Rewards
Written by Michaela MacBlake Matthews
What Is Manifesting?
Manifestation is the practice of attracting and allowing your desires in any area of life, from finances to romance, and every experience in between. The literal definition of manifesting is to “display or show (a quality or feeling) by one's acts or appearance; demonstrate” or to “be evidence of; prove”. Manifestation is firmly rooted in the notion that what you are, and what you believe, you will attract more of. In NLP, manifestation is called ‘acting as if’, to think, feel, and behave as if the desired outcome were already true.
Is Manifesting Hard?
To manifest something you want, you will need to practice a disciplined mindset, and focus on your goal as a present reality, rather than a future one. Manifesting aims to take dreams and desires out of the ‘someday’ mentality and bring them into the current reality. It can be surprisingly difficult to believe in what we want, because we are often taught by pain and disappointment to avoid getting our hopes up and being vulnerable. Manifestation is essentially the process of unlearning that behavior, and reopening yourself to childlike passion and discovery.
How Do You Manifest Something?
Choose Your Aim Wisely
To manifest what you want, first become very clear on what you want and why. You’ll need to groom your goals toward positive self-focused gains, and avoid any reactionary desires that stem from the ego. For example, when leaving a relationship with someone who would nitpick your appearance, it may be tempting to try and manifest changes to your appearance, but it likely will not work, because it is a projection of someone else’s world. You can, however, from your own world, manifest a new partner who will love you as you are.
Dream Wakefully On The Feeling
Keeping on with the romance example, the next time you are going out to run errands, imagine with childlike certainty that you will meet the love of your life today. Imagine this as a reality, and take note of how that feels to believe. Does it motivate you to opt for a skirt instead of sweatpants? Or perhaps just look around the room a bit before you plug and chug your way to the checkout aisle? The simple belief in possibility often keeps us open and active, so that when the opportunity arises, we don’t miss it!
Get Personal With Your Mental Blocks
When you first try to manifest something, and to believe in it presently, whatever thought or belief is holding you back from it will come front and center to try and stop you. You may have always assumed you wouldn’t meet the right person until you were a certain age, or making more money. You may have assumed that job satisfaction wouldn’t be realistic until your thirties or forties, or even that something about you just wasn’t good enough yet, but maybe someday, it could be. That ‘someday’ is what allows us to hold onto our desires, but manifestation asks that we confront someday now. Learn the skills, put on the clothes, go to the places, make the calls… And do it with the belief that this is it.
What Is Anchoring?
Anchoring is a method from Neurolinguistic Programming, a form of life coaching that deals with the subconscious. Anchoring makes use of sensory experiences and associative memory to pull the ‘someday dreams’ out of their cloud storage, and bring them into the three dimensional world. An anchor can be a song, a taste or smell, a physical sensation, a mantra, or even a piece of art.
An anchor is used to reinforce a thought, feeling, and mind-body state by calling it to your attention. They often require personal upkeep to create, however they can also be pulled from the past, as well. The deodorant you wore in high school, or the flavor of ice cream you used to get a few summers ago often carries a strong emotional nostalgia, and that memory can help stir up dimmed passions and confidence, if chosen wisely.
How Can You Use NLP Anchoring To Manifest What You Want?
To manifest something new, first get a crystal clear idea of what you are aiming for. This process, when done right, could take weeks or months to complete. Explore exactly what you imagine yourself doing, how your time will be spent around and outside of this goal, and what sort of obstacles or busywork you’ll face along the way. Go deeper still, imagining how you’ll feel about the low-points in this better life, and how you’ll handle conflict. Make it as lucid as possible. As you detail your aim, pay mind to which aspects of this manifestation are the most different from the life you already have, and which aspects link to similar experiences, even if short lived, from your past.
How To Use The Anchoring Technique In 3 Steps:
Sensory Association
Once you’ve outlined your goal clearly, look for something (or several small things) that reflect these memories and daydreams back to you. Find things, preferably across several senses, that embody these emotions, and surround yourself with the essence of this new you.
Investment
To avoid New-Year’s-Resolution-Syndrome with your manifesting, you may want to invest heavily in an anchor in some way. This doesn’t have to be a financial investment, but rather, should take the form of a sacrifice or an inconvenience of some sort. You don’t want to resent your goal or be afraid of it, but to take care of it, like a small fish or a high maintenance flower.
Repetition And Daily Use
Make sure that your manifesting anchor is present in your day to day life. It can be a wall color, a keychain, a song you listen to when you first wake up, or even each of these things together. However, it needs to be something that lives with you in your functional space, that isn’t easily forgotten about in a drawer or a dim corner. If you are a visual thinker, carefully chosen lighting effects or a piece of art that falls directly in your eye-line while you eat can be great tools to use!
Personally, I am committed to exploring dreams. So, every night before I fall asleep, I plug in my rainbow Christmas lights, which to me, embody that mood. It takes less than a minute of my time to plug them in each night and unplug them each morning, but it helps keep me invested in my own interest.
Embracing Manifestation
At the end of the day, the true beauty of manifestation is self-power, and the goal setting process is merely a cycle that never really ends. Don’t be afraid to switch gears, to shift visions, or to expand on your desires as you learn about them. While some degree of consistency is a good thing, true manifestation requires staying conscious, and adapting as you go!
"Mac" is on the Lifestyle Team here at Darn Good Yarn, and loves taking a ‘teach a man to fish’ approach to creative therapy. She is certified in neuro-linguistic programming, and is also the surreal artist and author behind Surrealismac.
