I was fortunate enough to have known about the Secret since I was 17. It was possibly the greatest gift my mother could’ve given me. Here’s my story of unwavering faith in love.

Right before turning 18, I got into a meaningless relationship with a mutual friend. We were just kids having fun, especially in the summer. But, when things started becoming serious (jobs, college, etc) we decided to stay together. Long story short, he was extremely deceitful, constantly made me feel like a “loser”, and was clearly very unhappy with me even though he did not want to end the relationship. He told me constantly he loved me, but I never felt it. We stayed together two years, which doesn’t seem long, but it is when you’re going through the milestones of 18 and 21 together.

For two and a half years, I remained single. There was a slew of reasons. I had read countless relationship books, watched talk shows, read stories, tried to get advice from as many people as possible. I was going about it all wrong. I got some standards, and although it’s important to have standards I was too focused on them and no one could meet them. I wasn’t even meeting a lot of guys throughout my day. I was extremely lonely and that’s all I felt and thought about. One day, I decided to write to The Secret directly and I poured all my frustration out – that I told the universe what I wanted in a man and had faith he would come, but nothing was coming.

The Secret wrote back and told me that it is not enough to give the universe a list and manifest it. In order to truly manifest love, I must adopt habits in myself that I wanted to see in my life partner. So, I did that. I attracted a great job, an awesome car, and even moved out. I ended up being so busy improving myself, that I didn’t even think about how lonely I was. I was actually enjoying myself, proud of myself, having a healthy love and confidence in myself! And what happened next was amazing. I was sitting in my car one day after work, and I just “felt” love. It was so bizarre! I had an overwhelming feeling of love, as if someone loved me in the way a man could and was hugging me, but no one was there. I was certain I wanted to manifest that exact feeling! I had never felt that before, but now I had!

I had been on and off seeing a guy from college, but I always told myself he’d never be the one. Yet, he was always around. I even told him several times that he wasn’t what I wanted for myself, he reminded me too much of my ex. But, he kept coming back a better person than before. When I had finally let go and stopped worrying completely about finding my love, I just hung out with him as friends. I looked at him one day, and realized all his wonderful qualities instead of everything that reminded me of my ex. Those qualities intensified ten-fold, and we’ve been together ever since. He was in my face the entire time but I couldn’t see him because I was focused on his bad qualities and not knowing what I truly wanted. Everyday he makes me feel that same feeling I felt randomly that day in the car. We’ve been together 7 months now, and we’re taking things slowly. Even though he hasn’t said those 3 words yet, I’ve learned from experience that I’d much rather feel “love” and not hear it, than the other way around. The words will come on their own time, but I’m grateful every single day that I can finally feel it!