Does Manifesting Really Work? Can You Visualize and Make Your Dreams Come True? Find Out How!

Imagine this: You arrive at work, a place you love, which provides you a good income, and you have upward mobility.  As you bounce through the door, your boss calls you into her office and silently hands you the dreaded pink slip. No explanation. No nothing. You are FIRED. Gone. Out.  

You stand there, jaw gaping...STUNNED.  Your stomach plummets to the ground. There goes your LIFE. There goes your HOPE. There go your DREAMS....in one fell swoop.  And the worst thing? You don't even know why----

Well, I experienced this...in a way. 

You see, as a blogger, Pinterest (and social media in general) generates a great deal of my traffic, and therefore income. In horror, I discovered they have the power to just shut a person down! For no reason! Pinterest suspended my website for several days, then reinstated it. After this, my account still wasn't working---they were redirecting people to a pop up saying I was a "spammer." Oh. My. Gosh.

Turns out---THEY made a mistake. After researching why my website was suspended, all I can determine is that it is very possible someone was stealing my content, then turned me in as a spammer. Turns out, this has happened to other bloggers out there in the blogosphere, as I did some research.

Even though the error was theirs, Pinterest couldn't seem to figure out this glitch.  

Nice. If the loss of traffic and traffic was not enough---now they were ruining my reputation.

After about 25 letters over a three week period and a REALLY bad attitude, I grimly decided to:

Let. It. Go.  

And guess what----I believe my stinkin' thinkin' helped manifest this ridiculous and horrific pickle. Yes. I do.

Find out how your feelings and thoughts may just help determine some of the events that happen in your life.

But first, here's a Happy manifesting story...

The weirdest thing happened a few months ago. My neighbor gave me this huge bag of fresh lemons! Now, mind you---it was winter time.  Lemons are not something I generally expect to have land on my doorstep at that time of year. But, you see, I had been concentrating on them....quite by accident...but still. I unknowingly MANIFESTED them!

It all started on a frigidly cold day.  I was sitting there, freezing, reading a thread in one of my Facebook groups, and one of my online friends who lives someplace unbearably cold--colder than even where I live (like Minnesota or something), was gushing about how happy she was to have received a whole case of lemons from another online friend who lives in Texas---where it's warm and citrus grows aplenty!  

There was a picture, too. These bright, scented, yellow balls rolling out of a beautiful basket. I just couldn't get them out of my head!

Man, I wanted some lemons fresh from the tree!  I was green with lemon envy. But I don't have to deal with that harsh Minnesota weather, so I calmed down and got my Happy back. But ever since that moment, I had been dreaming about fresh lemons!  Big, juicy fresh lemons from a real life, unsprayed tree! Summertime lemons!

I had not been obsessing over them you see...just fairly often, like once a day or something...just giving those fresh lemons a little thought and some imaginary love (and not on purpose either).  These thoughts would just pop unbidden into my head!  

Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather, when my neighbor across the street brought us this HUGE basket of fresh lemons the very next day! Turns out, his son had unexpectedly come up the mountain with a TON of fresh lemons--way more than my neighbor could ever use!  And they were FRESH off his tree! Surprise! 

And....I said, "Oh. My. Gosh!"

**You may also enjoy these articles: Creating Joy in 2018, What is Happiness?

FTC Disclosure: This article has affiliate links scattered here and there. If you click through and make a purchase, I will make a small commission at no extra cost to you. --Heidi (Full Disclosure Here)

How much control do you really have over your life? Find out how your thoughts affect the outcomes in your life. Find out how prayer affects outcomes in your life, too! And emotions? How do emotions affect your life? Does manifestation work? Find out how to take steps to manifest outcomes in your life. 

Does Manifesting Really Work? 

Yes.

Emphatically, I do I believe, pretty much everything we think and feel strongly about has some kind of consequence in our outer world. God says He will give you the desires of your heart! He also sees your heart.  

So isn't it cool that you can decide what to focus on? Either way, consciously or unconsciously, your emotions and your mind play a huge role in influencing how your life is turning out for you. 

"The joy of my Lord is my strength," is a verse that  pretty much represents the joy of manifestation for me. And also, "You reap what you sow," may be either positive or negative in manifestation. 

You are sowing your words. You are sowing your visualizations. You are sowing your energy. You are sowing your thoughts. You are sowing your faith. You are sowing your actions.

And then... you are reaping.  If you sow gratitude and belief and faith, then good things will happen.  And if you sow negative energies, well...

"For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." Matthew 7:8

To clarify: This is not to say that we have complete power over our lives. We don't. God does. Also, God is not Santa Claus.  You can't just ask for something and get it. I don't think it works that way.

