In spiritual circles and communities, the idea of “manifesting” our goals, or things we desire, has become very popular. And if you consider that we are created in the image and likeness of our creator, this makes sense.
What is Manifesting?
Manifesting is when we create experiences in our lives. Someone may plan a vacation, and then take that vacation. They have manifested a vacation. Someone else may have decided they want to learn to skate, so they buy some roller blades. They have manifested their skating experience.
When someone wants something, and then they get it, they may say they manifested it.
But it’s not just the good things we desire that get manifested. We may also manifest not so great experiences.
How are we Manifesting?
We are creating, or manifesting all the time. We manifest our experiences through our way of thinking and acting. However, since most of us have a habitual way of thinking and acting, we may manifest more obstacles than desires of the heart.
Have you ever known a chronic complainer, and they can always find something to complain about, even in the best of circumstances? Because of their habitual way of thinking (complaining) they will tend to manifest more to complain about.
And if someone consciously chooses to find things to be grateful for, they’ll likely manifest more experiences to be grateful for.
So the manifesting process itself is actually very simple. The hard part is gaining awareness of our habitual way of thinking and acting.
Three Steps to Manifesting Something You Want
So you are manifesting all the time. But there is a simple process you can start practicing right now to manifest more of what you actually want.
Step One: Get Clarity
So many of us fail to manifest our desires because we don’t actually know what we want. Maybe we keep changing our mind, or maybe we doubt our ability to manifest something important. But imagine that you go into a restaurant, ready to experience a delicious meal. The host seats you at a table, and brings you a menu, but they don’t bring you any food. Not yet. You will have to look at the menu, and actually pick out something from the menu before you can eat.
Step Two: Ask for Support and Guidance
Once you’ve gotten clarity about what you want, you then ask the Universe to support you. One of my favorite affirmations is “I welcome the Universe to support this now.”
It’s important to ask for support, and then to ask questions about your desire.
- What would it take for me to manifest this in my life?
- What’s the next best thing that I could do?
- What do I need to let go of in order to manifest this?
- Is there something limiting me right now?
Step Three: Give Thanks As If It’s a Done Deal
When we give thanks as if it’s already so, this frees up our minds to focus on making wise choices, and being the powerful creators we came here to be. This is much more powerful to our manifesting process than worrying and fretting about everything that could go wrong.
Once you’ve gotten clarity, asked for support, and given thanks as if, you want to pay attention and make sure that you don’t start doubting or worrying. If you start doubting the possibilities, this stops your energetic momentum. That doubt will eat away at your clarity, and you’ll feel yourself at a standstill.
We were born to be creators. As God created the Universe, we are here to create in our own lives. And all we need to do is get clarity about what we want to manifest, and then make wise choices.
I had never heard the term “spiritual shortcut,” until a few years ago.
Also known as “spiritual bypassing,” it just means taking spiritual action without taking any physical action.
At first this didn’t make sense to me, because wasn’t it the spiritual action that made us more spiritual?
But imagine that you wanted to plan a birthday party for someone you loved. And so you briefly visualize this party in your imagination:
Would you serve food, or just snacks?
Would the balloons and streamers be blue or purple?
Would the birthday cake be red velvet or vanilla?
Would you invite just family, or friends too?
Would it be in the afternoon, or evening?
Imagine that you visualized this party with total clarity to the point where you felt happy and excited just thinking about it.
What would you do next? Create a vision board? Carry a crystal? Say an affirmation about how it was the best birthday party that ever happened on this planet, ever?
Maybe you would (I’d carry the crystal, for sure LOL). But would you stop there? Chances are you’d make a list of things that you needed to purchase, and you’d do some shopping. You’d make a list of attendees, pick a date, and send out invitations. And there’s probably even more to do.
So this is why I believe that spiritual shortcuts can keep us stuck.
First off, you are already a spiritual being. In fact, on a soul level you are already in a state of perfect awareness and have the awareness of your perfect wholeness.
But your soul created this human life for a new experience; it’s really kind of a game – to call forth your divinity through your humanity, and all the things you can do in this life.
Now when you create the image of your “birthday party” in your imagination, you’ve made a blueprint. But without your participation in your physical life, that birthday party will stay in your imagination.
It’s your physical actions; your choices, responses, and the way you participate with life that anchors your happy outcome into your life. Once it’s anchored in, its manifestation in your life becomes highly probable.
So, as you’ve made all those plans for this birthday party, and purchased food, decorations, and sent out the invitations; all of that physical preparation (activity) made way for your happy outcome to become a physical event in your life.
Yes, our spiritual life matters. But it’s our physical life (and all our activity) that opens the way for our spiritual self to express into our physical world. ??And to be of service; to be the heart and hands of God in this world, it’s not enough to sit home on our comfy meditation pillow and send out good vibes (though do that too). We have to be participating with Life, and interacting with the world. ??
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin said: ?You are not a human being in search of a spiritual experience. You are a spiritual being immersed in a human experience.
Because that’s how our soul gets to have all the new experiences IT desires.
This used to be hard for me. It felt like I was working really hard, and yet not getting to where I wanted to be as fast as my peers were. And in some cases, I was much better at doing what I did than they were! Yet they were still getting the attention and accolades.
I felt sullen and envious every time they celebrated a success.
I finally realized that this was very poor energy management on my part, and that I would never experience my own success while I was busy channeling all that sullenness and envy!
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I’ve had to face rejection so many times, I’ve lost count.
I’ve watched people attending my talks cross their arms, and roll their eyes at me.
I even recently met someone I believed was a potential student tell me they wished their previous teacher would teach the class I’m teaching – they just loved him so much, and did I know how he was doing? Did I know if he’d be back?
And I used to respond to these situations by trying to become a little different – more like a person who those people wouldn’t reject.
“Thank You Universe for the good that’s on ITS way!”
One of the most powerful tenants of the New Thought metaphysics philosophy is the importance of having faith that our good is on its way, even when the appearance of that good is absent from our physical life.
Sometimes it can be hard to believe that something good is on its way, especially if we are experiencing something really difficult.
If we are in pain, it can be hard to imagine that wholeness is already ours.
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