The Secret Effect

The Secret is a book I have owned for more than four years. It is a special one for it was the first book that I bought from my salary. Now just to emphasize how big a deal this is – I humbly accept I am a miser. There are just three places I don’t mind spending – Book Fairs/ Bok Shops, movie tickets and anything for my family members. Again movies are something my mother enjoys. Hence, officially books are the only thing I deeply, truly and inexplicably love and that I spend abundantly for.

I clearly remember – I was attending training for my first job in Gandhinagar. We were given accommodation at a place called Infocity. Infocity has its own huge market with a lot of eateries and other shops. There is also one Crosswords. Deep down, I would have known the kind of person I was for I dreaded entering the shop for the better of the three months (my training duration). When it was time to leave, I was buying gifts for family. For some other reason I had to accompany friends into the shop. I remember walking into it and then helping my friends with what they were looking for. However, I couldn’t just walk out of a bookstore. It was not how I am molded. So once my friends were busy getting the things wrapped and clearing the bill, I just saw the books. For a moment, I just stood where I was. Amidst books – is my happy place. I was simply beaming to stand there. Then I walked over to the door I had entered through and adjacent to that was a book display rack labelled the new and popular books. It is like I could still see ‘The Secret’ there. In haste, I took a copy and without second glance I bought it.

Back in my room when I opened to read it, I found there were no stories. There were sort of what I call ‘gyaan’ (knowledge). Since then, the book had been resting well with the other books that I have accumulated over the period of four years (375 and counting). Until recently, I had all suspicions that I would read the book but then something changed. My room-mate from training read the book (or so I believed) and she just loved it. Now over this brief period of four years, I have also learned to respect my room-mate as a friend, person and a more knowledgeable person than I am, especially where books are concerned. I knew that the Secret couldn’t keep its contents secret anymore and I just had to read the book.

It was one of the first books I read this year. Now another thing I should probably let you know if that I love logic. I dig for reasons. So honestly, I was skeptic about the book and its contents. Till this date I do maintain that I don’t know if what the book tells is truth or not. However, I truly loved how all the methods in the book are simple and encourages someone to love themselves.

It’s out right simple! If you want to have more beautiful hair, appreciate how beautiful your hair are today. Take care of your hair. Take anything or any activity and make yourself believe that that thing or that activity makes your hair become more beautiful – every second, every minute, every hour and every day. Don’t find things/ people whom you can blame. Find things/ people whom you can thank. Talk to inanimate things like food and water and tell that Thank You for nourishing your body.

Now I am not saying that you will have beautiful hair if you do that but I can guarantee that you will have a big smile on your day throughout.

Let me share a slight change that I brought to my day with the result of reading the book. I am a software developer by profession. Currently in my office, days can either become boring or hectic. There is just so much to do and so less time. More often we find all of us gathering and cribbing about people. As a resolution, I decided to crib a little less and also to replace my cribbing with something meaningful. Now I didn’t have any overnight miracle to be a star. I just made a conscious choice that probably after five or so minutes of cribbing, I need to say to myself and to the group that ‘We can and We will’. To tell myself to them that we can’t change others but we can change ourselves. Instead of saying I can’t, I try to say Let me Try or Give me some time to look into this.

No this has not made my work any simpler. Instead I had to stay back a lot of days to make the ends meet. But then I like working. I love computers and coding and would never grow tired of it. However, changing myself ever so slightly has done two major changes for me. Foremost, I am really happy. Let mountains crumble or the Oceans dry, I know it might take a little time but I will be able to make things right. I don’t have any extra baggage on my head or heart. It is not that nothing has happened to make me feel sad but it goes down as quickly as it comes. One month and counting, I haven’t let myself down. Secondly, I am attracted towards people and opportunities that enable me to stay happy. I am working more closely with people who enhance my mood instead of deteriorating it. I am surrounded by people who want to learn and who keep smiling. I don’t feel like the need to behave in a certain way or talk in a certain way. I can be as childish I want or make as many mistakes as I want and they will appreciate my efforts and help me fix my mistakes. Moreover, the biggest and the most shocking change was people find me as a completely different person as the one I thought myself to be. They find me a calm, funny (even childish) and a hard working person. Out of the three, I could only relate to hard working. But now that people are telling me and appreciating this, I feel even better!

So I can definitely tell you, adopting something positive is going to make you happy. You don’t have to read a book about it. You don’t need to go out of the way for it. You just need to sit yourself down and start with one happy thought or action. This will definitely create a ripple effect. Only condition is, don’t let it die if there is a delay.

Also, I googled and youtubed a lot on the words in the book. There are several people out there who have posted different methods and stories. I do intend to try and test them. I will definitely share if there is something I feel worth telling you all.

Till then, keep that smile ! 🙂