What you seek is seeking— you

When Gus said, “the world isn’t a wish-granting factory”, it had me breaking down all over again. You see, I am a lover of perfect endings and fairytales, where whatever you dream and wish for, comes true. And I assure you, it has nothing to do with the characters reincarnating, and all that bull the Balaji telefilms pulled. But it might have something to do with all the cliché movies and fairytales with the protagonist being the good one at heart, winning in life and having a perfectly ever after, just like she wished and dreamed of. 

That’s the belief I grew up with and I refuse to let go. To me, 11:11 is the time when whispered wishes comes true . And even if I see the glass half empty with no source to refill it, I don’t miss out to wish. I wish for things to get better and for life to get easier. Do they come true? Not all the time. But do I stop? No. That’s because there’s another thing I believe in, The Law of Attraction.

A “law” is said to be something that works whether you believe it or not, especially the ones not made by man. Like for example, the law of gravity. The egg doesn’t fly up when you drop it, in normal circumstances. Similar is the case with the “law of attraction”. The law of attraction is one big mystery. Yet, an impactful mystery. 

The principle behind the law of attraction is that “like attracts like”. It is the belief that the universe creates and provides for you that which your thoughts are focused on. So, if we predominantly focus on good thoughts and feelings, we will attract positive people, circumstances, and events into our lives. And whatever we resist will persist, which means that whatever we passionately don’t want, we are inviting it to us.

Now sometimes, that might be because what we think about and believe, we tend to do. So, our actions bring the result. But some cases are unexplainable. Somedays, you are hoping that your roommate will bring you pizza, and surprisingly she does. Somedays, you are hoping you don’t get paired up with a certain someone for important school work, and guess what, you’re stuck with them. These are a few instances where you attracted the event that you kept your focus on. 

While all of these might sound very philosophical, there’s a bit of science behind this. Psychologists support the use of affirmations which is a key tool in the law of attraction. According to them, people who consistently tell themselves they can meet a goal are more likely to achieve them. Neurologists claim that people who visualize a better future are more likely to be able to bring that future into existence. The power of positive thinking has been supported by medical journals as well. 

The most convincing evidence to date has been the discovery of “mirror neurons”. Our brains appear to mirror the actions of another person automatically. Similarly, when we act, the brains of others will fire in a similar way. Our actions cause similar action-representations in the brains of others. The depth of our feelings and actions is, hence, a critical variable in “attracting” what we want to our lives.

As I thought of writing about this (for quite some time now), I thought about Shah Rukh Khan saying, “agar kisi chijko dil se chaho, toh puri kayanat use tumse milane ki koshish main lag jati hai” (when you want something, the world conspires in helping you achieve it, in the words of Paulo Coelho). And believe it or not, I miraculously happened to watch TV after a very long time and came across the movie with this dialogue. So you know what I mean right?

You might be a tiny piece in this vast universe, but the universe wouldn’t exist for you without you. The universe might have greater things to worry about, but what is wrong with having hope? Isn’t that what keeps us sane? So keep the faith and know that it’s okay to sometimes pretend the airplane in the night sky as a shooting star. Because we could really use a wish.