I think things that are forced by our own will don't really come from God, but from our own human desires. You can call this Ego. You can call this selfishness. You can call this greed or any of the deadly sins from the Enemy.

I think it's an issue of free will. We all have the power to live in the positive or the negative. I think all my worrying and obsessing over our finances in this past month was really sending some ICK out there into the world. 

We have free choice in whether or not we can just sort of kick back and be grateful and faithful, and let God handle difficulties and provide what we need (and usually much, much more); OR we fight a losing, uphill battle, stressing out, worrying, being anxious; which I'm ashamed to say was where I was right before the Pinterest debacle.   

"Worrying is like saying little prayers for the things you do not want to happen."--Wayne Dyer

How Did I Manifest the Pinterest Tragedy?

For the month leading up to my Pinterest fiasco, I had been living in a state of fear and stress. You see, I just retired. My blogging is serving to help make up some of the difference in income, besides the fact that I love it. 

So, for the past month prior to the "Tragedy", I had been STRIVING.  And that's not necessarily a good state of being. It connotes stress, and anxiety, and fear.  And that was my state of being when the Pinterest tragedy happened.

God tells us, "Do not worry. Do not be afraid." And this is because HE is in charge. And He will take care of us, and it's not for us to question. It's actually more of a command, really. 

My point in this story is that manifestation is REAL.  I believe we do manifest the things that happen to us, in one way or another, and most of that manifestation is completely unconscious--as in my lemons! And also the Pinterest tragedy. 

Therefore, it behooves all of us to watch our thoughts, our feelings, and especially our hearts like a hawk! Watch the visions that play across our minds!

Be conscious of those feelings that march across our hearts and affect our thinking. Focus on gratitude. You cannot worry when you are feeling grateful. Those two feelings don't work together at all.

And if you really want something, then consciously manifest away, using positive, belief-based feeling and thinking! And use prayer. I think prayer is a powerful catalyst. You may not get what you want, but you will get what you need, and that's best of all.

Here are Other Examples of Manifesting: 

1) I have a friend I worked with last year, and he actively manifests things.  This man is relatively new on the job, he is very good at what he does---and he desires power and recognition.

My friend keeps his favorite book, The 48 Laws of Power, on his desk, where he sees it constantly.  He LIVES this book. He FEELS it. And he has begun a meteoric rise through the ranks for being brand new on this job.

2) And another example:   This is my son, Chase. He is a Master Manifester. After working hard, praying, and visualizing his life as a Cadet at the United States Military Academy (Westpoint) while in high school, he was accepted. (This place is more difficult to get into than Harvard.) Not only did he attend on an academic scholarship, but he wanted to play football for them too. He walked onto the team, and the coach accepted him as a trainer--Unreal! The Power not just of Hard Work, but also Divine Intervention, the Mind, and Emotions.

3)  Our home where we live now is another example of how manifestation has worked for us. We can actually have a garden and some animals! We actively and purposefully prayed and visualized getting out of suburbia and into a more rural setting, raising some animals and gardening. It happened!

4) My husband's and my relationship---yet another positive example. We came together through prayer, by being specific and sure of what we each wanted, practicing visualization, and knowing it was coming, feeling joyful that it had already happened. We found out we each had been doing the same things! And there the other was!

This picture is actually on one of my old vision boards. It was taken when my husband and I were meditating and praying on where we were going to buy our home at that time. This time in our lives was a rebuilding time, after some really difficult periods for both of us. We put it out there to God and just decided not to stress. We wanted to live in Cold Creek....Miraculously, it happened! 

Are Only Good Things Manifested?

Nope. 

As you saw in the Pinterest example, bad things happen.  Now I'm not saying that everything bad that happens was consciously thought of in your mind and that's what brought it on. It certainly was NOT in my case. I think it's more of a "vibe" you put out there. I'm not explaining this very well, but it's an energy. And sometimes maybe it's God's way of reminding us what we are supposed to be doing.

It's also a lack of gratitude.

OUCH! It kind of hurts to admit that that's where I have been this past month. It's impossible to feel stressed, fearful, or anxious if you are in a true state of gratitude. 

But did I really help manifest this Pinterest Tragedy? It's so RANDOM----

I'm just going to put this out there, and say, "Yes. Yes, I did."

In some way, shape or form, the energy, stress level, vibes, whatever you want to call it that I had been feeling helped to cause this. I've been reflecting on this pretty deeply, you see, because having this happen to a blogger as small as me is just weird. And completely devastating.

But! I'm done! I'm done stressing. I'm done worrying. I'm done bringing MORE of this on myself. 

After reflecting on all this for two and a half weeks, raging, pulling out my hair, crying (literally), and realizing that there is absolutely NOTHING I can do--that I can't FORCE Pinterest to do anything (heck, I can't even get a live person online via email, let alone on the phone---there is no phone number)---I've decided to go back and revisit what I know about manifestation, pray, meditate, and ask God to help me make some different things happen over here. I know He will. But I have to do my part, too.

