{"id":574,"date":"2023-01-13T14:36:06","date_gmt":"2023-01-13T14:36:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.illuminate.co.com\/?p=574"},"modified":"2023-01-16T09:47:26","modified_gmt":"2023-01-16T09:47:26","slug":"manifesting-truth-or-snake-oil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.illuminate.co.com\/index.php\/2023\/01\/13\/manifesting-truth-or-snake-oil\/","title":{"rendered":"Manifesting \u2013 truth or snake oil?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[vc_row css_animation=&#8221;&#8221; row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; use_row_as_full_screen_section=&#8221;no&#8221; type=&#8221;grid&#8221; angled_section=&#8221;no&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; background_image_as_pattern=&#8221;without_pattern&#8221; z_index=&#8221;&#8221;][vc_column width=&#8221;2\/3&#8243; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1566406304942{padding-right: 10% !important;}&#8221;][vc_column_text]With the new year comes the barrage of self-help gurus and ideas.\u00a0 One that caught my eye was <em><strong>manifesting<\/strong>.<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0 Apparently, google searches for this were up 700% over the last year, with many well viewed Youtube videos and several books. What is manifesting?\u00a0 Does it hold value?<\/p>\n<p>Manifesting is based on the law of attraction, a philosophy proposing that positive thoughts bring positive results into one\u2019s life, while negative thoughts bring negative results. Thoughts are a type of energy with positive energy attracting success across health, finances, and relationships. If you set out to achieve something for yourself, it will manifest itself via the law of attraction.\u00a0 However, manifesting is not about wishing, wanting or hoping for something and waiting for it to happen by some miracle. According to Mel Robbins, an American self-help guru and manifesting advocate, it is about aligning your mind, body and spirit to a clear, meaningful goal with intentional and persistent, focused action to deliver what you want. It can take work and time to reach the goal, but the argument for manifesting is you can and will get it.\u00a0\u00a0 Hmm \u2013 maybe.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Is manifesting a new idea?<\/strong> \u2013 not really.\u00a0 It is based around the ideas and techniques of:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li>clear, meaningful, purposeful goal setting<\/li>\n<li>taking intention, persistent action aligned with this goal \u2013 often over prolonged periods<\/li>\n<li>repeated detailed visualisation practice of the process to get to the end goal<\/li>\n<li>using supportive self-talk or affirmations to encourage action<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I use the ideas listed above <u>and <\/u>a process to examine and reduce barriers \u2013 namely negative beliefs &#8211; to support clients gain \u2018experience\u2019 of dealing with, managing challenges in a more flexible, realistic and helpful, encouraging way before tackling real life experience.\u00a0 Clients who vigorously work on the barrier reduction and practice visualisation daily over 2-3 weeks can successfully confront real-life. \u00a0The great brain trick with visualisation is that your mind doesn\u2019t really know the difference between actual and imagined experience.\u00a0 Detailed, regular visualisation helps to train your nervous system to <em>feel<\/em> it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What do the manifesting gurus miss?<\/strong>\u00a0 I see 4 pitfalls to the typical manifesting approach:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li>Not working first on the negative, irrational beliefs (typically I should.., I must\u2026, I need to.., I can\u2019t stand it\u2026 and I am not good enough\u2026 ) which block forward movement. Uncovering and working on these prepare and reset the mind for change and goal attainment.\u00a0 Nearly all manifesting approaches ignore this (it is hard work!).<\/li>\n<li>Using affirmations or positive talk feels false\/inauthentic when introduced too soon. Just saying <em>I am a really confident<\/em> person doesn\u2019t make it so.\u00a0 The barrier?\u00a0 The negative, irrational beliefs.<\/li>\n<li>Down-playing the focused and repetitive work required to maintain forward movement and deal with the inevitable pitfalls. The barrier?\u00a0 The negative, irrational beliefs.<\/li>\n<li>Believing that through manifesting you can have or be <em>anything<\/em> you want is simply not realistic. One could achieve a great deal through the process if done correctly, but not everything.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>People love simple, easy to apply, catchy ideas with deep promises, but the reality is behaviour change often takes time and a lot of work.\u00a0 Reality is messy and hard. \u00a0Manifesting offers a re-packaged approach to change with some helpful ideas but some big gaps.\u00a0 Proceed with caution.<\/p>\n<p>If you are interested in learning more about making behaviour change, contact <a href=\"mailto:paul.noel@illuminate.co.uk\">paul.noel@illuminate.co.uk<\/a>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][vc_widget_sidebar sidebar_id=&#8221;sidebar&#8221;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With the new year comes the barrage of self-help gurus and ideas.  One that caught my eye was manifesting.   Apparently, google searches for this were up 700% over the last year, with many well viewed Youtube videos and several books. What is manifesting?  Does it hold value?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":576,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,17,10,11,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-coaching","category-mental-fitness","category-mental-health","category-resilience","category-wellbeing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.illuminate.co.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.illuminate.co.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.illuminate.co.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.illuminate.co.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.illuminate.co.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.illuminate.co.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":577,"href":"https:\/\/www.illuminate.co.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574\/revisions\/577"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.illuminate.co.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.illuminate.co.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.illuminate.co.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.illuminate.co.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}