It is possible to attract abundance into your life without believing in any woo-woo ideas or laws of attraction. The key may simply be to change our focus.
“Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t–you’re right.” ― Henry Ford
Our minds are powerful, but they may not always be as rational as we think. However, we can train them to work for us, rather than against us. This way, we can attract all that we desire into our lives.
What we notice depends on what we expect to notice. Look for problems and you will find them. Look for opportunities and you will find them as well. If we choose to focus on the opportunities, we will be more likely to act on them and therefore more likely to attract good things into our lives.
Our brains filter out things we think are irrelevant. This is demonstrated by a study where participants are asked to watch a video of two teams playing ball. They are instructed to count the passes between the teams. At the end of the video, they are asked if they saw a gorilla walk across the court – most say no. The participants are astonished when they are shown the video again and clearly see a man dressed as a gorilla walk across the court during play.
The brains of the participants are so focused on counting the passes that they dismiss the gorilla as irrelevant.
We can easily see how this might affect our day-to-day lives and have a huge impact on how we perceive our circumstances. However, we can train our minds to be more open to positive experiences and opportunities for growth and success. Here are a few simple ways to achieve this:
1. Count your blessings
Our brains tend to focus on the negative. In evolutionary terms, this makes sense. There’s no point in focusing on the beautiful jungle plants or the vast savannah sky if you fail to notice the tiger in the trees or the snake in the grass. But in the modern world, these evolutionary processes are less helpful. We need to train our brains to be on the look out for positive things (as well as keeping our eyes open for buses while crossing the road!)
Training our brains to notice good things is very simple. All we need to do is count our blessings and write them down every day. Studies have proven that gratitude is an effective way to improve mood and reduce depression and anxiety. But the added benefit is that if you ask your brain to notice good things it begins to see them as relevant and actively looks out for them. This improves mood and makes us more open to new ideas and opportunities. In his state of mind, we are more likely to notice good things, feel positive and optimistic and make the best of all the experiences and opportunities on offer.
2. Create good feelings
Often when we are sad we turn to comfort activities like shopping and over eating in a bid to feel better. These solutions rarely work and often make us feel worse in the long run. The reason we choose them is that our brains release feel good hormones, such as dopamine when we buy something new or eat something rich. We also get a boost of dopamine when someone likes our Facebook post. By making us feel great, these hormones can also lift our energy making us better able to focus and make the most of the opportunities in life.
But there are many alternative ways to achieve these good feelings. We can boost our dopamine levels by exercising, meditation, good nutrition or listening to music. We can boost our oxytocin, another feel good hormone, simply by giving someone a hug.
3. Improve your self-talk
We can probably talk ourselves into, or out of, pretty much anything. If your mind is constantly going over and over the reasons you can’t have abundance it is going to prove itself right. We can’t make the most of things, appreciate our blessings and give our full energy and attention to life if we are constantly worrying and having self-critical thoughts.
If your mind says things like. “great things never happen to people like me” or “I don’t deserve success “or “I’m not clever/attractive/rich enough to have that”, then your brain will act on those thoughts and filter out any thoughts, people or opportunities that don’t match them. Simply by having lots of negative self-talk, we close off many of life’s most wonderful experiences. If you don’t believe you deserve abundance you will filter out all opportunities to achieve it.
Writing a list of things you have achieved and one of your most positive qualities can help with this. Pay attention when you achieve something or receive a compliment. Make a note of these good things and you will train your brain to look out for more opportunities for the same in the future.
4. Be generous
Nothing switches us out of a poverty mindset quite like being generous. It’s easy to get stuck in the view that the world has limited resources and we must all fight for our share. When we are generous, with our money, time, compliments, possessions or hospitality we switch to a mindset of generosity. If we have enough to share we must already be living in abundance right?
By giving whenever possible we switch our attitude from one of scarcity to one of abundance. Giving also releases those feel-good hormones. Giving feels good, receiving feels good and being appreciated feels good so this is a win-win cycle. Being appreciative when others give to us also completes the cycle and leaves everyone with a feel good glow.
Closing thoughts
These four changes in attitude can really alter the way we feel about life. When we live feeling grateful, self- accepting and generous we will feel abundant. In addition, we will find opportunities for abundance, in material things, energy, money and relationships – at every turn. This leads to us feeling energetic and empowered enough to make the very best of these opportunities. Then, abundance will start to flow into your life.
