Manifestation has become a popular phenomenon in our culture via social media, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. It is a term that is often thrown around, misused, and misunderstood — leading to disappointment, frustration, and straight up delusion. I say this out of total empathy and lack of judgement. Been there, done that. But, now that I have gone on that journey, more than once, I want to rethink manifestation as a term and as a spiritual practice.

First, I want to clarify what manifestation is and is not. Oftentimes, people associate manifestation with the law of attraction or woo-woo practices (a term I use now with zero negative connotation). However, that is wishful thinking. Sure — everything is delusional thinking from one perspective or another, depending on where you’re standing. But, my perspective is the complete opposite of what is traditionally understood or taught about manifestation. I say that it’s about who you are being, which is exactly how I have taught sales for the past eight years, and exactly why my clients see the results they do.

What manifestation is at its core is inner work. When I coach with somebody, I am actually addressing what is going on beneath the surface, and, in one way or another, there is always a worthiness wound that comes up, some form of “I am not good enough” that is holding them back. And so if it were about just the words we’re using or things we’re doing, then the same strategy would work for everyone, right? But it doesn’t. We know that. Manifestation is about going within and doing the spiritual work.

By spiritual, I mean “energy that animates”. Our consciousness, I believe, is electricity, or a form of energy that is conscious of itself. It is not limited to the physical structure in which it resides, and it is also not our thoughts and emotions. This part is key because so many people think that manifestation is controlling their thoughts and emotions in order to get something they think they need or want. That is not to say that putting in the work to change our thoughts and emotions is a bad thing, I actually think it’s really important.

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When it comes to manifestation, however, this practice of reshaping thought patterns and emotional habits become quite shallow. Of course you have to start somewhere, which may mean working on these things. But, if your traditional ways of manifesting or selling have stopped working, it’s because it’s time to go deeper. And that’s what this is all about: understanding that you are something beyond your thoughts and your emotions. Trying to manifest from the mind (i.e. changing thought patterns to align with abundance) can and will work in the beginning. Ultimately all you are focusing on are symptoms, not the root cause, or external factors, not the essence, and this path will not lead you to fulfillment or consistency.

So if we’re not manifesting from the mind, the next logical place to manifest from is the body, or the heart, which is the practice of controlling your emotions in order to attract something that aligns with those emotions. Oftentimes, the pitfall of this method is the blame, judgment, guilt, and shame that comes with the failure to manifest the thing you’re calling in, or the self-sabotage that comes with the emotional repression that, if confronted and healed, would bring about the things you are looking for. This is a surefast way to spiritual bypass, or avoiding the lesson that would allow you to step more fully into who you truly are.

Manifesting from the mind doesn’t work, because we are not our thoughts (contrary to what Descartes once said), and neither does manifesting from the heart, because we are more than just our emotions. We are the observers of these things. I’m not going to try and answer the question of who that observer is, I call it the “I am”. This is where my belief in the power of “I am” statements comes from, and why I emphasize manifesting spirit versus manifesting stuff.

Manifesting spirit is about awakening to being in the world, but not being of the world. It is about embodiment. One of the dictionary definitions of “manifestation” refers to the embodiment of an abstract principle or theory, and when you embody the principle of love, abundance, joy, peace, you will attract those things. You will not have to force, or work hard on external circumstances. The work is within. The work is going within and awakening to the fact that you are the energy that animates your body, which is your temple.

All of this being said, I am not going to leave you with a list of ways to improve your manifestation methods, because that would be impossible for me to do on anything but a case to case basis. But I will say, if your approach to manifesting is rooted in AND with the intention of producing the fruits of the spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control), you are sure to see results. When, where, how, and who you did this for, with, and to are up to you. Trust your intuition, and that inner voice guiding you.

Be sure to check out my podcast, The Mystery School of Manifestation to dive deeper into this work.

Remember: You are a spiritual being having a physical experience. You are infinitely loved and supported by the entire cosmos. Here is to collapsing timelines, and co-creating our version of forever, happily ever after, our new heaven on earth, because the odds may be stacked against you, but you are not a statistic.