By Anita Moyale, G11
If you have Tik Tok and your for you page is anything like mine, then you probably know what ‘the universe’ is. It is currently a trend to make short videos on the app that give some sort of sign, and mostly includes “trusting the universe to get it (the sign) to the right people”. Some of the ones I’ve seen have included the absolute vaguest statements, such as: “he is the one for you”, “things are going to get better” or “something good is going to happen to you tomorrow”. They sound foolish, I know. But did you know that these videos in which you have to “follow and share to manifest” are actually based on a real, existing concept?
The Law of Attraction was officially ‘discovered’ in 1877, but was already being used for thousands of years before that. Although there is scientific evidence and proof for this law, I’ve come across several people, including some of my friends, who are scared of using it for a variety of reasons – e.g… bringing demons to their house. I promise you, though, it’s not as scary as you think.
The main idea of the Law of Attraction is that like attracts like. To put it simply, everything vibrates at a certain frequency, and you can only attract what you are on the same frequency as. So if you want to be happy, you have to act as though you’re already happy – you have to believe it too. Essentially, the Law of Attraction embodies the idea of ‘fake it ‘till you make it’. Quite similarly, Buddhist practices include the idea that our thoughts create our reality.
“What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow: Our life is the creation of our mind.”
~ Buddha
Buddhism focuses heavily on detaching from materialistic desires and, therefore, allowing yourself to become an enlightened spiritual being. This is also basically how the Law of Attraction works: you must let go of your desires in order to bring them to fruition. The stigma that is found among religious individuals when it comes to the law is often simply because they, possibly even you, don’t fully understand or grasp the concept. The Law of Attraction is something that can completely change your life, but only if you believe it can. It’s as simple as switching your mindset from a fixed one to a growth one – a ‘can-do’ one. You have to forgive yourself and know that you are not your mistakes.
I could go on and on, but I think you get the gist of it. You can probably see just how misleading Tik Tok can be when it comes to this kind of stuff now. The majority of creators of those types of videos, the ones I described before, are only looking for clout, or internet attention – likes, follows or shares; those are the types of videos that do well, so they just follow the trends. I’m not saying that they’re not interesting to watch and exciting to get, but really? I hate to break it to you, but the videos you see on your for you page all comes down to the algorithm of the app, not a higher power. If you ask me, I’m not going to accept a ‘sign from the universe’ unless it comes straight from a tarot reader, or something of a similar, more credible, sense. Even those can be tricky though, so just keep that in mind. I should mention I didn’t write this article just because I want to bash Tik Tok and these videos. I just want to inform you that the Law of Attraction is much more than just a ‘sign from the universe’ and, if used correctly, can truly make you the version of yourself that you’ve always wanted to be.
