Hopefully now that you know how beautiful Vortex Planet is, you don’t need too much convincing when it comes to visiting it and even moving there permanently. In the end why do you want what you want? If you really follow the trail of reasons, it’s always always because you think you will feel better by having it. That Xbox? Maybe you want it because there’s so many cool games you could play on it (and so it’s fun you’re looking for) or because all your friends have one (and so it’s acceptance or peace you want). In the end, it’s because you think it will feel better to have the Xbox. So why not get straight to the point and just make feeling good the most important thing?

If feeling good is not a sufficient reason to get onto the first spaceship direction Vortex Planet, let me tell you a little secret that might change your mind. It’s not just that when you’re in a good mood you feel extra “lucky”, you actually are extra lucky. Remember this little principle called the law of attraction? The people, things and experiences that come into your life match the way you feel and what you think about. So being in the vortex, because it’s best way you could ever feel, is the most powerful (and enjoyable!) way to turn your dreams into reality.

This is why Abraham says “Get into the vortex and then…” It means you should get into the vortex first before doing anything else. Get in the vortex before starting your day, before talking to your friends, before repeating your affirmations, before making a big decision, before making a small decision… Literally anything you could think of doing will be more successful (and enjoyable! That’s worth repeating!) when you’re in the vortex. Sometimes it will be as easy as taking five minutes out of the day to feel appreciation and sometimes it will mean taking an hour or two to take a nap and press the reset button on your day, but in either case, it will be the best use of your time. Because getting into the vortex means getting the law of attraction to do all the work for you.

Being a conscious creator comes with the realization that the outside world can be moulded. It’s no more fixed than a film set. Now guess what the script is to the story of your life. One clue—it lives between your ears. If you guessed your mind or your thoughts… Ding ding ding! That is Corrrrrrrrrect! (And if you didn’t, try again. Should be easy enough with the answer right in front of you!) The shape of your external reality is determined by your internal reality.

I’m sure you’ve had this happen to you. You’re on your way to a meeting. Maybe this girl annoys you. You’re in the car and literally the whole time you’re stewing about how she’s going to say this or that and then even though you answer in this way, she’s going to find a way to twist it into that and blah blah blah. Do you know what you’re doing? You’re rehearsing the lines for the next scene in your life. Except it’s even more powerful than that because you’re rehearsing her lines too! You tell the law of attraction how you want other people to treat you after all. So if that was you, maybe you need to go back to the script and come up with a more enjoyable plot.

Did you know that before they start to shoot, the filmmakers go through a process called story-boarding? This is basically where they sit down and draw pictures of what’s going to appear on the screen in a series of little sketches, kind of like for a comic book. What other board does a storyboard remind you of? A vision board maybe? They certainly serve the same purpose. They are previews of what’s to come, previews that you can play with until you get them looking just right. One of the reasons filmmakers do this is to save time and money. It’s better to know the story-line needs to be changed while it’s still on paper rather than in the middle of shooting. A process like vision boarding can do the same for you—the clearer you are, the more aligned you are, the faster you will get to where you want to go. What you save by doing this is far more valuable than film, it’s the hours, days, even years, that make up your life.

When you see the ways in which life is like a movie, you regain control of the action. You do this by paying attention to the script (and changing it if it’s no good!) and by creating a story board that you are happy with so that when the clapperboard claps, life unfolds like you want it to.

Here are three shots of goodness to keep your mind on the side of positive thoughts:

1. Meditation: Powerful, effective, fast-acting with no side- effects or contraindications, this little baby is one of your best allies when it comes to feeling good. Even a small dose makes a world of difference. Just a couple of minutes can turn your moo around. In effect, what quieting your thoughts does is that it clears the slate of your mind. Without you realizing it, a negative pattern of thought could have been forming. Meditation breaks the chain and prevents the momentum of those thoughts from getting stronger.

