In the context of manifesting with the law of attraction, it is important that we carefully choose the company that we keep because the way in which the people we surround ourselves with can have the effect of either raising or lowering our vibration based on their predominate way of vibration – basically chronically happy or miserable. It is indeed true that misery loves company, and, it is equally true that bliss loves company. So, make sure to always surround yourself with positive, happy people.

Perhaps you would find it useful to take a few moments to evaluate the company you regularly keep, and decided which of these people fit into your desire to always feel good so that you are always attracting good. From there, you can actually take the time to write out a list of people that you know that are generally positive, happy people, and make a commitment to try to spend as much time with these people as possible to insure that their happiness rubs off on you.

Over the course of my own life, I have made close friends as diverse as chronically depressed alcoholics to chronically happy and successful business men and women. In retrospect, it is clear to me that my chronically depressed friends have always had the effect of dragging me into their dark emotional space, thus beginning a vicious cycle of depression and negative attractions. As for my successful and happy friends, they have had the exact opposite effect. So, I know first-hand how this works.

I highly recommend to you that you take a few moments out of your busy day and write out a list of the most successful and happy acquaintances you have, including any contact information you may have on them, and consult that list anytime you need to see a friendly face that will help uplift your emotional state. Now, if you yourself are a chronically depressed person you may be worried about having the reverse effect on your contented friends. That is, you may be worried that you will drag them down into your dark place. If this is the case, you may need to make an effort to surround yourself with an entire group of friendly faces to ensure that their positivity overrides the negativity you currently find yourself in. But, I assure you, this is a really simple and effective way to give yourself a quick boost of positivity when you are in need. If I may, you can always depend on a friendly face to take you to an uplifted place.

It is my belief that if more kind-hearted people would allow themselves to earn a vast amount of money, the condition in which the world is in could only change for the better. As it stands, a great many of the world’s wealthiest people are cruel and greedy, and therefore, only know how to use the immense power that material wealth affords you to do further acts of cruel injustice in this world. It is, therefore, a sad fact that the kindest and most compassionate people in the world are not wiling to join the worlds wealthy simply because they have the misguided belief that power (in this case material wealth) corrupts.

Money, which is power in this world, is in no way corrupting. The true effect that money has on a person is that of a brutally honest mirror that reflects back to you that which you really are. So if, for example, you are a person that is unconsciously prone to sex and drug addictions, you would not know this about yourself because you don’t have the means to explore such addictions in the state of poverty. But, once you acquire a significant amount of wealth, all of a sudden, you have almost unlimited access to the entire spectrum of vices (and virtues) that this world has to offer. It would be then that you would discover the degree to which you are corrupt, as well as the degree to which you are virtuous. The point is that it is not the money-power that corrupts you, but rather, it was the money that gave you the free reigns to, for the first time in your life, fully express your most corrupt desires.

Given this, it is understandable why many people avoid allowing themselves access to such power- they may be afraid what they will do with it. However, contrary to the many people that would shun such power out of fear of what parts of themselves will be exposed (e.g. sex addict, drug addict, etc.), I believe a better approach would be to hold back from acquiring such wealth until you have done a rather complete psychological inventory on yourself. That is, before declaring to the Universe that you are ready for material prosperity, take an honest look at your own shadow (dark aspects of the unconscious we like to pretend aren’t in us) and assess how powerful certain destructive urges are within you. If you find in this self-assessment that certain dark urges are overwhelmingly powerful within you, you may need to work through these prior to calling forth vast sums of money into your experience, lest you use this money-power in self-destructive ways.

Here are a few questions worth asking yourself to determine if you are ready to have a great amount of money-power in your life:

1) Do you have an insatiable sexual appetite?
2) Have you ever been sexually abused? If yes, are you still dealing with the after-effects of that experience?
3) Do you spend a disproportionate amount of the money you currently have on drugs and/or alcohol?
4) Do you often entertain perverse sexual fantasies?
5) Do you often entertain fantasies of inflicting cruel punishment on others?

If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions, it is worthwhile to try to resolve these issues through some type of counseling or therapy prior to calling forth money-power into your life. As we’ve illustrated, amassing a fortune now would only have the effect of allowing you to act out these destructive and self-destructive desires and habits to a greater extent than you can now.

