Have you ever made your thoughts into reality? Something that you have been imagining for a while and it happened EXACTLY LIKE THAT!!! You might not be a wizard like Harry Potter but you still might be able make things happen and convert your deepest desperate desires into REALITY.
The Law of Attraction states that your thoughts, feelings, and beliefs are powerful enough to form your current reality. The energy that you put out in the universe comes back to you in the form of the experiences you face in the world implying that everything happening to you in the real world is in your own control.
After hearing the concept of manifestation, it is easy to get lured into it as it offers temptation and it seems all so easy. “I can be a billionaire”, “I can get my dream house/car, etc.”, “I can marry my crush”, and “I can be world-famous” just by thinking positively.
This is where it starts to sound too good to be true. When you have been trying to visualize something but it doesn’t happen in real life, it is natural to get disappointed. As the gap between reality and expectations starts to increase, it can result in the deterioration of your mental health by obsessing over it.
Does that mean we shouldn’t apply the law of attraction? Is there a better way to apply the law of attraction? Is it even backed up by science?
Let’s find all the answers to these questions in this article!
Science behind Manifestation
The law of attraction is considered to be pseudoscience i.e., it has no scientific evidence that the idea of “manifestation” works for sure.
It revolves around the idea that our thoughts, beliefs, and emotions carry an energy, a form of vibration that attracts our desires.
While we cannot vouch for this, believers of this law suggest that even Quantum physics supports this theory that suggests that every atom, object, and living thing is always vibrating at a certain frequency. The law of attraction says that you can control these frequencies by generating your own positive vibrations.
From behavioural science standpoint, let alone believing in something is not going to get presented to you magically but believing might bring out some behaviors in you that might push you to fulfill that desire.
You must have also noticed that optimistic people tend to attract more opportunities and maintain better relationships in their life.
Does that mean we should be positive all the time? Should we suppress our negative feelings? Is it even possible to be happy all the time?
How manifestation can give birth to “Toxic Positivity”
Trying to be positive all the time can be unduly stressful.
It blocks the expression of your full range of emotions, shaming or guilt-tripping you for feeling completely normal and humane feelings like sadness, anger, annoyance, frustration, fear, anxiety, and others.
It can lead to us not only dismissing our own feelings but also being insensitive to others. It can make us ignore and downplay a lot of our problems.
While believers say that the existence of these emotions can delay or prevent your desires from manifesting, it is not a healthy mindset not to process or validate your feelings.
Isn’t it ironic that to fulfill your desires, to manifest for peace, you have to be peaceful, to begin with?
Even if you manage to repress your emotions, they might come to haunt you sooner or later in your life.
Even to recover from any challenges or trauma in your life, you need to acknowledge your emotions first to start the healing process.
So, can you still manifest your dreams while feeling a spectrum of emotions?
Let’s find out!
How manifestation can cure your mind and hinder your growth simultaneously
Before we dive into the tips to practice manifestation, it is important to note the upsides and downsides of it so that you can practice the law of attraction if you wish to, safely.
The Law of attraction uses cognitive reframing and visualization which are some psychological techniques, widely used in therapy as well. This might not help you change the circumstances but might help you look at them differently.
Famous personalities like Jim Carrey, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Lady Gaga believe that the law of attraction had a big role in making them what they are today. They used the visualization method until what they actually believed in became their reality.
But what about the people who are stuck in awful situations?
As we have discussed before, the law of attraction also states that everything is in your control as your thoughts become reality. Does that mean everything negative happening to us was also brought by us?
If we were to think like that then we would blame ourselves for everything in life. The truth is that sometimes things aren’t in your control and it's best to focus on things that are in our control.
Being in a car accident isn’t your fault. Being the victim of sexual assault isn’t your fault.
Another thing that is more dangerous than blaming ourselves for our reality is to lose track of reality.
To practice manifestation, we often imagine what we desire to be our current reality. We believe that we have already received what we want.
Some people tend to actually lose the track of reality, they might also experience hallucinations, also known as psychosis.
It might be dangerous for people with schizophrenia or other severe mental health illnesses to perform manifestation.
Even though, some of the methods can help them regulate their mental illness and start the healing process, it is advised to take the necessary precautions so that one doesn’t get delusional.
Tips on how to practice manifestation safely
Become Mindful
It is important to address what you want, what your desires are, and why you want to practice manifestation, to begin with.
Gratitude Journal
Maintain a record of all the things in life that you are grateful for.
Being thankful for what you already have makes space for more abundance. It not only helps you to attract more things but helps you see and embrace your current reality.
