The Law of Attraction: What Is It and How Does It Work?

The Law of Attraction is the relationship between your thoughts and how they create your reality. Where your thoughts create vibrations, and your thinking generates a frequency that attracts things with the same energy to you.

In short: like attracts like. 

And similar to the law of electricity or gravity, the Law of Attraction is active and working all around you regardless of your awareness or belief in its existence.

But when you do have the awareness and understand how to work with it, you can use the Law of Attraction to create intentional, life-changing transformation!

So in this post, we’ll define the Law of Attraction, how it works, why it’s important, and how to use it in the 4 quadrants of your life. We’ll also provide 6 steps to get started even if you’re new to it!

There’s a lot to cover, so don’t forget to bookmark this page so you can come back to it whenever you need a refresher!

What is The Law of Attraction in Simple Terms?

The standard definition of the Law of Attraction is: 

A universal principle that states you will attract into your life whatever you focus on. 

Ultimately, you have everything you need already inside you to manifest anything you desire into reality. 

To illustrate, imagine that you’re setting up the lighting in your home. You plug everything in, flip on the switch and — nothing lights up. So you step outside and take a look around your neighborhood to see if you’re the only one experiencing this disconnect. 

As you walk around, you notice that everyone else has their home lit up. At this point, your first thought wouldn’t be “God must not want me to have light.” 

Instead you’d think maybe things aren’t wired in correctly or your connection to the grid is off. 

So think of those lights as the success and abundance you witness in the lives of others. 

The same results are possible in your own life. But it takes knowing how to work WITH the Law of Attraction to generate those results and bring your dreams to light.

So let’s discuss the basics of how you can use the Law of Attraction to transform your life and some important terminology to have moving forward.

The Law of Attraction Basics

The following sections provide an overview of key terms and concepts. Feel free to skim this glossary as frequently as you need as you grow your familiarity. 

• Manifestation: brings things into your physical reality according to their vibrational match with your thoughts, emotions, and energy. It’s the concept of “like attracts like”, where positivity attracts more positive experiences and negativity will attract similar negative outcomes. 

• Visualization: is the spiritual practice of creating mental images of what it is you desire. The clearer and more specific the picture, the more attractive power it generates.

• Affirmations: are the positive results you want to create, usually written down and spoken out loud on a regular basis using brave language that brings your dreams into the present tense. It’s important to release the “how” and instead confidently declare what you want to manifest into existence and trust the Universe will open up and take care of its realization. 

Why Does The Law Of Attraction Matter

Most people don’t realize the Law of Attraction is just one of the immutable laws of the Universe! Bob Proctor, Jack Canfield, Lisa Nicholas, Napoleon Hill, among many others, have applied these laws for generations.

The 11 universal laws go as follows:

1. The Law of Thinking
2. The Law of Supply
3. The Law of Attraction ← 
4. The Law of Receiving
5. The Law of Increase
6. The Law of Compensation
7. The Law of Non-Resistance
8. The Law of Forgiveness
9. The Law of Sacrifice 
10. The Law of Obedience
11. The Law of Success

The Law of Attraction in particular emphasizes the connection between how the vibration of your thoughts and emotions are magnetic and therefore attract things into your life on a similar frequency. 

So if you want a different life, you have to change the frequency, just as you would change channels on a TV to watch a different movie. 

In other words, your current life experiences are a perfect mirror to your thoughts, feelings, and emotions. Your thinking inspires your actions and thereby creates your results. 

So the Law of Attraction is the key to manifesting the life you desire using the Laws of the Universe!

With that said, let’s trace back to how the Law of Attraction has been used throughout history and how it’s used today.

The History Of The Law of Attraction

The Law of Attraction has been receiving quite a bit of media attention in recent years, but it’s far from new or revolutionary. In fact, its roots go back to the 19th-century philosophy known as “New Thought.” 

As part of the New Thought movement, William Walker Atkinson published a book in 1906 titled: “Thought Vibration or the Law of Attraction in the Thought World” where he introduced the concepts of thought, energy, vibration, and manifestation.

Wallace D. Wattles then published “The Science of Getting Rich” in 1910 and presented gratitude as a tool for manifesting success. 

Fast-forward to more recent years, there was a revival of interest in the Law of Attraction during the 20th century, especially following the 2006 release of the film “The Secret”.

