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What does it mean to “manifest” something? Can you really think your dreams into being?
The idea that you can manifest your dreams by thinking may sound incredulous. But ultimately, everything begins with a thought—an idea, a desire, an intention. Thought energy shapes the world, and you can channel it to shape your life.
Here’s how to manifest your dreams into reality.
What Is Manifesting?
Dreams come true… but only when you take steps to make them a reality. This is called manifesting—channeling your thoughts and actions in the direction of your desired life.
Your thoughts alone, of course, can’t make what you want to materialize into existence. However, your thoughts strengthen your intention and reorient your focus which, in turn, guide your actions.
For example, if you want to find a romantic relationship, the Universe won’t send your soul mate to knock on your door by way of some magical guidance. Instead, they will come your way through your own thoughts and actions. For example, by visualizing the kind of person you want to be in a relationship with, you’ll begin to pay more attention to the people who possess your desired qualities.
How Your Thoughts Create Your Reality
According to Deepak Chopra, a prominent figure in the New Age movement, manifesting does its magic by channeling your thought energy. Here is how it works:
All matter in the universe is made up of two things: thought-energy and the information carried within this energy. The information within the energy defines the specific details of the object in question. For example, the thought-energy that creates and flows through a frog includes all of the biological needs the frog needs to survive. This information is different from the thought-energy that lives within and flows through a bird.
The thought-energy and the information carried within this energy also define each of your experiences. However, your thoughts directly influence the nature of this information—specifically, your motivation for thinking a thought defines the information within your thought-energy and creates experiences that reflect this motivation. Let’s break this down into two parts to explore exactly how this works:
- Where you’re directing your thought-energy: What you give your attention to directs your thought-energy to specific areas in your life.
- Why you’re directing your thought-energy: Your intentions for thinking about something define the information within your thought-energy and create life experiences that reinforce those intentions.
For example, you may think about wanting more money and direct your thought-energy to the topic of money. However, if you’re thinking about money because you’re scared of being poor, this fear shapes the information within your thought-energy. Consequently, your thought-energy creates experiences in your life that fuel your insecurities about money.
TITLE: The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success
AUTHOR: Deepak Chopra
TIME: 12
READS: 47.6
IMG_URL: https://www.shortform.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/the-seven-spiritual-laws-of-success-cover.png
BOOK_SUMMARYURL: the-seven-spiritual-laws-of-success-summary-deepak-chopra
AMZN_ID: XYZ
How Your Thoughts Can Hurt You
If you allow your thoughts to be dominated by negative thoughts, you’re channeling your thought-energy towards the things that you fear and would rather avoid. If you focus on what you don’t want, you will attract what you don’t want back to you. For example, if you have a pest problem in your home, and you consistently think “I don’t want pests in my home,” you are attracting more pests into your home.
Don’t worry about being perfect with positive thoughts. We all think negative thoughts from time to time. Nothing can come into your existence unless you manifest it with persistent thoughts. Therefore, a negative thought once in a while is nothing to worry about. Bad things only come into your life when you think about them persistently.
TITLE: The Secret
AUTHOR: Rhonda Byrne
TIME: 31
READS: 31.2
IMG_URL: https://www.shortform.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/the-secret-cover.jpg
BOOK_SUMMARYURL: the-secret-summary-rhonda-byrne
AMZN_ID: B002M5E2DW
Feedback Loops Reinforce Your Thoughts and Feelings
In theory, manifesting sounds easy—just think positive and you’ll get what you want (or at least, increase your chances of getting it). In practice, however, it’s very difficult to change the way you think and feel. This is because your thinking patterns lock you into a feedback loop that reinforces the way you interpret your experiences.
The following five-step process illustrates how feedback loops reinforce your thoughts and feelings:
- Your state of mind influences what types of thoughts you have. For example, you’re experiencing stress so you have worrisome thoughts.
- Those thoughts influence the way you feel. Your worrisome thoughts make you feel anxious and this increases your stress levels.
- Your feelings determine what you pay attention to. Your feelings of anxiety compel you to focus disproportionately on things that are going wrong in your life. As a result, you engage in more worrisome thoughts and further increase your stress levels.
- What you pay attention to determines how you interpret and judge your experiences. Your focus on what’s going wrong in your life leads you to judge your experiences as difficult or problematic—because it blocks you from perceiving what’s going well in your life.
- Your judgments reinforce how you feel, what you think, and your state of mind. Because you’re judging your experiences as problematic, you continue to feel anxious and you believe that you have a reason to experience stress. As a result, you continue to interpret everything that happens from this negative perspective.
TITLE: 101 Essays That Will Change the Way You Think
AUTHOR: Brianna Wiest
TIME: 16
READS: 21.8
IMG_URL: https://www.shortform.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/101-essays-that-will-change-the-way-you-think-cover.png
BOOK_SUMMARYURL: 101-essays-that-will-change-the-way-you-think-summary-brianna-wiest
AMZN_ID: XYZ
Manifesting Your Dream Life
The idea of manifesting is pretty simple, but how do you actually execute it in practice? How do you override your habitual thinking patterns and begin to channel your thought energy in the desired direction?
Mind coach Vex King (the author of Good Vibes, Good Life) provides three tips on how to manifest your dreams:
Tip #1: Visualize What You Want
First, you must visualize your object of desire in your mind—if you want a new car, close your eyes and imagine yourself driving that exact car, feeling the leather steering wheel, smelling the new car smell, adjusting your mirror, rolling the window down, listening to the radio, and so on.
Similarly, if you want to learn a new skill, imagine yourself practicing that skill and go through the motions in your head. Studies show that this fires the same parts of your brain that you use when actually doing the action.
Tip #2: Consider Your Underlying Beliefs About Reality
Everyone has different underlying beliefs about how and why the world functions, and your reality is shaped by these beliefs. So, if you have negative underlying beliefs, you’ll manifest a negative reality. For example, if you believe that people are inherently untrustworthy or that wealth only comes to people who are born into it, this will become your reality. On the other hand, if you believe that most people are good people and that wealth comes to those who work hard, then this will become your reality.
If you find that you have negative assumptions about people and the world, it’ll be difficult to manifest your dreams.To change these negative beliefs, identify the opposing beliefs and seek out information to prove them. For example, if you believe that wealth is only attainable for those born into it, look up success stories about wealthy people who started with nothing to counter your previous assumption.
Tip #3: Recite Positive Affirmations
When you recite affirmations, you can alter your subconscious through repetition. To make these affirmations most effective, create honest and achievable affirmations, write them down in your own voice and in the present tense, make them as detailed as possible, and recite them out loud daily.
For example: I am a confident, smart person who can handle any challenge that I face. Nothing can bring me down and make me feel negative because I have an impenetrable bubble of positivity surrounding me all the time.
Final Words
The principle of manifesting is at work at all times, with or without your consent or knowledge. You’re always thinking, therefore, you’re always manifesting your reality. So, choose what you manifest by intentionally channeling your thought energy in the desired direction.
If you enjoyed our article on how to manifest your dreams, check out the following suggestions for further reading:
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