There have been a lot of blog posts, podcasts, and courses on manifestation. The themes are very similar, which they sound simple in theory but can start to become complicated in practice. Manifestation is essentially aligning your thoughts and emotions with the Law of Attraction. You set a clear intention and using your high of positive thoughts to bring it into fruition. If this is the case, then why do so many people have a hard time trying to manifest what they want? There are a couple of reasons for this reoccurring problem. Let’s look at the six steps for manifesting and explore the potential blockers that might get in your way!
1. Setting your intention
Most people think this is the easy part. I take a look at the materialistic things I want and boom! Here it comes. This can work for some people but for the majority of people, this brings up a couple of blockers. When we set an intention, we unconsciously set limitations around what we are trying to manifest. For example, if I want to manifest a boat and I don’t get it, then I am going to think manifestation is not real or does not work for me.
Firstly, we need to understand why we want to manifest the boat. What is it about the boat that I want? What is the emotion behind the boat that I want to manifest? Most of the time when we set an intention to manifest, it is because we want to acquire something or experience a specific situation. I am also guilty of this because I have tried to focus on one specific and perfect scenario to happen. This can lead most of the time to disappointment. Instead, set your intention on the emotion you want to elicit. In your heart of hearts, what emotion or quality you want more of in your life?
If it’s something external or materialistic, ask yourself why you want that specific thing in your life? Dig deep on your intention because usually there is a reason why we want something. What will this give you internally? What is the underlying emotion that this external item is that you want to have in your life? For example, what is the boat going to give you in your life?
2. Open to Receive
One of the first things that are essential for manifesting is being open to receive. A lot of blogs and courses touch on this but they do not go into depth on this subject. You need self-love to be able to receive abundance from the universe. A lot of us assume we have self-love but in fact, we don’t. We hide under shame, guilt and worst of all, the feeling that we are not worthy of self-love. If this is something that you need to work on, read more about opening the heart chakra. The heart chakra is about receiving and giving love. Your heart needs to be open to receive or you can try to manifest until you are blue in the face but if you do not think you are worthy of it, than it will not happen. The channels need to be open to receive.
3. Letting go of expectations
One of the main parts to manifesting is letting go of the expectations. We talked about this in setting our expectations but it is worth repeating. One of the biggest blockers within manifesting is limiting our own realm on what manifesting should look like than being open to receive from the universe. These themes really do flow and play into one another. When you let go of your expectations, you can start to see what the universe is trying to give to you. It may not look exactly how you expected it from the universe. In some cases, it might be better than you had imagined. The point is you may never know if you are only focusing on this narrow focus and setting your expectations up to fail. When you release your expectations, you can start to appreciate the little things that come your way and you will start to receive more of it.
At the beginning of the blog, I mentioned manifesting is essentially aligning with the “Law of Attraction” to bring in abundance within your life through the universe. This is true, however there is another law that is less well known called, the “Law of Opposites”. This law does the exact opposite of what you want from the “Law of Attraction”. This is a tricky law and can block you when you are trying to manifest. Sometimes, we want something so badly, we won’t let it go and because of that, it repels from us. You may have heard stories about couples trying to get pregnant and after they adopt, they end up being able to conceive naturally. This is because the pressure to conceive and the expectations along with it have been removed from the situation. This is another reason why after you set your intention, you release it back into the universe and therefore, release the pressure caused by expectations.
4. Creating your future
A myth about manifestation is if I have these positive thoughts the universe will magically send everything towards me. The universe will give you opportunities but you are still responsible for creating your own future. This is where you have to take steps on how you are going to build it.
Start to make a plan on how you are going to get to your intention and what ways you are going to take action. It will open doors for you but you still have to take them. You have to see the opportunities in front of you and take responsibility on how you are going to create it. This also means being aware of routines and trying to break out of them. Mix it up. It is harder for the universe to give you new opportunities if you are stuck in the same routines. This is where you will start to co-create with the universe.
You are no longer pushing the responsibility on the universe and then becoming frustrated when it does not come to fruition. Be open to talking with new people; use your intuition to guide you and to help fulfill your wishes faster. Also, being honest and authentic with people will spark new and interesting conversations that might also get you closer to your intention or goal. The bottom line is you have to take risks and step out of your comfort zone to start making meaningful changes to your life.
5. Create a ritual
Rituals are a great way to help hone in what you want to create with manifestation in a creative and fun way. Be creative with your rituals because the more joy, creativity and child-like behaviour you can bring into the practice, it helps to create these high vibrations to attract the quality or intention you are seeking from manifestation. You can use the elements to create your ritual. You can bring in the aspects of air, earth, water or fire. This could be singing your intention with air, burning a piece of paper with your intention it for fire, going out into the rain to honour water or taking a bath or play in the dirt to call in the earth. It should be fun and creative but create a ritual which resonates with you.
When you call in the elements into your ritual, you are starting to align yourself with larger forces. As you conduct your ritual, visualize attaining your intention or quality and what that would feel like when you get it. Hold on to that feeling and the high vibrations that it elicits from you. Part of the ritual should include calling in your intention. Our voices have a specific vibration that can be very powerful for manifestation. Also, you can write down your intention or look back at it from time to time. You can also check out our blog on creating an effective vision board to help be a constant reminder for your manifestation practices. Lastly, if you do invite the elements into your ritual, make sure to thank them for helping you. Gratitude is a very powerful emotion, which segue into our next crucial step.
6. Gratitude
The more grateful you are for what you have attracts greater abundance in your life. Gratitude has a high vibration that helps with manifestation. There are several ways to continually be grateful in your life on a daily basis. You can use a gratitude stone. I find this one to be very affective throughout the day. You keep it in your pocket and every time you touch it, it reminds you of all the things to be grateful for in your life. It can be any type of stone but one that you have placed this specific intention. Then at the end of the night, take the stone out of your pocket and go through your day thinking about all the things you are grateful for.
Another powerful tactic is having a gratitude journal. Before you go to bed, go through your day and write down everything you are grateful for in your life. Even if you had a really bad day and nothing went right, think about the people in your life. You can even look at the little things, such as the lamp in your house to give you light, the fork you use to eat your food. When we appreciate everything we have in our life, our lives suddenly feel richer and more fulfilled even with the simple act of acknowledgement.
These six steps will help you on your path to manifesting your greatest desires and will hopefully help you to navigate through some of the pitfalls that might arise. Make sure to be mindful when setting your intention, allow yourself to be open to receive, let go of your expectations, be part of creating your future, elicit the help of the elements in your ritual and above all else, be grateful for everything that you have in this life. Appreciate how truly blessed we are to be here.