“The Secret” And How Rhonda Byrne Took The Law Of Attraction Into The Mainstream

Authored by Rhonda Byrne, “The Secret” is a bestselling book that introduced millions of people to the spiritual side of success (you can read 101 of her most inspiring quotes here).

Popularity spiked with the Law of Attraction when Rhonda came out with the documentary, and made the concepts behind the Universal Law even more accessible to the public.

Inspired by the book “The Science of Getting Rich” by Wallace D Wattles, she used the principles behind the Law of Attraction to create her documentary in just seven weeks with 52 different teachers. 

She hired a film crew, flew from Australia to America, and naturally attracted the media and leading minds in the fields of business, psychology, theology, history, and economics — to name a few.

Aside from highlighting the timeless principles behind the Law of Attraction, it also revealed that thoughts are magnetic and attract “like” things, which means that all your experiences in life are brought about by your thinking.

What sparked the most inspiration for readers and viewers alike was the accessibility and availability of the Law of Attraction to everyone, not just the elite few. Which leads us to its present day understanding and usage.

The Truth About The Law Of Attraction Today

Even with today’s heightened awareness of the Law of Attraction in mainstream media and social platforms, knowledge alone doesn’t produce change. 

(Especially measurable, livable change.)

There are quite a few misguided teachings about the Law of Attraction, many of which have led people to believe that it “just doesn’t work” for them, or for anyone! 

So let’s identify a few of those misconceptions about the Law of Attraction and how to avoid them.

Common Paradigms About The Law Of Attraction

A paradigm is a collection of thoughts and beliefs that define your reality.

Everyone has paradigms, and while some of them may work great in your life, others subconsciously limit you. 

They are built over your entire life from your childhood, school, culture, and other critical influences and define what’s “normal” for you. 

And the main purpose of your paradigms is to define your reality, which can be limiting when you’re trying to change your reality!

So instead, your paradigm drags you back into your comfort zone in order to protect you from the risk of failure. 

While that may seem like a positive trigger on the surface, it’s actually what’s behind many of your frustrations.

Whether you’re trying to start your own business, change careers, or even introduce small, new habits into your life, your paradigms often show up as the inner voice in your head trying to dissuade, distract, and delay you from taking action.

So let’s trade these old, outdated paradigms for something more inspiring and empowering! That starts with a better understanding of how the Law of Attraction works and where you can put it to work to create better results in every area of your life.

How Does The Law Of Attraction Work?

There are 4 primary quadrants where the Law of Attraction creates results in your life:

1. Health & Well-Being
2. Relationships 
3. Vocation (Career)
4. Time & Money Freedom 

And the current experiences you’re having in life in these areas are in direct harmony with your thinking. 

So to better understand how the Law of Attraction works, let’s debunk some of the misguided teachings that have led people to believe that it doesn’t work in the first place.

1. “The Law of Attraction is all about belief and that’s all you need.”

TRUTH: While belief plays an important role in manifesting your dreams, it’s not the whole story. Belief amplifies your thinking, the actions you take, and therefore the results you create. 

To illustrate, the flow of the manifestation process looks like this: 

Your Thinking → Actions → Habits → Results

So if you aren’t getting the results you desire, start with identifying “what” you actually believe, and “what” you’re doing to act on those beliefs.

2. “Even if it did work, the Law of Attraction only works for the elite few.”

TRUTH: The Universe is open and eager to work with all people equally to create the life of their dreams. The key here is to expect that those results will occur in your life and then be grateful when they do manifest.

3. “You can’t ask for too much or else you might be taking away from someone else.”

TRUTH: The Universe has an UNLIMITED capacity to give anyone all they desire. There are endless possibilities and infinite gifts/blessings that your source (God/Life/Universe) would love to co-create with you. This includes results in your health, wealth, success, and personal relationships. 

4. “I’m using the Law of Attraction wrong/I’m unworthy.”

TRUTH: The Universe is accessible to all people, and part of successfully working with it is knowing that you ARE worthy, not because of anything you’ve done, but simply because of your birthright. We are all one with the Universe, and the Law of Attraction works in a similar way to the law of gravity: everyone is affected by it regardless of whether you believe in it or not, and all in equal measure. 

Overall, the energy in these examples is of negative thinking, doubt, and fear. But to start working with the Law of Attraction successfully, you have to attract positive outcomes with more positive thinking. 

