Manifesting Your Dreams
2020 and not one of us could have anticipated the year turning out the way that it has. However, the year is not over yet and we want to encourage you to dream, imagine and design your life out of the space of your imagination once again. This all starts with understanding our self-image.
Maxwell Maltz, author of Psycho-Cybernetics and the mind behind some of the world’s most profound successes, studied and applied into the power of imagination, once one has done the self-work to rectify the image one has of oneself. Granted a piece of work of over 500 pages that serves as the foundation and thesis for life coaching as we know it, psychology and understanding the self cannot be captured in a single article, but it is an excellent starting point.
Manifestation or designing our lives is not some “airy-fairy” or pop psychology notion. There are years and years of studies that prove the science behind it and that it does work. I’ve had many instances in which I have experienced the manifestation of things I have wanted.
Truthfully, it wasn’t consistent because one of the things we aren’t often taught is the “how.” This is not simply sitting back and waiting for something to happen. It takes work, and the work is daily self-image alignment to who you are meant to be.
Maltz states that “The ‘self-image’ is the key to human personality and human behavior. Change the self image and you change the personality and the behavior.” In other words, when we understand that we are designed for success, our very thoughts and actions will lead us in ways to make choices that lead to our success. In spite of all the will power in the world, you cannot act outside of how you perceive yourself. Dr Maltz also reveals that “the human nervous system cannot tell the difference between an actual experience and an experience imagined vividly and in detail.” In short, daily creative mental picturing that allows you to see yourself as you want to be is necessary to change who you are. Hold those images in your mind daily.
As Dr Maltz states:
“A human being always acts and feels and performs in accordance with what he imagines to be true about himself and his environment...For imagination sets the goal ‘picture’ which our automatic mechanism works on. We act, or fail to act, not because of ‘will,’ as is so commonly believed, but because of imagination.”
This means that activating the images of who we want to be will allow us to make choices in alignment with it. If you state that you are in fact the best cook, you will find yourself creating that image in reality...practising the art of cooking, studying it etc.
In an exceptional book, Mind Power, John Kehoe describes the power of practising visualisation (or as Dr Maltz would say, creative mental picturing) daily and the power of the subconscious mind: “Our subconscious mind contains such power and complexity that it literally staggers the imagination. Likewise, your subconscious will create and manifest according to the image you habitually project upon it through your daily thinking.” After all this, there are a few excellent daily rituals one can implement to mindfully step into the role of designing the life you want
Know how you see yourself and concentrate on fixing your self image. Out of this you will start making decisions about your life that will bring your goals to life.
Activate the power of your imagination daily. Visualise your goal as if it’s happening at this instant. Feel it and understand it in the most detailed way that you can.
Understand that your subconscious mind will bring into being whatever images you are feeding it.
Daily affirmations are a powerful part of correcting your self-image. Say it until you believe it.
Practice gratitude daily.
Journal to see the patterns you’re creating and where you can make mindful changes to your daily habits and routines.
In my own life, I have visualised conversations that have come to pass for gigs I have wanted or writing work I have wanted. I have seen the power of manifestation in my family. The self-work is the hardest part and I speak from experience (and truthfully) when I say that we tend to get in our own way. However, I will continue to correct myself and continue the daily practices to consciously usher in the life I want. Here’s an even better idea sisters, dream another dream because 2020 is not over yet and let’s do it together.
Written by Kim Jansen