I’ve had many people tell me their very first introduction to Law of Attraction was from The Secret. Either the documentary or the book of the same name.
That was the case for me. I saw the documentary when it first came out way back in 2006.
When someone tells me their knowledge about Law of Attraction is primarily or exclusively from The Secret, I sometimes hear this criticism: The Secret is all about shiny pennies.
Think shiny red sports car or big house. In other words, the criticism is The Secret is all about using Law of Attraction to get things.
In fact, I hear this as a criticism of the Law of Attraction itself. That Law of Attraction is all about the stuff.
Here’s my response in a nutshell: The Secret and the Law of Attraction are about far more than just the shiny pennies AND AND AND those shiny pennies are wonderful to want and to manifest.
Maybe you want a trip to Iceland or a fancy new camera or a raise at work, maybe you want a bigger home, a new car, money in the bank… Those all fall in the category of what I’m calling shiny pennies, and I think they are all wonderful things to want and to manifest.
I have no judgment about anything you desire.
I don’t think wanting world peace makes you a good person, but wanting a European vacation makes you a bad person.
You know, part of this amazing life experience is we have desires. We want to achieve certain goals and acquire certain things. We want to have certain experiences. And it’s all good.
I love this from Abraham: “You do not have to use your words. You just have to feel it in your Being. ‘I desire this. I adore this. I appreciate this’, and so on. That desire is the beginning of all attraction… You never grow tired of expansion or creation, for there is no ending to the new ideas of desires that flow. With every new idea of something you would like to experience, possess, or know…will come its actualization or manifestation—and with that manifestation will also come a new perspective from which you will desire.”
So Abraham is saying to desire—to want to experience, to possess, to know—is the most natural thing. And with every new thing you want and then manifest in your life, new desires will be born. To desire is part of your expansion and the expansion of the Universe.
Sometimes a client will practically confess to me the shiny penny they want. It’s as if they are admitting something bad, something they should be ashamed of or shouldn’t want.
No, your life experience exposes you to contrast and out of that great variety of life, there will be things you want. Stuff. Physical manifestations.
And I happen to think that’s just fine. Fantastic even.
Embrace whatever shiny penny you are wanting. Enjoy the wanting of it.
- Don’t be embarrassed or ashamed you want it.
- Don’t be envious or jealous of another who already has what you want.
- Don’t be worried what you want isn’t coming or sad you don’t yet have it.
Enjoy the wanting of what you want—and go ahead and feel now how you’ll feel when that shiny penny is yours.
“Anything you want, you want because you think you will feel better in the having of it. Just feel better, then you can realize what you want.” —Abraham
Anything you want is because you think you will feel better—feel good—in the having of it.
Yes, you want the shiny penny. But you also are wanting how it makes you feel. Just think about it: You wouldn’t want anything unless you thought receiving it was going to make you feel good, right?
That’s why we want things.
Rhonda Byrne, in The Secret, says: “Everything we want, whatever it may be, is motivated by love. It is to experience the feelings of love in having those things—youth, money, the perfect person, job, body or health. To attract the things we love we must transmit love, and those things will appear immediately.”
So Rhonda says what we’re really after is “to experience the feelings of love in having those things.” Love is at the high end of the emotional scale. Everything we desire is because we are after some flavor of the feeling of love—whether that be joy, appreciation, passion, enthusiasm, happiness.
- We want the relationship for how it will make us feel.
- We want the job for how it will make us feel.
- We want good health for how it will make us feel.
And this truth extends to the so-called “lesser” things we want—the material things—that we sometimes feel sheepish for wanting.
- You want the latest iPhone for how it will make you feel.
- You want the state-of-the-art kitchen appliances for how they will make you feel.
- You want the new outfit for how it will make you feel.
There’s nothing wrong with any of that.
But where we can get tripped up is in not realizing we want the shiny pennies for the feeling—and that we can go ahead and have the feeling we are after even as we’re on the way to the manifestation.
People say, ‘The joy is in the journey,’ but they rarely understand what they are saying. You are in this focused time/space reality with goals and objectives that call you because as you identify a desire it literally summons life through you. Life summoning through you is what it’s all about, not the completion of anything.” —Abraham
When you identify a shiny penny you want, you are literally summoning life through you. That puts your desire in a new perspective, doesn’t it?
These days I’m all about putting the feeling first of what I want.
One of the most life-changing things for me since my obsession with Law of Attraction has been reversing the importance and order of what I want and how I want to feel.
I’ve never shied away from wanting what I want, shiny penny or otherwise. But I used to go after what I wanted so I could feel a certain way. Achieve the goal, so I could feel empowered. Acquire the thing, so I could feel happy. Have the experience, so I could feel excitement.
“The goal is feeling better. It isn’t the job, it isn’t the money, it isn’t what I think it is. It is the emotional way I believe I will feel in the accomplishment of that.” —Abraham
When I wanted a beautiful sofa and ottoman from Crate & Barrel, I thought it would make me feel appreciation and joy to have it. So for months in advance of getting that sofa and ottoman, I felt so much appreciation and joy. I didn’t wait until I got what I wanted to feel the way I wanted to feel.
That’s what I want for you. I don’t want you to postpone feeling how you want to feel. I don’t want you to wait for the physical manifestation to show up in your life to feel all those juicy emotions on the high end of the emotional scale.
“There is no desire that anyone holds for any other reason than that they believe they will feel better in the achievement of it. Whether it is a material object, a physical state of being, a relationship, a condition, or a circumstance—at the heart of every desire is the desire to feel good. And so, the standard of success in life is not the things or the money—the standard of success is absolutely the amount of joy you feel.” —Abraham
At the heart of every desire you have is the desire to feel good.
I want you to embrace what you want—including any and all of the shiny pennies you desire—AND feel now how you’ll feel when what you want manifests.
Rhonda Byrne has some very good advice in The Secret. She says: “Attend to your joy first.”
Because when you attend to your joy, when you feel now how you want to feel, it makes the present moment delicious and it speeds the manifestation of that shiny penny on your wishlist.
“It’s important to feel good, to be happy, because when you’re feeling good you’re putting yourself in the frequency of what you want.” —Marci Shimoff
And let me just say this. If what you want doesn’t feel good, there’s friction around your desire. And you are most definitely not putting yourself in the frequency of what you want.
It should feel good to want what you want. Wanting shouldn’t be full of angst and doubt. Wanting shouldn’t be an unpleasant experience.
“Unfortunately, many people think that the uncomfortable feeling of wanting something they do not expect to experience is what the feeling of desire is; they no longer recognize the feeling of pure desire as that fresh, eager feeling of expectancy that they knew when they were younger. The feeling of pure desire is always delicious, as it represents the vibrations that are stretched out before you, into your unseen future, preparing the way for the Law of Attraction to match things up on your behalf.” —Abraham
I want you to…
- Embrace the shiny pennies you want. Don’t deny, downplay, or resist the things you want to manifest. This just creates friction in your vibration, which actually keeps you from manifesting that thing you want!
- Realize the feeling is always what you’re really after—and feel that way now. Revel in your ability to feel now—in advance of the manifestation—how you want to feel. The feeling is always supreme over the manifestation.
- Enjoy the physical manifestation of what you want. Appreciate your superpower to feel before, during, and after your manifestation the way you want to feel.
“The shortcut to anything you want in your life is to BE and FEEL happy now!” —Rhonda Byrne