With that said, let’s go back to the initial point of earning, as opposed to saving money. If you are a lightworker and have the means to work through deep-seeded psychological issues that would be exposed as corrupt upon the introduction of money-power, you should open yourself to receiving as much money-power as possible.

As I outlined in a previous article, Money: The Root of All Good, there is much good that can be done in the world with money, if only the most conscious people would acquire wealth and channel that wealth towards worthwhile and necessary causes like cancer research, AIDS research, ending world hunger, domestic violence, sexual assault, and so on. Furthermore, it must be understood that though you may choose to earn a great amount of wealth, it is not necessary for you to retain that wealth. Rather, if you are really concerned about the state of this world we live in, you would tithe the majority of the money you earn (once you start earning in the millions) towards causes that would uplift the condition of the world.

In conclusion, now that you truly understood the type of power that money really is, you must be cautious in amassing it, as it may lead to the exposure of your latent corrupt desires and habits. But, if you can work through these issues prior to ever acquiring a great amount of money-power, you must make a point of acquiring, and channeling towards the most noble causes as much money as you possible can. In recent news, we have been made aware of the philanthropic works of two of the world’s wealthiest people: Oprah Winfrey and Bill Gates. They understand very well the proper use of this power, and are doing a great deal of good in this world. If you truly do care about the state of this world, I suggest you follow their lead. Acquire as much wealth as you possibly can, and use that wealth to make this world we live in a better place for all of us.

All of us have moments in our lives that we regret, and have not fully forgiven ourselves for, and, unconsciously, as a result, we punish ourselves in the form of not allowing ourselves to have in life what it is that we truly want in life. In other words, the problems that many of us experience in our life don’t come from a Universe that is any way cruel or unjust, but rather from our unconscious blocking of the greatest good into our lives out of a false belief that we do not deserve those things. And, often times, the motivation behind this unconscious blocking is the fact that we have not learned to forgive ourselves for past mistakes and misdeeds.

And, since we have been given “free will,” essentially what that means is that we have the power to determine what “will” or “will not” happen in our lives. We dictate the experiences that occur in our lives, and this type of power has at several points in our lives lead us to create things that we later learned we did not want to experience. And so, being slightly afraid of this power which, deep down, we all know that we have, many of us choose to abandon that power in the form of the adoption of a “victim mentality.” That is, we convince ourselves that life is exactly the opposite of the way that it truly is; namely, that we don’t make life happen, but rather that life happens to us. This is essentially our attempt at denying the existing of our free will because we are afraid of what we will create for ourselves in the future. More precisely, we are afraid of the immense power which we all realize deep down that we do indeed have access to affect our lives in whatever way we choose.

And so, I would only offer to you that it turns out that we are “condemned to freedom.” That is, when you consciously create (accept your free will), you are indeed bound to create things that you later regret. This fear of our awesome power is somewhat justified. But, when you unconsciously create (reject your free will and play victim), you are bound to create in your life countless things that you do not want. Thus, your only real option is to accept your free will, create many successes and a few failures, and learn to gradually create fewer and fewer failures. It really is that simple. When you play victim, you will always experience yourself, and thus your life, as a series of failures. But, when you accept your free will, you are bound to create failures, but they are certain to be fewer than if you don’t accept your freedom to will things into existence.

So, I say to you, forgive yourself of your past inability to create what it is you have wanted to create, and to declare to yourself what it is that you truly want to experience of your life, and in no time, it will all be yours. This simple act, in and of itself, may have the power to heal any imbalances you are currently experiencing in your life. Forgive yourself, and heal your life.

The truth is that this is the nature of life. Life is such that we have been created in the image and likeness of the creator of the All, and, as such we too are creators. We have the (literally) God-given powers to create anything into our experience that we choose. All that we have to do is intend to experience something, and, by law we are certain to experience because intent is the force that initiates movement in the entire cosmos. In the context of understanding the powerful law of attraction, this means that the force that activates the law of attraction is intent. And therefore, rather than thinking of the law of attraction that is operating outside of you, in response to your predominant state of thinking and feeling, you should understand that the way that you are thinking and feelings is, in fact, dictated by your intentions for how you want to think and feel. Thus, if it is your intention to only think positive thoughts that lead to positive emotion, which, of course, leads to positive energy being in motion towards you, then positive thoughts and positive emotion will be your experience.

