One of the things I’ve come across repeatedly when I’ve read about manifestation and the Law of Attraction is the need for gratitude.

In general this seems to be a common theme because people believe that intense emotion is necessary to manifest anything.

The “best” emotions for manifestation, according to many commentators on the Law of Attraction, are gratitude and joy – that is to say, the feelings you might imagine you’ll feel when you’ve successfully manifested your goals. You can read about these emotions, and how you might embody more of them in your life by studying shadow work.

And of course, it’s certainly true that if you’re not going to be feeling joy and excitement at the prospect of manifesting your deepest desires, then there’s probably something wrong with the goal you’ve chosen!

Video – Influence your reality

However, I’ve also come across a viewpoint which I think is equally valid, which is that any intense emotion will do. It doesn’t have to be positive, like joy and gratitude, but it can be negative, like anger or even rage.

There’s no question in my mind that the manifestation process depends on you putting out high levels of energy, and that these levels of energy can be either positive or negative. This is explained by the concept of shadow, which can be the driving force behind much of our energy.

That’s because the universe has no capacity to distinguish between positive emotion and negative emotion – in the universal space there is no such thing as good or evil, or positive or negative.

It’s not the universe’s job to make value judgements about whether we are in the right or the wrong, or to make moral judgements – indeed, it’s incapable of doing so because in the universal space, the maxim that applies to everything is this: “what is, is”.

Now I know this is hard to imagine because a lot of people believe that God is love, but the truth of the matter is that God is everything.

And if God is everything, then God must be good and evil, love and hatred, night and day, dark and light.

Nonetheless, this is not the place to engage in any kind of debate about the philosophy of the universal intelligence or the nature of God – our purpose here is solely to consider what might be necessary to manifest things successfully, and as far as that criterion is concerned, it’s evident that all we need is a lot of powerful emotion.

Having said all that, a guest post by Matt Clarkson here www.applythelawofattraction.com is worth reading. He starts by saying that we’ve all seen The Secret, we’ve all read about the Law of Attraction, and we’ve all tried to manifest what we want… And then he asks the $64,000 question: why is it so hit and miss?

And he provides some suggestions as to why this is!

First of all, Matt suggests there is an inherent danger – dramatic words indeed, so let’s read on and see if he’s right about that – which comes from working with the law of attraction: he claims it has the capacity to absolutely destroy anything you do in your attempt to manifest your desires. Here it is:

The very act of wanting something may carry “the energy of lack”.

And he makes a very valid point, of course, because when we are manifesting something, it’s generally because we perceive a lack of something in our lives – in other words, you literally feel that you don’t have something, and the emotional tone of thoughts which go with that knowledge could be deprivation, fear, shortage and lack… these being the kind of things which can really have a negative impact on the process of manifestation.

This idea depends on the philosophy that “like attracts like”.

In other words, if you’re sitting in negative energy while you’re trying to co-create reality with manifestation, then the chances of you being successful may be diminished by the fact that the Law of Attraction and manifestation, as governed by the universal intelligence, is actually responding to your dominant feeling state rather than the image of abundance you are summoning up.

And of course, if what you’re feeling is anxiety and fear and a sense of lack, that may be what the Law of Attraction will actually respond to.

This is a real problem for many people, because it’s so logical and seems fairly obviously true – therefore, the question is, what can you do to get over this problem?

And the answer seems to be to feel gratitude.

To make gratitude a daily practice – in other words to find things in your life (and there are many – and that is true regardless of how bad your life might appear to be right now) for which you can be grateful.

You need to spend time – perhaps as much as 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes in the evening –  feeling your gratitude for the things that actually are going right in the world for you ….. which might be as simple as the fact you have food to eat and you are still alive.

But here’s a question asked by many people – how can you be grateful for something that you haven’t yet manifested?

Well, the very fact that you’re trying to manifest something means your desired objective already exists – at least in consciousness.

Keep in mind there is no distinction between positive and negative in the universal intelligence, nor is there any distinction between past, present and future.

In other words, the instant you set an intention and summon up an image of some goal in your consciousness, well, it exists right now in potential form.

If that seems like a stretch for you to believe, imagine this: every single thing that exists around you first existed as an idea in somebody’s mind. And then, somehow, it manifested into a physical form on the planet Earth.

Gratitude has more to it than just the purpose of getting you into a frame of mind where you’re thinking about the existence of what you’re “programming for” (that simply means visualizing something).

Yes, it does – gratitude is a powerful factor in determining how happy you feel in the present moment.

If you doubt this, simply practice feeling gratitude for three weeks morning and evening, and see how your mood changes. It’s almost phenomenal, but it is a reality – to maintain a positive and healthy mental attitude in life, you only need to practice gratitude for all the things  in your life you can be thankful for.

(Which of course contrasts with an attitude of lack and desperation and wanting: all of which contribute to negative feelings, mostly unhappiness and fear.)

Even so, I want to make the point that gratitude isn’t the only positive and powerful force that will enable you to manifest things very quickly.

Manifesting With Desire

You can also use desire to fuel manifestation.

Of course when we talk about desire we’re not talking about just a simple “wish” that something might happen. We’re talking about a feeling of wanting something so intense and so strong that nothing could possibly come between you and its manifestation.

You see, feeling desire –  passionate desire –  means you are so set on some particular objective that you will do whatever it takes to get it.

And it also implies that no matter what intuition or inspirations may come to you, you will explore them – because you know that following your intuition is the route to success.

Desire –  intense desire, passionate desire –  is a powerful emotion which can help you to overcome fear.

That helps you overcome your procrastination, your fear of action, and enables you to take action in a very positive and powerful way.

Desire is emotion which may literally make the difference between manifesting something and failing to achieve anything at all.

When you practice intense desire – with or without gratitude – you’re going to discover that little things start to happen… they simply suggest you’re on the right track.

And then, as your success is reinforced, you will find things begin to change faster and faster, and as they change faster and faster, so you will believe more and more in the achievement of your objective, and as you believe more in what you’re trying to achieve, so it will manifest faster.

This is a beautiful example of positive feedback which is irresistible, and to which the Law of Attraction can only respond by giving you what you want.

So when you’re focusing on something you really want it’s going to appear much faster than it otherwise would.

Which brings us on to this question: how can you increase your desire so that it’s going to aid the process of manifestation?

The first and most obvious thing to do is to make sure you’re trying to manifest something which is really important to you.

Consider your soul purpose or mission in life. How much more important is it for you to find your true purpose on the planet while you live here than simply to acquire a brand-new car?

And while it may be really important for you to have the status symbol – or the fun and pleasure – of a new car, I suspect you, like the majority of people, will be more fulfilled and feel happier, if you are truly fulfilling your basic purpose on the planet.

And of course finding your purpose may in itself be a route to manifesting large quantities of money, but that’s not my point.

I’m just saying that when you focus on the things which are really important to you (in other words if you focus on your deepest values and beliefs), then you’re more likely to be successful in your manifestation than if you focus on material goods.

To focus on feeling good, do whatever takes you into a space of emotional positivity and enjoyment – sing, dance, make love, play with your partner or children… whatever raises your energy to a high vibrational state (in other words, an intense positive state) will help you to manifest things faster.

And when you’re in state where you can maintain high levels of positive energy all the time, you’re pretty much well on the way to manifesting your reality.