Manifestation or Magical Thinking?

It’s hard not to notice that 2015 is the year of what I like to refer to as Manifestation Mania.  I think it actually started in 2006 when “The Secret” by Rhonda Byrne was published  and introduced the general public to the Law of Attraction.  Now every third post I see on social media is related to manifesting our dreams.  We can manifest abundance, relationships, and apparently weight loss, new cars, and our dream jobs.  If you read any article or book about it, they will tell you that anyone can do this if we just believe and visualize our lives as though we already have what we desire.  So how do we tell whether it’s Manifestation or Magical Thinking?

Whenever I read about this topic I find myself thinking back to elementary school. I could wile away an entire class in Teresaland, where I had an abundance of friends, a menagerie of pets, and my family and everyone around me were cast in an unending musical, singing songs about life, and every event was carefully choreographed to my satisfaction.  In Teresaland I was outgoing, witty, popular, smart and always knew what to say in any situation.   

If visualization were the key to getting what we want in life, I would have a horse  farm in Scotland and be sitting in my study overlooking the sea, wrapped in an old, comfy sweater, a fire burning in the fireplace behind me as I contemplated my next project.  My two Scottish deerhounds would be curled up nearby.  My bookshelf would be lined with my successfully published creations, all best sellers. I would have a lot of zeros in my bank account.  My soulmate would be out riding his favorite black stallion through the meadow, and my children would think I’m the coolest and best mom ever. I would spend summers in my beach house along some secluded tropical coastline.  The waves would sing me to sleep every night.  Everyone would love me and I would never be lonely.

So where is the disconnect?  Why did my life not materialize as I had dreamed?  

When I imagined a lot of zeros in my bank account, did the Universe hear “zero” and oblige accordingly?  

When do daydreaming and wishful thinking  become more? How do they grow up and grow into manifestations and affirmations that can be useful in helping us achieve the lives we desire?  Is manifestation even a real thing?

Let’s face it. The stories in the media are success stories. We don’t read about  those who fell short of their dreams.   If stories about mediocre results were in demand the internet would be exploding with them.  

BUT…  I have seen people bring about some amazing changes in their lives with manifestation and positive affirmations.    I can also say that I have brought about some significant shifts in my life since I began focusing on living a positive, light filled life, and practicing affirmations and meditation.  

For everyone I know who has had success, I admit I probably know just as many people whose attempts have not successfully transpired into reality and there have been plenty of times when I thought for sure that something was going to happen for me and it didn’t.  

Still, I am convinced there is something to all of this.  Observations and experiences over the past few years have convinced me that manifesting is a powerful  tool in building success, and it seems believing and visualizing do play an important part in the manifestation process.  So why are some people more successful at it?   

What I have sorted out is that the people who are successful have an abundance of self confidence and self esteem.  It’s the same reason why positive affirmations are easier for some people than for others.  One person can look in the mirror and say “I love you” and really feel it.  No hesitation, no doubt, no self degradation.  For the next person it’s not that simple. They may spend weeks or months looking in the mirror and repeating “I love you” before that sinister voice in their heads stops whispering “Liar!”.  Often they may give up long before that voice is silenced.  

Where does this voice come from?  Well, we all have a balancing act going on internally at any given moment, between the ID, the Ego and the Super Ego.  Without delving further into a subject that I am not qualified to get into further, I am just pointing out that we all handle this balancing act differently based on a lot of different factors in our lives, and I believe that this is the basis of the reason why some people are more successful at manifestation while others struggle with it.  The Ego is always trying to police our decisions and actions, and is based in fear. For some of us, those fears announce themselves very loudly and very often.  

The other important factor that it seems people often overlook is the action plan.  We can sit in our rooms every evening and make lists of the things we want to manifest in our lives, from fancy houses, to exciting dream jobs, to our perfect life partner. We can light candles and practice our affirmations, do mirror work and meditate.  Those are all very beneficial things.  If we don’t have an action plan then we are just putting those desires out into the universe with no way to bring what we are trying to manifest back to us.  

Making changes in our lives takes work.  It can be hard, and a little scary. Maybe even very scary.  We’ve got that voice in our heads, whispering warnings every step of the way.  What I have learned is that we can take steps to make that voice much quieter so that we can hear our intuition.   

Intuition is our soul speaking to us.  Intuition is how we receive Divine messages and Divine assistance in our lives.  Once we recognize those whispers of caution for what they are - the Ego trying to keep us from venturing outside our comfort zone, it is much easier to turn the volume down and allow room for our intuition to be heard and felt.   

There are many excellent articles and books out there about manifesting the life we have always wanted.  I am curious and excited to take things to the next level.  For anyone who struggles with believing in yourself like I do, I thought I would share my plan.

1. Practice positive affirmations daily.  Morning seems to be the best time because starting the day on a positive note sets the tone for the entire day.  If you struggle with self esteem start with some affirmations specifically for building self esteem. Youtube is a wonderful resource.   Louise Hay has some wonderful videos for building self esteem and Doreen Virtue has some great meditations available on Youtube.
2. Meditate daily.  10 minutes is enough if you feel challenged to dedicate more time to it.  I am willing to bet that after a week or two, you will gladly increase the length of time you spend meditating.  Meditation with nothing more than focused breathing, inhaling positive energy and exhaling negative energy is all it takes.  You can also just spend some quiet time with yourself daily.  This is the time to learn how to listen to your soul.  
3. Be mindful of the thoughts entering your mind so that when doubts and insecurities move in you can identify them for what they are and quiet them.  If you aren’t aware of this already, please know it really is possible to control your thoughts.  This is a tool I didn’t have until my late thirties and it really saved me when I was going through a very difficult and painful time in my life and could only focus on getting through one minute at a time, day by day.  
4. Be grateful.  There is always, always, always something to be grateful for.  The more focused you become on what is right in your life as opposed to what you think is wrong, the more your mind will become conditioned to accept and believe those positive affirmations and accept the changes you are attempting.  
5. Once you are feeling comfortable with the positive affirmations and are ready to take the next step, make your list of what you want to manifest and be specific about what you want.  Make a vision board.  Spend time each day visualizing yourself where you want to be in life as though you are already there.  If you can really see it, feel it, and know it - you can move from wishful thinking to manifesting.  
6. Have an action plan that outlines how you are going to bring about the changes you want to make in your life. It is an outline so every step doesn’t have to be planned. It’s just there  to give some direction because you can’t make changes in your life unless you get out there and take that first step.  You want to meet your soulmate?  Chances are it’s not going to happen if you spend your spare time on your sofa in front of the TV, unless you think your soulmate is a pizza delivery person.  In that case, there is a chance if you are willing to be very, very patient.  
7. Follow through. This has been my shortcoming (one of them) and I have decided to stop being afraid to live my life and start taking action.  This is what separates those who succeed from those who don’t.  Work the action plan.   

Let’s remember, we don’t have to create our abundant lives overnight.  We don’t even have to have every step of our journey planned out. That’s the beauty of it. Sometimes we just have to have enough faith to start walking, even if we can’t always see where we are going.  We will get there - One glorious step at a time.  

Because my Angels love to send messages to me at very appropriate times, I received this on my Facebook page today from “illuminatingsouls.com”.  I’ve never liked the page or heard of it before.   “It’s okay if you are not sure where you are going.  Your soul knows the way.”  Laurel Bleadon-Maffei.

Love & Light,
Teresa
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