Seeecret!
After hearing about The Secret from quite a few people (including Oprah, who did a show about it and consequently received an overwhelming response), I decided to get a copy of the book by Rhonda Byrne. (I have yet to see the video, which apparently came first.) How could I not when I’d hear my friends say stuff like, “I felt like I was so malas, like I was in a rut. But after watching the video, parang things changed!” and “I read it in one go. I stayed up all night. Now I feel so empowered!”?
In a nutshell, The Secret is all about the Law of Attraction—like attracts like, so you essentially create what you think about. So if you keep thinking, “I need more money,” you’re perpetually in that state of needing more money. You have to change your thinking to “I have enough money.” And the universe, if you believe The Secret, will listen.
You can apply it in three simple steps: Ask, believe, receive. So step 1: Ask for what you want. Step 2: Believe that you will get it. And step 3: Receive—you have to feel as if you’ve already gotten it. It’s all about putting forth a positive energy so that the universe returns the same positive energy.
I gave it a test run one day. I asked for something and went through the steps. And lo and behold, I got what I asked for! It took quite a bit of energy to focus on getting it though. Perhaps I wasn’t used to be seeing so positive. Haha. I used to think that it was selfish to ask, ask, ask for what I wanted, because it made me question whether I deserved it or not. But the book rationalizes it by saying it’s not about getting what you deserve—it’s a law, like the Law of Gravity; it doesn’t matter who you are—if you step off a cliff, you are going to fall. Whether you deserve it or not.
So I was pretty amazed that my little experiment actually worked. But then it led to a whole other set of questions: Did it work simply because I asked for it? Or did it work because I put in the effort required to get what I wanted? Where does The Secret end and my own abilities begin?
And the gospel according to Oprah? The Secret is one of the tools to success, but it’s not the only tool. I guess that means you can’t just spend your days putting forth positive thoughts, while sitting there doing nothing. You still gotta do your part. It’s not like the book reveals anything we haven’t heard before, but it’s good to be reminded of what we are capable of—that each one of us has the ability to succeed.
Now if only I had lent the book to my beloved Blue Eagles before that crucial game… (Let it go, Tisha. Let it go…)