One of the keys to manifesting is learning to create a consistent, patient practice with visualizing your goals accompanied by a strong belief in your worthiness of receiving that goal. The main question you must ask yourself is, “What do I want?” But then you must dive deeper and unpack this answer. Why do you want to achieve this goal? What’s at the root of your desire? When you get to this foundation, you can plant seeds for all your dreams and goals.
When the tools of manifesting are properly learned and practiced, it’s as though you’re given your very own treasure M.A.P. for discovering your soul purpose. Think of this acronym as you begin to focus on manifesting your goal – M.A.P.: Meditate, Affirm, Pray. If you can commit to a daily practice of meditating on your goal, affirming your right to have this goal realized, and praying for help in achieving your goal, then you can become a powerful manifester.
Meditate
The practice of meditation dates back 5,000 years, and now science is proving the beneficial effects of maintaining a calm, focused mind. Harvard-affiliated researchers conducting an eight-week study at Massachusetts General Hospital were able to document an increase in gray matter associated with memory, sense of self, empathy, and stress reduction. M.R.I. scans done two weeks prior to the study and at the culmination showed an increased density in the hippocampus, which is vital for learning and memory as well as other areas of the brain connected with self-awareness, compassion, and reflection.
There are several ways you can meditate to help manifest your goals. Active meditation involves focusing on your goal while keeping your physical body busy with repetitive action such as walking, knitting, or running. Guided imagery meditation, where you listen to either your own voice or someone else’s walk you through beautiful visualizations, helps you picture yourself achieving the goal. For example, if your goal is to obtain a great new job, then consider meditating on a picture that represents this goal, such as you shaking hands with your new employer, sitting at a lovely desk happily doing your new job, or imagine yourself making the connections needed to get this new position. You can also try passive meditation, where you simply allow yourself to sit in silence and connect within. Often during a passive meditation, you will receive insight, a word, or some clarity about the next step you should take to achieve your goal.
Affirm
Affirmations work because they implant messages in our subconscious mind, which is where all manifesting takes place. We have something in our brain called the Reticular Activating System, which works to filter out information we’re constantly receiving. The Reticular Activating System (R.A.S.) explains why you can be in a crowded airport and still hear your name called. This is your R.A.S. filtering out the extra noise and only picking up on your name. But did you know you can program your R.A.S. to help you manifest through affirmations? Blaine Oelkers delivers a fantastic T.E.D. talk to explain his system of programming your R.A.S., which he calls WYTABA – What You Think About You Bring About. He explained that in order to program your R.A.S., you have to write down what you want to bring about. This is why and how affirmations work. But he couldn’t think of a way to get his clients to commit to repeating an affirmation. His research showed that you have to repeat your affirmation – what you want to bring about – 100 times a day in order to program your Reticular Activating System. So he’s thinking and wondering – what is a surefire way I can get my clients to remember to repeat their affirmation 100 times a day? Our R.A.S. seeks answers for us, and in his case, it delivered the answer to him in a news article that said, “The average person looks at their home screen 110 times day.” He thought, “That’s it! This is how I can encourage my clients to repeat their affirmation at least 100 times a day.” Try it for yourself. Write down what it is you want your R.A.S. to deliver to you. Write it down in an I AM statement. I am loving my new job, for example. Take a screenshot of your affirmation. Make it your screensaver, and 110 times a day, you will see your goal. This will program your R.A.S. (and your subconscious) to manifest your goals with you.
Make sure your affirmations are spoken and written in the present tense. Our subconscious only understands the present moment. If you affirm, “I will get a great new job,” then you are keeping this goal in the future. To make sure you manifest this goal now, affirm instead, “I love my new job.”
Pray
Prayer works for several reasons. It focuses our mind while also reminding us that we need help. In order to achieve our goals, we must remember that we are co-creators working in tandem with a higher power. When we pray, our humble requests are received and heard. Often the answer to our prayers comes in the form of helpful people, a book we need to read, or a dream that makes the way forward crystal clear. Just as there are many ways to meditate, there are also countless ways to pray. Praying is talking to God. Meditating is listening for the answers. You can recite a novena – a prayer you repeat for nine days. You can repeat a mantra of petition. Or you can simply talk to God while also allowing space for silence.
Consider soliciting the help of a prayer group. Lynn McTaggert researched the power of collective prayer and discovered that when we pray for others, the blessings tend to rebound on us as well. For more information, check out McTaggert’s book “The Power of Eight: Harnessing the Miraculous Energies of a Small Group to Heal Others, Your Life, and the World.”
How you pray isn’t as important as making the time to pray in whatever way works for you. Larry Dossey, author of books such as “Healing Words: The Power of Prayer and the Practice of Medicine” says, “Virtually every mode of prayer that has been examined achieves results—highly specific forms of articulated prayer involving definite outcomes are effective, as well as entering the Void, entering silence and asking for absolutely nothing. This mocks our ideas that there is one best way to pray.”
With these three steps – meditating, affirming, and praying – you will create for yourself your very own treasure M.A.P. for understanding how to co-create with the world around you. A Chinese proverb says, “Thought is the ancestor of action.” See yourself in harmony with the world around you and honor your power within. As you learn to become a co-create with the Universe, you will manifest miracles.