On manifestation
I’m gonna get a little witchy, if you’ll allow me.
Manifesting is such an interesting concept to me. It’s similar to affirmations, in that they both can be incredibly useful, but mostly as setting the intention and using it to plan out what you’re going to do to make your affirmation/manifestation happen.
I’m going to talk through a recent manifestation session I did with myself, and what my plans are (I actually did it the day I’m writing this, so I’ll report back with how well it went).
Every Monday evening I go to a night class for my therapy course, and we ‘check in’ at the start of every session. It’s a moment to ground ourselves and check in on where we are mentally and emotionally before we start the work.
I use the walk to the session as a little mini reflection time. It’s a transition from ‘SCB Gem’ to ‘trainee therapist Gem’. I often think about what I want to say at check in as a focal point for my reflection.
This week’s session was big, it gave me a lot of reflection to do, (and a ton of homework). It being the start of a new month, also means loading up my scheduled social media and checking my newsletter pipeline, so I am a busy bee.
I was feeling a little unfocused and overwhelmed so I did some self care and took myself to an early afternoon screening of Lisa Frankenstein at the cinema (enjoyable, but tonally all over the place).
On the way back I read my book, and let myself enjoy reading for the 30min tram ride. Then when I was walking home from the tram stop, I started to reflect on what I wanted and needed to do.
What do I want to Manifest?
This turned into a manifestation session, with check in next Monday at the centre. What do I want my next check in to be like? What do I want to say, specifically?
For me this looks like this:
I’ve had a great week
I’m ahead on social media
I’m ahead with my newsletter
I had a great time at the women in tech conference and I’ve been reaching out on linkedin to people I met to connect with them and see if any of them will turn into clients
So how do I make this happen? Is it possible to do all of these things? Let’s dig in:
I spent Tuesday evening cleaning up the kitchen, sorting the counter space up, running the dishwasher. I have food in for the week. That worry = sorted.
Next: resting. Once I’ve finished this newsletter I am taking the rest of Tuesday off. I’m gonna read or play games, and generally chill and let things percolate, because I know I do better work when I’ve had time to let a plan settle in my brain.
Wednesday: draft out some newsletter ideas, draft out homework answers. Think about my 30 second pitch for conference
Thursday: prep for client call, do client call, take a break, then firm up homework and finish what I can
Friday: conference. Go forth and network!
Saturday: Finish any homework I need to, then see where my energy takes me
Sunday: Rest of finish things up, depending on how saturday goes
Monday: follow up with people I connected with at the conference, flesh out some newsletters and schedule.
From manifestation to plan
And there you have it. From manifestation to plan. This is a type of forward journaling, where you imagine a future version of yourself, and then plan how to get there.
You pick a timeframe, a week, a month, 6 months from now, whatever works. You then sit and think about your ideal self or ideal set of circumstances for future you. Be specific here, or you’ll not be able to find a plan in the manifestation.
You might find it useful to frame your thinking. If you journal, write a future journal entry. Maybe write out a message to a friend or a future social media post. This will help you crystallise and be specific (and help with contexts - do you want to work this in your professional or personal sphere?)
Then ask yourself some questions:
What do I need to do to get to this ideal self?
What can I realistically do to get to this ideal self?
What am I willing to do?
Then you can go into specifics:
What support do you need?
What practical things do you need in place?
What unrelated things would make this work easier (for example, cleaning my kitchen isn’t part of my manifestation, but having a clean kitchen makes things easier for me to manage).
What has got in your way previously? What can you do to help negate these factors?
Affirmations vs Manifestation
People who’ve been on my affirmations course will recognise some of these questions, as it works the same way. I think affirmations are vaguer, more overarching, where manifestations are specific goals and plans.
My affirmation is about showing up consistently.
My manifestation contains getting ahead of making and scheduling social media posts, which makes it easier to show up, because I don’t need to think about posting regularly to social media
The idea of the ideal self (and the actual and perceived selves) are all parts of person-centred counselling. The distance between these can be difficult to manage. I talked about shame being where my actual and ideal self don’t match up. You can become bitter if how you’re perceived doesn’t match your actual or ideal self.
Untangling these different identities and figuring out what your ideal self looks like to you is a lot of work, but it can ground you in your why and what.
As with all of my exercises, this is an exercise in kind accountability. By figuring out what’s possible within what you want to do, and allowing yourself to think about what has hindered you and how to negate that, you’re planning in a kind way. From a default position of ‘I can do this, but how am I going to do this’ comes a fresh way to look at tasks and how they enable you to move into your ideal self.
This exercise is one I’m going to firm up and share as a downloadable pdf in the coming weeks, so look out for that, but in the meantime I’d love to hear if this approach to planning resonates with you at all.
Catch you next week
Gem