We all have an image in our mind of who we would like to be.  This is our ideal self.  It is entirely possible to become this self that you imagine being.  In most cases, that person is your true self.  You can learn to become your true self rather than continuing to idealize a version of yourself that you "are not".  Let's look at how you can change to become the person you've always wanted to be.

Maybe you wish you were funny, but tumbleweeds blow by when you talk.  Maybe you wish you were authoritative, but nobody listens when you talk.  Maybe you wish you could let things roll off your back, but you become enraged instead.  There are many ways in which you might not be living up to the ideal version of yourself you hold.  However, it is easier to become that person than you think.  Here's how.

First, if you want to be funny, immerse yourself into humor.  Watch stand-up acts, comedies, and read funny books.  The more comedy you expose yourself to, the more your brain will begin to think in comedic terms.  Likewise, if you wish to be more assertive, immerse yourself in material about assertiveness.  Watch movies where the main character is highly assertive.  Read books with an assertive protagonist.  If you wish to be more serene, surround yourself with serenity.  Hang calming paintings in your home.  Play nature sounds.  Do whatever it takes to bring the qualities you wish to exude into your daily life.

Before long, your mind will begin to adapt to the new surroundings.  You will become funnier, or more assertive, or calmer.  This immersion factor does something very important - it gives your brain loads of data to process and use for the purposes that you desire.  It also immerses the subconscious mind in your new desire, which will help you to make an even more fundamental shift toward being the person you want to be.

Take a little time each day and daydream about situations in which your new skills can be utilized.  Imagine yourself making others laugh, or getting the attention and/or respect you desire, or of walking away from an argument without a care.  The Law of Attraction will begin to attract these new situations and outcomes into your reality, and before long you will be experiencing these things.

It's not that difficult to become your ideal self.  For the most part, deep down, you already are that person.  But working through your insecurities and fears is a big part of unveiling that ideal person within yourself.  By immersing yourself in the things that represent the qualities you desire in yourself, you will begin to bring that energy into yourself and change your reality.  In time, you will look back and realize that you have no ideal self, because you are exactly who you want to be.

Here's a cool video of a musicians who makes a living by performing just a few hours per month on Santa Monica Pier.  In the last 18 months, he has sold over 15,000 of his CDs.

How? His thought process...which will sound very familiar to those who read this blog.

The Law of Attraction teaches us that “like attracts like,” but what does this really mean when it comes to money?

You might follow a logical pattern of thought and conclude that having a lot of money stored up in the bank (or in jars buried in your yard) will attract a large amount of money into your life, right?  If it’s true that like attracts like, then squirreling money away seems like a good idea - until you consider the role beliefs and intentions play in the Law of Attraction.

There is a big difference between saving money and hoarding money.  These two focuses will create very different outcomes, depending on the mind-set of the saver/hoarder.  Let’s take a closer look at what is happening energetically when you hoard money or save money:

Hoarding Money = a Belief in “Not Enough”.

When you hoard money, you are doing so because of a belief that there will be a shortage or lack of money in the future.  You are essentially holding an intention to safeguard against “not having enough” – which must ultimately create the experience of not having enough!  This mind-set focuses on the perception that there is never enough to go around so you must accumulate as much as you can while you can – because later you won’t have the opportunity.

Simply because of this type of focus, you will end up creating a state of lack because not only will you attempt to store away as much money as you can, you will also resist spending money (even on things you really need), and this habit will eventually create a pool of stagnation.  If the stagnation becomes big enough or goes on for too long, you will actually create a blockage in the flow of money through your life.  Thus, your belief that there isn’t enough to go around will be proven true.

Saving Money = an Investment in a Better Future.

Saving money, on the other hand, adopts a completely different focus.  You are not obsessing about a lack or shortage, but rather expressing a belief in your ability to attract abundance and opportunities.  How?  By setting aside some monetary resources, you are thinking optimistically about the future and creating a greater potential for freedom and power in your life.  You are not grasping desperately at money; you are creating a pool of abundance that will continue to attract more money, freedom and opportunities into your life.  This pool of abundance can create more options for you to employ in many different situations, and it can also empower you to make better choices for your long-term growth rather than acting from a sense of immediate desperation.

If you want to increase your bottom line, pay very close attention to your feelings and intentions when you set money aside.  Save money with a focus on building wealth, increasing your personal freedom and creating lasting financial security for your family.  Rather than trying to safeguard against an uncertain or threatening future, develop a habit of investing into a bright and prosperous future.

Remember that your thoughts, feelings, intentions AND actions will all work together to create the physical reality you experience – financially and otherwise.

The Law of Attraction is the powerful law that states that whatever thoughts you hold in your mind will become manifest in the physical world.  It takes emotion to make thoughts manifest, and emotions can also work as a guidance system for your manifestation efforts.  Learning to heal with the Law of Attraction is not as difficult as you may think.  In a lot of ways, it’s not much different than your basic prayer.

