Living the Law of Attraction

Author, life coach and O, The Oprah Magazine columnist Martha Beck says the law of attraction doesn't work at the snap of your fingers—at least not at first. "At the beginning, you have to be careful what level you are on in your consciousness when you're making your requests of the universe," she says. Martha says it's important that your thoughts are not coming from a negative place. "If you're in a fear-based place where you need and you want and you're going to die and everything's scary, none of your intentions or desires has much power."

People hoping to use the law of attraction are told to write lists of what they want to obtain, like a "love list." So why is it that some people still don't get what they want? Cheryl Richardson, life coach and author, explains that negative energy could be the cause. "I think sometimes it can be exactly what Martha said—that we're asking from a place of desperation," she says. "When you put desperate energy out into the world, you don't get back what it is you want."

Cheryl says the items on your list may not come to you right away. "I know that there's something called divine timing," she says. "Some of the most amazing things that have occurred to me in my life took longer to occur than I wanted because I needed to grow as a woman. I needed to evolve in some way."