Thus, if you want to experience a perfect life, all you have to do is intend a perfect life to flow into your experience, in every domain of life (money, relationships, career, health, etc.). This intention, the intention to activate the highest states of thought and feeling, in order to experience a perfect life must manifest because intent activates the law of attraction, which is, again the law which ultimately determines the outward conditions of your life. The outward conditions of your life are but a mirror reflecting back to you your true inner state. Thus, if you look out into the world at your outer circumstances and find them not to your liking, understand that they are nothing more than mirror reflecting back to your state of being, and thus, the manner in which you must shift your inner world in order to shift your outer world.

So, one of the great secrets to living a perfect life is to regularly utilize meditative practice as a means of shifting your inner state of being. If you do this, you are certainly shifting your inner state, and this inner state of peace and joy must manifest outwardly as all that is reflective or peace and joy including money, love, and meaningful vocation. And thus, the single most powerful intention that anyone can have in order to have a perfect life is the intention to continuously live in peace. That is, to have the experience of the kingdom of heaven that is within. For, in truth, this is what we are all here to do. Many of us, through conditioning have learned to believe that the outer world is more important than the inner world, when, in fact, it is the exact opposite that is true. The true relationship to the inner world and the outer world is that they are one. They are, in no way separate from each other because the outer world is simply the manifestation of our inner world in accordance with our level of enlightenment. One that is in a consciousness of sadness and despair has, for the moment, completed disconnected themselves from their source energy which only radiates peace and joy. Literally, radiates from your Inner Being to your Outer Being. That is to say, that what many people to tend to think that they are experiencing as a world “out there” are simply experiencing their inner state manifesting itself outwardly as the conditions and circumstances of their life. Thus, the outer conditions and circumstances can be thought of as your Outer Being. They reflect the true state of your Inner Being. Or, more pointedly, the degree to which you are in alignment with your true self which is your soul, your spirit, your Inner Being, etc.

So, I say to you again that the words found in the Bible are indeed wise: “seek ye first the kingdom of heaven, and all these material things will be added onto you. In other words, make sure to stay connected with your Inner Being, and you will always be radiating out the experiences of peace and joy as the most enjoyable conditions of your life. That is, make it your intention to always stay connected with your Inner Being, and you will always have all that you desire in life. For, in activating the creative thoughts and positive emotions that emerge when connected with your Inner Being because of this intention, you will always stay connected with your Inner Being, and thus always be experiencing the kingdom of heaven that is within you, and that kingdom will manifest outwardly in your life as the conditions that are fit for a king: wealth, health, love, and happiness. For, having entered the kingdom of heaven, you have gained access to all the vast riches afforded to the true king. That is, the one that has attained the peace of enlightenment.
 

Another term for miracle is synchronicity. This term, a term coined by the Swiss mystic-psychiatrist Carl Jung, roughly translates as meaningful or auspicious coincidence. These are coincidences so unlikely that often when they happen, they force us to step and say to ourselves, “what a coincidence!”

Renowned self-help guru Deepak Chopra has a very unique understanding of this phenomenon. He speaks of synchronicity as the “cosmic computer” orchestrating an infinity of space-time events in order to bring about the fruition of our intention. That is, co-incidents are many incidents, all being orchestrated and correlated with each other at the same time, all just to bring about the manifestation of our intent.

When looked at in this way, it becomes evident that life itself is an auspicious coincidence. For example, as you are reading this article, you should consider the many incidents that must have occurred in order for this article, with its very auspicious content to have arrived before your eyes. Firstly, consider the many technological advances that all must have occurred before there was ever such a thing as the world wide webs where one could have instant access to information on such a vast array of subjects. The advent of typewriters, which then evolved into the personal computer, which then implemented technologies such as 56K modems, and later DSL, are but a few examples of such advances. Furthermore, you may consider public access to domain names, and thus individual ability to post such content. Then, you may consider the confluence of minds that all went into developing this site, including the process of education that culminated in the expertise of a web developer, internet marketer, and a writer working diligently to bring this message to you. Perhaps, you may even consider the series of auspicious events that have brought to this meditation on auspicious coincidence. As you can see, the “conspiracy of improbability” is always occurring, and that is truly miraculous.

So, having demonstrated to you the ordinariness of the extraordinary, you should begin to shift your thinking about synchronicity and miracles for that of being extraordinary, to seeing these occurrences as actually quite ordinary. The law of attraction states that whatever we give attention to is what we get more of, so beginning to pay attention to the miracles that are always happening in your life can only have the effect of producing more miracles for you to marvel at. And, as you witness the miracles constantly occurring in your life, you will soon find your life as the continual unfolding of the miraculous. And then, you will know that truly miracles abound. 