Using the Law of Attraction, you can help friends, family members, strangers, or even yourself overcome illnesses and disease.  Start by using visualization to picture the person in question in tip top health.  Feel the happiness, peace and warmth of the person (even if it’s you) due to their healthiness.  The person is happy and serene, and this feeling should permeate your visualization.  Think health, feel happiness, and allow healing.

Take a little time out of each day to project this image to the universe.  Do it for a moment in the morning.  Do it for a moment at lunch.  Do it for a moment in the afternoon, and work on it again after dinner.  Project a healthy image of the sick person as you drift off to sleep.  Do not engage in worrying over their state.  Do not engage in fear about their health.  To whatever extent possible, distance yourself from the current reality going on with their health and invest your energy and thoughts into the intent of their wellness.

In many situations that can be difficult to do, especially with family members or people who are close to you.  Obviously don’t undercut their difficulties when they are with you, but remain positive and confident that they will heal.  Allow them to feel this emanating from you.  On a subconscious level, this will help them to begin to believe in their own healthiness as well.  Meanwhile the universe will be working with you to make this healing a reality.

Finally, there are some cases in which a person is ready to pass from this life into the next.  Illness is an easy way to do this.  There will be some cases where your healing efforts may not seem to help at all.  There may even be cases where the person in question will pass.  This is not your fault.  If someone is ready to go, and it is their time, they will pass.  This, in itself, is a healing for that person.  In many cases however, you will actually watch the person begin to improve, until one day they may be healthy as can be.

Ever since beginning work with the Law of Attraction, I've found that more interest has been expressed on attracting a soul mate than even on attracting money.  Luckily, attracting a soul mate couldn't be easier, using the Law of Attraction.  There's no reason you can't attract that one special person who makes your heart thump, and who likewise feels the same about you.  Let's discuss how you can attract your soul mate using the Law of Attraction.

First and foremost, the trick to attracting a soul mate (or anything, actually) is consistently keeping an image of having what you desire.  So it is very important that once you begin working on attracting your soul mate, you keep at it every day.  This process may take days, weeks, or even months, but if you stop working towards it, you may not succeed, so it's important you are persistent. 

Each day, spend a little time daydreaming (read: visualizing) about that special person.  Imagine the feeling of being with them, holding their hand, enjoying their company.  This should give you plenty of warm fuzzies, and those emotions are exactly what are working to attract this person into your life.  It's easiest if you don't specify a person when you do this, but if you must, then there's no reason you can't succeed at attracting a specific person. 

This is probably best accomplished during the times when you are most comfortable, such as in the morning or evening when you are in bed or even when you are in a nice, sudsy bubble bath.  Be careful, because this process can become addictive!  And the more addictive it becomes, the more you'll know you're doing it right.  Don't feel bad about it - if you fritter away endless hours daydreaming about being in love, that will only further empower your manifestation. 

If you break for a day or two, don't worry about it, just start again when you notice that you haven't been working on it.  Sometimes little things in life will come up and our habits will be broken - make sure you restart the pattern as soon as things calm down.

Also, make sure that you put yourself in places and situations where you can meet other people.  Go out to parties, hang out with friends, and find interesting things to do in places where you might meet someone new.  If you feel a whim to go somewhere that you hadn't originally planned, go!  Sometimes your intuition will guide you, but only if you follow it.  Once you begin this work, you will be attracting the right circumstances to meet your soul mate.

Finally, when you meet that special person, you will feel a click.  They'll feel it to - don't worry, things will be pretty effortless.  Love at first sight is possible, but the phrase is a bit misleading.  It's not sight that causes the love, but a soul recognition.  You and that special person will understand each other right away, and things will progress easily and naturally.  You will not have to work particularly hard at starting this relationship; it will be mutual.

Remember to remain persistent and work on your visualization every day.  The more time, energy and emotion that goes into it, the more quickly you will attract your soul mate.

Do you find that you are not as confident as you wish to be?  Does confidence seem to elude you in social situations?  Do you wish to be a social dynamo, rather than a social seashell?  If so, the Law of Attraction offers hope.  Using the same tactics you would use to manifest any other desire, you can manifest confidence within yourself.  Let's look at how to do that.

The Law of Attraction states that the thoughts that you hold in your mind, fueled by the power of emotion, manifest into your physical reality.  The most common way of utilizing this Law is by using visualization exercises.  Don't be put off by the term.  Visualization is just a fancy word for daydreaming.

So here's what you want to do.  Take a little time each day to imagine yourself as an extremely confident person.  Put yourself in situations where you would normally lose confidence, but in your daydream be the most confident person in the picture.  Or at least see yourself as confident as you would like to be.

