The Art of Manifesting what you want

Ok, so lets get this part out the way…What exactly is Manifestation?

In short, to manifest something is to bring a thought or feeling into reality. You can do this multiple ways. For example, when you write a thought down, you have just brought some life to that thought, so writing is a form of manifesting. Speaking is a form too, because once again, you have brought to life sounds and words using thought. Which leaves us with the main ingredient, thoughts. So yes, just thinking alone is manifesting, well because as science shows today…we understand that all things vibrate, including our nervous sytem which reactes to our thoughts. So now now that we understand how this all works…let me tell you how I used it to pass the biggest test in my life.

As we know passing the LCSW exam is a big achievement.  It’s a game changer, and opens up multiple doors for your career as a Social Worker. One of those being the ability to open up your own practice, which I took the opportunity to do. 

But this test, as many can be…is tricky.  Mental Health has so many components, so you never know what area your test may focus on the most.  Also, many people I knew at the time, failed the exam multiple times…including my own supervisor.  So with some knowledge of mindfulness,  I decided to give myself permission. Permission to pass the first time. 

During this time there was a lot going on.  Covid had just begun, I was moving into a new apartment and my dad was diagnosed with cancer and severely sick.  The stress was overwhelming.  Being the only guy, my mother and sister were distraught about my dad and I had new responsibilities.  I had to make sure I had the energy to uplift them, take care of my dads assets & also pass the biggest test in my life…and oh yeah, Covid. With everything going on, I knew I needed meditation now more than ever.  I just wanted to stop thinking…about Everything.  So I did.  

Having meditated before, I knew there was that empty space that would refresh my mind. That is the exact space I wanted now…that nothingness. That empty space not only saved me from emotionally breaking down, it brought light to my own inner framework.  When you understand that everything is energy, then you understand that everything is us.  So inside us, we carry everything and nothing at the same time.  If you can concentrate enough, you can go into that space…that black hole.  Inside here is where the magic happens…you can create or you can cleanse, and so that is what I did for weeks upon end.  

With a mind now refreshed and free of worry, I was ready to create what I wanted…passing my exam…the first time. 

In mediation we are taught how thoughts themselves carry out vibrations in our bodies.  So when people say “you’re going to think yourself sick, you actually can, or you can manifest your success.  

So that’s exactly what I did. While meditating I consistently pictured and manifested passing the exam. Without worry of the why or how…which can interrupt the process…I focused on the feeling (feminine energy) of passing. I created that inner feeling of excitement I would feel when I passed.  I thought about how my body would feel, how I would want to scream full of excitement. When I got my results, my mind and body matched that crazy excitement I  manifested over and over.

But as taught in yoga, the mind can be like a monkey and jump all over the place.  As did mine at times. So during my studies, everytime I doubted myself and thought “well maybe I’ll just pass the second time” or “maybe this will be too hard” I redirected my thoughts right away.  This is also something they teach in mediation, the power of infinite responsibility. Meaning our whole lives, we carry the gift to respond to everything.  So when one negative thought arrives out of nowhere, which they do, we can respond with an even more uplifting one. 

This is why I wanted to write about the power of permission.  I noticed working in mental health, how we don’t give ourselves the permission to believe in more.  To be more than our families believed we would be, more than our friends believed and most importantly, more than we ourselves have even imagined. We cap our own imagination about what or who we could be, and there’s multiple reasons as to why but that’s a bigger conversation about mindfulness.  I’ll give one small example on how I continued to be mindful of limiting my own success.  

One day while coaching youth basketball, we were in a close championship game.  The team we were facing was very good, so good that for a second I thought to myself, “well maybe we might just lose this one”  Right away I remembered the meditation practices and another great book I read on the power of thought in sports. I thought to myself, “Why not us?  Shit my team works very hard and plays together, we should be number one”…and we were.  We won by a close two points.  Although it was just a youth basketball game, that situation brought further light on the complacency of our thoughts.  How we often settle and don’t give ourselves permission to be number one. 

So with that, I just wanted to share how I’ve used these tools to continue to grow.  I hope that everyone takes the time to give themselves that permission to believe in more.  To recognize that they can be much more than their past, and create the future perhaps yet to be imagined.