“Like the frightened man in the burning boat, we must trust that the greater sea we are jumping into will douse whatever catches fire as we move through. This is what faith is all about.”
This quote by Mark Nepo is the perfect description of faith, in my opinion. It doesn’t matter if you believe in God, Buddha, or Allah—you have to believe in something bigger than yourself. Why? Because there are moments in life when everything seems lost—and you have to find a reason to get up in the morning. We have all been in THAT dark place.
In the winter of 2010, I moved to Tenerife, Spain, to recover from a break up and learn a new language. After months, I was still struggling to find a job and I had to find a new house because my flatmate and I couldn’t stop fighting. Frosting on the cake? My American ex-boyfriend had started to date another girl and I couldn’t stop looking at the photos coming out on social media. My friends were begging me to stop hurting myself but I had just one reply for them: “You don’t understand, he is my soul mate.” Months passed by, I moved to a new house and found a job—but I wasn’t myself anymore—I spent hours stalking my ex-boyfriend on social media and my heart kept bleeding.
I was raised in an Italian Catholic family, but when I was old enough to take my decisions, I started to question religion and found my faith in the Universe thanks to the book “The Secret.” I learned that we can attract what we want to our life because the Universe listens to us, so I started to practice the “Law of Attraction” following these steps:
Focus
If you know what you want, direct your mind towards your goal—think about it constantly and write it down somewhere. If you don’t know what you want, ask the Universe to let you know what you want.
Positive affirmations
Fears are part of life, and they have the power to slow you down. In order to fight them, you have to steer clear of the “don’t want” sentences. When you think about your goal, say: “I want,” NEVER give power to the fear hidden behind the negative sentences. The Universe attracts the things your mind pays attention to—if you don’t want something to happen, and you think about it, it will eventually happen.
Visualization
If you want the Universe to manifest your wish, you have to imagine it already accomplished. Spend some time every day visualizing your dream, the more details you can see, the faster it will come true. Meditation helps this practice: close your eyes and sit still—let your dream come to you.
Emotion
It’s not enough to imagine, you have to make an effort every day to feel the emotion you would feel in the moment when your dream comes true—every time you surrender to sadness you give power to your fears.
Courage
The “Law of Attraction” is not magical—it’s a powerful ally if you take risks. After two years from the break up, and a couple of crazy episodes, I took a plane and showed up at the office where my ex-boyfriend worked. The rest is in the book I self-published to inspire people to follow their dreams and believe in fairytales—clearly, there is the happy ending.
Faith
Even in the darkest moments I had FAITH in my heart, and in the Universe. Faith kept me going even when it was hard to put the “Law of Attraction” in practice. No matter how many times people let you down, or hurt you—if you stay true to yourself and trust the power of the Universe or your God—you will find the light at the end of the tunnel.
Originally published at medium.com