Manifestation is the process of actively bringing the things we want into our lives. It’s a simple process that is available to anyone. It just takes some practice to shift your mindset into becoming a creator rather than a passive receiver of life.
One you understand the power of manifestation, and begin to see the evidence in your life, it will become a habitual tool you use daily without much thought.
1. Know with absolute certainty what you want.
While this sounds easy, the most people know more about what they don’t want then what they do want. In order to manifest you need to know exactly what you want. You may need to write it out and take some time reflecting to figure this out. The more detail you have, the better.
Let’s say you want to manifest a new relationship. Right away you will have a list of qualities you don’t want due to past relationships. This is good because it’s taught you what you do not want, but manifesting can only happen when you’re clear on exactly what it is you do want.
An example of this would be “My next relationship will be healthy and fulfilling. My new partner will be as dedicated to self development as I am. Together we will travel, spend time in nature, and we will be playful with each other.”
The more clear you are on what you want, the more you are able to receive it.
2. Directly ask to receive what you want
Everyone thinks about what they want. Usually people do this countless times a day. From their next meal to how they want more money, our minds run constantly through fleeting desires. Manifesting puts intention and energy behind casual desires.
When we intentionally ask for something we send out a direct and clear message of exactly what we want. This has a powerful vibration and starts the momentum of manifestation.
You can ask for what you want with eyes closed in a meditation. You can say it out loud. You can write it down in a journal. Affirm it in a way that feels best for you. Commit to consistently asking for what you want, instead of casually thinking about it from time to time. Then believe it is coming. It is just a matter of you taking action to align with your request.
3. Visualize your future self
Visualization is imagination. Imagination comes naturally to us, but most of us haven’t practiced it since childhood. We are usually rusty, so it takes time to develop this instinctual skill.
Our brains do not know the difference between our physical reality and a thought. Close your eyes and picture sucking on a lemon. Within a few seconds, your mouth would water. The thought created the response even though there is no lemon.
Now that you understand the power of your own thoughts, use them to visualize your future self. Practice emotionally connecting to this person. How would this person wake up in the morning? What habits would they have? What thoughts would they think? Who would they spend their time with? Close your eyes and run through these scenarios.
If you’re having a tough time visualizing a journal can be helpful. Write a letter as your future self from the person you are today. Imagine you are 2 years into the future. Focus on the changes you made and how they brought you to be the person you are now.
Close your eyes and hold the emotion of what it is like to be this new person. Continually repeat this adding more emotion and detail as it naturally comes to you.
4. Take action to match desire
When you’re clear on what you want and you visualize who you’ll become, the steps reveal themselves to you. Feeling stuck about what to do next is a result of no clarity. As clarity makes its way to you, so will the path to get there.
The problem people have with manifestation is that they want to make huge leaps in thought and behavior in short periods of time. Manifesting is about starting very small and cultivating patience. For successful manifestation you must love the process, not be focused on an end result.
The best way to take action is though morning routine. This is the beginning part of successful manifestation. Write down how the future person you want to be will spend their morning.
Here is an example:
I will wake up at 6:30 am. When I first wake up, I will not check my cell phone or do anything else that distracts me. I will sit and meditate for 5 minutes and do affirmations or list things I am grateful for. Then I will move my body in whatever way feel best for 15 minutes. This is more than enough action. Do not put too many demands on yourself in the beginning. Allow your brain to form new neural pathways slowly. Establishing a morning routine will create confidence. Once you can trust yourself to spend your mornings being intentional, you’ll begin to be more intentional throughout the day.
After you have mastered a morning routine, you can set another daily ritual. Mastering daily rituals is creates a solid foundation for manifesting. It will help you trust yourself, and therefore trust the process.
5. Commit to daily visualization and affirmations
It doesn’t matter if you’re feeling doubt while reading this. It’s perfectly normal to be skeptical. The mind always resists what it does not yet understand. So rather than working out if you think this will work for you, commit to practicing. You do not need proof to begin.
We are in the habit of telling our mind what we do not want, so it takes a lot of commitment to shift into the habit of telling our minds what we do want. This is where affirmations and visualization help establish this habit. Everyone has a different style of doing visualization, but the main idea is that this is a mental rehearsal.