I need to focus on feeling gratitude for my life, all the time, on purpose---because that will change this all around.

Here are Ginger and Buddy. All my life, since I was 18 and went off to college, leaving my (our family) horses behind, I wanted to grow up and have my own horses to ride. In a great place to ride. I put my mind, prayers, and heart to it:  See?

How Do You Manifest Something?

Visualize:

Well, if you are planning on doing some conscious manifesting, then getting some pictures of what you want sprinkled around your life is a great start.  This reminds your mind of your vision often. 

In the case of my friend at work, his book on his desk is serving this purpose. In the case of the lemons---I'm very visual, and I actually would think of fresh, bright yellow lemons! 

I happen to sprinkle Bible verses around too. They are most helpful.

FEEL It!

Your emotions play a huge part in what happens in your life, whether you want to believe that or not.  Just think about your interactions with people.  When you are angry, don't your interactions tend to be more negative---even with strangers? And if you are feeling joy, doesn't that come across too? Have you ever met someone who just emanates happiness---and didn't you just feel great after that brief meeting?  

The key here is to really feel how you will feel when the thing you want happens!  Carry that with you!

Believe It Will Happen and Know It's Happening...Right Now! 

I really do believe that IF you believe that you can have and will have what you want, and feel those feelings that you have it now, then whatever it is will happen for you.  Whenever I remember to be grateful and believe, amazing things happen to me. It's  not just "positive thinking." It's feeling that it HAS happened, and that gratitude that comes with it. It's a present-tense belief.  

Pray and Meditate on It

I love praying and meditating.  I believe these are two of the best things you can do for yourself.  When I meditate, I sometimes actually combine that with visualization.  When I pray, I generally ask that God grant me what He knows I need and desire, or more. And I always say, "Thank you." In fact, that's the first thing I say. "Thank you."

And He does know what I need. And if what I want doesn't actually happen, then other things come into my life instead that are even better---things I couldn't even have imagined!  And that's because He knows what I need in my life. Thank God for unanswered prayers, as the song goes.  Patience and faith are key here. 

Prayer and meditation are so personal, and there is no right way to do it, for we are all different. The important thing is that you actually DO it. For myself, I like to use verses from the Bible that remind me of God's promises to us, when we act in faith. I write them out, and put them in places I'll see to remind me of His Grace and ability to take charge of my life. 

Here's my husband's verbatim quote about this: "Manifestation could be just another word for faith. It's like the Bible says: Believing and having hope for what has not yet happened." 

 “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1

This verse, to me, means that faith is taking right action toward things we need and want. It's knowing God has our back, is our Protector, has us in the palm of His hand. It's there, we know it, we act on it, and good things come because of this. But the mind and heart have to be in the right place. 

I've been out of practice this past month or so. And this recent unfortunate Pinterest incident in my life has smacked me awake again! Isn't that the way things go?

Be Patient

Just be.  Be happy. Be blessed. Be grateful. Be in the moment as much as possible. You've got to know it will work out. 

That's it!  This whole process may seem incredibly simplistic, but trust me---it really will work for you, and you will see results in your life. My kids used to think I was crazy. My friends did too. But they've seen how it works. They've looked at their own lives and admitted areas where they can see how it's happened, sometimes without them even knowing it happening!  

Final Thoughts on Manifesting in Your Life

Remember: When you go through your days feeling anxious, stressed, worrying---you are not doing the things or thinking the thoughts that are going to help. When you go through your days feeling grateful, joyful, and present---you are. It's as simple as that. 

By the way, it's so weird. Ever since this figurative slap in the face, I've got my head and heart straight again. Even though my pins are still blocked on Pinterest, my traffic in the past few days since I put my head on straight has increased over what is was even before! Coincidence? I have no idea, but I suspect I'm manifesting good things again by taking right action that is aligned with what God wants. It feels good to have "right" thoughts again.  

I hope you enjoyed this article, and I hope that it is a good reminder (as the lemons were for me--and the Pinterest episode, especially) to not lose hope and continue to work on this! That's where I am---I need reminders now and then! I think we all do. 

Hugs, Hope, and Self-Reliance,

Heidi

P.S. If you haven't done so already, I hope you'll sign up for our Newsletter and never miss a thing! I'll be giving you three free eBooks, too! One is my favorite essential oil diffuser recipes for different uses, plus directions on how to use them. The other is my eBook on How to Use Herbs to Relax and De-Stress. The last one is on how to get your homestead started no matter where you live.

And yes, my son graduated a few years ago. Graduating from a place like USMC takes determination, will, Divine help, and yes---vision.