Five years ago, I moved to the outskirts of town to get away from all the hustle and bustle of city life. I was tired of traffic, and noise, and annoying neighbors and just wanted to get a place where I could stretch out and decompress at the end of a long day.

Boy did that plan backfire. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for what I have but I'm certainly no closer to being able to relax than I was before. I've got more grass to cut, no maintenance man to fix leaking faucets and I've managed to add a dozen more traffic lights to my commute in the morning and every afternoon than I otherwise had before I moved.

Traffic lights. I absolutely hate them. I catch every single red light no matter what the time of day, no matter the volume of traffic or my observation of the posted speed limits: It just does not seem to matter.

I catch every one, and that is not an exaggeration. I also do not just randomly catch the light either, it's always just as it's turning red, thus ensuring the absolute maximum wait time possible.

I was at one of these lights a couple of years back, silently cursing the powers that be and I remember asking myself how was it even possible that I caught every single light every single time I stepped into my automobile?

The thought occurred to me that perhaps the devil was tempting me, trying to make me stressed and angry and down right insane. How else to explain this freak of nature? You could not simply chalk it up to sheer luck or coincidence, the odds were just to astronomical to even consider it. There had to be an outside force acting upon me and these infuriating lights.

I remember getting into work that morning and opening up an email from a very dear fiend of mine with an urgent request to open the attachment she had sent along on this new theory sweeping the nation. It was a review of the movie The Secret and an encapsulated discussion on the basic theory of the Law of Attraction.

The rest is history I suppose. I saw the movie, read everything I could get my hands on about this ?new? idea, and even attended more than half a dozen seminars on the subject, all because of three little words mentioned in that first email.

Like attracts Like.

You see, the power of this idea did not manifest itself in some silly little affirmation idea or in the form of a check out of the blue that I had convinced myself I was already in possession of. No, it came in quite the opposite way actually. Sitting at stop light after stoplight silently cursing the universe and the powers that be as to why they felt the need to bestow this misery upon my tortured soul day in and day out.

It happened because basically, I commanded it to. Simply asking myself why I hit every red light attracted and manifested that thought into the reality of actually hitting everyone.

The universe was even compelled to go so far as moving me further from my job to allow me to receive even more of what my mind was calling out for.

The universe has no idea that these emotions are good or bad, nor does it care. It simply provides you what you ask it for and the way each and everyone of us ask for things is through our daily thoughts and emotions. Combine the two and you are guaranteed to receive it.

Eventually, through controlled and deliberate thinking, I was able to undo a great deal of the damage done and hit fewer and fewer red lights. The ones I still hit, and am okay with now that I know it's nothing personal and I'm just probably stuck behind someone with my old thought patterns, I take these opportunities to focus on something that I want to happen in my life and really focus my emotions and intent on acquiring it.

Truth be told, I actually look forward to the red lights now for this very reason and the results have been phenomenal, not to mention what the reduced stress level has done for my overall health and happiness.

It does no harm trying this principle and it could change your life. I don't know why anyone would resist the idea and possibly miss out on the chance to change their entire world for the better.