2. Visualization: It is time to pull out your favorite memory, the one that makes you smile even when you are irritated or stressed. Take it out and polish it. Go over the small details of the experience as though you are reliving it all over again. The more often you do this, the more real your imagination will make the images feel. Or live out your favorite memory that hasn’t happened yet. What is your pet dream these days? I don’t mean the stories you tell yourself about how good life will be when you finally get a dog or a cat. Although, that could work too. Whatever it is, let it be something that excites you, lights you up leaving no room for a shadow of a doubt.

3. Appreciation: Tip the balance—the more time you spend appreciating the good in your life, the less mental space you will have for complaining. All it takes is stopping for a moment and  finding three things to be grateful for. Up the feel-good factor by writing them down or describing them in a little extra detail. Hanging out with other people? It’s a perfect opportunity to have an inspiring conversation. Take turns sharing your gratitudes and get everyone in the group primed for joy.

Feel-good boosters are like vaccines in another respect. It is not enough to get them just once. You have to get them over and over again, at regular intervals, so that you are protected at all times. Stay tuned. We will be talking about how to make sure you are always protected against bad-feeling thoughts.

Not only that but visualising the things you want is great fun. You get to enjoy your hopes and wishes without having to worry about any of their real world consequences. Say you’ve been wanting a dog for years and years and you finally get one and you’re all excited. That’s great! But I guarantee there will be days when you’ll wish you didn’t have to walk him. In your mind, however, you get to create a dog that stays a puppy forever, poops rainbows and you only have to walk him when you feel like it. So don’t be in a hurry to get your goodies. Enjoy the manifestation process because it has its own beauty.

Now for some tips. In The Secret (a very important film by the way!), they suggest doing everything you can to get close to the experience you want. At one point, a guy, let’s call him Bob, wants a car. So they recommend test driving the specific car to get a feel for it. For our puppy example, maybe you know someone who has a dog that’s the same breed as the one you want. Why not set up a play date with the dog or join in when the owner takes her for a walk?

In The Secret, we then see Bob visualising his dream. He’s got his eyes closed, he’s pretending to drive the car and his whole body gets involved. Bob’s got his hands on the “steering wheel” and everything. He’s so deeply into the experience that you would see the wind rushing through his hair if he wasn’t bald. This brings us to the second point. When you are making your mind movie, try to make the experience as full as you can. Involve your senses. What does your dream smell like? Taste like? Feel like? What do you hear? It’s not just what you see that matters when you are visualising. When you can feel the silky fur of your puppy and hear its bark, it won’t be long before you have a real life puppy to call your own.

Give movie making a try. You will enjoy it and you will like the results you see in your life. Unless you are directing a horror film…

The tricky thing about doing process after process and trying really hard to implement the principles of manifestation is that this behaviour can mask counterproductive patterns of thought. All the effort could be pushing away the very result you desire. Let’s think about this for a second. What comes to mind when you think of effort? It’s a feeling of pushing against resistance in order to get somewhere.

This is unproductive for two reasons in the context of the law of attraction. Abraham says that you will manifest the result you desire when it is so real to you in its vibration form that you don’t care whether it is present in physical form or not. It has to feel natural, comfortable, easy. Struggle has no place in this kind of state of mind. The second point can also be linked back to what Abraham said. The goal has to feel like it has already been achieved. When something is already attained, there is no need to go anywhere. You have already reached your destination. The tension between where you are and where you want to be disappears. In other words, there is no more effort.

Does this mean that you should just give up any and every process we have talked about? No. But, as with so much else when it comes to directing your manifestation powers, it’s about how you feel. Are you treating the process like it’s leftover spinach on your plate? Like it’s something to power through so that you can get to the good part—dessert! Or do you have a looser approach? Are you looking forward to having fun and playing some games (because that’s what processes are supposed to be).

