Creating Mindfulness

Lately I've been doing some reading about the Law of Attraction. If you're unfamiliar with this idea, in a nutshell it's "what you think about, you bring about". You make dream boards, notebooks, and focus your thoughts and energy on what you want to attract into your life. That's an extremely simplified explanation.

I've been trying different practices to implement it into my life and bring some positivity my way. There is definitely something to it. It's almost eerie how you can focus your thoughts on bringing something into your life and suddenly it starts showing up.

I haven't been able to come up with a good explanation for it. Most experts on the subject say its about the universe responding to your "energy" or "vibrations". I have trouble with this explanation because I believe that what comes into my life is a combination of God's will and my own actions.

Last week I started reading a book called The Compound Effect by Darin Hardy. It has nothing to do with the Law of Attraction. It's about how every little mundane choice we make every day will eventually compound to make us successful or unsuccessful. But he did make an interesting statement about the Law of Attraction. Say you buy a new car. Suddenly you start seeing a whole lot more of that type of car out on the road. It's not that those cars have multiplied, it's that suddenly you're more aware of them.

Same thing with the Law of Attraction. When you focus your thoughts and energy on something in particular, you're going to notice more of it in your life. People respond to your attitude and demeanor. So it stands to reason that if you adopt a more positive outlook you're going to see more of what you want in your life.

Try it out. Smile at someone you don't know. Compliment someone in line next to you. Odds are they'll smile back and respond very nicely. Also, you'll probably make their day a little better.

So what am I trying to say here? Maybe this was a little long and rambling today. But the point I'm trying to make is, if you want better things to happen in your life, be a better person. Think about better things. See what happens.

"Success is something you attract by the person you become." - Jim Rohn

What the Heck is Oil Pulling?

A while ago I heard about this thing called oil pulling. I didn't really give it much thought; I couldn't see what the benefits of doing such a thing could really be. So, as a true open-minded person, I didn't research it any further.

Then, just a few months ago, I heard about it again. This time I actually read a little about the benefits. Most of the articles I've read suggest using a high quality, cold pressed, extra virgin coconut oil. Other quality food grade oils can be used as well. Coconut oil seems to be a favorite because of its antibacterial properties.

So what do you do? Well, first thing in the morning, you take between 1/2-1 tablespoon of said oil and put it in your mouth. Then you just swish it around for about 15-20 minutes. The timing is important. The oil is drawing bacteria and toxins through your saliva and leaving it in your mouth longer than 20 minutes can allow your body to begin to reabsorb them. Not cool.

You don't want to gargle it or let it touch the back of your throat because of the bacteria building up in it. And you definitely don't want to swallow it. When the time is up, spit it into the trash or the toilet. Being oil, it can solidify again, clogging a sink drain.

I started doing it 4 days ago. I did it 3 days in a row but didn't have time this morning. I'll do it again tomorrow. I mainly just wanted to see what noticeable changes I would observe. The first thing I noticed was that my sinuses were clearing up. I could feel them draining before I had spit the oil out.

An unexpected side effect for me has been a decrease in allergy symptoms, even from the first day. I have very bad environmental allergies as well as an allergy to my cats. I wake up every morning with an itchy, runny nose and my face is always feeling itchy. On the second day I suddenly realized that I wasn't having allergies. I hadn't even thought about taking my allergy medicine.

So that's my cool oil pulling story for now. I'll update as I go along. I'm interested to see if it will really whiten my teeth!