Here’s How To Manifest Your Dream Life, According to a Life Coach
Wouldn’t you chase your dreams if you knew you had the power to turn them into reality?
Success can mean different things to people. A shot at a fulfilling career, the kind of love story that makes other people use #RelationshipGoals, or perhaps a hefty bank account — whatever your dream may be, each one of us plots our life differently. And what else is a better way to actualize these goals than to, as pop culture says, manifest it?
Sure, you’ve seen the term in a plethora of self-help books and podcasts that constantly spoke about the power of positive thinking; but does the “think positive” rhetoric yield you real-life results, or is there something else missing in the process?
While one might say that the act of manifesting is a complicated thing, seasoned life coach and yogi Clara Day Herrera begs to differ, saying the process is simple and entirely doable! Here, read on for our discussion on how to step into your own power and manifest the life that you desire.
What is manifesting and how does it work?
In her book The Spiritual Entrepreneur, manifesting is defined by Angelina Lombardo as “the process of making everything you want to feel and experience a reality via your thoughts, actions, beliefs, and emotions.” It was an old-age practice that stemmed from the New Age Movement of universal inter-relatedness, the belief that people can create their own reality through mental work. An external force known as the universe, responds to these thoughts.
The term has further amassed a wider audience after being associated with the “law of attraction,” a central theme in a 2006 bestseller by Rhonda Byrne, The Secret. And just in case you’re not part of the more than 30 million people worldwide who have scored a copy of the book, the premise is pretty simple: if you envision something, there’s an immense potential that it can happen.
"Shut Up, I’m Manifesting!"
Enter today’s social media world dominated by Millennials and Gen-Zers. Nowadays, manifesting has garnered a place in social forums and discussion tables. Everyone from influencers to A-list thought leaders with the likes of Oprah Winfrey is sharing her own manifestation success stories to the world. “Shut Up, I’m Manifesting!” is one of the top trending memes of 2020 for an obvious reason: with a year of historical changes and a winding path toward a great unknown, there has never been a more significant time to trust in the benefits of powerful thinking of some sort.
But is positive thinking enough?
If your idea of manifesting encompasses traditional visual boards and passively “wishing” for things, we hate to break it to you, but the work goes a lot deeper. “It goes beyond visualizing,” Clara points out. Doing the work yourself instead of just miraculously waiting for things to unfold is the key to successful manifesting. “To put it concisely, manifestation is co-creating your destiny with the universe,” the life coach says.
Start manifesting by embracing your identity.
There are different approaches to manifesting, but for Clara, it all boils down to one’s identity. “The universe will not give us what we want, but rather, who we are,” she explains. The way she sees it, successful manifesting encourages you to develop your own self-worth, leading you to believe that you are worthy of whatever it is that you desire, even if you’re not quite there yet.
Case in point: Clara herself has always wanted to be a speaker on global platforms. There’s one blocker, though: she wasn’t born with innate skills. When she was younger, her cousins would even tease her because she used to have trouble speaking fluently and would usually struggle to express her thoughts.
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It was a difficult time for her, but through manifesting, she learned how to reprogram her old beliefs and improve herself to achieve her goals. “I started creating my own content regardless of what people were saying. I would practice in front of a mirror and emulate what well-known speakers do when they’re on stage: from body language to the topics they talk about,” she recalls. She invested in tons of reading materials to expand her knowledge and enrolled in courses to hone her speaking abilities. “I embraced my identity as a global speaker even before I was one,” Clara shares.
And boy, did the universe start to act in her favor. Soon enough, various people started reaching out to her for speaking engagements. And finally, when an international platform invited her for a gig, Clara was ecstatic. “When I was doing the speaking engagement, I kept on thinking; I manifested this! This is such a magical moment.”
It wasn’t one of those born-for-success moments for sure. Still, by the power of manifesting — embracing her identity and co-creating with the universe -- Clara attained a once-unreachable goal.
Know your deepest desires and set up an intention for them.
For Clara, the most important thing about manifesting is tapping into your core wants and aligning them with your current goals.
“For example, I wanted to be a speaker, and I embraced that identity, not because of fame, but because I wanted to create a tremendous impact on the lives of other people,” Clara shares.
She isn’t oblivious, of course, to the fact that it’s fame that can give her the power to influence and help people realize their full potential. But she credits her sense of purpose — her way of speaking from the heart and thinking of other people’s best interests more than her own good — that sped up the time for the universe to give her what she wanted in the first place.
Learn to let go and practice the art of gratitude.
So what do we do if things don’t turn out the way we want them to? Clara says that letting go is key.
“When I say let go, it doesn’t equate to giving up. Most of the time, our anxieties come from us expecting that things will turn out as it’s supposed to be, delaying the manifestation process. You just have to trust, have faith, and thank the universe in advance for whatever it is that you’re manifesting,” she says. For Clara, this is what living in a world full of infinite possibilities means. If you exude the energy and frequency that you already have what you’re manifesting for, the universe will match it with the right circumstances and people you need to achieve it.
Clara Herrera is a life and business coach and yoga teacher who teaches rapid wealth transformation through a module series on the power of manifestation. Learn more about this training course on her website.
