How do I get started with manifestation? In this article, I will guide you through an exact, easy-to-follow strategy that will help you with your first couple of manifestations.
If you are looking for an overview of manifestation I recommend you read the “Complete Beginner’s Guide to Manifestation.” It further explains the principles used in this strategy.
This strategy is no doubt a good starting point, but while we all share a lot of commonalities we each have unique idiosyncrasies and shades of difference in our psychology. As you begin implementing this, remain open to adjusting your approach based on what you feel will work best for you.
The Takeaway
1) In the morning: focus on broad change
2) In the midday: focus on specific desire
3) At night: focus on broad change again
Brief Overview of Manifestation
Manifestation is the idea that one can bring desired goals into reality through thought power. It operates on the principle that the mind has the power to shape the reality we experience and the results we achieve in life. Learning to manifest is all about learning to deal with the subconscious mind.
For those completely new to this concept, read: “What is manifestation: Explained for beginners.”
1. Pick a Goal
Define what you want to manifest.
You can be specific: manifest a dream job in your dream career, a relationship with someone, a certain amount of money, a certain event to occur, etc.
You can be more general: manifest financial freedom, success, confidence, general improvement, etc.
The goal can be focused on developing something within oneself, like “more confidence,” but manifestation also promises that it can directly alter conditions that appear outside of oneself.
Because of our conditioning and standard view of reality, it is no doubt easier to believe that thought can produce an influence within our own mind rather than outside it (whether it be in the body or the external physical world). Belief is an important part of manifestation, so for the complete beginner, it might be easier to choose an internal goal like more confidence, more motivation, or more cheerfulness.
The Benefit of Broad Goals
Ask yourself this: how specific do I really need to be? All goals will, of course, have some level of specificity and some level of vagueness.
You may have an eye on a specific person, or maybe you have an exact dream job in mind. But consider this: giving a broad suggestion, like love or wealth, to the subconscious gives it a free range of operation.
This has a number of benefits. First of all, it is inherently harder for us to believe that an ultra-specific manifestation would happen. Secondly, since the subconscious is the deeper self it knows our desires better than we do. Setting our trust that it is wiser than ourselves, a general suggestion, like love as opposed to a specific person, will often lead to results that exceed expectation.
I talk more about setting effective goals in this article
Having chosen a goal you feel confident in, you are ready to move on to the next step. You don’t have to feel a hundred percent certain of it, but it shouldn’t feel like a complete impossibility.
2. Set a Routine
This is the routine I recommend you start following (you can always alter it later if need be). The routine involves performing your manifestation method at specific times of the day to reinforce your intentions in the subconscious. It includes three daily practices:
- One in the morning
- One at some point during the day
- One at night in your bed before sleep
Morning and Evening Practice: the “winning state”
The morning and the evening are dedicated to impressing a winning state in the subconscious. It is hard to manifest anything if your general state of mind is one of failure. Think of this general winning state as a way to enhance anything you are trying to manifest. It is similar to how fertilized soil helps flourish all plants in the garden.
For this practice, I recommend you use affirmations.
The morning practice should be done ideally right after awakening before getting out of bed, or at least before the faculties of the waking mind have fully kicked in.
The evening practice should be done in bed at night before sleep. Use the recited affirmation as a lullaby, sending you to sleep. If you cannot fall asleep while affirming simply let yourself fall asleep shortly after.
Examples of affirmations you can use:
- “Every day in every way, I’m getting better and better”
- “Everything is going my way”
- “My life is improving every day”
You can alternate between different affirmations as you see fit but have a few that you stick with constantly.
If your goal is “financial freedom” you can tailor your affirmation to be broad yet goal-oriented, e.g., “Wealth is flowing my way.”
Midday Practice: the Specific Desire
At some point during the day, find a quiet place where you can shut your eyes and turn within.
This “sitting” is dedicated to the specific goal set in Step 1. Whether your goal is broad or specific, use this time to firmly plant your wish within the subconscious. This is what will eventually lead to its manifestation as external reality. I will explain exactly how to do this in the next section.
While the routine outlines specific times for practice, feel free to add more sessions as you see fit. The key is consistency and intentionality, allowing the practice to become habitual. A “sitting” like this should always be pleasurable while performed. It should never feel like a daunting chore to check off on your to-do list.
3. Performing The Manifestation Practices
Let us now look at how to perform these practices.
