I will never forget my first introduction to the concept of the laws of attraction. Although the teachings have been around for centuries, this writer only first stumbled on them nearly two years ago.

It was one of those winter Sundays when you knew the best thing to do was make a giant pot of something hot and rib sticking to eat, find a few movies on Pay-Per-View and settle in for a day of hibernation on the sofa with the dog.

As I was scaling down the list of available features, I paused on a title called, "The Secret". Being a supernatural "anything" buff, I naturally clicked on the title to view the description. "Ancient"...."Power"....those were just a couple of the descriptives but enough to make me know that this was something I'd want to watch.

So I bought it and as the introduction started...I realized that this was definitely not a movie. It was a documentary. Ugh. Well...as long as I bought it, I might as well see what its about. So I got comfy on the sofa with the Corgi and a bowl of stew and started watching. As the teachings of the laws of attraction began unfolding to me, I thought to myself..."How have I never heard of this before?" I've been on a spiritual journey ever since meeting my best friend over 30 years ago. She opened up a world to me that I'd only seen in my peripheral vision and I was starved for more. "The Secret" was giving me what I was craving.

If any reader has watched "The Secret", which I'm sure all of you have, I wonder if it had the same effect on all of us. I couldn't help but analyze my life to that point and decide whether or not these coaches and practitioners of LOA had done the same. I looked at where I was in my life from every angle and realized that what they were talking about...what "The Secret" really is, was truth. My life had become what I thought it to be. I'd "thought" my situation into existence!

Now some wonderful things will occur in our lives just out of sheer luck. But the concept of literally creating your own universe...your own destiny...literally writing your own story and happy ending was just too extraordinary to wrap my brain around! I listened to all of the wonderful coaches and believers...people who'd changed their lives literally by embedding these simple ideas into their psyche and living their lives in positive thinking. And the love...wow. Not just love of your children and parents and anyone or anything else in your life that you're "supposed" to love. No...this was very different. This was SELF love. This was DESERVING love. This was ULTIMATE love. This way of life contradicted everything that I was brought up to believe, as a Catholic, was truth. Since adulthood I'd always referred to myself as a recovering Catholic but the teachings of "The Secret" gave a whole new meaning to my tounge-in-cheek label. As a Catholic I was taught that it was GOOD to be in poverty...that it was better to love others more than you love yourself. That self- inflicted sacrifice was the most powerful tool you could hold to guarantee a key to those Pearly Gates. I was ecstatic to see that what "The Secret" was giving me was confirmation of my intuition! What it was telling me was that I had been right all along! I learned that there is another way. I have another purpose...a higher purpose...and that purpose was to be a radiant example of what our higher power TRULY wanted us to be.

I couldn't take all of it in with just one viewing. I watched it over and over again over the course of the day. I even took notes for fear that I wouldn't remember what my path was...what my goals are...and what The Universe truly had in mind for me. It nearly goes without saying that on that winter's Sunday, my life made a very pivotal change...for the better.

I began to try to train my brain to think in a different manner. Naturally this was very difficult at first because the ego so loves to keep you in that dark place with all of its impossibilities. But as time went on, and I refused to back down....changes started taking place. Don't get me wrong...I didn't get rich overnight and that Mercedes is still not in the driveway. However...there is a huge difference in ME. I wake each day confident of the fact that I am exactly where I should be at the time I'm supposed to be here and in that love and acceptance of my life, I know the Universe is unfolding my good at exactly the right rate of speed for me to accept it. I know that my immovable belief and security of knowing, along with my positive actions, are going to manifest everything good and prosperous in my life that I had always doubted I would have.

In a nutshell....this is what "The Secret" has given me...the guarantee of the life I've not only dreamed of, but the guarantee of the fact that it is my Universal right and privilege to have it.

Just as all of us continue to experience challenging phases in our lives, my experience is no different. However, the shift in perspective that the laws of attraction have given me has made me understand that there is no such thing as something "bad" happening in my life...or any of ours really. It's simply yet another stepping stone that is teaching us a life lesson that we must need to learn, and continuing us on our journey toward our heart's desires.