Manifesting: How It’s Done and Why It Works

Have you ever noticed how some people just seem to be born under a lucky star? Everything goes their way. They get everything they want, and life just seems to always work out for them.

“Why can’t my life be like that?” You wonder.

Stop.

When it comes to manifesting, the most important thing you can do is to stop comparing yourself to others.

When you compare yourself to someone else, anyone else, you block your ability to manifest for yourself.

Energy flows where attention goes.

And you’ll notice that whoever it is you’re currently think of, does not do that. She does not compare herself to anyone else.

Judgement vs. Distinction and Comparison vs. Inspiration

“Wait,” you say. “Didn’t you just compare me to her?”

There’s a big difference between judging someone else, comparing yourself to someone else, and distinguishing among different people, traits, and qualities.

When you compare, you shame yourself, you judge yourself or someone else. When you distinguish, you observe, you recognize, and you make decisions based on those observations, without judgement. You can be inspired by someone, you can follow someone else’s guidance or examples, without judging yourself for not having known or done those things first.

Get out of your head and drop into your heart.

That is the key to manifesting.

We have brains for observation and distinction.

It is the ego that puts us into comparison and judgement.

Manifesting and the Law of Attraction

The power to manifest is derived straight from the law of attraction. To work with the law of attraction, you must put the ego in its place and get really light, open, and free.

Why?

Because the universe knows much, much, much (I could do this forever) more than you do. The universe, of which you are a part, is all powerful, all knowing, all seeing, and infinitely loving.

The ego is all human, limited, and deeply fearful.

Don’t Kill the Ego

There was this big movement a while back calling for the death of the ego. And it makes sense.

As author and spiritual guru Gabrielle Bernstein points out in her book The Universe Has Your Back, “The ego cannot survive without judgment. The ego seeks to divide and separate. Spirit seeks to unify and heal.” You can hear her talk more about this in her SuperSoul Session with Oprah at the link above.

And she’s right.

The ego will judge. It is just part of the human experience. The ego helps us determine what is right for us and what does not work for us. But we can do that without heading into the damaging judgment phase we enter when we give our ego full reign.

As Elizabeth Gilbert says of fear in her book Big Magic, we can recognize fear, the ego, and its helpful guidance through this life. We learn from past mistakes with the help of ego. We learn from past pains with the help of ego. We learn to go toward what we want and away from what we don’t want with the help of the ego. But we do not put the ego in charge.

Spirit should always be in charge, our divine selves. The part of us that comes from the universe, poured into this body, and maintains a connection through our crown chakras, always available to us.

The problem with only following spirit is that spirit is all love, all faith, all trust, all open-hearted goodness.

Spirit knows that it will all, always work out. Spirit does not divide, does not separate, and does not distinguish. Everything is love and forgiveness with spirit.

Which is wonderful in the spiritual world but can lead to a journey fraught with abuse and pain in the human experience.

Sure, things will always work out, but I don’t want a life filled with constantly trusting narcissists and abusers because they have deeply loving spirits within them, too.

We need the ego, the human part of us, to say, “eh, hard pass on that one. Thanks. Go in grace.”

So, no, you don’t want to kill your ego. You just don’t let it drive the car. (Note: You’re the car in this metaphor.)

What Does all This Have to Do with Manifesting?

If you want to manifest, you gotta get clear on who you are, what you’re made of, what you’re capable of, and how to manage it all.

You must strike the perfect balance between spirit and ego, between your divine self and your human self. You are both. You are spirit in human form, and you need both powers.

Spirit is all manifestation. Human is all distinction.

So, you need to distinguish between what you want and what you don’t want, without judgment, and then manifest what you want, without focusing on what you don’t want.

Here’s where law of attraction comes into play.

The law of attraction says, “that which is like unto itself is drawn.”

You must get into a space where your focus is positively on the thing you want.

“But, I think about how much money I want all the time!” I hear people say.

“Hmmmm…” I respond. “Are you sure about that?” I ask. “Are you thinking about how much money you want? Or about how much money you don’t have right now?”

Because, you see, even the word “want” implies lack.

I want more money because I don’t have any money. I don’t have any money, so I want more money.

The focus in these statements is on the lack, not on the manifestation.

As Abraham Hicks, the primary source of information on all things law of attraction, will say again and again, the universe does not speak in words or language. The universe speaks energy.

If you are thinking about how much you want, what your energy is saying is that you don’t have it. You don’t have enough. You need more. That energy is not an energy of abundance. It is an energy of lack. The universe responds by bringing you more lack.

You attract what you are.

Beginner’s Tips for Manifesting

If you have never actively manifested anything in your life, here are some tips to begin.

• Yes. You Have.

First of all, notice I said “actively manifested” above. You have been manifesting your whole life. You just have not realized it. Every single thing in your life has been manifested by you, directly or indirectly. You are that powerful.

The greatest habit you can create starting today is to recognize that. Once you open your eyes and can say “I did that” with certainty and without judgement to everything in your life, you are in your full power.

Once you’re in your full power, you can begin to focus your energy and actively manifest.

• Gratitude

Channeling your power begins with gratitude. Get really, really grateful for what you have right now. Breath. Life. Energy. A fully functioning body. If your body is not fully functioning, get grateful for the parts of your body that are fully functioning.

You’ve heard the quote “I complained about having no shoes until I met a man with no feet.”

If you are sitting and reading this post about manifesting, you have already manifested a helluva lot into your life. Get grateful for it, and you will manifest even more.

• Be It

After gratitude comes learning to become the thing you want. Literally live out all the things you want. If you want a healthy body, start doing one small thing that is healthy for you. Not to avoid getting sick (that’s lack), but to get healthy.

If you want more money, start reading about growing your wealth, hang out with people earning or manifesting more money. It is common knowledge that you are who you hang out with. Hang out with happy, manifesting people and let their energy influence yours.

If you want love, start loving deeply wherever you can.

And so on. Whatever you want in your life, you have to embody.

• Channel it

Learn to channel your energy. You can practice manifestation affirmations, but you must actually believe those affirmations. A lot of people feel affirmations don’t work, and this is why.

If you don’t believe it, you are just affirming your sense of lack.

Start with what you do believe.

Even something as simple as “I have two arms and two legs. I can work hard for my goals.”

• Flip It

And finally, flip it. Everything that comes up negative for you, take a moment to explore why you are having these negative thoughts, honor your ego, and then flip it to the positive.

This is called shadow work or ego work.

You cannot merely ignore the negative. We live in a world with both negative and positive and avoiding or ignoring the negative will only make it more pressing on your mind. It’s like a buried body. It always comes back up.

So honor it, recognize it, ask yourself if there is anything you can do about it.

If not, let it go. “This is not my business. This is not my work.

If yes, work on it from a positive perspective. That’s the flip.

“Okay, I am broke. I see it. I can work for more money. I can find a side hustle. I can be more efficient at work and ask for a raise. I can shift careers. I can go back to school.”

There are so many cans in your life.

Work with what you’ve got and keep it aimed in a positive direction.

And that’s the beginning to manifestation and stepping into your power! Remember to practice consistency and patience. It will not happen overnight, especially if you are beginning in a dark place.

But it will happen if you stick with it, and you climb the emotional ladder from dark to light.

Keep at it. You’ve got this.

Happy manifesting!