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When like attracts like

Musings
Sonia Kelly

I was amazed to discover from a drug-related survey that some people take as many as 48 Solpadeine tablets in 48 hours.
For years I have been a fan of Solpadeine myself, since it got me through a bout of shingles, but it never crossed my mind to exceed the stated dose – to wit, a maximum of two at six-hour intervals.
It’s hard to imagine having two every hour, or perhaps six, or more. You’d think it would cause your liver to jump screaming out of your body.
Of course, we know it contains codeine – an opiate – and it’s true that it does give you a lift,  but can it be that addictive? Even though we’re constantly being motivated by the desire to feel better – to be happy?
Perhaps I’m lacking whatever element causes addiction, or maybe nothing sufficiently alluring has presented itself. I didn’t like cigarettes – LSD and some other drug I never identified had no effect whatever. Chocolate is certainly attractive, and sometimes I get a present of some and the donor might say, ‘Don’t eat the whole box at once’. Such a concept is deeply shocking to me. I would have no desire to eat more than two a day, one after lunch and the other subsequent to the evening meal.
Perhaps the effects of so-called addictive substances are too ephemeral to seem worth the after-effects.
Surely everybody knows that a surfeit of alcohol, for instance, will cause extremely unpleasant feelings the next day – not to mention inducing behaviour that may land you behind bars for life. Why not stop before that point is reached?
It’s because the subconscious, known to me as George, keeps whispering insidious suggestions to the conscious mind: “go on, one more slug won’t hurt,” “One more cream bun is no harm (even though you already weigh a ton),” and so on. The trick is to identify these urgings and nip them in the bud. Why let ‘George’ control one’s life?
You do not have to, if you go by the instructions contained in the book, ‘The Law of Attraction’, by Esther and Jerry Hicks. These are the people whose work inspired ‘The Secret’, which has topped the best-seller list since it was published.
The teaching explains how to swap undesirable thoughts for beneficial ones and thereby activate happiness. Any kind of negative thoughts are detrimental to one’s wellbeing. Negative thoughts are indicated by a bad emotional feeling. If contemplating something makes you unhappy, switch immediately to a more pleasing subject – something that brings your thought vibrations into sync with those of your inner being, as it is described.
The important thing to realise is that like attracts like, so that you get what you think about - good, or bad. If you want to be rich, think money; if you want to be well, think health; if you want to lose weight, think thin … To dwell on what you don’t want only perpetuates the feeling and makes you unhappy.
I heard a story of a woman who was convinced she’d be killed one day by falling timber. She was – by a load of wood falling off a truck on to her car.
You can also organise your day segment by segment, decide on the desirable outcomes of each of your undertakings throughout the day, and imagine those outcomes accordingly. You will attract what you imagine.
That is the bottom line. So start now to entertain those feel-good thoughts and get a happy life.