There’s an entire science behind how the Law of Attraction works, but we’ll start with a simple guide to get familiar with the basics first. Then, feel free to explore and study from there.

Making The Law of Attraction Work For You

Anyone, anywhere, at any time can access and activate the Law of Attraction.

Think of it like the law of electricity. If you plug a lamp into an outlet and it doesn’t turn on, you don’t immediately assume that electricity doesn’t exist, you instead consider a potential disconnect.

In the same way, if you’re not getting results with the Law of Attraction, you can make it work for you by working WITH it. 

So let’s get reconnected to the Universe and activate the Law of Attraction in 6 easy steps.

A Step-By-Step Guide To Active The Law Of Attraction And Manifest Your Dreams

1. Listen To The Universal Signals of Longing and Discontent 

Your desire for more in all areas of your life is a divine calling. And as long as you breathe, you will experience this pull because life will always seek to express itself through you in ever greater and expansive ways! 

And it beckons you to that call with signals of what I call longing and discontent.

For instance, you could feel longing for more time with your family, or discontent in the form of unhappiness with your current career or financial situation. These are all signals that you are meant for more and the Universe would love to support you in that growth!

But the first step is to open up your intuition and notice that longing and discontent — the pull to greater expansion in your life. 

And once you know what your desires are and what you would love, you can begin to bring it together into a vision.

2. Write Down What You Would Love

The next step is to take what you would love and write it all down. You can start by writing what you would love for each quadrant in your life: 

• Health & Well-Being
• Relationships
• Vocation (Career)
• And Time & Money Freedom

Getting things down on paper is of great importance because of the science that takes place between your thoughts and what you write.

We build stronger neural pathways in our brains by writing, which brings together our right (creative) brain and left (logical) brain. In fact, you become 42% more likely to achieve your goals and dreams simply by writing them down on a consistent basis.

Writing also helps you become more specific and clear in your desires which will make them even easier to attract into your life!

3. Use Brave Language In Your Affirmations and Vision

Once you write down your dreams and desires, amplify them with affirmations using brave thinking principles. This is a way to design affirmations from a place of positive thinking, confidence, and clarity. 

Brave language will help you create vibrational harmony between your affirmations and the Law of Attraction by bringing the positive into the now and thinking beyond your current circumstances, situations, or conditions. 

For example, an average affirmation would sound something like this:

“I am going to build my dream house!”

This is a beautiful dream, but imagine going up to a Master Builder and asking them to “build your dream house.” Even the most talented builder with all the resources in the world would not be able to build that for you. 

In the same way, your affirmations should be as specific and clear as possible, like handing the Master Builder a blueprint. 

So to transform this affirmation to support your vision, you could say:

“I HAVE a beautiful two-story home in California, 5 minutes away from the beach where I can relax and unwind at any time. It has 4 bedrooms, a large open concept kitchen and living room, and a gorgeous infinity pool in the backyard with plenty of space for my kids to run around.”

A couple things to notice here:

• The affirmation brought the dream into the present tense. “I HAVE” instead of “I am going to”.
• It was clear and specific instead of just saying “dream home”.
• It brought emotional energy where you can literally step into the feeling of having what you desire.

So keep brave thinking and language in mind when you design affirmations for the dream you desire, write them down, and say them aloud on a regular basis.

The end goal is to design your affirmations so that you can experience your dream in the present moment until it becomes a reality!

4. Use Visualization Tools To Clarify and Crystallize Your Dreams

Once you have a clear picture of your vision, immerse yourself in your dream with visualization tools. This is both a practical and spiritual practice that will help you focus on your dream and steer you back on track when life’s obstacles try to derail you.

Whether you use self-reflection, guided meditations, or a vision board, the objective is to visualize what you want, not what you don’t want.

It is important to make this distinction because some minds are full of negative images such as “I don’t want to be in debt” or “I want a stress-free career”. So instead they stay on a vibration of attracting all the things they do not want in their life.

But this doesn’t work in the way you expect because your consciousness thinks in pictures. 

For instance, what happens when I say “Don’t think about an elephant”?

By nature, you will picture an elephant! 

Similarly, you will actually manifest more of what you don’t want by focusing your attention on what you lack.

In short: your vision is the blueprint for your results. 

Because everything is created twice — first in thought, then in form.

For instance, before there was a chair, someone had to imagine a chair in their mind before producing it in physical form. 

