There has been much written and spoken about on “manifestation” in past decades. The latest ideas have been presented in videos like the Secret, a few years back.
If you think positive thoughts, you will manifest your dreams!
The Key Word there is: POSITIVE. Otherwise, you will manifest your NIGHTMARES!
If it was this simple of course, everyone with a dream of having something MORE or DIFFERENT would be forcing themselves to think positive thoughts all the time, to get what they want.
The thing is, we don’t always think positive thoughts. You may have noticed. And believing that you can FORCE yourself or make yourself think certain thoughts is very, very stressful.
Many people suffer deeply when their life situations are other than their dreams, when they don’t appear to “manifest” well enough or fast enough. Often, with this logic, people think they are doing something WRONG if what happens in their lives is losing everything, getting cancer, being single, going bankrupt, gaining weight, having a boring job…they are doing somethingwrong if they are manifesting trouble, pain, loss or difficulty.
Bad situation? It’s your fault!!
Now, not only are you facing something difficult and unexpected, frustrating, sad, agonizing or traumatic….you also manifested it yourself! You are just not good enough.
Ouch.
Manifestation is defined as “coming into sight”. Evident, palpable, clear, proven.
When we believe something is “true” it is often because we’ve found PROOF. We see evidence for it. Maybe 100 examples.
Oh look, I have no money in my bank account….this means that: I will starve, I will have nowhere to live, I am scared, I have no one to help me, I am selfish, I am stupid, I am unhappy, I will suffer….I must be thinking negative thoughts, I’m not good enough.
I have found that the first thing that helps when in a difficult experience, or having strong and uncomfortable feelings about a situation, is to let the feelings and thoughts be here.
Putting up a fight against the terrible, uncomfortable, troubling feelings or situation generates resistance. It sort of boosts the WAR and conflict. Makes it louder.
Byron Katie calls it arguing with reality, arguing with what is. You lose, as she says, but only 100% of the time.
If we are investigating our thinking….then we actually want the thoughts to stay present, so we can see what they are. We don’t want to destroy them. We’re not against them.
“No matter what you manifest, you’ll find out that it’s not going to make you happy. You can manifest anything if you believe it. Does it have anything to do with happiness or well-being? Absolutely not!…Who cares if you manifest something or pay cold hard cash for it…DOESN’T MATTER! Don’t get suckered in. When you come into total harmony with the flow of your existence….you see what the universe is manifesting FOR you, not what YOU are manifesting.”~ Adyashanti
So I remember, I’m not actually sure if I WOULD be happy if I “manifest” whatever I think would make me happy. That’s in the future, right? I have no idea what will happen in the next hour, really.
Instead, I stay with my situations, my troubles, my thoughts. I see them, I identify them. Now I can do The Work, now I can question my thinking.
Is this all really true? Is this really what having no money in my bank account MEANS? If a doctor says “you have cancer” does this really mean that I did something wrong, that I didn’t take care of myself, that I deserved this outcome, that I could have done better, or that this is horrible?
If I’m NOT manifesting thousands of dollars given, paid, directed, or offered to me does this mean that I’m thinking BAD THOUGHTS?
“You think the things that you could acquire in the future are going to make you happy. But your ego knows deep down that it’s all going to be taken away (but let’s not think about THAT–chuckle)……If you think that something WILL fulfill you, later, then it won’t. Because you are not fulfilled NOW. So let’s think about this moment…Let go of the future. You’re not going to find enlightenment there. It’s already here. And you are already it.”~Eckhart Tolle
Can I leave everything alone? Can I do nothing, let go, relax, rest. Is it possible that joy and peace are here?
It is amazing to realize that I may not need money, success, power, thinness, fame or health to be happy. WOW!
Even the thought that I can stop trying to get any of these things….that being present right here is enough. Being alive is enough. Nothing else necessary. No manifesting, no thinking or adding positive thoughts. Awareness. Thinking mind. Inquiry.
Why would the Universe make you Not Enough? If the Universe is Friendly, then you are enough. Right in your difficult situation…right now.
Love, Grace