Bob Bowman, coach to olympic medalist Michael Phelps says, “For months before a race Michael gets into a relaxed state. He mentally rehearses for two hours a day in the pool. He sees himself winning. He smells the air, tastes the water, hears the houses, sees the clock.”
Before bed take a few minutes to mentally rehearse how you day will go. Picture what time it will say on your clock. Picture you spending time meditating and doing fitness. Rehearse how your day of work will go. Imagine your interactions with people are pleasant and positive. Feel the emotion of being accomplished and fulfilled. Do this daily and watch how differently your day unfolds.
6. Be present and acknowledge what’s given
When we’re not present, we are still creating our lives. We are just passive creators on auto pilot so we don’t see how our actions and thoughts correlate to what we receive. As manifestors, we become intentional creators.
Through practice and repitition our brain adjusts to active participation. Active participation require presence.
Maybe you’ve been manifesting a new outlook in life and you open your phone to a motivational quote that hits on exactly what you’ve working on. This is a sign. Maybe you’ve been wanting to have more positive interactions and a stranger holds the door open with a smile. This is a sign. Training the mind to see these small connections is an important part of manifesting, but they’re easy to overlook. Journaling these connections down is a huge motivator.
The more you acknowledge what is given, the more things are given in your future.
7. Feel gratitude
When we’re passive creators, we have little gratitude. We might not even understand what gratitude is. Because we don’t know our own power, we think things happen to us. It’s very difficult to have gratitude when we can’t connect our own role in our life experience.
Manifesting will revel things to you throughout the day. As you see them have gratitude for them. They won’t seem life changing. In fact, they’ll probably be small things that would be inconsequential to most people. It is patterned acknowledgment that makes them life changing.
Write down that you’re grateful for the gift to see these things or say thank you out loud. Gratitude has a frequency that attracts more of the same. In the process your mind will be focused on more of what you want to see and less of what you do not want to experience.
8. Tune into intuition
Manifesting requires a lot of self awareness. Most of us have been conditioned to listen to voices around us. From parents, to professionals, to bosses and siblings, our minds are full of opinions of others.
Manifesting requires you to control what voices you take in while also returning to your own inner guidance.
Habitually looking to others is a hard habit to break, so you must get intentional about connection with intuition.
Here is a great affirmation:
I will connect with intuition
I have been disconnected, but know that I can reconnect at any time
Every day I connect more to my inner guidance
When I connect to my inner guidance, I experience more peace
My inner guidance will never steer me wrong
I cannot make a mistake when connected to inner guidance I can only learn lessons
The opinion of others does not hold more value than intuition
The more I connect to intuition, the more it speaks to me
I am open to and will be present to my own emotional guidance
9. Work through resistance
During manifestation you will experience doubt, frustration, and confusion. This is is part of the process, and is also why daily meditation is so important. Rather than react to our thoughts as fact like we usually do, meditation slowly allows us to observe our thoughts.
Once you start observing your thoughts, you’ll see that thoughts and emotions change shift constantly throughout your day. When you are not a slave to your emotional shifts, you are able to actively align yourself to the emotions and thoughts that you choose. This takes practice and commitment but it will come to you over time. As you begin to trust yourself to work through resistance your self worth will improve. Manifestation comes to those who establish high self worth.
10. Accept that this will change how you view people around you
An unexpected result of using manifestation is seeing how others manifest things into their lives, usually without awareness. When you understand the power of thoughts and words, you will see how many people mindlessly affirm what they do not want to see. Then more of the same comes into their life experience.
When you are intentional with your words and thoughts, you might experience people in your own life in a different light.
During this time, you might find yourself being called to spend more time alone. Isolation is a normal urge that comes as part of this process. As you naturally become more attune with and protective of your energy, you won’t be spending your time as you did in the past. This may cause friction in relationships.
Be compassionate and patient with yourself. Spend time doing things you haven’t done in a while and enjoy. Maybe it’s painting. Maybe its yoga or knitting. Maybe its watching old movies that make you happy. Follow your emotions and do things that keep your emotional state high.