by Rhonda Byrne
I’m so grateful to you, Rhonda. You have helped me to change my life for the better. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
– Kim S., Canada
We can’t control every single thing that comes into our lives, because our lives involve other people, and we can’t control their actions. But as Charlotte so eloquently put it in the following story, we can always control how we respond to what happens in our life.
OVERCOMING MANY LOSSES
Over the past twelve years, there has been a great deal of loss in my life. My mother, all four of my uncles, two aunts, four family friends, and two beloved pets have passed over. My most recent loss was my very special little cat, Renny, who died this spring at the age of fourteen. My only remaining family members are my eighty-seven-year-old father and one sister.
Before The Secret, if someone had told me I’d be suffering so much loss in such a relatively short time, I would have been convinced it would completely destroy me. I can’t deny that I’ve felt very grieved, lonely, and heartbroken when these losses occurred, and I have shed many tears. I’ve also struggled with anxiety and depression in the wake of several of these deaths.
But thanks to The Secret and the law of attraction, I have been able to overcome my grief each time and bounce back to life in a much shorter time than I would have believed possible. In fact, as counterintuitive as it may seem given the losses I’ve just described, I’ve actually been enjoying life more in recent years than I ever did before! I feel stronger, and life just seems richer and more interesting and exciting.
The Secret was a revelation to me because it taught me that we don’t have to be victims of our circumstances or emotions. I used to believe that we can’t help what happens to us or even how we react to it. I lived in constant fear, wondering when the next crisis was going to strike and send me into an emotional tailspin. I also used to make my happiness dependent on what others did or didn’t do. Learning that I can’t control others but that I can control my reactions to what they do was a real “aha!” moment for me. So was the realization that I can control my future by what I attract through my thoughts and emotions, whether good or bad.
I know I can’t stop the elderly people and pets in my life from dying, but The Secret taught me that I can control how I respond to these events. Whether I go into an emotional collapse, clinging to the past and wishing for the impossible, or calmly let my loved ones go and accept their passing as part of their own spiritual journey while looking to the future for better things, is entirely up to me. What an empowering concept!
Each time I’ve suffered a loss or other setback, I’ve rewatched The Secret to help me recharge my batteries and regain my strength and enthusiasm for life. It works every time. It doesn’t happen overnight, of course, but I know that I’d be in a bad place today if not for The Secret.
– Charlotte B., Ontario, Canada
Every person who told their story in this book had no motivation other than a great desire to uplift and inspire you. Sometimes their story involved suffering; as you’ve seen, it can often be that the greater the suffering, the greater the impetus to change our life completely. From the ashes comes new life.
It is never too late to change anything or everything; there is no point that is too low to come back from. There is no opportunity that is lost. And the great news is that it’s not the world you need to change. Just change the way you think, change the way you feel, and the world as you know it will change before your eyes. It will then be your story that uplifts and inspires others; through changing yourself, you will indeed go on to change the world.
WRESTLING WITH THE SECRET
At twenty-two years old I landed my dream job as a professional wrestler. Although the job had me working my way through a minor league of sorts, I hoped to make it to the big time. Wrestling was all I had ever wanted to do since I was twelve years old. I loved the physicality. I loved learning. But this job environment turned out to be something different; it was a whole new world of mental and physical abuse that took pride in breaking people’s spirits.
Slowly and without even realizing it, I was becoming more and more negative and was losing hope with each passing day. I lost my confidence because of all the negativity around me and inside of me. I didn’t quit, as I don’t have that in me, and I would show spurts of turning it around. But then, bam! Something would knock me down again.
Just when I didn’t think things could get any worse, they of course did: I was transferred to a different city and spent what was without a doubt the most difficult year of my adult life at my new job in a new city. While things improved from a physical standpoint with my wrestling, I was mentally defeated. I had no real goals set for myself and was just letting life control me. I would watch the news and be depressed. I would go to the gym and be depressed. I would sit around and drink with some of the guys on off nights and wake up even more depressed. Negativity was ruling my world. I started having nightmares every single night that I was going to be fired from my once dream job.
