THE BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO MANIFESTING // PART ONE

Hello! Today I want to talk about manifesting. Right now it’s a bit of a buzz word where everyone’s getting excited about the possibilities and jumping on the manifesting bandwagon. Manifesting, it seems, is the plat du jour. If you’ve read the article I published the other day (which you can read here) it just proves how when we believe good things will happen, we can manifest them.

We are all born manifestors. It’s not something we really need to learn, but it may be something which we have forgotten along the way.

WHAT IS MANIFESTING?

To put it simply it’s creating your reality and allowing the Universe to give you what you desire. It’s based on the idea of inifinite abundance – that there is enough money/love/freedom (insert your pleasure here) and if you play the game correctly, you’ll get what you want. Sounds pretty good doesn’t it?

I first heard the term back in 2003 when I first came across The Secret. I was studying Complementary Therapy at college at the time, and one of my tutors was an avid fan. One lesson before Christmas, instead of going down the pub and celebrating the end of term with half a lager and a mince pie, we sat huddled around a TV on wheels devouring every minute of that movie. Scraping away the Americanisms and 90s-esque studio styling, hearing the stories of multi million houses, finding love and happiness and quite frankly, living a life beyond your wildest dreams in the Hollywood Hills just blew my 20-something mind!

The Secret became a cult favourite, and I would recommend it to friends, family and clients, who would come back to me with amazing stories of how it had helped them.

Over the years there have been lots more books from Rhonda Byrne, spin offs and influencers selling you their methods (one of which I bought through a Facebook ad for about a fiver. It was an “ancient method” which entailed me writing down my desire 55 times for 5 days, which bought me bugger all joy and I felt like Bart Simpson writing lines. Never again.)

WHAT THEY’RE NOT TELLING YOU

So over the years I’ve studied and practiced manifesting. I’ve created incredible situations, attracted amazing people and abundance into my life, and when you tap into your abilities, things can change extremely quickly. I’ve used rituals, the moon, vision boards, dream jars, crystal grids, gong baths, walking labrynths forwards, walking them backwards, Balancing, burning intentions, keeping intentions, writing letters to myself, visualisations, meditations, Reiki, journalling, talking to the Universe, angels and my guides, even photoshopping myself into scenes I want to be in (hello NYC twice this year!) And all these methods work, but you don’t need to do them all for the changes to happen!

What you may not already realise is everything is already within you, and everything you desire has already been created and is waiting for you. Now this is where things are going to get a little trippy, so sit down for this bit! According to many experts (including Abraham Hicks) all the good stuff is waiting for you in “The Vortex.” I don’t know about you, but whenever I hear that word I think of the toilet cleaner and a big, black hole! Anyhow, it’s all there waiting. The money, the house, the freedom, the love of your life – they are there and want you to come and claim them.

HOW THE HELL DO I REACH THIS VORTEX?

I know, I thought the same thing, and thankfully it’s pretty straightforward. Right now I want you to think of everything as energy. Us, them, stuff – it’s all made up of the same matter. All the goodies in The Vortex are vibrating at a high frequency, meaning that the energy is at a higher level than perhaps we are, so in order to align with the good stuff, we need to raise our vibration.

Ever use power plates at the gym (you know the ones which makes your bum wobble?) You’ll be pleased to know that’s not the type of vibrating I’m talking about!

What I mean, is the vibrational energy within us which makes us feel good like the serene feeling you get after a yoga class or massage, when your body and mind are working together. Many people think that “high vibe” is all about happiness, and how can we possibly be happy all the time, but I like to think of it that you’ll feel whole, there is no resistance and that everything happens with ease and flow.

Looking back, one of the most amazing manifestation periods of my life was when I was a Complementary Therapist, as helping others to re-align their energy was, in turn, aligning mine. The most incredible business opportunities would come up regularly – it was as if I’d think of it and it would happen. Seriously magic.

There will be times, perhaps even as you’re reading this, that you’re feeling quite literally “low”. You feel sluggish, uninspired, pessimistic and maybe even depressed. Right now it’s December, it’s grey and drizzly and I’m putting off taking my dog out because I’m thinking “Ugh, my hair will get blown around in the wind, I can’t find my gloves and I really don’t fancy trampling along in the mud. Plus Homes Under The Hammer is about to start.”

Hold up! Let’s high vibe the shit out of this situation. “My dog really wants to go exploring, and I love him and I’m so grateful for having a cuddle partner on this cold day, so it’s actually an honor to take him out around the block. The trees look really beautiful, so I’ll take my camera and see if I can get a nice picture or two. We’ll go to the shop and get a roll for lunch and who knows who we’re going to meet while we’re out!” It kind of reminds me of the ending of The Tiger Who Came To Tea by Shirley Hughes. If you don’t know the story, basically a tiger turns up at Sophie’s house, eats everything it can find and drinks all of Daddy’s beer, and because the tiger is a greedy git Mum can’t cook Daddy’s dinner. This is where the suspense kicks in – will Daddy loose his shit when he finds out he has no beer and no dinner? Thankfully no (I’d hate to explain that to a 3 year old at bedtime!) Instead he tells Sophie and Mummy to put their coats on, and they go to a cafe for a slap up tea of sausage and chips. It’s dark, the street lights are twinkling, they have icecream for pudding and they re-stock the cupboards the next day (including am extra big tin of tiger food.) No biggy. No stress.

You see, by flipping it around and concentrating on not only the positives in the situation but what you’re grateful for makes everything exciting! Yes it makes me feel like I’m talking to a child (perhaps my inner child) but it makes me feels good, and that’s what we want.