Now, if this information that we uncritically accept is optimistic, we will end up creating for ourselves a satisfying life, by default. If, on the other hand, the information that we accept is pessimistic, we will end up creating a dissatisfying life for ourselves, by default.

Many, who have either been exposed to, or seriously study “New Age” literature, would agree with the statement that “we create our own reality.” But, the deepest implication of the universal law of attraction is that we are totally and completely responsible for the outcome of our lives. In other words, there are no victims and no villains on this planet. There are only creators – conscious and unconscious.

The law of attraction suggests that whatever we put our attention on, and continue to put our attention on, we will eventual get, whether we want it or not. That is, when you focus your attention on what you want in life, and continue to do so over a period of time, you will eventually receive that which you have been focusing on. Conversely, when you focus your attention on what you do not want in your life, and continue to focus on what you do not want for an extended period of time, eventually you will end up receiving that which have been focusing on. And this is precisely the reason we need to be more critical of the information we filter into our worldview.

This law, which suggests, that all of us end up getting whatever we focus on for an extended period of time, is the ultimate assertion of free will. If you uncritically accept the worldview of others (optimistic or pessimistic) you will essentially end up replicating the reality which they created in their life, because you will have no choice but to focus on the information that they have given you about how life is. In terms of familial conditioning, it should then be obvious why we often fall into the constructive and destructive patterns of our parents. Perhaps this is the reason for the old adage, “like father, like son.” It is not so much that we are genetically predestined to act out the patterns of our parents, but that we unconsciously “download” their worldview, and live and operate based on that worldview. And, another way of the law of attraction is that the way that we see the world determines the world that is given to us.

So, if you really want to change your life, perhaps it is time for you to begin to examine the worldview that you have unknowingly downloaded from those around you including your family, friends, religious community, and the mass media. For, the law of attraction suggests that you create your own reality because it is only you that can attract to yourself, based on the objects of experience which you focus your attention on (good or bad, consciously or unconsciously). Therefore, if you want to change your life, all you have to do is change your focus. Instead of focusing on those things that have brought you to you current dissatisfying reality, begin to focus your attention only on those things that, in your heart of hearts, you truly want to bring into your experience.

I mean this literally. One simple “trick” you can use for insuring that your attention stays focused only on those things that you really want in your life is to write out a list of all the things you really want in your life, and to read over that list several times a day, every day. As I mentioned in a previous article, those desires can be thought of as seeds, and our attention is the way in which we water those seeds of desire to bring them into fruition. In time, the will blossom forth into your experience. For, this is the dictates of the law of attraction. 
 

If you think about the lifestyle of the King, from both a mythical and historical standpoint, it is obvious that the King lives a life of lavish abundance. The fact is that all of have the birthright of beings Kings and Queens, but it is the rare individual that chooses to be royalty.

In contemporary secular spirituality, there is a great deal of talk about manifesting abundance, and living a life of prosperity. But, unbeknownst to most who follow such teachings, and, often time those that expound those teachings is the fact that this choice of abundance and prosperity is available to all of us if we simply learn to activate the king archetype within us.

What this means is that we are all guided by a vision or grand ideal of who we would like to become in life. These guiding visions and ideals correspond to what Carl Jung called the archetypes (e.g. king, warrior, trickster, magician, divine mother, etc.). In other words, these are the guiding visions and ideals which have guided humanity from the most ancient times. As such, they can, to some degree, be classified under certain categories such as the typology developed by Jung.

One guiding vision and ideal that has been largely lost in the mind of modern man (literally those of us that have incarnated as the male gender) is that of living as a King. Every other archetype is well embodied and lived out by most of us, with the exception of the King. And, I am suggesting that the activation of the King archetype within us is the key to living the life of lavish abundance that you desire.

Going back to the lifestyle of the mythical and historical King, we see that there are certain attributes that are universal to the true King. Firstly, the King lives in a castle and has vast territory surrounding his castle. Secondly, the King has abundant riches throughout his land. Also, the King has a Queen that is honored and respected as the royalty she is. And lastly, the King is a servant of the people.