If you find yourself scratching your head trying to come up with something to feel grateful for, maybe you just need to go outside and be lazy in the sun or take a long bath and come back feeling so relaxed and good that you couldn’t stop appreciation from welling up inside you even if you wanted to. Well-being is so much our natural state that it isn’t something that needs to be created. All we have to do is get out of our own way. Often that simply means giving up the effort and tension of chasing after our goals, even if that is done with a manifestation process as an excuse.

Relaxing and trying less doesn’t mean going into a coma in front of the TV. Just the simple decision to stop trying can give you a surge of energy and ideas for all kinds of new activities. So then the difference between work and play can come down entirely to attitude. But, really, how much encouragement do you actually need to try less?

Before you get sick of wondering what I’m going on about, let me explain what the Five-Second meditation even is in the first place. Bentinho Massaro, who we have talked about before on the blog, is the one who came up with it. What it involves is giving up all your thoughts for five seconds. Just press pause on them and let your mind go completely blank for a moment. He actually says to do this for two to five seconds, but for some reason I think you can handle the challenge (Two seconds, what’s that? Is it even enough time to close your eyes?).

The catch, if you can call it one, is that you have to repeat this process throughout the day for a total of 12 times a day. That’s where the one minute figure comes from. Repeat five seconds twelve times and you get sixty seconds or a minute. Still not an unmanageable chunk of time by any stretch of the imagination, but maybe you’re still reluctant. Maybe you have better things to do with that one minute like scratch your nose or look for a pen.

Let this convince you it would be a minute well spent. Well, first of all taking attention away from all those thoughts that are usually running wild in your mind is what we said we would be referring to when we talk about meditation (this was in an earlier article) and we already know what goodness meditation can bring to your life. It’s a practice that can be done no matter how happy or sad you are. It’s simple and can be done anywhere.

Now by meditating throughout the day, what you are doing is stopping whatever train of thoughts you happen to have going on at the time. This enables fresh thoughts to enter your mind. It reminds you that you have a choice to nurture certain thoughts or on the contrary stop their progression. Bentinho compares this to cutting a strand of beads. All you need is one cut to release all those beads. In a similar way, all it takes is five seconds to stop a negative spiral of thoughts in its tracks. For the more technologically inclined amongst us, you could also compare it to restarting a computer. If it was running slow because you had too many applications open, this will make it run much faster. Same for your brain!

So try the Five-Second Meditation and see what a powerhouse you become with no negativity standing in the way to your dreams.

So. The dream box. This is what you do. You dig deep into your heart for the wish you buried there. You know the one. It’s the one that maybe you haven’t told anyone, maybe not even yourself but that you can’t forget. Maybe it scares and excites you in equal parts. Maybe you don’t even think you are “allowed” to want something so big and magical. Well… what you’re going to do now is not only dig it up, but also write it down.

Get a small box, something beautiful or not, but something you enjoy looking at and holding because over the next few days, weeks, months (hopefully not years), the two of you will be getting very friendly with each other. What you do next is, fold up the piece of paper on which you wrote your dream and tuck it into the box. Tada! Wish granted! Not. So. Fast. Did you fall for that? Again? (Sorry to keep playing tricks on you… Or maybe not so sorry….) The law of attraction is magic but you might have to do a little more than that. Actually, you wouldn’t even have to do that much if your mindscape stayed free of dark clouds. With clear insides, you wouldn’t have to do anything for your happily ever after. The law of attraction would just bring you one enjoyable experience after the other. Why? Because you would consistently be holding such a high positive frequency.

But the problem is that you do things. Things like worry and doubt and throw pity parties for your self. Since you’re not the Goddess (or God) of Joy and All Things Sparkly (or are you?), you might have to put in a little elbow grease. Consider it a preventative measure—washing your car before it gets dirty, clearing your doubts before they appear, that kind of thing. Need something more specific? In this case, what we’ll have you do is this. Keep the dream box by your bed. Every night before going to sleep and every morning when you wake up, hold it and think about your hope. Hold your dream in your thoughts like you hold the box, like it’s a real thing that you can actually grab. The best part of the legend is that if you keep doing this, your dream will eventually come true.

