Is Manifesting Really a Thing?

It might be...

I don’t believe in God per se, but I am open to the energy of the Universe. In my experience, the Universe gives and receives gifts if you are open to them. The gifts might be wisdom, or the answer to a question you’ve been struggling with. Sometimes she works in ways that I don’t understand until much later.

I’m not saying that bad things happen because we ask for them. Nobody asks for Cancer and no one deserves that. I am saying that when you are open to possibilities of good things happening, they have a way of landing in your lap.

Photo by Maja Il on Unsplash

I believe that what you put out into the Universe comes back to you. It might be a dream you have or an idea, planted as a seed that’s not ready to sprout until much later. What matters is that you plant the seed.

Manifesting is a woo-woo term that I don’t particularly like, but the concept is one that I do abide. Writing, journaling, speaking words out loud, sometimes it happens in different ways. But it all starts with a thought. A desire. Something that I want or need, something that I feel deep in my heart.

This desire might be small, like wanting to reach more people with my words. This desire might be big, like wanting to be seen, heard, and valued by the people in my life. I have found that when my heart speaks, eventually my voice is heard. I just need to let her speak.

She didn’t always speak. My heart used to believe that nobody wanted to hear what she had to say. She was too loud. Her needs and feelings were too big. She was annoying and a burden. So she would stay quiet and just listen. Her voice was only in my head, swirling around and around, she rarely spoke out loud.

It wasn’t until I got to college that I started to speak up and take risks, like the risk of being wrong. As a perfectionist being wrong was a fate worse than death, but I when I spoke up, I found that sometimes I was right. Sometimes I had interesting things to say that people related to and wanted to hear. My ideas were worth hearing.

In my 20s, as I grew my yoga practice, I also grew my courage to let my heart speak. It didn’t always land well, it took awhile for me to figure out the right times and people to speak to, to find a balance, and speak to people who understood me. But the more my heart spoke, the freer I felt. I stopped holding myself back for the sake of other people’s comfort, I had no control over that anyway. The only thing I could control was me, and my mouth.

I would journal and send my wants and needs out to the Universe. Maybe you would call that prayer, but to me, it’s just planting the seed. If I write it or say it out loud, then the idea releases from me to the Universe and the possibility opens. The gift comes as a beginning, and then you get to work to bring it to fruition.

I wanted to run a yoga retreat in Costa Rica, and 10 years later I finally did. I said it out loud to people, and have talked about it for years. Finally when I was ready, it fell right into my lap. My retreat came to me over the internet by way of a DM. The rest is history.

Do I believe in the Universe sending you what you need when you are ready? I really do. But the most important piece, is that you receive what you need when you are ready. You may or may not want what you get, but most of the time, it turns out to be exactly what you need. Sometimes it’s a big kick in the pants to stop sitting around and do something. Sometimes it’s quieter, like a nagging whisper that the situation you are in is no longer working for you.

Be bold. Speak up for yourself. Ask for what you need. Be open to the possibility of receiving it. And when you are ready, the spark that you are looking for may just land in your lap.