What is it?
How does it work?
Why now?
How do I do it?
What is manifestation?
Manifestation often gets dismissed as hippy-dippy magic; when what it rather simply means is ‘make something happen’. It relates to action rather than intention. You should consider manifestation a direct connection between intention and outcome.
Jim Carey wrote himself a fake 10-million-dollar cheque in 1994, he then earned exactly that amount in Dumb and Dumber.
Oprah Winfrey is a legendary vision board user.
How does manifestation work?
First you must set your intention or desire. Choose something that you REALLY desire. Do you want to be self-employed? Do you want to meet your life partner? Do you want to become a scientist? Do you want to be an artist? Do you want financial security? There are many ways of setting your truest intention. This is something that is great to do on a new moon or at the start of a new year. Write it. Paint it. Sing it. Touch it. Smell it. Hear it.
If our desires and intentions are truly aligned, we can ‘manifest’ the life we want. We can use all our senses to imagine it/visualise it to make it happen. By imagining it, our dreams then become possible, or rather tangible, to the brain. By focussing on it in our mind two things take place, ‘selective attention’ (better known as filtering) and ‘value tagging’.
Selective attention is when the brain filters out what is deemed unnecessary e.g. distractions. The thalamus is the part of the brain responsible for this. Click on the link as an example of selective attention https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo. We block a huge amount of information in our daily lives. Think about that car journey where you can’t even remember taking the turns and stopping for the pedestrians. You brain has made the decision and filtered it out of the conscious brain due to its apparent irrelevance. We can’t always trust our brain to decide what is relevant and what is not. So, if you don’t deliberately pay attention to what you want, how are you supposed to manifest it? Could your brain filter it out as a distraction?
Value tagging is the importance your brain assigns to the information it selects. There are both logical and emotional elements to value tagging. An example is you are shopping, you see a coat that reminds you of your late grandmother. The value of that coat dramatically shoots through the roof because of emotional attachment. As we can see strongly emotional experiences can shape our pathways in the brain, which can derail our value tagging system. If we have a derailed value tagging system, it makes us choose things that are safe even if it’s not the best for us to thrive.
With selective attention and a reattuned value tagging system, this sort of raised awareness will work in your favour and automatically bring opportunities along.
To go further, if we are a mountain bike rider, we could pay attention to the safety of the track in front of us rather than a negative approach of seeking the potholes to avoid (which is the stance most commonly taken by our brains to ensure safety). In a study, optimists were found to make life changes following a heart attack, resulting in a significant drop in their likelihood of a second heart attack. Pessimists were twice as likely to experience a second severe heart attack within 4 years of experiencing their first (referenced in The Source). Positive desire can make good things happen. Positivity is an essential key.
Why is manifestation relevant to me now?
This is the time that you might have set your intentions (new year, new you). Manifestation is one of the ways to make it happen. Understanding manifestation and using some of the tips may help you towards achieving your desires and intentions.
How do I manifest?
Think about a time you truly worked towards something you were highly motivated to do in your heart. That drive and ambition is what is needed for manifestation to work.
1. Be flexible - it may not work the way you expect it to
2. Be open to new opportunities - shutting things down won’t get you anywhere
3. See it, smell it, touch it, taste it and feel it – involve all your sense and write that cheque!
4. Have patience- we may get anxious or desperate for it to work, we may give up
5. Action board it – a great way to see it and manifest every day
6. Meditate on it – another great way to see it
7. Align your brain and body – get into that yoga class, your gut reactions may become more attuned; you may also find new balance and strength
8. Use your support networks – just because you’ve manifested it doesn’t mean it will be plain sailing
9. If you don’t ask, you don’t get – want that promotion? You must apply for it, it will then become possible
10. Manifest every day!
When do I do it?
Let’s take our brains off a negative autopilot in order to manifest what we desire.
Using tools and methods of manifestation daily (for example, singing it or drawing it), it will help your brain go from working hard, to rewire to an abundant mindset, to having these thoughts and mindset occur naturally and with ease (putting ourselves on positive autopilot). It’s the difference between a routine and habit (routine being more conscious, habit being more unconscious) Everything new needs effort and repetition. Stick at it and don’t let the fear (that it won’t work) stop you.
Reference - Dr Tara Swart (2019) The Source: Open Your Mind, Change Your Life. Penguin Random House Group: London.