Showing posts with label LOA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label LOA. Show all posts

The Circle: How the Power of a Single Wish Can Change Your Life by Laura Day (Original 2001, Kindle 2020)

, 21 Jul 2021

I was thrilled to get the Kindle Edition of this book, and it had to be COVID-19 Pandemic what allowed the project to be done. The first printed copy saw the light in 2001, and it has taken two decades to get to the digital edition on Kindle. It was time! In all honesty, I thought this would be another book on intuition, but it is not. 
 
The Circle is a  revamped version of the Law of Attraction (LOA) and The Circle is just a way of calling The Universe or the space where manifestation occurs. The book mixes concepts of the LOA with others of the Thought Church, Psychology, Intuition, Reiki and simple common sense.
  
MY HIGHLIGHTS
> There is a unwavering faith in the process and in humanity expressed through the book, and this is one of the most positive takes for me.
> The section on rituals, what they are and why they are important in our lives.
> Some of the statements in the book:
-- "When you change yourself, you change the people and events around you." (loc 216)
-- "To a great extent, you are what you believe you are-and the world responds accordingly." (loc. 225).
-- "It requires far more energy to be ill or create a life out of balance than it does to be well. Your internal structure wants to be well and works towards health and balance whether or not you are helping." (loc 453).
-- "In times of stress, or when handling people or situations, you tend to turn to one particular system by reflex, your default system. Your default system is not necessarily your strongest." (Loc 470).
-- "When you analyse a lack of success in any aspect of your life, you tend to look outside yourself for the explanation. Yet often the answer is that you are getting in your own way." (loc 496).
-- "One way to discover what people fear is to see where they put their focus and energy. Look at the perfectly put together person and realise that person is probably afraid that he or she will fall apart." (loc 599).
-- "When you see and need, ask if you can fill it. When you have a need, ask that it be satisfied." (loc 781)  
-- "So much of life is lived in the head. The human mind is a wonderful place, but to create change, things need to be built in the physical world." (loc 912).
 
THE CIRCLE SUMMARY
The process to tap into the Circle (Universe) and bring any wish into reality is structured as follows:
1/ Initiation:
> 1st element = Intentionality = The hidden gift is conscious creation.
> 2nd element = Embodiment = The gift is awareness.
> 3rd element = Ritual = The gift is sacredness.
In short, make a wish and put your intention behind and into it, embody the result you want to create, and make some ritual to start tapping into what you want your new reality to be.
2/ Apprenticeship:
> 4th element = Synchronicity = The gift is effectiveness.
> 5th element = Making Space = The gift is transformation.
> 6th element = Coherence = The gift is right action.
In short, pay attention to the synchronicities that reflect change in the outer world. Make space for the new to enter your life, and resolve any inner or outer conflict that prevents your goal to materialize. When you go through this realize that your initial wish might be other, so allow your wish to transform as you transform.
3/ Mastery:
> 7th element = Outer roadblocks = The gift is intuition.
> 8th element = Inner roadblocks = The gift is healing.
> 9th element  =  Contact  = The gift is unity.
In short, you'll find inner/outer resistance before getting your wish manifested. These obstacles are the right path to success but need to be addressed. When you enter the energy of The Circle you are in oneness with everything and everyone. Be part of a group, a circle of like-minded people, who support each other and go through this process together.   

OH BOY
>> The book as a chit-chatty godmother's preachy tone that, on the one hand, makes it easily readable and understandable, but, on the other, rest validity to what she says.
>> >> The writing style is unnecessarily repetitive and full of platitudes. The words The Circle and New Reality are repeated ad nauseam.
>> Many of the messages that Day conveys in the book are a verbose beautification of popular common-sense wisdom  such as: 
-- Life is unpredictable.
-- Go with the flow.
-- If life gives you  lemons, make lemonade.
-- What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger.
-- There is a silver lining in every situation.
-- After reaching the bottom, the way is always up.
-- Everything depends on how you look at things: Is the bottle half full or half empty?
-- Let go to move on. 
-- Get out of your own way. 
-- Be careful of what you wish for. 
-- Your unconscious rules your life. 
-- Create a community of liked-minded people. 
-- A candle doesn't lose its light by giving light to another candle.
-- Shine your inner light and give it as a gift to the world. 
-- There is a lesson in everything.
>> Synchronicity, Serendipity and Good Luck are three different things. Why putting them together in the same basket?
>> Generalizations of the type "some studies have shown" (loc 432). Which studies, by whom? Or 'Mothers have been known to lift vehicles weighing a ton off their children." (details needed or it sounds like charlatanism) are not good for any serious author.
>> The book is full of generalizations about how the subconscious, childhood conditioning and behavior patterns show in life. 
>> There is nothing like listening to a meditation by the author who created it. Personally, I love having the meditation recorded so that I can listen to it and connect with the author. Yet, there is only the written text and the advice of recording the med yourself.  
>> The digital cover has lovely color palette, but there isn't enough contrast between the background and the lettering to be readable.  
>> The Kindle edition is poor. See below.

