The universe anticipates this. That’s why, instead of handing you exactly what you want, it tends to send you gifts in an unexpected and likely even better way. Your financial abundance may be in the form of a new career, the resolution of a debt, or a new business partner. Stay open to the many opportunities that may come your way after practicing the law of attraction — otherwise, you just might miss them.

Once you understand how the law of attraction works, you can begin incorporating it into your daily life. Here are the fundamental principles for practicing the law of attraction. Each one plays an important role in setting clear intentions and manifesting them into your reality.


Conceptualize a Clear Goal
The law of attraction works best when you’re extremely clear about your intentions. The more details you can use about what this dream looks like, the better the law of attraction will work in your favor. This is the fun part: hone in on your goal by using your imagination. Don’t be afraid to dream bigger than you’ve ever dreamed before.

Are there things that would propel your life to a new level of happiness and satisfaction? Did your previous self feel unworthy, or afraid, of reaching these desires? Make a list of everything you could ever want, then narrow it down to the things that call to you most. What lights a fire in your heart?

Take this shortlist and meditate on it. Spend a few days or even weeks creating a plan not only for what you want, but why. It’s important that your intentions are honest, pure, and serving of your highest self.


Create an Unwavering Desire
How badly do you want this dream? It’s important to ask the universe clearly for only the things that you want whole-heartedly. If there is a shadow of doubt, this intention may not be the right path for you. Or, perhaps it just isn’t the right time to manifest this into your life.

Revisiting your meditation practice, see if another desire lingers at the edge of your consciousness. The desires and thoughts of others shouldn’t play a role in influencing this decision. Be honest: it should be something you desire with every ounce of your being.


Visualize with Confident Belief
Once your intention becomes clear, shift your mindset from wishing to having. Wanting and wishing for things only reinforces that they do not belong to you. Visualizing these experiences — and believing them to be true — is the key to unlocking abundance.

Picture your life as if your desires came true. What would you feel like? What would an ordinary day look like? Who would be there, and how would they see you?

In addition to using vivid visualization, don’t be afraid to take action. How can you support your future goals in your current life?

Maybe you repurpose an old piece of furniture for the apartment you’re going to buy. Or, perhaps you pick up a coffee mug at the thrift store for the future spouse you’re going to meet. These little actions shouldn’t cost much, but they should make you feel proud, confident, and powerful. When you feel confident that your dreams are both valid and achievable, there’s nothing holding you back from making them come true.


Practice Gratitude
Gratitude is one of the most important elements of the law of attraction, but it isn’t enough to feel grateful for the things you already have. You need to also feel grateful for the things you don’t yet have.

Yes, that’s right: feel thankful for what you want as if you already have it. It may seem strange at first, but this is one of the most effective ways to draw that which you want directly into your life. Why? Because practicing gratitude helps you truly feel what it would be like to bear the person, experience or thing that you long for.

When the law of attraction doesn’t seem to be working, it may mean you need to purge yourself of negative blockages before moving forward. Physical movement is one of the best ways to move energies out of your system and create more space for growth and abundance.

A regular yoga practice can energize your mind and body while ridding of toxic thoughts and energies. Kundalini yoga is another powerful way to eliminate toxic blockages in your mind. It calls for a high level of focus and perseverance and teaches you to work through discomfort and negativity in your mind, body, and spirit. Walking, running, dancing, and simply moving through the world with positive intentions can also help you detox.

These physical practices should be accompanied by journaling and meditation. Create a purge list where you write down all of your negative thoughts and feelings until they’re gone — then burn the paper and watch the bad energies turn to smoke.

New opportunities can only move into your life when there’s proper space for them to thrive. Remember to state what you want to attract with intention, clarity, and purpose, and be patient. Trust that your wishes will come to you when the timing is right, sometimes in the most unexpected of ways.