One day at training, I was talking with my best friend, Pat. Pat was an unpaid walk-on athlete trying every day just to get to the paid, contracted position I already had. On this day, we were stretching and warming up around the ring, getting ready for practice. “I bet I get fired today,” I muttered. Pat looked up: “You’re not getting fired. You’re the biggest guy in here with the most potential.” Still, the negativity pressed on.
Then everyone in the locker room heard a rumor that three people were about to be released from their contracts. I went home in a somber mood after a grueling training day and elected to take a nap to escape my problems. I woke up to a voicemail from my boss. I was fired.
I was so ashamed of myself for losing what had been my dream job that I absolutely hit rock bottom. I moved in with a girl I had met very early on and eventually landed a job at Smokey Bones restaurant. I slaved there for fifty to sixty hours a week, and even though I enjoyed the work, I missed wrestling. It felt a little better when I got Pat hired and we could at least talk about our wrestling dreams and our failures.
I began to let alcohol and chewing tobacco take hold of my life in a very bad way.
Every night after work, I would buy a bottle of vodka and sit around and drink. At first it seemed harmless because I was doing it with my girlfriend, but eventually, we broke up, and I sank even lower. I now had no dream job and no girlfriend. I went from living in her large beautiful house to living in a rundown studio apartment with nothing but a TV, a cheap bed, and a couch she was kind enough to let me borrow. I was so ashamed that I avoided speaking to my parents, and I didn’t go home for almost two years.
Pat was really concerned to see the way I was living, and since he was going through a parallel story with a bad breakup, we agreed to find an affordable apartment near our job and hopefully one day get back to chasing our wrestling dream. While I was at work one day, an old friend whom I hadn’t seen in a long time came into the restaurant. He was devastated to see me in my current situation, and before he left, he told me he had read a book called The Secret and it had helped him a lot. He gave me some money and said, “Go buy this book today. It will help you.” I figured it wouldn’t hurt, so I went out and purchased my copy of The Secret. I got home that night and read the entire book in one sitting. It instantly captivated me! It hit me that as a child, I had actually used a lot of the principles in my thinking, but in adulthood, I had lost that positive “I can do anything I want” mind-set. I read the book again, and I went out and purchased The Secret DVD and got a vision board to visualize all of my goals.
Pat was working the late shift, and when he came home, I told him about The Secret. He was immediately interested. I think he saw something had woken up inside of me. Pat watched the video, read the book, and got a vision board as well. Our whole apartment became a visualization piece for our future; there were motivating images and posters all around.
Within a month, Pat asked me to come with him and wres
tle at some events to get back into the game. I agreed, and we were back in the mix of things. It felt fun. It felt positive. Sure, we were still working long hours at a restaurant, but our energy changed.
One day while I was watching Terminator 2, a realization hit me. I felt like Arnold! I felt invincible; I felt that I had been through enough to be a Terminator-type character. I gave myself this new identity, and with the knowledge of The Secret, I was ready for round two at my dream job.
Well, long story wrapped up, I impressed my old bosses and ended up getting my dream job back. Before long, I made it to the big time, and now everything I could have ever dreamed of wanting in life has come my way!
There is so much more, but this is the essence of a true story about a twelve-year-old boy named Ryan Reeves who had a dream to become a professional wrestler. He lost that dream, then discovered The Secret and got the dream back, and today he is proud to be known worldwide as WWE Superstar, the Big Guy – Ryback!
As for Pat, he now owns two professional wrestling companies, two training schools, and has done incredible things with his life. Seven years ago we were living in a small, smoky apartment, depressed and defeated. It’s amazing what this knowledge can do.
– Ryan R., Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Our natural state of being is joy. It takes so much energy to think negative thoughts, to speak negative words, to feel miserable. The easy path is good thoughts, good words, and good deeds. Take the easy path.
