The game of life & how to play it by Florence Scovel Shinn is one of my all time favourite books for many reasons.
In this book she covers so many important things when it comes to learning how the law of attraction and manifestation works. By the end of the book you start to believe that life really is a game and we can always win as long as we know the rules.
The book covers pretty much every area of life that you would want to improve. As long as you practice the suggestions that are mentioned, there is no possible way your life won’t change for the better.
Chapter 1: The Law Of Prosperity
The first chapter is a very eye opening one. Florence quickly teaches you that your words and thoughts are powerful. You have to watch what you say and think because it plays a big role in what you attract into your life.
The main goal is to start thinking and speaking positively about your life and others. The moment you send out that good energy it will come back to you like a boomerang. This is how you increase prosperity in all areas of your life.
You also learn that you can only get what you think you deserve. If you think you’re unworthy, broke or that things never work out then that’s exactly what will happen.
If you want more out of life, you must believe you can have it first. You should always prepare for success rather than failure because you will always get what you prepare for.
She also mentions that we can ask other people to help manifest our goals because it makes it easier. The reason for this is because they are less attached to the outcome. When you are super attached to a specific outcome you end up blocking yourself from your own manifestation.
Points To Remember
- Your words and thoughts are very powerful.
- If you want success but prepares for failure, you will ALWAYS get what you prepared for.
- You can only receive what you can see yourself receiving. (Think Big & Believe!)
- It is much easier to manifest for someone else, so you should not hesitate to ask for help. (It’s because they are less attached.)
Chapter 2: The Power Of The Word
The second chapter is pretty much an expansion of the first chapter because she reiterates that your words have power! If you find that most of your conversations are mostly negative, then you need to start making an effort to turn them positive.
It goes back to the simple rule of “if you have nothing nice to say, then don’t say it all”. Do not engage in any gossip or say anything negative about anyone else. You must get this drilled into your mind that what you put out will come back to you every single time.
When we talk with other people we should only use our words in a positive way. She specifically says “only use your words to heal, bless and prosper”. So for example only speaking about good health, wishing others the best and talk about having abundance rather than lack even if it may not be true right now.
Points To Remember
- Through your own words, you are continually making laws for yourself. (Good and bad depending on what you say)
- We should only use our words for three purposes. To heal, to bless, to prosper.
- What we wish to happen for another we wish for ourselves (Don’t talk negative about anyone!).
- Send out good energy and you will get it back in some form.
Chapter 3: The Law Of Non Resistance
In this chapter Florence talks about your how your subconscious can easily be influenced by others if you allow it to be.
She urges you to make sure that you are in control of it at all times. Things like television, movies and social media are affecting our mind the most, so we have to watch what we consume.
Another tip is to refuse to react to any situation in your life negatively. Choose to look at the situation as a lesson more than anything else. If we make this choice, then it won’t make an appearance in our life again. If we hold on to negative feelings from one experience, it will cause the same event to recur repeatedly.
She also covers affirmations and how to word them properly so you get the most benefits. You want to make sure affirmations cover every area in your life that you want to change. A good daily affirmation is “every day in every way i am getting better and better”.
This will make all areas of your life improve over time. Also, if you can make your affirmation rhyme, it will be much easier to remember and it is more likely to pop up in your mind like a song. For example: “Isn’t it funny how i always receive so much money?”.
Points To Remember
- If you do not run your subconscious, someone else will run it for you (tv, movies, social media).
- When there is no emotional response to a bad situation, it fades away forever from your life.
- Affirmation she provides: “thine will be done this day, today is the day of completion, I give thanks for this perfect day. Miracle shall follow miracle and wonders shall never cease. Look with wonder at that which is before you”.
- Rhymes sink easily into the subconscious mind.
- Every affirmation must be carefully worded and completely cover all areas of your life.
Chapter 4:
The Law Of Karma and Forgiveness
Chapter four is all about not forcing manifestations into existence and changing your consciousness. The main reason you shouldn’t force something into your life is because you never know what repercussions might occur. She gives an example of a woman who wanted a specific house.
She only wanted that house and wasn’t open to anything else. The woman ended up getting the house but it actually ended up causing the death of the person that lived there. Florence claimed that she caused the death because she wasn’t open to receiving another house that could of been just as good.
I personally don’t know how realistic this story is but it is definitely something we need to consider if we feel like we are forcing our manifestation. We should always choose the path that requires the least amount of force.
Now when it comes to having more money in our lives, we have to change our consciousness first before we will see any change in the outside world. You can do all the outside work you want but true wealth starts from inside the mind first.
The way we can do this is by thinking thoughts of wealth and abundance rather than lack. We also do it by spending freely instead of hoarding our money.
Apparently hoarding our money and saving every penny convinces your subconscious that you are going to lose it somehow. We have to learn to spend fearlessly and realize that we have unlimited abundance around us.
I don’t think she’s saying keeping spending until you have nothing left in your account because that would just be dumb. Its more like if you have the money for something you desire, then don’t be afraid to spend it.
Points To Remember
- Anything forced into manifestation through personal will is not good and is likely to have bad consequences.
- If someone desires to be rich, they must be rich first in consciousness
- If you wish to be rich you must be orderly. All men and women with great wealth are orderly. (Keep yourself organized)
- Hoarding and saving, invariably leads to loss. Spend Fearlessly.
