The Secret

Sophie Zhang

The Secret 封面

Recently, I felt like I reached a pretty low point in life. My relationships weren’t good, I wasn’t enjoying my classes, and I felt like I had nothing to look forward to. My life seemed to be an endless cycle of homework,tests, and isolation. I wasn’t sleeping well, eating well, and nothing anyone said seemed to be helping. I wasn’t sure what to do about myself, but I was sinking into1. sink into： 陷入。a deep state of depression. All I wanted was to be happy again, but I didn’t know who or what would provide that.

During this period, I had a great deal of trouble sleeping. I would take sleeping pills to fall asleep, and then wake up in the middle of the night and think about how depressing my life was. I lost motivation and floated through life feeling lonely and depressed.2. motivation： 動力，積極性；float： 游蕩。Finally, I started reaching out to3. reach out to： 聯系，接觸，文中指向父親尋求幫助。my dad when I woke up during these late nights. He recommended that I read the bookThe Secret. The next morning, I tried to find the book online, but there were too many books titledThe Secret, and so I gave up and continued sulking through life in my slump.4. sulk： 生氣，悶悶不樂；slump：（個人的）低潮狀態，萎靡不振。

Finally, I turned back to the internet for help. I went through endless amounts of Google searches when finally, a link caught my eye. And amazingly,it was a link to the bookThe Secret. Having enough foresight5. foresight： 預見，先見之明。to realize that this was a sign, I immediately bought the e-book and read the whole thing thatnight. I’m normally quite a hard person to convince, but the effect on my mood after finishing the book was instantaneous: my heart immediately felt lighter and my mood cleared.6. 一般情況下別人很難說服我，但讀完這本書之后我的情緒瞬間發生變化：我不再感到心事重重，所有陰霾被一掃而空。instantaneous： 瞬間的，即時的。Suddenly, I felt like life was beautiful and wonderful again. I have never felt such a deep and quick change in my life before. Whenever people talked about “life-changing” events, I never quite believed them. Until now.

你是否曾經或正在飽受負面情緒的困擾，心情低落、萎靡不振抑或倍感孤獨？每個人的生活都并非一直陽光普照，我們都會經歷陰霾，但每個人面對陰霾的不同方式帶來了完全不同的生活軌跡。有人陰霾過后一蹶不振；有人則相信生活，充滿正能量繼續前行。文中作者將就個人經歷告訴讀者們怎樣走出陰霾并擁抱陽光，讀完文章你也不妨一試！

Essentially, the book’s message is very simple: the law of attraction states that if you are positive and believe in positive things, positive things will come to you. If you think negative thoughts, you are just attracting negative things to yourself. The book was full of success stories where people were able to attract money, soul mates, and old friends back into their lives. I was completely blown away7. blow away： 給（某人）深刻印象。. Immediately, I started practicing gratitude8. practice gratitude： 感恩。for everything in my life. In the mornings before going to class, I would sit down in my bed and write down ten things I was grateful9. grateful： 感激的，表示感激的。for. Sometimes I repeated things, but that was okay. On the first day I practicedthe Secret, I received a perfect score on my economics midterm10. midterm： 期中考試。, an A on my paper, and reconnected with an old friend I hadn’t spoken to in at least a year.

Of course, everyone has doubts and negative thoughts sometimes.These things are inevitable11. inevitable： 不可避免的，必然的。. After all, without bad thoughts, how could we know what good thoughts were? Being a highly critical person myself,during moments of stress or pressure, I would sit and think to myself:“What, is this all a fluke12. fluke： 僥幸成功。? Maybe all of these people’s success stories are just wonderful coincidences13. coincidence： 巧合。. How can a person truly have everything they want just by thinking it?” Right after thinking those thoughts, I realized thatThe Secretcould never work if I constantly doubted the power of faith and the Universe. It’s hard to feel wonderful and positive 100% of the time. But trying your best to feel genuine14. genuine： 真誠的，誠摯的。gratitude for your blessings immediately makes you a happier person. Many times I wouldturn to music to transform my mood—during this week, there were a couple of days where my heart felt heavy and tight, and I just felt overwhelmed15. overwhelm： 使受不了，使不知所措。with sadness. Once I recognized this feeling, I would immediately go online, read success stories ofThe Secret, and play cheerful music. I realized that it is almost impossible to feel upset after listening to “Here Comes the Sun” by the Beatles.

If you’re reading this and doubting me, thenThe Secretwill never work for you. Sometimes you have to let go of your rationality and logic and just believe that good things will happen if you let them.16. 有時候你就得拋開理性和邏輯，堅信只要積極樂觀，好事就會發生。If you constantly doubt the Universe, then that same negativity is going to happen to you again. Think about your life as a whole—when you have felt bad, have good things followed? Not really. It’s when you’re happy and free about life when you feel that great things will happen.

You cannot be divided about what you want.You cannot ask the Universe for more money and a perfect soul mate and a nice car if you are not content with your life as it is. You are the source of your own happiness, and everything else is just an addition to it. I am still trying to believe this 100%, but as I practice gratitude more and more, I realize that I am a wonderful person and I love myself. Once you genuinely enjoy spending time with yourself, you will never be lonely. You have all that you need and the Universe will never give you anything you cannot handle. Life is meant to be rich and abundant17. abundant： 豐富的，充裕的。and exciting. You just have to believe,let go, and watch it happen.