Imagine yourself asking out that pretty girl, or standing up to a menacing figure.  Imagine marching into your boss's office and demanding that raise.  Whatever it is you want confidence for, daydream about having total confidence in those situations.  Believe it or not, this will begin to sink into your subconscious, and you will literally begin changing into the person you imagine yourself to be.

Be patient with this process.  It can take days, weeks, or possibly even months.  Keep at it every day or two.  This is important for your life, and you should take it seriously.  At the same time, the daydreaming sessions themselves should be enjoyable, and should stir up some positive emotion in you, such as pride, excitement, or a general feeling of wellbeing.  This emotion fuels your thoughts and attracts the confidence you desire into your reality.

Write a story with yourself as the protagonist.  Take them into many situations where you can direct their confidence to your advantage.  This should be a fun process as well.  Spend as much or as little time on the story as you want, but the very process of writing it will help cement within your mind the qualities you are attempting to absorb.  Read this story from time to time, and enjoy the feelings it gives you.

In time, the confidence you are projecting in your imagination and on paper will begin to sink deeply into your subconscious and become a part of the person you are.  You will find that you actually begin to have more confidence in your daily life.  You will find yourself feeling proud of your social interactions, and of the confidence with which you conduct yourself.  One day you will look back and remember the unconfident you as a dim memory.

When working with the Law of Attraction to increase your financial abundance, you may become keenly aware of the ways your emotions are tied in with money.

Emotion has the power to drastically benefit your ability to attract more money, but it also has the power to effectively block your ability to do so.  Remember that your emotions are what determine the power or focus of the vibrations you emit to the universe.  If you focus your emotions in the right way, you will boost your ability to attract more money, but if you hold powerful emotions on the wrong end of the spectrum, it will block the abundance you wish to attract.

To understand how this works, we have to look at two main considerations when it comes to money and emotions:

•    Emotional states that resist or block abundance.  These states are: fear, desperate need, anger, powerlessness or uncertainty.  If you desire more money but worry about your ability to handle it, you will resist it.  If you desperately need more money because of a severe state of lack, your very dependence upon it will push it away.  Believing that money will solve all of your problems is also a sure way to block it because you are placing an excessive amount of importance on money, when it’s not about the money at all.  Granted, money can make your life easier, but if your life is a mess besides not having enough money, it will still be a mess when you do have more money!

•    Emotional states that attract abundance.  On the opposite end of the spectrum are emotions that actually call forth greater abundance into your life.  They are:  optimism, gratitude, joy, passion, appreciation and hopefulness.  The first order of business in attracting more money is to first become grateful for what you already have.  Learn to appreciate the good things in your life, even if not everything is perfect.  When something good happens to you, take a few moments to reflect on it and be grateful for it.  At the same time, learn to embrace an optimistic view of the future.  Expect good things, and you will begin to attract them.  Expect plenty of opportunities to grow and develop as a person, opportunities to advance your career, and opportunities to attract more money.

As you shift your focus to lighter emotions like this, you begin to change the signal you send out to the universe.  When you combine this signal with focused action steps, you will notice a definite improvement in the tangible abundance you experience in your daily life.

It’s important to note that it may take time to see results, especially if you’ve been focusing more on those negative emotions for any length of time.  The tricky part is being able to focus on the positive emotions even if your circumstances aren’t the way you wish them to be . . . yet!  That “yet” is important, because you have to be willing to believe that things WILL change, even if they haven’t already.  However, keep at it and watch how your life transforms before your eyes.

At first, the Law of Attraction seems like a very difficult tool to use.  You need to change your thinking, become more positive, and remove negative thoughts that create negative things in your life.  But who has the time to monitor their every thought?  Not many of us, and luckily you don’t have to.  That’s where the power of the Emotional Guidance System comes into play.

Your emotions are far more powerful than you realize.  Your emotions, when backing thoughts, cause those thoughts to begin manifesting in reality.  Thoughts without emotion don’t tend to manifest.  But not only can you use your emotions, your excitement over your desires, to actually manifest them, but you can actually use your emotions to alter your entire thinking process.

You see, your emotions are actually tools that indicate how your current thinking process is affecting your life.  When your current thoughts are attracting negative things to you, or things that you do not want, those thoughts feel bad.  You will feel anxious, unnerved, angry, or sad.  When you are feeling anything negative, you need to immediately become aware of what you are currently thinking about.  Then, stop that thought process and begin thinking about something that makes you feel good.  Think about your family or your friends or your spouse or your kids or even your favorite hobby or a pet.

When you are feeling good, it is an indicator that your thoughts are currently attracting things into your life that you desire.  The more you are attracting what you desire, the better you feel.  Likewise, when you consciously sit and visualize on what you desire and imagine having or experiencing it, you naturally begin to feel good.  That’s what makes this whole Law of Attraction practice work.  Positive thoughts + positive emotions = manifestation of positive outcome.

