I WANT…
Everyone wants to know how to manifest. And why not? We want things! We want experiences we want excitement we want power and love and wealth and fun, we want confidence and satisfaction and friendship and inner peace. So if there is a way to make happen those events or things that will provide us with these experiences, naturally we want to know how to do it.
The thing that people don’t always realize is that manifestation is a given – it’s a birthright – it’s our natural ability that we are, at every waking moment, using.
To really grasp what we are looking to understand we first must see that it is not a matter of manifesting or not but instead is a question of whether what we are manifesting is bringing us joy and if it is aligned with how we wish to feel. This is the most relevant metric at play for becoming an extremely powerful manifestor.
WHY WE WANT, REALLY
Man brings a mental concept into form in some way on the material plane – or the “perceptual experience”.
A simple example of this would be that a job promotion becomes available and I want to get it.
I want to take this example a little deeper so that we really get to know the real nature of manifesting, from all angles so that you have a comprehensive view and my hope is that when you have this, you will be equipped to create in ways that are much deeper, more satisfying and importantly, instantaneous than you may otherwise know how to do.
I have defined manifestation as being a concept unique to the material plane – so we are talking about something or some event that shows up in a tangible way in what we call “reality” (in our hypothetical that is a job promotion) and I want to distinguish this from having a mental experience. I want to draw your attention to the difference between attaining a job promotion in the reality experience versus attaining a desired mental/emotional state.
Shifting your mental experience, say from sad to happy, is not really what we are talking about when we use the term “manifestation” but I would argue this distinction is false and requires further exploration. There is a lot of messaging out there that suggests the mental state of a person may be secondary in relevance to a tangible object or event happening. It might seem more important, for example, that the promotion is achieved rather than how exactly it is achieved. The promotion will bring more status, more autonomy, more wealth to our hypothetical person. These are real things that matter, right?
To really understand how to intentionally manifest, however, we must look at this critically and honor the deeper truth at play.
The only reason we want money, status or autonomy is because of how these things make us feel. When we aim for these “manifestations” we are aiming for a feeling and ultimately, a sustained mental state that is pleasurable. It’s all about our mental and emotional experience – that is why we do all the things we do. Even if we think we are doing something on principle or for the betterment of someone else, we are still doing it so that we experience either the joy or the relief (which can feel like joy) that comes from the behavior or outcome. It is a matter of how we are uniquely reasoning that promotes a particular course of action, but it is still the mental and emotional state of peace, bliss or empowerment within ourselves that motivates us.
MENTAL IS MASTER
I will take this opportunity to remind you that our emotions are the experience of processing quantities and forms of energy and that what thoughts we have are the drivers of this. We actually choose how we associate emotionally with different experiences of energy. Recall that everything takes place on the mental plane, within our minds. The mind is where all the stimuli gets processed and is a plane causal to the material world. We don’t even have to go outside a mundane example to grasp that we put our mental concepts into physical action which compels material transformation. I want to have a boat, I go out and do what has to be done to get a boat. Mind to matter. It is causal and thus higher than the material world. The material world is thus a product of the mental plane. I will come back to this.
For now, recognize that it is attaining a shift in mental and emotional states that motivates a person to do what they do. There is no joy in having a bigger bank account if one cannot in some positive way process the fact that they have that bigger bank account. They must be conscious of it and interpret it in such a way that brings some form of the desired state, often pleasure, pride, joy, or freedom. But we also seek out less pleasurable states such as frustration, anger, guilt, etc., which is why we experience those things. Mental is master.
What people are really seeking when they look to manifest is a sustainable mental and emotional transformation into a state of being that is better than where they currently live. No one wants to work hard for years only to get a job promotion that brings them happiness for 48 hours. We can thus appreciate that when someone has formed a strong association in their mind between the achievement of a material gain and the achievement of an emotional shift if the realization of that material gain does not bring about a transformation in an emotional state, this can be very confusing. Yet, we do see this happen. We see people who get the job and the car and the house and even the dream partner and find themselves experiencing the same mindset that motivated them to attain all these things in the first place – one of self-doubt, insecurity, sadness, guilt, emptiness, or fear.
The message I want to reiterate here and that will be a theme of all my teaching is that we cannot make shifts within from without. We cannot experience “being” the way we want through “having” things – to think we can is to experience what is known as “existential modal confusion” and it is at the core of why so many people struggle. Everyone has what is known as “having needs” which are satisfied by having things, and “being needs” which are satisfied by developing into a state of being. The way you think about having things is not the same as the way you think about experiencing ways of being. You do not think about love the same way you think about purchasing a bed sheets. You cannot satisfy the being need for maturity by purchasing a car and you cannot satisfy the being need for love by having a lot of sex. Being needs require development. The tenet of Universal law recognizes the same thing cognitive scientists and psychologists observe in experimental trends, yet we continuously get tricked into confusion around how to change how we feel and I am here to help to clarify the more deeply gratifying inner work available for you to do to achieve your desired states.
This article is part 1 of the ‘What is Manifestation’ series, view all related articles here www.thriveglobal.com/authors/danalordlewis/.
You can learn more about Dana and Energy Think via www.instagram.com/energy_think or www.energythink.com