In my article about the movie “The Secret” I stated that the Universe manifest into your experience that which you declare yourself to be through your thoughts and feelings. Well, if you are to have he abundant experience of the King, this means that you will have to learn to think and feel as a King does. And how does a King think and feel. In order to find that answer (one that you must find for yourself) all that you have to do is to visualize yourself living as a King.

Do this practice often throughout the course of your day, and you will find that in short time you will find the conditions of living as a King (money, the wife of your dreams, opportunities to serve) start to manifest in your experience as you begin to think of yourself as a King, and consequently begin to feel like a King.

Now, there is an important part to consider in our understanding of the true King. There is an old saying in the Taoist I Ching that states that, “the ruler serves the people.” Thus, the true King is one, not that regards themselves as a ruler of people, but rather as a servant of the people. And, if you can learn to see yourself as a servant to humanity, than truly, humanity will serve you with the best of all life has to offer. This is the true nature of the King, and thus the true way into the Kingdom of Heaven that is within us. For, who could enter a kingdom but a King? Thus, the great teaching of this wisdom of the Bible is that we must exalt ourselves to the level of King, which is only done through lowering ones head before all of humanity. It is only as we become a true King – that is, a servant of the people- that we will be able to unlock the gates to the King of Heaven, which holds the treasure chest of infinite riches. 

As for getting clear on exactly what it is that you want out of life, this should be a relatively simple process, once one comes to the realization that there are only a few basic wants that human beings have, the variation being in kind rather than type. There are three basic things that all human beings want in order to feel that they are living a truly meaningful and abundant life. The first is material prosperity. At some level, all human beings want to be free from the mundane concerns of material needs and survival. We all want to free our concerns from these things that we can more directly and concertedly pursue what we perceive to be our highest purpose in life. The second is a mate with whom we can share our deepest dreams, fears, hopes, quirks, and vicissitudes of life with. Lastly, we want to have the sense that our life is somehow meaningful and purposeful. That is, we need to have a very clear sense of the life mission which we have incarnated to accomplish on this plane.

In my opinion, there are no other major desires that human beings have for our lives that can not be classified under those three domains: prosperity, love, and purpose. The difference, therefore, between one person’s life and another is simply that some people have not chosen to define those three aspects of life for themselves. Most likely, those who lead lives they don’t enjoy have been living their entire life in accordance with other people’s definition of these three basic desires in life. If you are to truly begin to lead the life you’ve always dreamt of, you must take back your power of self-definition.

A personal example should really help illustrate just how powerful self-definition is. For all of my life I have always identified strongly with being a member of the African-American community. As a result, my definitions for what prosperity, love, and purpose meant were almost entirely informed by my impression of what these basic desires mean to the African-American community, in general. Now, based on our experiences in America to present being those of lack, lovelessness, and despair, it is very difficult for many of us to envision anything greater than these destitute lives. And so, this has been the outcome of much my life because of not asserting my own definitions of prosperity, love, and purpose. I simply accepted the definitions of lack, lovelessness, and despair as the correct definitions for these aspects of life.

Today, however, at this point in my life I have been able to adopt my own definitions of prosperity, love, and purpose. Today, I define prosperity as the reception of the excessive abundance and generosity of this Universe. Today, I define love as the eternal dance with the feminine. And today, I define my purpose as the expression of the eternal, immutable spiritual laws that govern this Universe.

What is your definition of these values and desires? It is important that you really consider how to make these definitions for yourself. In truth, you can never underestimate how profound the influence of this society has been on your thinking about these primal desires. For example, if you are even thinking about prosperity in terms of dollar amount, you have missed the point of the question. What is your definition of these values and desires? For, money is only a symbol of prosperity. It is not prosperity itself. In truth, prosperity is nothing other than the infinite abundance which you are always surrounded by, but seldom glimpse. You are and have always been abundant, but have for a period of time, chosen to forget this fact that you might remember it again, and then come to fully appreciate it. Money is a part of this, but truly, it goes beyond merely the monetary expression of abundance.

And love, it is nothing other than the Universe’s continual sending messages of truth and inspiration to you. This article is being sent to you, through the love of the Universe. In fact, you can think of the Universe as the lover that sends you nothing but love letters. But, sometimes you choose to not acknowledge the advances of this loving Universe. Truly, you are always being sent love; it is just a matter of your accepting it.