Make a habit of journalling in the morning or before going to bed so that you start seeing your life in a new light and create more positive opportunities for yourself.
Attention Control
It is a practice to drive away your attention from the things that you don’t wish to focus on and instead push your focus on what matters or is more important.
Meditate
Meditation helps you filter thousands of thoughts that the brain processes in a day. It helps you streamline these thoughts and focus on the ones that matter.
Delay but process your feelings
Have you ever attended work while you were having a bad day? You had a fight with a special someone and all you wanted was to crawl in bed and cry but you had an important meeting that very day.
What did you do? Did you choose to give your best in the meeting anyway? Did you choose to cry about your problems after the meeting was over?
Sometimes, you can choose to delay feeling your emotions. (You can literally schedule it in your calendar, “8 pm- 9pm: stressing about the things that I didn’t stress about before.”)
When you want to avoid feeling the hurt, all you can think about is the hurt because it is inevitable but when you simply say “I will feel and process the hurt later in the day so that I can do things that are important at the moment” then you might be able to shift your energy as you’re not avoiding the pain but just delay processing it.
Shifting your energy is not the same as invalidating your emotions. You’re just choosing when and where to process them. This is the same technique you can apply while manifesting.
Instead of pretending to be positive, you can shift your energy and focus on your desires or on acquiring peace while practicing manifestation.
Be Kind to Yourself
Allow yourself to feel the range of your emotions and don’t feel guilty about it.
If you aren’t getting the results you want from manifestation, don’t be hard on yourself for it. Be grateful for how far you have come instead of stressing about the journey ahead.
Reward yourself for your achievements.
When you reward yourself for the smallest of your achievements, you are compelled to seek more but if you disregard your positives, it is possible to be stuck in the vicious cycle of failures.
Actions manifest louder than thoughts
Just simply believing and focusing on your desires is not going to magically bring that to you. It is not going to just happen by writing it on a piece of paper, you need to take the required actions to get to your goal.
The Law of attraction might lay out a path for you to get to your desires but it has to be you to walk that path at the end of the day.
Manifestation is not a replacement for hard work, it is a way to train your subconscious mind to bring out those behaviors in you that will help you reach your destination.
You will always have to strive in life. There’s never an easy way out. You can only choose where to put your energy at.
Visualise your desires
Close your eyes and imagine what you want. Visualize it like it’s actually happening, like you are in your manifestation. Experience the emotions that it brings to you, the joy and the happiness.
These feelings help you to have faith in the process and to believe in yourself.
Start with something small. Try attracting a cup of coffee. Imagine drinking your hot cup of coffee and feeling energetic after.
Imagine something that you actually believe can come true. To manifest, you need to believe firmly that you already have what you want.
It would be absurd to imagine you are a bird and can fly. The key here is to attract what you believe can happen.
Once you start attracting these small things, you will build confidence to attract more, and then on a rainy Sunday afternoon, just calm your mind and let your imagination run wild. Visualize. Visualize. Visualize.
Be Ready to Receive
In the temptation of getting what we want, we almost always forget if we are even ready to receive what is coming our way.
What will you do with the abundance of money, invest somewhere or spend it all in a casino on a wild night in Vegas? How are you going to balance your relationship when you are so focused on your career and have no time to spare?
No, we are not trying to worry you but we do ask the universe to give us things in overwhelming capacities, something that we might not be ready for. We always think that abundance hasn’t ever hurt anybody and we’ll figure out along the way when we have these things but wouldn’t you risk losing what you have received then?
This isn't to say "plan everything in life". You do actually figure things out along the way but instead of focusing on just manifesting ask yourself how prepared are you to have that in your life.
If not, then prepare yourself. If it’s a relationship you crave and you have issues with space and commitment, work on it. If it’s a business that you want to build and you have no knowledge of how business works, educate yourself.
When you receive what you seek, you should be prepared enough to not let go of it. And then finally, be ready to accept what you have worked so hard for.
Takeaway: Should you practice manifestation or not?
The decision of engaging yourself in manifestation or not, is up to you. You can measure the upsides and downsides of the law of attraction to reflect on whether it is a wise decision for you to practice it.
While it may not be a good idea for someone with intrusive thoughts and anxiety to practice manifestation as they can end up blaming themselves for the outcome life brings to them, you can always end up ignoring the rules of manifestation that seem unhealthy to you and focus on the ones that bring you peace.
So, let’s keep dreaming big and stand prepared when the universe rewards us for aligning our thoughts, energy, and actions together.