So rather than attempt to sit and monitor every thought that rolls through your mind, begin becoming aware of the patterns of your thinking.  You may note that you have a tendency to daydream about negative things, things that you fabricate in your mind seemingly out of nowhere.  These may be negative happenings, negative events, or negative interactions.  By taking note of your thoughts when your emotions begin turning negative, you will start to notice these patterns.  Then you can begin redirecting them more quickly until you no longer succumb to these patterns of thinking at all.

At the same time, you will find your patterns of positive thought.  Reinforce these, prolong them, and expand upon them.  The thoughts that make you feel good are the ones that attract your desires and stir up your emotions (for power).  Focus as much energy into these thoughts and thought patterns as possible every day.

Before long, you will begin to see a big change in your life, as your negative manifestations dwindle and your positive manifestations thrive.  This is the power of the Emotional Guidance System – to change your entire life for the better very quickly by helping you to get a handle on your own thought patterns.

Our modern world is full of stress, hurry, worry, hustle, bustle and movement.  Let’s face it; we are busy, busy people.  We drag ourselves out of bed in the morning, race to work, race home, race to any extracurricular activities our kids may have, race to dinner, race back home, race to see our favorite shows, and then race to bed.  We repeat this cycle ad nauseum.  Finding serenity, tranquility, or even a moment of calm can be difficult.  Using the Law of Attraction however, it’s possible to begin attracting serenity into our crazy, stressful lives.

Serenity, by its very definition, is a state in which you are free from stress and anxiety.  How can you find serenity when every moment is stressful?  When you’re not actually involved in a stressful activity, you are anxious about what’s coming up.  It may shock you to hear that finding tranquility is nowhere near as difficult as you might imagine.  You don’t even have to actively attract serenity, but you can use a state of serenity to attract other desires, and the very process of attracting your desires can bring about the peaceful state you are looking for.  But first, you must make a few changes to your habits.

Cutting a little bit of time into your daily routine, (even if it’s only as little as half an hour), will allow you to begin attracting your desires into your life.  You can attract money, love, a new car, or whatever it is that you wish for.  These things (especially the money) can also assist you in your quest for serenity by freeing you from some of the daily stress you’re under, which mostly consists of earning money and paying out money.  However, by making your Law of Attraction exercises into sacred, peaceful times, you can begin to experience serenity in your life immediately.

Your first day, you will not be working with the Law of Attraction at all.  This may take you one try, or it may take up to a week.  Do this until you are able to clear away your stress and feel at peace, relaxed and in the moment during your set-aside time each day.  Sit, lie down, or relax however you want to in a place where nobody will disturb you.  Turn off your phone, quiet the computer, and make sure any kids or roommates won’t be intruding.  The purpose of this first exercise is to learn to set aside the daily stress and the incessant rambling of the mind.  You must remain relaxed and quiet. 

Stop the chattering in your mind.  When it begins chattering again, stop it again.  Don’t fight it, or you’ll lose.  Just notice when your mind begins to talk.  Become aware of it.  That’s not you – that’s your mind.  Each time you become aware of your mind chattering, just stop your train of thought and focus on being present.  Look around the room and focus on something in it.  Pay full attention to your sight, hearing, and sense of touch.  Your mind will continue to intrude, and you must continue to notice it and shut it off.  At first it’s like trying to quiet an excitable child, and you may get frustrated, but as you work at this your mind will gradually stop intruding, and you will find true silence and presence in the moment.  In this, you will feel serenity.

In this state of serenity, you may begin working on the Law of Attraction.  You will be vastly more successful in this state than while fighting an intrusive, long-winded emotional mind storm.  But most importantly, you will have learned to create serenity.

What’s more exciting than the idea of being able to manifest loads of cash in your life with nothing more than some focused thought and daydreaming?  And yet, that’s entirely possible using the Law of Attraction.  By visualizing (daydreaming) the results of having money, you can begin attracting money into your experience, no matter what your current financial situation is.  Let’s discuss some simple visualizations you can use to begin attracting your financial freedom.

Of course, what’s more fun than the thought of having a brand new car?  Not just another car you buy for utility, but the actual car you really really want?  The first visualization exercise you can use to begin manifesting money is to imagine yourself owning and driving that very car.  What is it you want to do?  Just drive around and enjoy it?  Pick up women?  Take your friends for a spin?  Drive through the mountains with your top down?  Imagine exactly the kinds of scenarios that excite you about owning your dream car.  Imagine in detail, moment by moment, and fill your visualization or daydream with tactile, visual, and other sensory content.  See yourself in the car.  Feel the wind through your hair.  Hear your music playing on the radio.  You can’t have your dream car without money, and so by attracting your dream car you will naturally attract the money for it.