And purpose is the continual unfolding of the mystery of your life. For you are on a journey with no beginning and no end that leads to nowhere; which, of course, is now-here. Your highest purpose in life is simply to arrive in the present moment. If you can do that, surrendering to the mystery of life to bring answers to all of your questions, and solutions to your problems, you will see that everything you have ever seen as a problem was simply preparation for the fulfillment of your highest good. The best example I can give comes, once again, from my own life.

A couple of months ago, I was fired from my old job as a counselor at a non-profit called the Denver Center for Crime Victims. Upon being released from that job, I had no idea what I would do to survive. Well, it was at this time of crisis when I learned the most about the principles of manifestation that I had formerly only understood intellectually. In that situation, in that kind of bind (having bills to pay, but no job to earn an income) that I was really forced to put my knowledge of manifestation into action in order to somehow manifest the material things in life I would need to survived. In fact, I learned so much through that time that by the end of it, I had a very strong grasp of these principles. So much so, in fact, that I was even ready to share my understanding with others. And this is the highest good for which that period of difficult had been preparing me for.

So, as you can see, my personal definitions of prosperity, love, and purpose has change greatly over the years. And, with this change, has come a change in the conditions of my life.

I highly encourage you to take some time to define these basic desires for yourself. For, in doing so, you are changing the intention for your own life. And, as we have discussed in previous articles, intent is the driving force behind creation. Surely, with this change of intention will come a new reality around you.

Truly, you will always receive what you are asking for, internally. For, the words you utter come about long after you have already truly asked- through your continued attention to something- for a thing long before you utter the words out loud. Those uttered words are nothing but an indicator that that which you have been constantly thinking about is close to manifesting. Your speaking of a thing is the indicator that the Universe has been impregnated with your intentions and is now preparing for birth. So, it is vitally important that you begin to intend for the most and greatest of everything to flow into your life so that you can ask for it, and always next, receive it.

The perceptions of what qualities, attributes, or intellectual skills constitute intelligence are revealed in some of the clichéd statements circulating in our culture. For example, when someone is describing the level of intellectual difficulty of a task, they will often say, “it’s not rocket science.” The implication here is that rocket science is the criteria by which all other forms of intelligence are measured. Thus, the revelation that intellectual skills such as logical reasoning and complex mathematical computations are constitutive of true intelligence.

Another example of intelligence being made synonymous with a very narrow set of intellectual skills (primarily mathematical and scientific reasoning) is the fact that the figure of Albert Einstein is, more or less, widely regarded as the pinnacle of true genius. In fact, often times, when a person demonstrates extreme skill and proficiency in their domain of expertise, they may be likened to Einstein in being considered the “Einstein of” their respective domain.

These seeming inconsequential clichés are actually quite revealing in the insights they offer us about what we perceive intelligence to be. In short, in our society intelligence or genius is advance knowledge in the domain of science and/or mathematics. Perhaps, such accord is often give to great western philosophical minds, but I would argue that western philosophy is, in fact, quite mathematical in nature (e.g. Kant’s critique of pure reason), and is, therefore, really in the same domain.

All of this is relevant to out interest in creating a more favorable reality for ourselves because in order to live out our purpose in life, we need to be able to utilize the intelligence (special gift) of others in bringing our own gift to the world.

The best example of this from my own life comes from my own purpose of sharing with others the message of the creative power of thought. Due to the intelligence of two of my colleagues, one a web designer, and the other, an internet marketer, I have been able to successfully get this message to many people, and thus, live out my own purpose in life. But, it is only because of the synergy of each of our forms of genius that this message can be disseminated. If, on the other hand, I lived with the misguided notion that some people are intelligent whereas others are not, I would never have been able to capitalize on the opportunity to combine my intelligence with that of my colleagues, that we can co-create something meaningful together.

Therefore, if you want to successfully live out your own purpose in life, it is vitally important that you let go of the misconception of intelligence being the birthright of a few, and seek to see the genius in everyone. If you do this, if you truly look for the genius in another you will find it. Painter, Musician, Dance, Writer, Singer, Philosopher, Mathematician, Mechanic, Computer Programmer, Chef, Sculptor, Athlete, etc., are all domains of engagement that require ever-deepening knowledge, and thus, profound intelligence. And, when you can truly see the genius in everyone around you, you are giving yourself a greater opportunity to synergize your intelligence with that of those around you, in order to co-create a product/service that would be beneficial for others, as well as your own success.