Chapter 5:
Impressing The Subconscious
This chapter goes over a few different ways you can impress the subconscious with your desire. My favourite suggestion that Florence gives is to use music while visualizing what you want to attract into your life. This will bring up natural emotion within you and will lead to quicker manifestation.
Another thing she mentions is that before the big goal is achieved, you will see signs of it coming. It may be small things that you think are unrelated but they are all part of the bigger picture.
For example finding a small amount of money on the ground would mean that you will eventually get the big amount you asked for very soon.
I think what she was referring to here was actually synchronicity. I actually covered it in this post and i also experienced signs before winning some money.
The final point she makes is to erase fear from your subconscious mind. Never dwell on the worst case scenario or doubt the process. Instead only dwell on how you would feel after you’ve obtained what you have desire.
Points To Remember
- The subconscious is often impressed easily through music. You can use music while visualizing to elevate your feelings.
- Before a manifestation, you will see small signs of it coming.
- If one makes believe they are rich and successful in due time they will reap.
- There is no peace or happiness for anyone, until they has erase all fear from their subconscious.
Chapter 6: Love
What’s love go to do with manifestation? It actually has a lot to do with it according to Florence. She claims that the key to becoming truly successful is to love what you do.
Also do not be jealous of anyone who may have what you desire. Instead be supportive of what they have and it will manifest into your life much quicker.
The overall message from this chapter is to keep the feeling of love within you at all times for everyone and everything. If you do this then you will only attract good things into your life. It might be hard at first but once you make it a daily practice, the world will have no choice but to mirror back love to you in many ways.
Points To Remember
- Jealousy is the worst enemy of love.
- No one can be a true success in business unless they love their work.
- Sorrow, regret and remorse tear down the cells of the body. (Don’t dwell on the past)
- The more you dwell on fear thoughts, the more likely they are to manifest.
Chapter 7: Guidance
The main problem a lot of people struggle with is figuring out what they need to do to make their manifestation a reality. I struggled with this problem as well. You know what you want but how on earth do you get it? Florence has a solution in this chapter and it’s to demand guidance.
Speak to your subconscious and ask it to reveal the way to you. The answer will then come from somewhere you least expect. It could be that you overhear someone talking about desire or you may see the answer in a book. Don’t worry about how you will get the answer just wait for it to come to you.
She also says you can use affirmations so you know exactly what to do and when to do it. The affirmation is as follows “I am always under direct inspiration and I make right decisions quickly”. It’s simple and straight to the point but it’s powerful. If you’re ever feeling stuck just say that statement out loud and wait for guidance form your subconscious.
Points To Remember
- Answers to important questions in your life can come through a hunch, a chance remark from someone or a passage in a book. The answers are sometimes quite surprising as well.
- Affirmation: “Infinite spirit spirit open the way for my immediate supply, let all that is mine by divine right now reach me in great avalanches of abundance. Give me a definite lead, let me know if there is anything for me to do.”
- Affirmation: “I am always under direct inspiration, I make right decisions quickly“.
Chapter 8: The Devine Design
In this chapter, Florence says that whem we choose to manifest something into our lives, there is a divine plan that gets put in place behind the scenes to make it happen.
She repeats again that you should ask for what the plan is by speaking to your subconscious directly. You can use this affirmation “Infinite spirit, open the way for the divine design of my life to manifest; let the genius within me now be released; let me see clearly the perfect plan.”
She also talks about timing of manifestations and how we can delay it from happening by believing that it’s incomplete. The moment we choose to imagine having something it is already done. We simple just have to trust that it’s coming and stop focusing how long it’s taking.
I know most of us will give up if we don’t see things happening as fast as we would like but we must learn to be patient. Work is constantly going on behind the scenes and our desire is making it’s way towards us even though we can’t see it.
Points To Remember
- Demand the Devine plan by using this affirmation “Infinite spirit, open the way for the divine design of my life to manifest; let the genius within me now be released; let me see clearly the perfect plan”.
- We often delay our manifestations through a belief in incompletion.
- You always manifest the sum total of your subconscious beliefs.
Chapter 9: Denials And Affirmations
In the final chapter she talks about how majority of people put self imposed limits on what they want to manifest. Often times we look at our lives with a magnifying glass and focus on a specific person, home or job using our reasoning mind and we become blind to the other options around us.
If we meet struggle when we are trying to manifest something and we continue to force it to happen, we bring things to a complete standstill. No progress will be made towards getting our desire at all.
It’s best if we just visualize and feel what it would be like to have love, money, dream job and then allow it come into our lives however it chooses. We have to just let go and stop trying to control every little thing.
Points To Remember
- Continuously affirming something establishes belief in the subconscious.
- When a student is able to let go of his problem he will have instantaneous manifestation.
- Don’t be afraid to dream big. Never put a limit on what you want to manifest.
- If you try to force a manifestation to happen it will bring results to a standstill.
Summary
The game of life and how to play it is filled with a lot of helpful tips when it comes to manifestation. Although there are a lot of references to God and the bible, it still has a lot of practical suggestions for anyone who is new to learning how the law of attraction works.
I like that it is short and gets straight to the point in most chapters because it saves you from getting too overwhelmed. It is definitely a book that you can read in one sitting and also read more than once. Every time i pick it up, i seem to catch something new that i missed the first time.
I would say the most important thing i learned from this book is that we can all accomplish anything as long as we believe it’s possible. We have the power of God/Universe within us all and there is nothing that can stop us from creating the life our dreams.