– The Secret Daily Teachings
To get everything you want is an inside job! The outside world is the world of effects; it’s just the result of thoughts. Think and bask in happy thoughts. Radiate the feelings of happiness and joy, and transmit that into the Universe with all of your might, and you will experience true heaven on earth.
Keys to Changing Your Life
You deserve all the good things life has to offer. Whatever you desire, the Universe wants you to have it.
Treat yourself the way you want others to treat you.
If you think of yourself negatively, you’ll attract negative circumstances to you.
Life is mirroring back to you what you are feeling inside.
All creation in your life begins inside of you.
Live the life you dream of having on the inside first, and then it will manifest.
Even though it might not appear so at times, everything is happening for you.
No matter what difficult situation you find yourself in, practicing gratitude will help you find a way out.
It’s not what happens to you but how you respond to what happens in your life.
It is never too late to change anything or everything – change the way you think, change the way you feel.
Acknowledgments
It’s an honor to express my sincere gratitude to the following people for their support and contributions to this very special book:
To the amazing contributors who shared their Secret Stories with the singular intent that their story would help and inspire other people, I thank you with all my heart. And to the tens of thousands of people who have shared their Secret Stories on our website – thank you!
The creation of this book was a team effort, and because of that it was an absolute joy to work on from beginning to end. I would like to thank the Secret Team members for their dedication and invaluable contributions. We’re a relatively small team, but a fantastically talented group of people. On the editorial side, producer Paul Harrington and editor Skye Byrne painstakingly worked side by side with me on the creation of this book. They are as much a part of its pages as I am. To super-duper organizer Glenda Bell, CFO, and downright good person Don Zyck, social media champ Josh Gold, Secret Stories website editor and dear friend Marcy Koltun-Crilley, thank you all.
For the cover of the book and the interior styling, my thanks to the very talented artist and creative director for The Secret, Nic George. My thanks also to the art director for Atria Books, Albert Tang, who worked in conjunction with Nic on the book cover.
To our wonderful publishing partner, Simon & Schuster, and in particular, the team at Atria Books. My thanks to the president of Atria Books, fellow Australian and special human being Judith Curr, along with the best group of people you could hope to work with under the Atria production umbrella: Lisa Keim, Darlene DeLillo, Rakesh Satyal, Loan Le, Kimberly Goldstein, Paige Lytle, Jim Thiel, Isolde Sauer, E. Beth Thomas, Carly Sommerstein, Dana Sloan, and writer Judith Kern. Thank you so very much to all of you!
To Carolyn Reidy, CEO of Simon & Schuster – thank you!
To our legal team, Bonnie Eskenazi, Julia Haye, and Jesse Savoir of Greenburg Glusker. And at Atria Books, Elisa M. Rivlin.
I have received life-changing realizations through many, many spiritual teachers and traditions over the last ten years. In particular, I want to thank my constant mentor and friend, Angel Martin Velayos of the Rose Cross Order, and the teachers who have impacted my spiritual understanding during the creation of this book; Sailor Bob Adamson (love ya, Bob), Robert Adams, and David Bingham.
To my precious family: my very special daughters, Hayley and Skye Byrne; beautiful sisters, Pauline Vernon, Glenda Bell, and Jan Child; Peter Byrne and Oku Den, Kevin “Kid” McKemy, Paul Cronin, and my gorgeous grandchildren, Savannah and Henley. I am extremely blessed to have each one of them.
To some of my dearest and longtime friends who remain so despite my single-minded desire to discuss spiritual truths at every possible moment: Elaine Bate, Mark Weaver, and Fred Nalder, Forrest Kolb, Andrea Keir, and Kathy Kaplan. And to a special group of people I have the pleasure to connect with through business who help make life even more wonderful: Robert Cort, the amazing Kevin Murphy and Negin Zand, Dani Piola, my personal assistant Pamela Vandervort, Eileen Randall, and Eligia Trujillo.