Kevin Kinchen

If it is indeed true that human beings are creatures of habit, then this would imply that human beings are, by our very nature, prone to addictions. For, what is addiction other than a deeply entrenched psycho-physiological habit.

Thus, if we can accept the premise that human beings, as creatures of habit, are consequently creatures of addiction, the challenge we are confronted with is not how do we overcome our addictions, but rather, how can we establish addictions that are beneficial to our overall health and well-being, and therefore, our ability to manifest whatever it is we desire.

If you recall, the law of attraction states that, “that which is like unto itself, is drawn.” Furthermore, this law suggests that we attract to ourselves situations, circumstances, events, and people to us based on how we feel. In short, when we feel good, we attract all that is good to us. Conversely, when we feel bad, we attract bad to us. This is the reason why one of the most influential teacher of how to create your own reality, Dr. Wayne Dyer, is so insistent in reminding his audiences that he “wants to feel good.” He understands very well that positive emotions attract positive experiences, and negative emotions attract negative experiences.

Looking back on my own life, I have definitely been able to discover a correlation between my own addictions (positive and negative ones at different phases in my life), and the experiences which, unbeknownst to me at the time, I was drawing to myself.

My high school years were marked by addiction to scholastics and sports. During these years I maintained an honor roll GPA and participated in several sports including basketball, football, cross country, and track & field. At that time I was almost oblivious to some of the more negative addictions such as alcohol and drugs that many of my peers were beginning to discover. Looking back, those years were some of the best of my life. I had many experiences that offer fond memories, and can honestly say I was quite happy at that time.

When I finished high school, and left home for college, I went to the opposite extreme of the addictions spectrum. At this time, my former addiction to reading and physical sports were replaced with all of the activities of a party lifestyle including cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana. As it turned out, these were some of the hardest, and most miserable years of my life.

It is only at this point in my life that I can look back at those two distinct phases of my life and see the correlation between my addictions (positive or negative) and the life experiences I had. When I was in high school, my addiction to sports led me to doing activities that made me feel good, and as a result I had good experiences. When I was in college, my addictions to soft drugs and alcohol made me feel depressed and as a result I had really bad experiences.

The fact of the matter is that the substances we put into our body affect the way we feel, and thus the way we attract. As a former athlete, I know that exercise and a healthy diet make me feel good. And, as a former partier, I know that drugs and alcohol make me feel bad. And, as we established earlier good feelings attract good and bad feelings attracting bad. Thus, the need for creating positive addictions (remember, human beings are prone to addiction; the issue is if those addictions are positive or negative) in order to insure that we always attract positive conditions into our lives.

Today, as a rather committed meditation practitioner, looking back on my experiences as a drunkard, I realize that the state of drunkenness can accurately be described as “pseudo-meditative.” I’ll explain. The objective of meditation practice is to quiet one’s mind, and in doing so, connect with one’s spirit. It is my belief that the main reason people enjoy the consumption of alcohol so much is that alcohol gives a similar, temporary experience of quieting one’s mind. The difference between the state of meditation and the drunken state is that the experience of silence brought about by meditation is transcendent, whereas the experience of silence brought about by alcohol consumption is repressive. That is, the practice of meditation allows one to naturally, gradually, go beyond thought, whereas alcohol temporarily disables your ability to think. Perhaps you’ve observed the irony of the fact that alcoholic beverages are called ‘spirits.’ This is because, in a sense, meditativeness and drunkenness are similar experiences; they are both methods for quieting one’s mind, the difference being that the former can be sustained and has no side effects, and the latter can not be sustained and can have terrible side effects.

So, as far as this discourse on positive addictions, it should be evident that the practice of meditation is a natural substitute for any one that may have a problem with alcoholism. In fact, I would venture to say that it is the solution to alcoholism, because, as I’ve demonstrated, drunkenness is really just a misguided attempt at experiencing the state of meditation. Furthermore, it is my belief that this practice can, in fact, become the replacement for all forms of addiction, as all drug use ultimately aims at giving the user an escape from the painful and unhappy realities of their life. That is, people use drugs because they believe they can find joy in them.

Well, meditation as a methodology for connecting with one’s own spirit (which is the true “place” where joy can be found) actually allows one to find joy in a real and sustainable way. Therefore, meditation is the experience for which we are always misguidedly seeking in our drug explorations, and should, therefore be regarded as the ultimate positive addiction.