And if you don’t believe in legends, you can at least be assured that you have the law of attraction on your side. Each time you follow the dream box process, you are making the vibration of your desire active and pulling its manifestation closer.

1. Wouldn’t it be nice if: Let your mind wander over delicious new possibilities. Choose a specific desire or bounce around from dream to dream. Either way these five words have the power to prompt you into a more open, resistance-free attitude. It’s easy. You start your question with “Wouldn’t it be nice if” and allow inspiration to be your guide. Each time you get a new idea that feels light and happy, focus on the feeling it gives you and the vision that prompted it. Play this at the breakfast table and watch everyone’s mood snowball into some major excitement!

2. The ABC game: This Abraham classic is perfect for a long drive or when you need to get your mind off a small annoyance. Start at the top with the letter A. Choose a word that feels bright, something like “alive” or “amazing” perhaps. Move on to the letter B. Rinse and repeat. Something else to keep in mind–when you do find a word you like, get into the feeling of it before moving on.

3. Meditation: Meditation is an essential component of any self-respecting manifestor’s toolbox. This powerful process is appropriate for every situation and state of mind. While there are countless ways of meditating, for our purposes, it’s about pulling attention away from your usual thoughts. Start by finding a quiet spot where no one is likely to disturb you. Take a seat, close your eyes and focus on something neutral like your breathing. Abraham recommends meditating 10 to 15 minutes every day.

4. Pray rain journaling: A process inspired by the story of a Native American man who was able to manifest rain by visualising it, it’s one of Jeanette Maw’s all-time favorites. The law of attraction coach suggests pulling this one out for your big, juicy goals. First of all you need a journal, one that inspires you. Next fill out a page a day writing about your desire as though it has already happened. According to legend, by the time you reach the end of the notebook, your dream will have come true or be so close you can taste it.

5. The dream box: Here’s another process inspired by legend. The Lemuria believed a dream box has the power to grant your deepest wish. Begin by writing it down as though it has already manifested. Get a small box, one you enjoy looking at. Fold up the piece of paper and tuck it into the box. Keep the dream box by your bed and every night and morning, hold it and think of your desire. One day it will be as real in the physical world as it is inside your mind.

6. The focus wheel process: This process acts like a bridge from how you are feeling to how you would like to feel regarding a specific area of your life. Start by drawing two circles on a sheet of paper, a smaller one inside a larger one. At the centre of the smaller circle write down your target feeling. Next go around the bigger circle like it’s a clock and write down 12 statements, one at each new hour. Keep your target feeling in mind for this and focus on each new idea for a few moments. Finally bring your focus back to the centre and circle the target thought once more.

7. The goal card process: You need just two things for this process. A card and a goal. A simple flashcard will do, but you can also go to Bob Proctor’s website and download one from there. He’s the one who invented the process by the way. Write down the goal on the card starting with the words “I am so happy and grateful that…”. The next and final step is for you to take your shiny new goal card and put it in your pocket. But that’s not all. You need to do this again and again, every time you change your clothes. That’s how the magic unfolds. Each time you touch the card, it will make you think of your goal.

8. The morning process: Get out of bed on the right side every day with this exercise from Abraham. Sleep wipes your emotional slate clean which makes morning the easiest time to start new habits of thought. When you wake up, stay in bed and spend 10 to 15 minutes focusing on some good feelings. Once you’re established on the feel-good side of the scale, it takes a lot to knock you out of balance.

9. Vision board: A vision board is a visualisation tool. You can have all kinds of things on it like magazine clippings, pictures, ticket stubs, quotes, fabric swatches, dried flowers, anything! It just has to inspire you. The vision board can be about your dream life or about a particular area of your life. In fact, go wild and make two!

