What Are You Feeding Your Mind?

Despite what some might claim, the law of attraction is not an easy process.

Yes, it’s something we are using at a subconscious level all the time. Yes, I believe it’s the way we’re meant to live.

But, there’s such skepticism in society as a whole — such belief in pure materiality, or in suffering, or in powerlessness and victim mentality — that the law of attraction turns out to be actually quite counterintuitive. It’s too easy to allow the limiting beliefs of others to influence us.

“What? You actually believe you can just change how you think and you can affect the world around you?” the skeptic asks.

If most of the people you know don’t really believe in this, it can be hard to grow your belief. And if you don’t really believe, then it won’t work for you reliably.

This is doubly so when you are working on big goals. If you want to become a millionaire, or get hired for your dream job, or quit your job and travel the world, etc., it’s hard to maintain belief that this is actually possible without a lot of hard work and struggle — the currency of mundane society.

This has been on my mind lately because I am working on some seemingly large goals. I’m lucky in that Christine has a level of belief in me and my potential that I don’t even think I have in myself. But that doesn’t mean I still can’t be influenced by others, or that my own doubts can’t get in the way.

So the question is, what are you feeding your mind? Feed your mind the wrong things, and like a plant devoid of water and sunlight, your goals will wilt under a barrage of doubt.

I know, this post might not seem the most mystical or spiritual, but it’s surprisingly important. If you don’t safeguard your own mind, there’s a high probability that you give up on your biggest dreams just for lack of belief. It’s unlikely that you’ll see the law of attraction really work for you regularly and reliably, unless you are willing and able to believe in it first.

What Do the People Around You Believe?

I really hate to pull out motivational quotes, but there’s a famous quote from Jim Rohn that says, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”

And I really believe this is true. Those who hang around people with negative money beliefs will tend to have those same beliefs themselves. As awful as this might sound, those who hang around poor people will tend to have “poor” beliefs themselves — maybe a belief that money is hard to earn, that the rich are selfish and greedy, that hard work is the only way to success, etc.

Whereas, those who associate with wealthier people will have beliefs that support greater wealth. They will see that success is possible for anyone, and have a healthier view of money.

This of course goes for any area of life. Hang around chronically single people (who yearn to be in relationships) and you’ll have a dozen reasons why you’re still single. Hang around people who complain about their spouses, and you’ll think all relationships are toxic.

How many people do you know who make excuses for their lack of success? Do you think that you can believe that success is possible for you, while you are constantly hearing of the struggles of others?

One of the best things you can do is to find others who believe what you’d like to believe, or who have succeeded in the ways you’d like to succeed. If you want to be wealthy, find wealthy people to be around. If you want to have a successful relationship, befriend those who are in successful relationships. If you want to write a book, find authors who are published.

When you’re constantly surrounded by those who believe in what you want to believe, it’s almost impossible not to be influenced by them.

On another level, of course, find those who believe in and have succeeded with the law of attraction. I mean those who have really made it work, not those who are constantly trying but failing to manifest anything.

I can help with this part. I recently started a Facebook group where success stories are often being shared. It’s encouraging to see others who are seeing success with the law of attraction, and reminds you that there’s no reason you can’t succeed, too.

Of course, stay away from any kind of skepticism about the LOA, especially when you are still forming your belief.

That might sound like blind faith. It might even sound like self-delusion.

And yes to some extent it is blind faith. But when the Universe will literally respond to whatever you believe, blind faith is the only place to start, until you have more solid evidence to point to in validation of that faith.

This goes into the nature of truth, which I’ve been thinking a lot about lately, and plan to write about in my next post.

Be Careful of What You Read

Direct acquaintances aren’t the only way you can be influenced, of course. You can also be influenced by the things you choose to read or the media you consume.

For example, if you choose to consume the news regularly, you’re likely going to believe the world is a negative and scary place.

I remember when I was younger, I had a strong belief that I could do anything — that I could accomplish my big dreams.

However at the time, I started reading a certain comedy website I won’t name here. Not only were they highly skeptical about anything spiritual as a rule, they also tended to mock those who believed that they could do anything.

They’d regularly write about those who tried to go after what they wanted and failed, and make fun of them for it.

That really did a number on me. Now I felt silly for having these dreams, and for thinking I could actually succeed with them.

No exaggeration, it took literal years for me to really start believing in myself again, and Christine’s support was most of what helped me to recover my previous optimism.

So be careful of what you read. For some reason in certain communities on the internet, skepticism or outright atheism is the popular thing, and any kind of religious or spiritual belief is mocked.

Similarly, for those with financial goals, hatred of the wealthy is ubiquitous online. Of course, such an attitude should be anathema to anyone who actually wants to achieve success, so you should stay far away from such elements.

If you want to remain positive, don’t get sucked into debates. This is especially hard for me, who tends to be rather opinionated. But I try to ask myself, “What will responding to this actually accomplish?” It’s not going to convince the other person of my position. And if they respond, it’ll only make me want to respond to them again, and then it’ll just be a test of stubbornness.

Monitor Your Self-Talk

Of course, external inputs aren’t the only way you feed your mind. Your regular self-talk also dictates the beliefs you hold.

How much power do you give your negative thoughts? How much do you focus on what’s going wrong in life, vs. what’s going right?

Of course controlling your thoughts is a near impossibility, but it’s important to pay attention to where your focus is most of the time, and to shift it more towards the positive. If you worry a lot, then find ways of reducing the amount of time you spend worrying. If you mostly focus on the negatives of a particular situation, put in the work to look for the positives instead.

Perpetual focus on the negative is a real poison to your mind. It’s hard to remember that what you focus on, gets bigger, but this is literally true. Focus on the negative, and you’ll get more negative to focus on. Focus on the positive, and the positive will grow.

The #1 way you can tell the beliefs you actually hold is by observing how you express yourself. How much do you complain? How much do you criticize others?

Just as above, the more you complain, the more you’ll find to complain about. The more you criticize, the more you will find to criticize. Your very focus is creating the reality around you.

So if what you’re saying doesn’t feel good, stop it! It doesn’t matter how true it is, how justified it is, how important it seems. If it doesn’t feel good to you as you are speaking or thinking it, then stop.

We often don’t realize the power we have, but it is immense. Your thoughts, your words, your beliefs, are being reflected back to you. If you don’t like what you’re seeing (the output),then change what you’re thinking and speaking (the input).

Bringing It All Together

Again, I know this doesn’t seem the most exciting. But what you feed your mind is of utmost importance. Your senses are active in every waking hour, and those senses deliver their inputs directly to your mind. You’re the only one who can filter what your senses receive, so it’s entirely up to you to determine what you will feed your mind.

Your mind, which is the thing that generates your reality, will reflect whatever you feed it. Give it negative inputs, and you’ll get negative outputs.

In programming we have an expression: garbage in, garbage out. It basically means if the input data is garbage, then the output data can’t be any better. Feed an algorithm faulty data, and the output will be faulty, too.

Your mind is exactly like that. If you don’t like the output (the reality you see around you), change the input (what you choose to focus on or interact with).

It’s as simple as that.