(BAD) KINDLE EDITION
I hope the issues I mention below (and those I haven't noticed) are corrected, because it takes little effort to do that. The Kindle book is sold a standard price, but it feels like a rushed draft. Herewith some of the issues I've found:
>>> The Index of Contents is minimal. Only the major sections of the book are listed but not the chapters or major subsections. What is worse, the Workbook is not mentioned in the index, but it is in the book, so you'll  need to bookmark the workbook and its subsections to get there.
>>> Too many examples of poor edition and transcription, which are painful to see and make reading unnecessarily unpleasant. Some examples below:
-- "after the after the Epilogue", locs 245, 338, 384 (after the Epilogue).
-- "The more you “know” the more the mine wants to reason", loc 642 (mind).
-- "What higher power or higher parts of your own being.Do you want in your sacred space with you?", loc 314 (An interrogation mark would have been more appropriate after 'being' not just after the latter question.)
-- "Celebrate the successes and victories. Acknowledge and mourn the losses and allow the energy of disappointment to become the energy of faith and transformation. And always on the journey", loc 327.(It reads badly).
-- "Though you haven’t yet fully realise their significance to your New Reality", loc. 362 (realised).
-- "Heading The Fifth Element Making Space", loc. 395 (in bold as the other headings)
-- "Uses energy positively by expanding your Circle", loc. 772 (Use energy)
-- "Write without pausing so that you don’t have time to “think” or “reason” loc. 642 (Many examples of overuse/misuse of quotation marks throughout the book). 
-- "2. ave each person silently", loc. 822 (Have) 
-- "I no longer have to-I simply have to be", loc, 1238 (period intended?)
-- "I may-instead of berating myself-bless each bite of food" loc. 1238 (long dashes needed plus a space of separation with each one)
Day, Laura. The Circle: How the Power of a Single Wish Can Change Your Life (Practical Intuition Book 1) . Laura Day. Kindle Edition.
>>> The exercises mentioned before getting to the workbook have no special formatting or indentation, so they aren't distinguishable from the rest of the body of the text. That's just poor editing. It would have been really nice to have them showcases in in a box or indented in, or the "Enter the Circle' in bold.
>>> In the workbook, the daily exercises start with a section title, but the weekly ones have the title missing.  
>>> Some of the exercises in the workbook are a repetition of those mentioned in the book, and some of the daily and weekly ones are almost identical.  
>> Affirmations are way too verbose to be powerful and directional. 
 
Laura, please, change editor :)  Or correct the current digital edition so it reads a bit better. Or decrease the price of the book.

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The Oracle of E: An Oracle Card Deck to Manifest Your Dreams Cards by Pam Grout & Colette Baron-Reid

, 4 Apr 2021

 I was really excited about this deck, as I read Grout's first book years ago and enjoyed her philosophy of life. Colette, on the other hand, has produced some of my fav oracle decks ever, so my expectations were high. My excitement was short lived, though.

To be fair, I had read the reviews before ordering the deck. However, I thought that it might be a matter of some customers getting a deck from a bad printing batch because, after all, this is a Hay House's. Right? Unfortunately, my cards edges were damaged even before I removed the paper ring seal-off. If the cards are peeling off before opening, can you imagine what's going to happen when you shuffle them?

Booklet is thin and cheaply printed, with barely any relevant content.

The concept behind the cards is nothing new. It is not particularly Law of Attraction. It's rather a channeled messages deck more than anything else. The artwork is a very simple but catchy, a mix of abstract images in dark rich purples, blues, greens, browns and black with sparks of yellow and bright colors in the lettering and/or background. They convey well the concept of universal fluid energy.