10. The book of positive aspects: Writing has magic of its own. Putting pen to paper has a way of getting your mind to focus says Abraham. Dedicate a notebook to this process. Set aside 20 minutes and start by filling a page with all the details of what you enjoy about a favorite feel-good topic. Next you will do the same with another wonderful area of your life. Perhaps ideas for other subjects will come flooding in while you’re focused on the first topic. After all, the more you appreciate, the more you will find to appreciate.

Let’s go back to basics. What do bad feelings even mean? Here’s a clue. They are not giving you information about the world out there. They are giving you information about how you are running the inner world of your thoughts. Someone says something mean to you. Bam! You blame them for the bad feeling you get. But really that person has nothing to do with the pain inside. The pain inside—pay close attention next time—came as a direct consequence of the thoughts you had regarding what the person said—thoughts about being unlovable maybe or misunderstood.

Regret works the same way as any other bad feeling. It is not a sign that you should be paying attention to the world out there, to the past specifically in this case. It is a flashing light telling you to fix your thinking. Not your thinking in the past but your thinking right now. You might be having thoughts that tell you that you have lost something forever or that you will suffer due to your mistakes for the rest of your life, that you can’t have what you want now. If making these statements doesn’t feel good, it means that the statements are taking you away from your desires and that you can change them. When viewed in this way, regret gives you back power because the path to what you want starts with your thoughts. The law of attraction responds to your self-talk. Change your self-talk and change your world.

So if you find yourself regretting something that already happened, don’t wallow in a past you can’t change (and which doesn’t matter anyway because you can have anything you want right now). And refocus instead on the present and the signs you are getting that will guide you to your desires. The way to everything you want is to be happy right now. It’s the one, simple answer to any problem past, present or future. We have talked about a lot of different processes that can help you shift your thoughts and like when you experience any other bad-feeling thoughts, the process you choose is going to depend on how far you have let the negative thoughts go. Do you feel frustration or hopelessness? Will a few minutes of meditation wipe your mental slate clean or do you need to take a nap? Stay alert, interpret your feelings the way they were intended to be read, always refocus on feeling better and you’ll forget what regret even means.

To start (actually this is more like step zero) you choose a state of being. It’s like going to a restaurant and picking a dish from the menu, except in this case the menu is your imagination. You get to pick any feeling you could possibly imagine. Now that you have made your decision, you get to flex your manifestation muscle.

Begin by seeing your desired state of being. Let’s say you chose feeling excitement as your main course. Close your eyes and think of it. At first you might want to keep the thought at a very basic level and try to hold the general feeling in your mind. What does excitement mean to you? As you do this, you will effortlessly start to get more specific pictures. Maybe you see a little girl jumping up and down on a trampoline, a big blue sky behind her and a grin on her face. Maybe this little girl is you! Or a memory drifts into your mind of a day at the beach when you were fully excited. All these pieces come together to support your focus but not just that…

Simply from thinking about excitement, you will start to experience it. In fact it happens together—the more details you come up with to “describe” excitement, the more intensely you sense the actual feeling which then generates more ideas. It’s a cycle of positivist. This second stage where you feel the experience you want happens automatically when your mind focuses on the feeling long enough.

The third stage is being it—embodying your desired state. This is when you bring your thoughts and feelings into the physical world by acting in harmony with the frequency you have been aiming for. How does an excited person eat breakfast? How does she get ready for school or talk to people or sit in class? As you go about your day, you get clues for how to approach different activities and people in a way that will match your new thoughts and feelings. This stage is about acting on inspiration. Like how the first step of seeing it flows into the second one of feeling it, the progression to the third step can follow naturally from the previous one. Acting in line with the internal state you have been growing makes it stronger. At this point all three aspects work together. Your actions intensify your goal feeling which makes the picture of what you want sharper in your mind and vice versa.

Once you are being it on a consistent basis day after day, something interesting happens. Your external reality begins to shape itself around this new you, holding it into place. You get actual, physical manifestations that support your feelings—maybe someone gives you a trampoline or your parents take you on a beach holiday. This is when the rest of the world confirms that you are what you had been focusing on being all along.