Next up, how about your dream house?  Now I’m not talking about that cute little cottage three streets over.  I’m talking about your mansion, on the beach, with rooms for every little interest you’ve ever even thought about having.  Your music section of the mansion, with recording studio and auditorium.  Your craft section, with painting room, gallery, sculpture room, pottery studio, etc.  Your media room, with huge plasma TV connected to a DVD player, surround sound, and your stereo.  And so on and so forth.  Take time to imagine living in your place, doing whatever you want.  Your dream house is going to be terribly expensive, I’m afraid.  Therefore, by working to attract it, you will be attracting lots of money in the process.

Your round-the-world vacations aren’t going to be cheap.  Especially when you stay at every place around the world you would like to for as long as you like!  Visualize each place you’d like to stay in excruciating detail.  Visualize yourself having a blast backpacking across Europe, lounging in Paris, site-seeing in Egypt, or wherever it is you would like to go.  By working to attract your ideal vacations and even more powerfully, the freedom of finances and time that is needed to vacation in this way, you will be attracting the cash it takes in the process.

How many adults really take the time to daydream, in depth, and without shame about all of the things they want out of life and would like to do?  Most adults do not take the time.  Time is money and daydreaming is wasteful.  However, this is the opposite of true, and taking the time to daydream like a kid will allow you to begin attracting your desires.  Notice in the above visualizations, I didn’t tell you to visualize a pile of money.  That’s because money itself is boring!  It’s the effects of having money that are interesting.  So when working to attract money, work on attracting the things you would like to be able to have and do with that money instead, and the money will come as the means.

In Part I of this article, we discussed the ways energy blockages can hinder or limit our financial resources.  We emphasized the futility of using the Law of Attraction to attract more money if you don’t first clear the blockages that prevent it from manifesting in your life.  Finally, we described the symptoms of such a blockage:  feeling blocked or “stuck,” unable to move forward beyond a certain point, ineffectiveness of prosperity affirmations and visualizations, and constant frustration because “it’s not working.”

In order to identify and dissolve inner blockages, you need to answer three questions:

What aspects of my financial situation make me feel uncomfortable?

For some people it might be a mountain of debt; for others it might be rampant disorganization; for still others it might be inadequate income.  Ask yourself which situations you usually try to avoid thinking about or looking at – those are the areas in which a blockage exists, and it needs your attention if you want to resolve it.  Once you are clear about the aspects of your financial situation that make you feel most uncomfortable, ask yourself:

What do these situations say about the rest of my life?

You see, money problems are NOT just about money!  Money can serve as a mirror for passion, love, joy, purpose, courage, or any number of other qualities you may be resisting.  Financial abundance or lack usually reveals identical abundance or lack in other areas of your life.  Look at your job, your health, your relationships, your self-esteem (and anything else you can think of), and see if you have blockages there too.  Take your time with this exercise, because it is absolutely mind-blowing once you “get it.”  Once you’ve discovered correlations between your financial abundance and the other areas of your life, ask yourself:

How can I increase the flow of energy to these areas?

You will definitely want to give this question some deep thought because the answer will vary for everyone.  Understand that a blockage simply means stagnation or neglect; an obstruction to the flow of energy.  This obstruction can be an unresolved situation, limiting belief, or unproductive habit.  It acts as a clog in the plumbing, so little energy can get through.

In order to clear the clog, you need to turn your attention upon it and take action to remove it.

Let’s look at a couple of examples:

Blockage:  You may have discovered that the aspect of your financial situation that makes you most uncomfortable is the fact that you don’t earn enough money.  Perhaps you’re stuck in a low-paying job and you occasionally consider seeking a better job or starting your own business, but you keep holding back.  Why do you think that is?  Could it be that you don’t feel you deserve to earn more?  Poor self-worth could be the blockage that is holding everything up!

Resolution:  In order to clear the blockage, you would need to change your belief that you don’t deserve to earn more money.  This might involve doing some intensive self-esteem work, or learning how to value the contributions you make to the world, or building up the courage to make a move toward something better.

Blockage:  You may have realized that your financial records are a mess.  You haven’t balanced your checkbook in years, and you don’t have an organized method for paying bills so you end up paying most of them late and accruing big late fees.  This creates a major drain on your finances and can make it seem like you never have enough – but you would if you could better manage what you have!

Resolution:  With a little introspection, you may have noticed that you are also terribly disorganized in other areas of your life.  You may struggle with time management, or your home may be so cluttered that you can’t find what you’re looking for.  Disorganization is easy to resolve by simply devoting a set amount of time to it each day.  Commit to cleaning up your financial situation by figuring out how much debt you have, how much money you have (balance your checkbook!) – AND doing the same thing in other areas of your life.  It may take time to see results, but as you continue to clear blockages by getting organized you will notice an easier flow of energy (and money) through your life.

Your situation might be completely different from those described above, but you can follow the same steps to clear blockages in your life.  Here they are in summary form:

1)    Figure out what makes you most uncomfortable.
2)    Identify correlations with the other areas of your life.
3)    Take action to dissolve the blockages.