You can make this sort of deck yourself using blank cards. If you're an artist you'll have something as good or better. If not, and you just write a sentence, you'll still have the core of what this deck is.


Packing box is beautiful and decent quality, pity the rest. I am looking forward the app edition of this.

 
Returned.


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Leveraging the Universe: 7 Steps to Engaging Life's Magic by Mike Dooley (2012)

, 6 Apr 2018


Leveraging the Universe is a quite a cool book for a LOA book. It has many of the teachings of the genre, less BS, but a lot of magic. Dooley mixes principles from the LOA (effortless manifestation) with 'old school' advise (take action) on how to get from where you are now to what you want. It is a win-win advice, a safe position for any author to stand on, and for any reader to act upon. The middle way is the wiser way. Old adages never die and never lie.

The book is well structured, and Dooley's writing style is fresh, enthusiastic, approachable and enjoyable. Each chapter ends with a key summary of the main points discussed therein, something extremely helpful to re-read or revise the book without having to go through the bits that don't really matter. There are some exercises and journaling required, just if you want, to help you decide what you want and on your plan of action.

One of the things I like the most in this book is that Dooley himself anticipates some of the queries and apparent contradictions the readers might come up with, so what he says feels congruent and organic despite its apparent incongruities. Clever!

I especially liked how Dooley defines happiness: "True happiness is not contingent upon things happening in your life. Happiness is a state of mind. Happiness is an appreciation for life itself, for yourself, for where you are, no matter where you are." (p. 167).

MAIN CORE POINTS AND TEACHINGS
> We are all one and interconnected.
> Thoughts became things, so you better manage your thoughts and put them on the right things, because if you think in a certain way, you will act and feel in a certain way, and will have a certain energy around you, all of which has a direct impact on the way life unfolds for you personally. Your thoughts create your experience, so deliberately monitor your thoughts, weed those that don't serve you, and grow that will help you get what you want, see things the best possible way and uplift you. If you do, you will see 'miracles' happen, and things change dramatically.
> Your beliefs and feelings also create your thoughts, so the best way to change your thoughts is to work on your belief system, and change those things that don't support you.
> Monitor what you say, as words are the manifestation of your thoughts. Watch and wash your mouth!
> Nothing is wrong with you because you are not there yet. You don't have to focus or linger on what brought you here or how you will get there. Everything works in the end. Even if not realistic, it sounds truly uplifting and motivational to me.
> Take action, keep going, take tiny steps so that you don't get overwhelmed but are still moving. Do all you can, with what you have, from where you are and the magic of life will unfold. Be patient and persistent. The fact that you can't see results doesn't mean you are far from them, you could be really close, steps away.
> Focus your attention on the things you would love to do, want to do, not on those that you should, must or might. If you know what you want to do, go and do it, otherwise do anything. Give yourself a deadline and take tiny steps consistently. Do something, do your best, and remember that some negative experiences will turn to be blessings in disguise.
> Where you are is never who you are. A statement to frame!

DOWNSIDES
>> The book is unnecessarily wordy and repetitive. Really, if you put all the summary points of the book together, you have everything you need to know to understand Dooley's message.
>> Some of Dooley's trademark "Notes from the Universe" might sound great if arriving via email in a weekly newsletter, however, I found that, at least for me, they were not necessary or added anything to the book.
>> Dooley loves the world "fulcrum", which he uses a lot throughout the book. I found it pretentious.
>> Dooley says that invisible limiting beliefs, even if possessed, need not ever be discovered to navigate beyond them. I find that also uplifting. Actually, liberating. Any professional Jungian psychologists will tell you that it's extremely difficult to unearth your limiting beliefs, and even you do, it's even more difficult to change the effect they have on your life. That is, unless you go under therapy. So, what the heck, you have a license to focus on what you want and forget about the trauma of the past. I mean, I guess unless you really really had some real trauma.
>> Dooley's main point is in this book is that thoughts create your reality, but Prentice Mulford said that in his book Thoughts are Things in 1908!

IN SHORT
An enjoyable read overall. It has wise advise, albeit not original, but it is more of my liking than many other LOA books.

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