If You Want Something, First, Believe That It’s Possible

Manifest what you want—a pragmatic approach

Let go of what doesn’t serve you. Make space for what you really want. You probably hear this everywhere these days—I’ve written about it too.

Make space—fill it with your dreams.

It sounds pretty easy, doesn’t it?

In a mantra I use, I call to:

RELEASE all that no longer serves or supports you and your vision; to let go, as you move closer to your essence. Then, free to receive, you REBUILD.

But, what is your essence? What do you want to receive, and why? Further, how do you rebuild unless you know what you want to create?

What do you dream of?

The key is in the first, and most important passage of this mantra:

As I reflect on my current self: my habits, needs and desires, I close my eyes, open my heart and, without limitation, I REIMAGINE the life I want.

We can’t rebuild and create the life that we want unless we can imagine what that life actually looks like.

Prior to releasing and letting go of what we no longer want, to make space for that which we do, we need to know what we want to fill the empty space with. If we don’t, we risk cluttering it up again: Either the old stuff will come seeping back, or a whole new set of undesirable junk will replace it.

Emptiness creates a vacuum

An empty space wants to be filled and possess a magnetic pull. Combined with constant outside pressure, it’s impossible to keep a vacuum empty. If you imagine digging a hole in the sand underwater, it will immediately be filled with water. The same goes for the mental ‘space’ we create in our lives.

Be clear about your intentions

Before letting go, we must get clear; we need a road map.

We can wish for specific things, happiness or love, or even more money, but it’s more important to ask ourselves why and how.

When setting intentions, answer the following:

• What do I really want—and why?
• How do I want to feel?
• How will having what I want benefit me and others?

Now, we can set all the intentions in the world, but simply deciding what we want, and making space for it, doesn’t guarantee that we’ll receive it. How do we take something from there and make it a reality?

Manifestation and the laws of attraction are other concepts that get thrown around a lot these days. Often, they can seem rather cabalistic, and at the same time, or overly simplified.

We can’t simply think positive thoughts and expect positive things to come our way, can we?

Reality is a projection of your thoughts or the things you habitually think about. ― Stephen Richards

Our mindsets include our subconscious thoughts

It is true that our realities are (partially) a reflection of our mindsets, but this often disregards our subconscious thoughts.

Supposedly, we have between 50 to 70 thousand unconscious thoughts per day, and many of these are negative. Our bodies, unfortunately, don’t know the difference between conscious or unconscious thought and react in the same way to messages from either. This means that if we deliberately think positive thoughts 40% of the time, but our subconscious is telling us the opposite the remaining 60%, our reality is still shaped predominantly by the impulses from the negative thoughts.

In order to undo the negative thinking patterns in our subconscious and replace them with positive ones, we basically need to rewire our brains—and this is where the hard work lies.

Believe that you’re worthy

Unless we believe that we’re good enough, capable, and that we deserve the things we want, we’re not likely to get them either.

If our unconscious is convinced that we suck, it doesn’t matter how many times we tell ourselves in front of the mirror that we don’t—unless we learn to actually believe that we don’t suck.

Many say you have to love yourself first in order to love. I disagree; we can still love and be lovable while struggling to fully love ourselves. But, we do have to believe that we’re worthy of love.

The same goes for money. We may covet it and tell ourselves that we should have it. We may write the sentence “abundance is flowing to me” a thousand times in our morning journals. But, unless we heal the subconscious wounds that perpetuate the idea that we don’t deserve, we’ll continue to self-sabotage.

Rewire your thinking

I’m not a fan of the word entitled. The word has a negative overtone; as if we believe that someone or something owes us. None of us are entitled to anything—not even to life itself.

We’re not entitled—but, we are worthy.

Tell yourself this: “I am worthy!”

You’re worthy of love, happiness, abundance, and prosperity; of all the good things.

We must strive to rewire our subconscious thoughts first, and believe that these are possible and within reach, despite what the pain from our present, pasts, and our upbringings are telling us.

In the end, we need to shape our actions and create habits that help us reach our goals. What many manifestation-preachers and websites forget to mention are the steps that come after setting intentions and changing our mindsets:

We must put in the effort to get there. Without direct action, none of the steps above matter much.

Create habits that align with your intentions

The good news is that when we’ve done the job of setting intentions and on changing our mindsets—when we embody the feeling of worthiness—we’ll naturally start leaning towards making decisions and taking actions that get us there.

Where intention goes, energy flows! ― James Redfield

This is where we start moving into the act of letting go and creating space: We’ll let go of bad habits, relationships, and other clutter that hold us back—actions that support our old beliefs that we’re not worthy—and replace them with behaviors that emphasize our conscious and subconscious knowledge that we are.

Quickly summarized, the process of creating space for our goals and dreams to come to fruition—which is often referred to as manifestation—is, in reality, a process of a few concrete steps that require hard work and determination:

First, be clear about what you want, and why. Second, rewire your mind by healing your subconscious wounds. Lastly, take direct action and figure out how to get there.