I finished reading The Secret this week. My Mum bought it for me recently after I expressed an interest in having a look at it. I first heard about it during my Small Business Management Course a few months ago when a class-mate read an excerpt for our class karaka. (prayer). Next a friend told me about it and my curiosity grew from there.
Rhonda Bryne, an Australian film producer, read several books based on quantum physics which changed her thinking, and therefore her life dramatically. She was so blown away by her own experiences, that she created a DVD, and then wrote a book. In The Secret she reveals how avatars and famous historical figures across the ages have effectively held the keys to unlimited success and happiness in life.
Reading The Secret is like having a pep talk with the universe. It's like getting a warm hug from the grandparent who loved you unconditionally as a kid and believed that you could be and do anything you set your mind to do. Some of it I've heard before and some of it was new. It's about an attitude of gratitude, trusting the God of your understanding (which is often referred to as the universe), Feng Shui, visualisation, positive thinking and most of all, believing that you deserve all your dreams and desires. That's the tricky bit, as often there can be conflict between what you want in life and what you think you deserve. It's not only about asking, but trusting and believing deeply that it's all coming to you.
At times The Secret seems insanely simplistic if not repetitive. However Byrne has written the book in a way that makes it accessible to many. I believe she is genuine in wanting to share The Secret with the world and will no doubt get slammed by many because of the warm fluffy nature of her book. But it's meant to be that way. It's about keeping oneself happy and open to the gifts of the universe. Basically you can ask for anything you want. It's about abundance, believing there's enough of everything in life for everyone. There is no such thing as the haves and have-nots when the principles of The Secret are applied.
The only aspect I found hard to get my head around was how every thought we have, creates every life experience. It just doesn't sit well with me that humans effectively cause their own bad experiences including being at the wrong place at the wrong time, according to Byrne. I'm not sure this concept can be applied across the board. The one review I read in The Nelson Mail recently did bring this point up too - that some psychologists are concerned that some in therapy since reading The Secret think they are to blame for their misfortunes in life.
Bryne uses her own weight loss as an example of The Secret in motion. I'm sure many in the field of nutrition will cringe at her claims that she can eat "whatever she wants."
At the end of her book, Bryne encourages the reader just to use the aspects of The Secret that resonate with them. The idea is to keep The Secret close and delve into it, opening the book randomly, whenever inspired to do so.
What The Secret has given me is a written confirmation that I do deserve all I want in life. All I have to do is ask, and trust that whatever I want is on it's way. This is easier said than done of course! Since reading The Secret I now have a greater awareness of just how limiting my own thinking can be. That is the biggest challenge of all; turning around those limiting, if not, destructive thought processes.
I have made my own version of a visual board, one of the recommendations in The Secret. That in itself was a fun exercise - pasting images out of magazines of some of my life desires. I've put it by my dresser so on passing I am reminded that it is all coming.
The Secret is a book I'd recommend to anyone who seeks help obtaining all their goals and desires in life. Just be careful what you ask for, as you never know, it just may work.