Finally, you would not be holding this book in your hands if it were not for my daughter Skye. She not only edited and worked on this book, she initiated the Secret Stories as a publishing project, and enthusiastically urged this project on at every turn until its final creation. The result is that it’s one of the best books we’ve ever published – because it’s from people just like you.
Contributors by Country
Africa
Alan, Nairobi, Kenya
DOUBLE OR NOTHING!
Asia
Tina, Hong Kong
I BECAME INVINCIBLE
L. Lal, Pune, India
MIRACLES IN ABUNDANCE!
Samita P., Mumbai, India
BLESSED WITH MY SWEET BABY GIRL
Enny, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
IT’S A MIRACLE
Darrell B., Singapore
HOPE
Australia and New Zealand
Belinda, Melbourne, Australia
MY ONLY CHANCE
John P., Sydney, Australia
SINGING WITH STEVIE WONDER
Karen C., Sydney, Australia
HOW THE SECRET EXPANDED MY LIFE
Olivia M., Canberra, Australia
HOW GRATITUDE SAVED MY LIFE!
Glenda, New Zealand
FOR MY DARLING MOTHER
Canada
Charlotte B., Ontario, Canada
OVERCOMING MANY LOSSES
Jessica T., Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
BEAUTIFUL HEALING
Dallas C., Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
TWO WEEKS TO A NEW LIFE
Kim S., Canada
MY GREATEST DREAMS CAME TRUE!
Mrs. Abundant, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
WRITE YOUR OWN CHECK
Roland C., Nanaimo, Canada
WHEN THERE’S A WILL, THERE’S A WAY!
Thea C., Victoria, Canada
FROM THE STREETS TO THE SECRET
Europe
Andrea, Ireland
THE POWER OF VISION
Evangelia K., Athens, Greece
TRUE LOVE OUT OF THE BLUE!
Micki, Sweden
A NEW BEGINNING!
Nia, Germany
I BELIEVE!
Sabrina, Denmark
HEALING THROUGH FORGIVENESS
Tracy, Canary Islands
THE SECRET SAVED MY LIFE!
Middle East
Mireille D., Lebanon
HOW I GOT THE JOB OF MY DREAMS
United Kingdom
Emily, London, England
PREGNANCY COMPLICATIONS WITH A HAPPY ENDING
Helen, Liverpool, England
EMAILS FROM THE UNIVERSE
Jane J., Ascot, Berkshire, England
BELIEVING THE BEST
K., London, England
BOLD AUDITION
Kate L., London, England
A NEW BEGINNING
Melica P., Essex, England
A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIEND
Rebecca D., Birmingham, England
BROUGHT BACK TO LIFE
Rebecca, London, England
HOW TO SELL A HOUSE
Zee, London, England
FOR ALL SINGLE GIRLS OUT THERE!
United States
Amy, Magnolia, Arkansas
RECONCILING WITH MY FATHER
Diana R., Phoenix, Arizona
INSTANT KARMA
Alex, Los Angeles, California
THE SECRET CHANGED MY FAMILY’S LIFE
Ambika N., Los Angeles, California
A GREEN CARD MIRACLE
Chelsea, San Francisco, California
MONEY COMES EASILY AND FREQUENTLY!
Elizabeth M., San Diego, California
UNDERSTANDING WHAT IT MEANS TO BE GRATEFUL
Heidi T., Chico, California
HAPPY POWER
K., California
TURNING CHICKEN POOP INTO CHICKEN SOUP
Kathy, San Francisco, California
EMPTY CHAIRS
Laarni R., California
SOMETHING SMALL
Lauren T., Laguna Beach, California
MY MIRACLE HEART
Lucinda M., California
HUGE TUMOR – GONE!
Tammy H., Fullerton, California
NEVER GIVE UP ON LOVE