A reader recently asked me how often I write about manifestation. When I asked what drew her to it, she told me she’d been intentional about it for years, but her progress had been sporadic because she kept getting in her own way. I recognized myself in her answer. Like her, I’ve been doing this for years, and I’ll admit I know it far better than I consistently practice it.
My interest has always leaned toward the science side of manifestation, through Dr. Joe Dispenza, Neville Goddard, and Dr. Tara Swart. What they each share is that manifestation lives in what you feel. Positive thoughts on their own have only made a slight difference for me, while a real feeling in my body can shift my whole day. Future casting means taking the time to picture what you want and asking yourself what it would actually feel like to have it. You see it clearly, and then you let your body feel it as though it’s already here. It’s something you learn to do with practice. The feeling is the prerequisite. We tend to wait to feel good until what we want finally arrives, but the juicy feeling has to come first.
This is where the nervous system comes in. A body stuck in stress is focused on getting through, and it pulls us back toward what feels familiar because it’s trying to protect us. It’s hard to feel joy or possibility from there. Dr. Tara Swart explores this in her book, The Signs: The New Science of How to Trust Your Instincts. She talks about stepping out of the stress and distraction of modern life and shifting from fixed thinking into openness and wonder, which is where signs and synchronicity become much easier to notice. In her conversation on The Diary of a CEO podcast, she also shares the signs she’s received from her late husband. Listening to her had a fascinating effect on me and further motivated me to resume the SAGE Method.
Signs aren’t new for me. Years ago my son’s farm and forest teacher told me about an exercise she’d tried from a book called Signs: The Secret Language of the Universe by Laura Lynne Jackson, a medium who teaches you to ask for a specific sign and then watch for it. Her experience stayed with me, though it was another couple of years before I actually read the book. When I finally tried it, I asked for pennies and dimes. Within a few days they started showing up, and they kept showing up. My husband would find dimes on the passenger seat and in the console of my car, even though I don’t carry change or have passengers. They turned up at the bottom of the washer with a clang too. Not long after, as I walked into work to sign in, a penny dropped to the floor. A coworker looked down and exclaimed, “Where in the world did that come from?” She picked it up and went on her way as I stood there dumbfounded for a moment.
It’s been at least two years, and they still show up, only sporadically now. I notice them when I’m in a more aware frame of mind, and I miss them completely when I’m busy and frazzled. I saw the same thing when I restarted the SAGE Method, where my intuition began opening almost as soon as I made a little space for it. That difference tells me this work begins with a calmer body and a little space to notice.
The practices that help me most are simple. One that I’ve done for a long time is tuning into my senses, and I was glad to find it in Dr. Tara Swart’s The Signs. I often do it in the shower, listening to the water gurgle down the drain and the steady white noise of the spray. Then I notice the heat on my skin and the steam rising around me, and I breathe in the scent of the soap and shampoo, letting myself stay with each sensation for a moment. Another exercise from her book takes me outside, where I first focus on the details of something large in the distance, like a tall tree and the way its branches move, and then something small and close, a blade of grass or a leaf. Moving between far and near brings me back into my body and into the present. Small joys and time in nature settle me in the same way. You’ll find more of the tools I lean on over on my Rooted Wellness page.
Another part of this is the story you tell yourself. The negative thought patterns underneath it tend to surface in the still moments. Imagine sitting down for coffee with a friend who asks how it’s going and says, catch me up. Whatever you’d tell her is your current story. Writing it out honestly, just as it is right now, shows you exactly where you’re starting from. From there, the goal is to gently shift your story.
Our thoughts run along old programming, neural pathways worn deep from years of the same patterns, and they don’t change overnight. If my story right now feels heavy and stuck, I can’t jump straight to a million dollars and a mansion on the beach. My brain would reject that immediately because it doesn’t feel real. What it can accept is a small shift, something just a little better that I can actually believe and feel. Each time I return to that new version, the pathway grows a little stronger. Once it starts to feel natural, I reach for the next small shift from there.
The words we use matter as well, because like energy attracts like energy. Negative thoughts and frustration, or a quiet “how did I even get here,” send out an energy that tends to bring back more of the same. Life starts to feel heavier, which brings more frustration, and it becomes a spiral that’s tough to get out of. When I catch myself saying “I don’t know,” I’m reminded that it tells the universe I want more of not knowing. Phrases like “I should,” “I need to,” and “I have to” carry a similar weight, because they put pressure on the body and keep it bracing. After years of repeating them, they’ve become wide, well-worn paths in my brain. “I’m curious,” “I wonder when,” and “When I’m ready, I will” are still teeny little trails by comparison, and they only grow wider with intentional, repeated practice. Over time, the brain begins to choose the new path on its own, until curiosity becomes the default and carries you toward the life you want.
The deepest part of this work is learning to master your own vibe, shifting your energy while you’re still in the middle of a hard situation, before anything on the outside has changed. If we wait for life to get easier first, it can start to feel like Groundhog Day. Our energy is always being reflected back to us, so when we send out something heavy, we tend to get more of it in return, and the cycle repeats.
I can feel the difference in my own body. When I’m in a low place, I’m tired and sluggish, my ideas aren’t inspired, and I hear myself saying I’m stuck or feeling blah. What usually keeps me there is the low energy itself, circling around and around. When I’m in a higher place, I feel lighter and more excited, I have more physical energy, and things start to click. That’s the flow I love being in.
There are a couple of reasons this hasn’t worked for me in the past. One is fake positivity, putting a smile over frustration while my body still feels everything I’m trying to cover up. The feeling underneath is what gets broadcast. The other is simply not staying with it long enough. I’d rewrite and read my story or practice future casting for a few minutes a day. After several days, I’d get distracted and drift back into old habits before anything had a chance to really shift.
I also had to start noticing where my energy was leaking. It slips away in grumpiness and small annoyances, in ruminating over the same conversation, and in worrying about money or work. Every bit of focus I give those things is energy that isn’t going toward what I actually want. Once I started catching those leaks, I could gently turn my attention back sooner.
Chronic negative thoughts are what keep many of us stuck. The hard part is that these thoughts are often true. Money might be tight and work might be draining. Even so, letting those truths take up all of my focus keeps me circling in the same energy. Acknowledging what’s real while choosing where I place my attention is what slowly begins to change things.
Most of us already know all of this. We’ve read the books and scrolled past the reels, yet the practice itself doesn’t actually get done. I’m guilty of that too, and I keep learning that knowing isn’t enough on its own. There’s nothing more important to give my focus to, every day or at least most days. The shift doesn’t have to be dramatic, because moving from low energy to medium is enough to start getting unstuck.
If you’ve been getting in your own way, start small today. Settle your body first, then write out your story the way you’d tell it to a friend over coffee. Read it back, choose one small shift that feels believable, and let yourself feel it for a minute. Tomorrow, come back and do it again. If you’d like a few more ways to settle wherever you are, my free Stillness on the Go Guide is a gentle place to start. One small piece each day is enough to begin, and you can build from there.