When you do this on a consistent basis, you will notice that energy (in the form of money, as well as other qualities) will flow through your life much more easily and you will now be able to use the Law of Attraction in a much more conscious way.

When most people learn about the Law of Attraction and awaken to their ability to use their thoughts and emotions to attract what they want, their thoughts inevitably turn to money.  It’s something that many (if not most) of us want more of, and never seem to have enough of!

Money is necessary for survival in modern day society, but it also carries a lot more weight than that.  Our financial resources can determine not only the quality of our everyday lives, but the level of enjoyment and freedom we experience in every aspect of our lives.  Little money means little power, little freedom, and very limited options.

Why do so many people struggle financially?  In order to answer that question, we need to look at what money really is.  Money is not just a tangible collection of paper and metal objects; it represents the FLOW of energy through our lives.  Most often when people have a lack of money, they also experience lack elsewhere in their lives.  Whether that lack affects their relationships, health or inner peace, it is clear that there is a blockage somewhere.

In order to use the Law of Attraction to increase the flow of money in your life, you need to first understand where the blockages are in your life, and WHY they are there in the first place.  A vast majority of people either don’t realize the importance of this step, or they skip it because it makes them feel uncomfortable.  Instead, they attempt to place a “bandage over the wound” by focusing on prosperity affirmations and visualizations.  They convince themselves that by doing and saying the right things, they will persuade the Law of Attraction to deliver a nice big truckload of cash to their doorstep. 

Unfortunately, it doesn’t usually work like that.  What many people fail to understand is that their energy blockage is already working hand-in-hand with the Law of Attraction.  Remember that the frequency of our vibrations is affected by our beliefs and emotions.  The blockage exists BECAUSE the person’s vibrations are not where they need to be to attract what they really want.  All the affirmations and focus on money won’t do a thing if the underlying blockage isn’t removed, because its very existence prevents money (energy) from flowing easily.

How do you know if you have such a blockage?  You will have a constant sense of being blocked, stuck, unable to move beyond a certain point no matter what you do.  You will wonder why certain techniques seem to work well for others but don’t work for you.  You will keep pushing harder and harder, and eventually give in to frustration because it’s just not working.

Does this sound familiar?  If you suspect that you do have an energy blockage in your life, you need to figure out what is causing it, and find a way to dissolve it.  It’s not as difficult as you might think!

In Part II of this article, we will discuss three simple steps that will help you identify and dissolve your energy blockages.

When you begin using the Law of Attraction, it's easy to get sidetracked and distracted.  You might do your visualization exercises for a week or two religiously, then suddenly realize that a month has passed and you haven't done anything.  This is common, but it is important to break this bad habit so that you can begin enjoying the fruits of your desires.  A great way to begin gaining consistency is to develop a manifestation schedule.

First, you need to look at your daily life and iron out the patterns.  This block of time is your work; this block of time is your family; this block of time is your play.  Somewhere in your day, there will be a window.  If there's not, then you must create a window either first thing in the morning or last thing at night.  In any event, find that window (or create it) and mark it off in your mind.  This is your visualization time.  Keep in mind, weekends and weekdays can be as different as night and day.  You will probably need a different schedule for your weekend, and possibly even different schedules for Saturday and Sunday.

Once you have your windows of time marked in your mind, mark them on paper.  Put them on your calendar, in your appointment book, in your palm pilot, in Outlook, and write sticky notes to yourself to put around the house.  The most important thing is that you have daily reminders that your window of time is to be used for your Law of Attraction visualization exercises.  Once you have these constant reminders, you must remain disciplined and do your visualization exercises each day.  Keep in mind, if you dread the exercises and if they aren't fun and relaxing, then you're not doing them right.

And that's the second secret to keeping your manifestation schedule: doing the exercises right.  Your Law of Attraction visualization exercises aren't actually "exercises".  In fact, that labeling probably hurts rather than helps.  Exercises sound like work.  Visualization is play.  I want to make this as plain and simple as possible: Visualization = Daydreaming = Daydreaming = Visualization.  Remember when you were a kid and you would sit and daydream about that bike you wanted?  You need to remember how to daydream like a child.

Adults seem to think that daydreaming is wasteful and sometimes even shameful.  Time is money, right?  But daydreaming is what connects you to your imagination, and your imagination connects you deeply to your desires and emotions, and this combination of thoughts, desires and emotions is what manifests into your reality.  So by learning to daydream about what you desire, you will learn to attract it into your life.  I'm not talking about imagining what it will be like one day when you have money.  This is the wrong way to go about it (as any kid can tell you).  You need to imagine yourself having the money, the car, the dream job, the house, NOW.  Imagine that you already have what you want, and are enjoying it.  This is the part so many people get wrong.

By visualizing in the present rather than in the future, you manifest in the present.  What good is anything you want if you manifest it in the future?  What you manifest in that case is that you are going to have it someday.  Quick hint - someday never comes - it's always only today. 

