The Secret

Have any of you read the book “The Secret” or watched the DVD on it?

I know what some of you are thinking right now, probably something along the lines of a review I read on one of the online book sites. “A bunch of New Age Crap,” or “The only person who got rich off of The Secret is the author,” who, by the way, I read lives on a beach in Australia and after millions of copies sold, probably never has to worry about anything (financially anyway) again.

My mother was always into positive thinking and tried to teach me the power of it long ago. She always told me the best time to visualize good things for yourself was during meditation. After a rather psychologically trying time in the 1990s, I did teach myself how to practice meditation through her handwritten notes. I began to visualize a writing career.

I didn’t pay attention to my internal voices saying I didn’t have the education or the talent, I just said, “This is what I’m going to do.” Even my mom, who always was my biggest cheerleader said, “Well, it’s a difficult way to make a living.” That it is, but the opportunity presented itself and here I am, nearly 9 years later still doing it.

Next, I visualized my perfect writing spot, a cabin next to a lake, mountains in the background.

In 1997, my aunt began building her dream home on her property in the Ozark Mountains. After living there a couple of years, she told me and my husband if we wanted to build a house there, she would deed over a piece of the land. Again, opportunity we never expected came knocking. Our cabin isn’t exactly how I visualized it; it’s better – and there are plenty of mountains around us.

When we did build, we learned the 7.5 acres next to our land was owned by a kid who inherited it after his parents suffered a tragic accident. We wrote to him and asked him if he was interested in selling, but never received a reply. Still, we never walked by that land without visualizing it as ours. Guess what? He called last week, 4 years after we initially contacted him and we’re negotiating a sale.

Power of positive thinking or a bunch of coincidences?

I’ve often heard writers (myself included) say that when they started doing what they are passionate about – writing – good things followed.

And I’ve interviewed plenty of inspiring people – Bill Wedekind, a Vietnam vet who lost both of his arms and his sight in an explosion while in the war. He is now a potter…think about that – a sensory and visual profession and he does it even though he doesn’t possess most people’s level of sensitivity in his forearms or sight.
Just this week, I interviewed Tyrone Flowers, a man from the urban core who spent 10 years of his childhood in state institutions medicated to point that one of his doctors wrote in his charts, “Congratulations. You’ve created a zombie.” He was shot three times and paralyzed after an argument at the end of his senior year, but he still became the first person in his family to graduate from college and he earned a law degree. He now runs a multi-million dollar non-profit organization he founded that helps kids who officials say are lost causes. His secret? He told me it was nothing special. He is who he is because he always knew he wouldn't end up murdered as did his teen father, but that he would be someone, no matter the challenges.
The Power of Positive Thinking. Use it in your life and in your writing. If it is nothing but a lot of “New Age Crap,” what’s the harm, being a little happier?
That in itself should bring about something positive.