The same pattern works with the Law of Attraction.

By visualizing your dream, you connect with your higher self and create conscious direction and control towards the fulfillment of your desires. 

5. Active The Law Of Attraction By Feeling Worthy And Grateful

When you begin moving in the direction of your dream, some of your thoughts may turn to:

“Wait a minute. Who am I to deserve this dream?”

This is the part of you that wants to keep you in your comfort zone. 

And because of this, positive change often feels uncomfortable because you’re changing what’s familiar to you. 

This clinging on to the familiar is your paradigm using stories from your past — like a failed relationship, a defeat in business, or a childhood trauma — to keep you from taking action. 

And if you hold onto it, you will not be a vibrational match to the dream you say you want.

In other words, you get to be right about not feeling deserving and therefore, not having your dream.

But the truth is that no matter what has happened in our past, you are still deserving of all the good you could possibly imagine. 

This is because we are created from the mind of the Infinite and the mind of the Infinite is worthiness itself.

However, this truth does not guarantee that you will feel deserving. You must cultivate and grow that feeling.

Because even if you have a clear, specific vision that aligns with the Law of Attraction, if you feel like you don’t deserve it, you will block yourself from receiving from the Universe.

So after you’ve thought about your dreams, written them down, and visualized them, it’s crucial to follow through with an abundance mindset. This is a state of being where you are confident about your worth and are grateful for the results as if they have already manifested. 

And through your feeling of gratitude, you will vibrate at the frequency of abundance and most importantly, the Law of Attraction.

6. Get Started With The Law Of Attraction By “Doing What You Can, With What You Have, With Where You Are”

The final step in this guide is a beginning, not an end. This is where everything you’ve done so far comes to a head and points you in the right direction. 

The goal is to identify what you CAN do, even within perceived limits, and start small. 

For example, if you want to change careers, ask yourself what you can do with where you’re at, with what you have.

• You “can” create a vision board for your dream career.
• You “can” call a mentor for 5 minutes.
• You “can” update your resume.

Now is the time to remind yourself that success is within you! It is your responsibility to create the change you desire; don’t wait for someone else to do it for you.

And by taking responsibility for your success, you shift your mindset from “life is happening TO me” to “life is happening WITH me”.

And that’s the pattern of thinking that is in perfect harmony with the Law of Attraction, and ultimately creates livable, breathable results.

CONCLUSION: Design The Life Of Your Dreams With The Law Of Attraction

To recap, the Law of Attraction is one of 11 Universal laws, and is popularly understood as “like attracts like”, where negative thoughts will create negative outcomes and positive thinking creates positive results. 

And those results impact 4 quadrants of life: 

1. Health & Well-Being
2. Relationships 
3. Vocation (Career)
4. Time & Money Freedom 

And with this new awareness, your next action steps are as follows:

1. Listen to your longing and discontent.
2. Write down what you would love.
3. Use brave language to build your vision and affirmations.
4. Utilize visualization tools to specify and clarify your dreams.
5. Activate the Law of Attraction through a sense of worthiness and gratitude.
6. And do what you can with what you have, with where you are.

Because as long as you keep breathing, you will continue to create results in your life, whether or not you believe in the Law of Attraction.

But you have the choice to continue creating out of design or default…

To finally make a change and start in the direction of your dreams or stay stuck in the same vicious cycle of taking two steps forward and one step back.

But by simply being here, I can tell you’re serious and seeking more for your life.

And with that same spirit, I have seen the Law of Attraction work in tens of thousands of lives, including my own.

And over the 40 years I’ve taught others to create and live a life they love, one common thread has persisted: it’s that success, abundance, and fulfillment is possible for everyone regardless of your circumstances, situations, or conditions. 

In short, the Law of Attraction is willing and eager to support you in creating a life you absolutely love, regardless of your circumstances, situations, or conditions!

And I would be delighted to help you apply the Law of Attraction through a proven, repeated system by joining my FREE Abundance Masterclass where we will dissolve the 3 most common blocks to manifesting the life of your dreams.

In closing, I want to remind you that using the Law of Attraction is accessible and available to everyone, regardless of culture, background, history, or experience. 

So remember to bookmark this ultimate guide so you can go back to it whenever you need it, and take one step after another — one moment to the next — to start designing your life on purpose!

To your infinite possibilities,

Mary Morrissey