If you downloaded TikTok during quarantine because you were eager to waste time and make the days pass by a little bit faster, then you were definitely not alone! High five from a distance because of COVID-19! But you might have also noticed a ton of TikTok videos about manifestation and its creepy workings on your page, whether it was a fortune-teller claiming something life-changing would happen to you on August 27th if you “manifested the video” or someone detailing how they achieved their bucket list goals through manifestation. This can be a lot to take in, and naturally, it leads to a few key questions.
What the heck is manifestation? Does it really work? Is this some sort of hidden crystal ball propaganda? And who can blame all that natural curiosity when a billion videos are telling you that your life will potentially change forever in a month?
Think of the concept of manifestation as a personal life coach that keeps repeating to you that you can make those dreams of yours come true through your beliefs and the laws of attraction. In simple terms, it means that when you wish upon a star, anything your heart desires will come to you (Disney, hire me as your next live-action lead, please and thank you).
This sort of sounds like goal setting, right? But manifestation is so much more than that. Manifestation is about encouraging the right mindset and putting yourself out there so that you’re open to going after what you want. If you keep convincing yourself that you’ll never be TikTok famous, then guess what? You never will be because you’ll subconsciously keep self-sabotaging your efforts in order to meet a bar set that low.
Your mindset is what makes your goal-setting process so much more efficient. And it sounds ridiculously crazy, but it’s weirdly true. Something as simple and abstract as how you think and the energy you give out to the universe can make such a big difference in what the universe will give back to you. In this world, you are conditioned to expect the worst, so practicing positive thinking might be tough at first. However, it will eventually cultivate the healthy habit of noticing the rainbows in your everyday life instead of the thunderstorms.
If you are a cynical person, it may be lowkey terrifying to risk hoping for something you really want, only to be slapped in the face. After all, you might think it hurts more to hope and be let down than it is to expect to be disappointed. But that’s where you’re wrong. You owe it to yourself to go after your dreams if you know they will make you happy. If you fall down, you’ll pick yourself up again and try once more. That’s still one step forward from never doing anything at all.
So that leads to the next step. Manifestation starts with the right mindset, but it continues with your actions. Your mindset only puts you in the right head space so that you feel confident enough to execute your checklist and to subconsciously seek out opportunities to help you with that goal of yours. But then you have to follow up on that. The universe will only provide you with opportunities and weird magic if you put yourself out there first.
There are a lot of ways you could start that off; for example, making vision boards using Pinterest and Canva and setting that collage as the home screen on your phone, so you’ll be reminded of your dreams, and how much you want them, every time you turn your phone on. Without even realizing it, your goals will keep lingering in the back of your mind. You’ll start to brainstorm different baby steps you could take and meet people who will want to help out along the way. Before you know it, you’ll be living your best life as the new president with a million cats and dogs by your side. C’est la vie!
As Oprah once said: “You control a lot by your thoughts, and we control a lot by our joined thoughts… by what we believe”. So, listen to Oprah (and this article) and think about what it is you really want in life so that you can start manifesting it into your new reality. You might be surprised by how much you can accomplish from following these steps because I know I was
I know for a fact that if jaded high school me saw the person I became and what I accomplished simply by believing, she would be proud.