The Secret of Feeling Good

by Jeannette Maw

What is the secret to making dreams come true? Do you know the one thing that matters most in getting what you want? Would you guess the key to success is hard work, perseverance, commitment, right connections, good timing, or lucky breaks?

You might be surprised to hear it has little to do with the above. Contrary to what we learn from parents, teachers, employers, friends, and whomever else shaped our lives, the secret to success may very well be the exact opposite of what we were taught all along.

The secret to a joyful life, to reaching one incredible dream after another, is highly underrated in our society and easily overlooked in the crunch of daily life.

That secret is feeling good.

Whatever your dream or desire is, chances are you were led to believe struggle, sacrifice, and continual effort were required to achieve it. If we want to lose weight, we think it takes dedicated diet and exercise. To earn a promotion at work, we believe extra hours and responsibilities are required. We equate improving our financial situation with cutting expenses or increasing income.

But those actions in and of themselves do not put us on the path to success. The only reason those actions might serve us is if they put us in alignment with our goal. If you have ever taken traditional action steps and not achieved results, it is because the crucial factor of “alignment” was missing.

Alignment means being a vibrational match to your desire. You can think of it as being in line with, in tune to, or on the same page as what you want. We cannot achieve something if we are not aligned to it. Boiled down, that simply means to get what we want, we must feel good. Taking action that does not feel good not only prevents progress but leads to frustration when doing the “right thing” does not produce results. And that frustration just creates more misalignment to our goal!

This phenomenon is explained by the Law of Attraction, which affirms that like attracts like. Everything in our world is made of energy, and energy vibrates, including you and me and all our thoughts and feelings. Everything we experience in life occurs because we are a vibrational match to it; that is, we attract what we vibrate.

So your thoughts and feelings create a vibration, which create your experiences. That is why feeling good is so powerful—it attracts more life experiences and circumstances that feel good!

Feeling good now is the best way to create alignment with what you want and to allow your dreams to materialize.

However, this is not the advice we typically get to reach our goals. Most will preach persistence and paying our dues for what it takes to succeed. You can relax and enjoy after you get there, they will tell us. The problem is that in “paying our dues,” if we create thoughts and feelings that do not feel good, we hold success at bay.

For example, if I do not enjoy counting calories or working out at the gym, and yet that is the action I take to lose weight, it is unlikely I will drop the pounds. However, if I feel good eating smaller portions and adopting an in-home yoga practice, that could very well be my ticket to the body I want. Not because yoga and small portions are the secret, but because doing what feels good is.

There is not one given rule that fits for all of us about feeling good. What one person delights in, another is driven to depression with. Whereas following a strict budget may be empowering to one, it could drive another insane. Posting a personal profile online for romance might be exciting for one, demoralizing for another. It is not the technique, strategy, or action step that makes the difference—it is how we feel about it that dictates our success.
So instead of following the “rules” or “expert advice,” if all we did was what felt best in moving toward our goals, we would naturally attract astounding success into our lives, however each of us defines that.

And yet our culture does not promote “feeling good” as a habit to strive toward. It is considered hedonistic and selfish to put ourselves and our happiness first. We are conditioned to put families, careers, and loved ones’ desires before our own, which is an unwitting recipe for disaster!

The secret to achieving things that make us happy in life is to do what feels good. Get in touch with your internal guidance, and follow that because we will not get to “heaven” by following a path that feels like “hell.”

Since most of us are not practiced at discerning and respecting our “feel goods,” here are four tips to naturally attract your dream come true.

1. Respect your emotional guidance. Your emotions are irreplaceable for steering you in the direction of what feels best. We are often trained to leave emotions out of the decision-making equation, which can lead to disappointment and frustration. Learn to listen to and follow your internal guidance, no matter how much logical sense it may or may not make.

You are the best expert on you. All the answers you need are within, and your emotions will steer you to the quickest and surest steps to the life you want. Trust yourself!

2. “Feel good” every day. Joseph Campbell’s advice to “follow your bliss” is as good as it gets. Make it a point to bring some sort of joy or smile to life each and every day. Whether it is a new habit of kissing your sweetie hello, indulging in a favorite treat once a week, or just enjoying an occasional hot bath, discover how little things can make all the difference in how you feel.

Following your “feel good” will create an alignment that allows more good things to come to you!

3. Eliminate what does not feel good. Unload the obstacles that keep you from feeling good. What is on your to-do list that you are dreading? Skip those! Delegate them, hire them out, decide to feel differently, or at the minimum, get them over with once and for all. These “feel bads” put you in alignment with things that you do not really want to attract.

As you eliminate what does not feel good in life, you will recover a tremendous amount of energy you did not realize was missing.

4. Stop worrying what others think. Yes, it may rock the boat as you change the way you live. That is okay. Does it feel good to worry about others and what they think? Right, it never does. Do not handicap your “feel good” by worrying about others.

You cannot make anyone else happy. We each choose for ourselves how we feel, and we can only be in charge of our own happiness. The best thing you could do for someone else is set the example of pursuing personal joy. Ultimately, when you find your joy in life, you become a better spouse, parent, child, employee, neighbor, and friend anyway.

The secret of feeling good is that it does not just feel good—it is a success magnet! The better you begin to feel and the more frequently you do it, the more you will find life delivering pleasant surprises, fabulous opportunities, and an abundance of experiences and things to love. Although it takes conscious attention until it becomes habit, it is the single best strategy you could embrace for living the life you want!