In order to become a manifesting machine, you need to get your head around the idea that there is no lack, and practice gratitude for what you have no matter how small (more about that here.) This took me a while to get my head around, because I was like, but I don’t have my dream home in NW1, supermodel legs and my 7 year old refuses to eat anything but bananas and carbs this week.

Trusting that the Universe will provide is key here. Breaking it down and identifying what I do and don’t have is so important – I dream about a townhouse in a leafy boulevard but it’s not where I need to be right now. I have a beautiful, warm home overlooking fields and I am so grateful for it. I am close to the city and close to nature. I have the best of both worlds and when it’s time, the Universe will provide. Ok, my legs are never going to grow another 4”. Fact. But my legs allow me to run 5k every Saturday morning, which makes me feel envigorated and perhaps I could research how to dress to make my legs appear longer if I’m really that bothered? And yeah, my son may be eating the diet of a pirate lost at sea, and although it can be frustrating, I trust he’s getting what he needs nutritionally and I’m so grateful he is bright, healthy and full of joy and wonder (and has incredible supermodel legs which I covet!)

You see by concentrating on what we have sends a clear message to the Universe that hey, look, I’m putting energy into the good stuff, I love it, thank you, send me more! And it will.

Once we identify what we actually want (rather than what we don’t want) we need to let go of the outcome. Like totally detatch ourselves from it. I bet you’re thinking, yeah but aren’t I supposed to keep reminding myself of what I want as motivation, or wondering if the Universe will forget? I promise you, it won’t.

Throughout my teenage years I kept a diary. I suppose it was a bit of a scrapbook – I wrote about what happened that day, who fancied who, doodles, song lyrics, you get the jist. Anyhow, I loved nothing better than daydreaming about life as a grown up and by this I mean, how cool my boyfriend was going to be. I had even made a collage from cutting up a pile of old Just17s. Cringe with me here girls, cringe with me. So next to this collage of bare torsos, curtains (remember those?) and big belt buckles, I drew a picture of the man I was going to marry. I must have been going through a skater boy phase, and added details right down to his eye colour, the cut of the jeans he was wearing and his Stussy t-shirt. The next week I was probably into guitarists from Seattle or poets in the Haight Ashby, so I never thought anything of it and my diary got boxed up in my mum’s attic.

Fast forward 10 years and this man walked into my life. Quite literally walked through my front door during a house party in 2003. It wasn’t until 5 years later, while unpacking some boxes did I find my diary and see my husband (badly) sketched out in a HB pencil.

The fact that I’d never questioned where he was all my life, why I hadn’t met him or it wasn’t fair that the majority my boyfriends were absolute gits, just helped to move things along. After every broken relationship I felt at ease because I knew they weren’t the one. I was thankful for them coming into my life as they had brought me one step closer to where I was meant to be.

Actually by the time Shaun arrived, I was adamant I didn’t want to be with anyone (at this time I was the ultimate party girl living by the beach, making myself ill by going from club to work at sunrise atleast twice a week and had signed up to college as I was sick of my managerial job.) Anything serious was just not going to happen. I was going to turn my life around, and I didn’t want anyone to distract me.

Because I was unattached to the outcome, because I was having fun for me and because I knew my life was going to change dramatically once I bettered myself at college, he turned up! If I had been resentful, impatient and of the mindset that all men are a-holes, he’d probably still be floating around the Vortex (which makes me laugh thinking of him in toilet cleaner down a black hole – sorry love!)

WE ATTRACT WHAT WE PUT OUT

Following on from the idea of attracting like for like, changing the language of our belief systems is so incredibly important. I’m constantly re-wording mine because they subconciously make you beleive something which is simply not true. Like it’s been ingrained into your psyche through generations. Here’s some examples but I’m sure you’ve got your own –

• Life is tough
• Money is easy to spend, hard to make
• Men are good for nothings
• Kids are always like that
• I hate StarWars

Do you know what you’re telling yourself? That life is hard, people are out to get you, you’re only worthy of money if you slave away for it and you’re missing out on something which potentially could be pretty cool. If this is what the Universe feels you are vibrationally concentrating on, it will only reward you with more!

Ever have those days when one bad event sets off a whole stream of yuckiness? Where you wake up grumpy, have a row with your partner over who drank all the milk, the car won’t start, you’re late for work, your boss is eggy with you for some reason or another, and it’s been one helluva day so you sack off your yoga class and go and have a big glass of wine and wallow in the epic shitness of the day? Yeah me too. But what if you stopped it in it’s tracks? Told the Universe with a big, fat, pointy finger, HEY YOU! NO! I’m going to have a blinking brilliant day. No milk, no problem! There’s always toast…..and the chain of events is broken.

I’m going to stop here because this was only meant to be a short post as an overview of manifesting, and it’s turned out to be quite a lot longer than expected (and I do need to take my dog for a walk so I don’t miss Homes Under The Hammer!)

I’ll be covering manifesting in much more detail very soon, sharing everything which has worked for me because it would be so cool if we got it working for you too.

I’d love to hear about your experiences with manifesting – have you manifested anything exciting or are you confused by what you should be doing? Drop your comments in the box below (and if you really don’t want to miss a post, sign up for updates!)

All my love,

Sophie xx

ps. wait no more! Part II is up and you can read it here!

pps. if you want to learn more, I’ve created a beautiful 20 page workbook, check lists, affirmations plus 2 downloadbale MP3 meditations which is available to buy now!

Original article and pictures take i2.wp.com site