Keep a regular, daily schedule with your Law of Attraction "work", and make sure you are enjoying it!  This is the secret to successful attraction.

What is it that really fuels the Law of Attraction?  What is it that makes it work for some, and fail miserably for others?  What is the one underlying secret of using the Law of Attraction to manifest your desires?  In short, what is the Attracter Factor?

In one word: emotion.  That's right; the emotion that is generated by a thought is the energy that goes into attracting that thought into reality.  That's why many of us live in a reality we're not ecstatic about - our negative emotions, caused by negative thinking patterns, have attracted many things into our realities that we do not want. 

The Law of Attraction is blissfully ignorant of whether or not you want something.  Whatever thoughts combined with emotional energy are held, that is what will become manifest.  Most of us dilute our thoughts, which is a good thing considering many of our thoughts are negative.  Luckily, that dilution keeps us from living in self-created hells.  That doesn't change the fact that many of us aren't living our ideal lives.  We absolutely can live the life we desire, it just takes some work.

First, note what your emotions tell you about the thoughts that you hold.  Do you find yourself feeling good most of the time, or bad?  Neutral?  If you are thinking thoughts that aren't generating emotion, you will feel neutral.  These thoughts will pretty much never amount to anything.  When you are thinking thoughts that make you feel bad (angry, sad, upset, anxious, worried) you are attracting more of that anger, sadness, anxiety, etc.  When you are thinking thoughts that make you feel good (happy, joy, excitement, fun, love), you are attracting more things that will make you feel good.

The emotion is everything, and by monitoring your emotions, you can change your thought patterns to begin attracting more positive things into your reality.  It's not that difficult to learn to become aware when you aren't feeling good.  Take that awareness and begin to change your negative thought patterns.  If you're not feeling good, stop what you're thinking and start thinking something else.  Something that makes you feel good. 

Positive thinking is not just about feeling better about the world you are living in.  Positive thinking actually alters your reality, so that the world you are living in is more positive and enjoyable for you.  There is nothing wishy washy about it - this is cold hard science.  The observer is intimately tied to the observed.  Reality exists in a wave of probability.  The observer collapses that probability into a set reality.  The deciding factor on which reality this probability wave collapses onto?  The observer's deepest expectations and beliefs.

You are literally creating your reality every moment of every day.  By learning to use your emotions as a tool as well as using them to empower your positive manifestations, you will find yourself living in a much nicer reality very quickly.

If you aren't as successful as you would like to be, don't be alarmed.  Success begins in the mind and ends in your manifest reality.  Therefore, the key to becoming successful in your life is to reprogram your mind to accommodate your vision of success.

Reprogramming the mind is not as difficult as you may imagine.  The most important factor in altering the subconscious mind is repeated, extended exposure to a new idea.  In other words, you need to commit to making this change in yourself over time.  In order to do so, you will need to work daily on this until your subconscious absorbs the information, ideas and beliefs you want.

Your deepest, subconscious thoughts and beliefs about reality are what create your reality.  Therefore, your subconscious can't accept new information left and right.  If it did, your reality would change on a daily basis.  That would be incredibly disconcerting!  Instead, your subconscious accepts information that it is exposed to over and over again, with your approval, (and sometimes even without).  Hypnosis programs are useful, but only if you have a way to use them every three days or so for several weeks.  Do not go out and have a one-time hypnosis session.  Hypnosis takes time for the same reason any change of the subconscious mind takes time: the subconscious is guarded for your protection.

The general consensus on how long it takes the subconscious mind to integrate new thoughts or beliefs is around 21 days.  If you Google "in 21 days", you will find a tremendous number of products, all basically titled "Learn to X in 21 Days".  There is a good reason for this - the subconscious barrier breaks around 21 days.  All the new information is absorbed, accepted and integrated.

So each day, for 21 days to a month (as 21 is the average), you should spend a little bit of time focusing on the new thoughts, beliefs and ideas that you would like to integrate into your subconscious.  You can do this directly, or via creative visualization.  There are some other shortcuts as well.  The subconscious loves a story.  Write a story, laced with the ideals and beliefs you would like to integrate.  Make sure every aspect of the story implies these new ideas.  Then read this story to yourself every one or two days.

The subconscious regularly flushes itself of new information.  Approximately two or three days after absorbing new information, if it is not reinforced, the subconscious flushes it out, usually in dreams.  So the trick is to be consistent and persistent until the new information is absorbed, accepted, and integrated into your fundamental underlying beliefs about your reality.  At that point, your reality will begin to shift to make room for these new beliefs.

By working on success, or wealth, or love, you will see your reality open up and your success, wealth or love will enter.  It's really amazing how this happens, and it may surprise you at first.  It happens easily, effortlessly, and fluidly.  It happens so easily in fact, that you may begin to feel that what you originally desired was always there, and in a way this is true.  But mostly this is your reality, your present, your Now, making a complete change and incorporating your desires. 

