Category: Featured Posts

As you know, throughout the semester, I am going to be choosing a “featured post” (or “posts”) for each blog assignment, to highlight examples of successful blogs (AKA, “Professor’s Picks”). But … what I might find compelling or well-done in a blog post might not be the same thing as your peers do. Enter “People’s Choice Posts,” which allow the students to read and honor awesome writing by their classmates (or themselves!). This also helps to bring student voices into the course more fully, as each student’s blogs become (required) reading for the course.

Here’s how it will work. Read through your classmates’ reading response blogs on “The Secret” and choose your favorite post. You can choose a post for any reason, but you always must clearly articulate your rationale for choosing it (e.g., why did you find it interesting, compelling, likeable, provocative, etc.?). This rationale can refer to content, style, creativity, etc. If, after reading everyone’s posts, you strongly feel that your post is your “favorite,” you can always vote for yourself, but you need to provide a rationale for doing so.

In order to register your vote for this week’s “People’s Choice,” “leave a reply” to this post, and in your comment, provide your chosen post, an excerpt from it + rationale for choosing it. Provide the title and author of the chosen post, along with a link to the post you are citing (please provide the link in the same comment: don’t make a separate comment with just the link). Citing is really important (in this case, citing your classmate!), and this is a way of giving credit to other sources and putting yourself in dialogue with them.

Comments/votes are mandatory, should be made no later than Thursday, 2/11 at 9am: the person with the most votes will earn the coveted “People’s Choice” honor for this round of posts! I’m looking forward to seeing what you choose, and why.

In the self-help book, The Secret by Rhonda Byrne, Byrne teaches us that the way to achieve the things we really want in life is through the law of attraction.  The law of attraction is the secret to attaining the things we desire. Byrne also explains that through the law of attraction we already are where we are now.  This concept works simply through our thoughts.  Our thoughts are magnetic (they attract what we think) and they constantly attract new frequencies.  She gives us the example of being wealthy.  If you want to become wealthy you need to have predominant thoughts of wealth, you need to visualize and feel that wealth, and you can’t have feelings of doubt.  Most people go about this the wrong way and think about the things they don’t want.  The universe doesn’t understand words like “don’t”, “not”, or “no” (Byrne 14).  Putting out of the thought of something negative only attracts more of it.  Another problem some people face is that they fear loss of wealth once they have it which does lead to that loss.

Byrne states that the feelings you have are important because they tell you what you are truly thinking, and these feelings are your guides to putting your thoughts back on the right track.  A key strategy to change a bad thought to a good one quickly is through your secret shifters.  Your secret shifters can be anything that you know will instantly change your mood to a better one like a certain memory or a favorite song.  Having more than one is important in case one of them doesn’t do the trick.  Learning how to meditate also helps clear your mind of bad thoughts.

According to Byrne the steps to the secret are 1) asking and 2) believing.  You don’t need to ask questions like how– the universe will just provide.  The question of how displays lack of belief.  If any action is needed it will be asked of you in a clear way.  Being thankful for the things you have now is also important as it helps to shift your energy.  Another thing to be mindful of is if something goes wrong at some point throughout your day, at night replay those events the way you wanted them to go and you will be putting out a more positive frequency. 

The extra chapter I chose to read is titled “The Secret to Money” (found on pages 95-112).  I chose this one just because I am a bad saver and wanted to see if there were any tips specifically for that, and because I am currently unemployed and wanted to see what would be discussed.  In this chapter Byrne states that you have to shift your thoughts from lack-of-money to more-than-enough money (Byrne 99).  Not having enough is caused by mentally blocking the flow of money from coming to you.  First you need to be content with what you already have and understand that your source of money doesn’t need to just be your job.  You also need to start saying you can afford things and give back when you can (not sacrifice).  According to Byrne, giving back shows that you have plenty and so the flow will be reciprocated back.

Personally when I read these few chapters of The Secret, I didn’t pick up on anything that sounded out of the ordinary.  The main message was just sort of repeated throughout the book.  I have heard of manifesting before (this is what the law of attraction sounds like to me) and although I’ve never tried it, it does seem intriguing because I have had friends tell me that it’s worked for them.  But I believe that action on one’s part is needed in order to attain the things in this book.  I think this may help people become more positive individuals which is a good thing and to some extent thinking more positively does bring back good energy/karma, but just counting on things to come to you instead of doing things to get there may slow your progression.  Byrne does state that there can be signs from the universe when action is needed but to me these can just be regular instances that were going to happen because of something you have done.