The Midday Practice
In my “Manifestation guide for beginners,” I recommend three manifestation techniques:
- Visualization
- The “SATS” method (which bases itself on visualization)
- Affirmations
These are the most basic manifestation techniques and are the foundation for more complicated (and often less useful) ones.
For the sake of clarity, and because not all people like to visualize, I will assume that you only want to use affirmations. But note that it’s generally the same principles involved for all of them.
This is a great and simple technique using affirmations:
1. Meditation: Sit or lie down, close your eyes and relax. Use progressive muscle relaxation; focus on each part of your body, and say to it “relax” as you let go of any tension. This relaxed state increases the suggestibility of your mind, meaning that the affirmation (or visualization) will be more potent.
2. Affirmation: Repeat the affirmation that implies your goal. For instance, “I am confident, I am confident…” Repeat it with effortlessness and ease, yet with conviction and faith. The meditative state will help in this.
3. Concentration: As you repeat the affirmation (or loop the visualization), let your attention absorb itself in it. This is the important thing. A single thought permeating the mind temporarily becomes a fact to that mind. I often mention that it is as if you are being hypnotized. Your mind is, without any willpower, concentrated on a single idea, and all other facts and considerations are momentarily gone.
Important consideration: Sometimes, as you do this method, you will feel a strong sense of emotion making you feel like this is definitely working. While no doubt a good indication, know that the method may still be working even if you do not feel anything. Note also, that even if you aren’t doing the method perfectly every time, you are still strengthening the idea in the subconscious. So, do not get discouraged when it doesn’t feel like the affirmation or visualization session is changing anything.
The Morning Manifestation Practice
The morning practice should be done in much the same way only that you are naturally in a suggestible state of mind. You do not need to spend time “turning within,” and can skip the progressive muscle relaxation. Again, adjust things so as to fit your individual bent of mind.
The Evening Manifestation Practice
The evening practice is a little different in that you are to fall asleep while affirming (or visualizing) or shortly after.
Therefore, in your bed at night, get into a comfortable sleeping position. Relax your mind and body just as if you normally would. Then commence the method. Recite the broad affirmation in a similar manner to how one would repeat a lullaby to induce sleep. Because of something called “the law of reversed effort,” effortlessness is key when making an impression on the subconscious. The evening practice forces you to use as little effort as possible, because else sleep will not ensue.
As mentioned before, if you cannot fall asleep while performing the method, simply let yourself fall asleep shortly after.
The benefit of the evening method is that the idea dwelled on will be taken with you into slumber where it will be contemplated by the subconscious unhindered by the waking conscious mind. It is also not uncommon that you will have dreams relating to that particular idea.
4. Having the Correct Daily Attitude
Between the morning, midday, and evening practice, the worst thing you can do is let yourself fall into doubt and despair saying, “This will never work,” “I keep doing it incorrectly,” “I can’t do this,” or whatever the thought may be. These only serve to uproot all the hard work you did while performing your manifestation method. It is the placebo effect’s counterpart, the nocebo effect: not believing that something will work, will lessen its potency.
Choosing Faith
To a large extent, our faith is governed by the thoughts we choose to dwell on.
Understand that while doubts are natural, we cannot let ourselves get controlled by them — not in manifestation, not in life. Throughout the day, think: “This will work.” Think so genuinely, with conviction; not from a place of fear that it might not.
If faith is difficult, keep an open mind and be instead neutral. As I suggest in my article on adopting a manifestation mindset, have an experimental, non-personal approach. Test manifestation for the sake of curiosity. If it is not a personal endeavor your personal doubts can more easily be set aside.
Conclusion
Make sure you do these exercises every day, without skipping a single day. The morning and evening is dedicated to giving a broad suggestion like “everything is going my way,” and the daily meditation is dedicated to your chosen goal. Broad suggestions like “Everything is going my way” or “My life is rapidly improving,” will help enhance and fuel the particular goal you are trying to reach.
One may feel that there should be more to this. But do not let the simplicity of this practice deceive you. What is required is not intellectual stimulation or a complicated strategy, but that you make a change subconsciously. That is where the controlling force of your life lies.
Try it, see what happens. If you stick with this you will gain new insight, and perfect your methods until eventually manifestation will be something you have mastered.
Anyway, I hope you found this article helpful. As always, feel free to send feedback on this article, or questions regarding manifestation. Thanks for reading.
