Many people experience “ups and downs” in their life. And often when things are on the downstroke individuals begin to feel as if they are not manifesting correctly, or that the laws of attraction just don’t work.

The truth is we manifest our complete reality from behind the layer of ego.

For instance, an entrepreneur might experience periods of extreme profitability but then go through a time of decreased sales and depressed activity. It’s not easy making it through such a fluctuation with a positive frame of mind.

But the moment an individual begins to feel as if the current events of their life are going against them, he or she loses touch with their higher self. When we feel as if the Universe, god, fate, or whatever is somehow not letting us prosper, dealing us a bad hand, etc. we are assuming the role of victim and robbing ourself of our creative powers.

Whatever happens in our life, we have at least some responsibility for it. And at our conscious level we often don’t see how or why we would attract to us a series of negative experiences.

Often when we look more closely and maintain responsibility for whatever is happening, we find that things are in fact no entirely “negative”: after all. When we look for the good, or for the lesson in all things we see that slow period in a business was a good indicator that our hearts were not fully involved with our work and perhaps we should look for new opportunities… for example.

If we seek but truly can’t find the lesson we may need to consider the possibility that we are not loving ourselves, and that we are on some level not comfortable with happiness and thus sabotaging ourselves. I see this every day in people; many individuals like their drama and enjoy being able to point to an unust world where things always go against them.

I suggest that when we find ourselves on the downstroke in whatever area of our life, we do two things:

1. Look for the good and the lesson.

2. Ask if we are trying to avoid happiness because it makes us uncomfortable.

Those who read this article and sincerely try the exercise above will expand their happiness and their wisdom tremendously.

Most of the time when we begin to visualize what we want in life, we get hung up on how we might accomplish these things. Or we find ourselves being “realistic”.

In terms of manifesting our dreams this is bad business. The moment we place a limit or worry about not being able to see how we might do something, we place stress on the process.

And unless we are fully trusting, flowing freely, and having fun with our visualization odds are the results will be less than spectacular. The key is to visualize as if there are NO LIMITS on our potential.

A popular theme on this note is to think like God. See your dreams the way you might view them if you were God and could create anything.

How different would your vision of yourself be if you know you could have and do absolutely anything you wanted? This is a very liberating exercise that results in greater confidence and certainly more fun.

And here’s a practical way of looking at it as well:

Often martial artists and athletes are trained to focus “through” something. A Karate student is taught to think two inches past the board he is going to break, an offensive lineman might  focus on an invisible target several feet behind his defensive counterpart, and so on.

The purpose here is to generate a sort of momentum and drive. By focusing beyond a target it is most likely an individual will easily generate the force required to effect theactual point of contact.

So if you think like God and in essence focus larger and beyond your average goals it is very likely you will accomplish your core goals with ease. For instance if you regularly see yourself earning 5 million dollars next year you could land on 1.5 million with relative ease.

Make sense? Play with it and see what you come up with.

I’m sure you have learned that it’s important to focus your attention on the thngs you want in life. By doing this in a cheerful manner and practicing the feeling of already having what you desire you will of course manifest your ideal life.

However, as you surely know, our mind does not always cooperate with us. In fact sometimes it seems determined to flash before us images and feelings that completely contradict what we wish to manifest.

There are many articles online about how to get clear of such thinking, and even how to counteract negative imagery the minute it enters your mind. But I want to go in a different direction with this post.

Let’s imagine for a moment that everything we experience, including our sometimes bizarre and random thought patterns, ultimately move us in the direction we want to travel. From this perspective even those annoying flashes of negativity and doubt can be used for our ultimate good.

Consider this: For most people it’s difficult to articulate what they really want in life. It’s not uncommon for it to take a long time (as in months) to really identify what an ideal life would look, sound, and feel like.

And even when we have a crystal clear picture it can begin to slip away if we don’t manage our intentions correctly. This is common for the majority of us, even when we have a good understanding of attraction and manifestation.

We can use our negative thinking, and our awareness of what we don’t want to our advantage. And we can do so either by consciously bringing what we don’t  want to mind, or we can just wait for these things to surface on their own and then turn the tables by using them in a productive manner when they do!

Here’s how this exercise can work…

The next time you become aware of the things, people, and events you don’t want as part of your life, embrace the thoughts. Spend a minute building a clear picture in your mind, and even make a detailed list of what these undesirable things consist of.

Don’t allow fear or anger to be a part of this experience. Detach yourself form the undesired experiences and just become intellectually aware of them in great detail.

Hold this in your mind for a few minutes, and then let it go. Then immediately bring up the things, people, and events you really do want as part of your life.

If you have made a detailed list about the things you don’t want, now is the time to contrast that list with details about what you do want. And as you think in vivid pictures about what you want, bring your emotions into play.

Notice how you now feel even more strongly about what you want! This is due to the stark contrast created by visualizing what you do not want beforehand.

This exercise has tremendous power, and variations of it are taught by many Law of Attraction writers like Joe Vitale, Michael Losier, and others. I strongly recommend you give it a try, and if it feels empowering to you consider using it from time to time.