Have had a few emails over the last day or so asking about Law of Attraction retreats.

People want to know if I'll be doing one.  And to answer that, I don't know.  I discussed doing something with Wendy from IfYouCouldKnow.com and this is a possibility, but right now, we have no specific plans for anything.

Wendy has a great site for women who want to grow (or just start) their businesses and I know she has been doing a lot of stuff online, including conference calls and chats, which deals with the Law of Attraction.  It's at DesireToGrow.com, if any of you are interested.

So yet another thing for women...  What about the guys?  Where can you connect with people who want to work on the Law of Attraction?

I have found Meetup.com to be amazing for connecting with people.  If there isn't a group in your area, you can start one, or just put out the intention, and you'll be contacted when other people show interest.

This isn't a retreat, of course...

If you're female, check out what Derba Moorhead is doing.  For the guys on here, rest assured that I'll keep an eye out and let you know if I hear about anything you can get involved with.

And if you do have any suggestions on live events which you'd like to see from me, please post them here.  I'm certainly open to doing something if it's the right fit and can work into my schedule. :)

Just got word that Debra Moorhead will be doing a personal development retreat for women.  Dates are May 30 through June 1 and the location is Maysville, Kentucky.

Price includes both food and lodging.

Get more info.

Doing something like this is great for a couple of reasons:

1. You get to connect with others who are also working to better themselves with the Law of Attraction.  You'll share experiences, techniques, and more.

Sometimes it's hard to find people who are really serious.  They saw Oprah talk about the Secret and tried to implement the concepts into their lives, but when they hit a bump, that was the end of that.

If you're going to take a weekend out of your busy life and go to study Law of Attraction in an out-of-town location, you're pretty serious about making things work...and the other people who attend the event will be also.

2. A setting like this is great, because you're away from your daily life.  You'll be able to concentrate on learning, without having to deal with your normal, day-to-day things.

So definitely check it out.  If it works for you, by all means go. :)

And speaking of Debra Moorhead, check out what she said about my new book, "Ask Believe Receive."

When learning to use the Law of Attraction to attract more money into your life, you would be wise to first examine your beliefs about money and see if any of them might be hindering your objective.  Beliefs don’t usually work alone, but rather determine the ACTIONS you take, which affects the result you receive.

Your beliefs act as an unspoken (yet powerful) message to the universe.  Think of it as sending an energy-gram that tells the universe what you want to experience in your life.  If you then take actions that underscore your beliefs, you have cemented the likelihood of a specific outcome taking place in your life.

You might desperately desire more money, but you might also be resisting it at some level.  How do you know if this is happening?  Consider these common prosperity-blocking beliefs:

•    You have to work hard for money.  Many of us were raised to believe that hard work is the only way to get ahead in life, so we’ve become accustomed to struggling for every penny we earn.  We resist the idea of “getting something for nothing” so we push away the great opportunities that come our way.  If this describes one of your beliefs, you will need to first work on changing your perception that money can only come to you through hard work.  You’ll need to embrace a more optimistic mind-set and convince yourself that good things come to those who expect them, not just those who work like a dog for them.

•    You don’t deserve a lot of money.  If you have an underlying sense of unworthiness, you will consistently tell the universe, “thanks but no thanks” to any abundance that comes your way.  You will insist that others need it more than you do, and you will feel guilty if you even consider accepting more money or anything good.  The remedy for this belief is simple:  LOVE.  You need to learn to love yourself and develop the belief that you DO deserve good things in your life, including money.  If others deserve it, why wouldn’t you?

•    There is only so much to go around.  This lack focus is usually given to us by our parents through colorful exclamations like, “What, you think money grows on trees?!”  Over time, we learn to see lack more than abundance and such a focus ensures that lack will be most prevalent in our lives.  To shift this perception, you need only look around at the massive abundance in the world.  Think about wealthy people you know, or famous wealthy people.  Think about the many various ways they have attracted abundance into their lives, and ask yourself why it wouldn’t be possible for you too?  If you simply stop focusing on lack and instead strive to recognize abundance, you will see that there are limitless resources available for all of us.

These are just a few of the beliefs that block abundance.  If you want to increase your financial abundance, take a few minutes to think about your own beliefs about money.  Confront them and begin changing them, and then take actions that will help carry those beliefs into physical reality.

The teleseminar I posted yesterday talked about how it's a good idea to "act as if."  One of ways which how to do this is via affirmations.

If you're looking for a place to start, I've put together a list of 101 affirmations, which will help you with:

• a healthy weight
• self-confidence
• money and prosperity
• life purpose
• inner peace
• attracting opportunity
• love and romance
• healing
• clarity
• and more...

Hope you find this list helpful!  If you have affirmations you'd like to share, please feel free to do so within the comments section.