I have been manifesting my life for a handful of years now and let me tell you, it works!
I've manifested my businesses, my family, my traveling experiences and mompreneur lifestyle. It's not magic, there's work & trust behind it, but manifesting is strongly believing that an experience WILL happen so that you can ALLOW FOR IT to come into form.
Now, the biggest misconception is the idea that you'll create a visual board or journal, and everything will happen for you. Sure, those two actions will allow you to have CLARITY on what it is that you want, which is great, but there's so much more.
Manifesting is also known as co-creating because you are believing your life is heading a certain direction (allowing your actions to follow that path) while also trusting the Universe to guide you and accepting that the roads to get there may not look like you think.
So instead of controlling everything that is happening to you or getting frustrated if things don't happen like you think they should, you trust the journey and focus on your end-goals, while being open to unexpected opportunities & roads that may come your way. Which is why you can't put a timeline or specific stubborn action-plan to the things you are manifesting.
For example, when I manifested my business, I specifically envisioned certain services and clients. And while I did in fact end up working with those type of clients and services, my journey took a turn and I was redirected to different industries that actually ended up being better , and I enjoyed working in even more.
You also need to remember that you need to desire the things you are manifesting. YOUR energy needs to be in the right place. You need to have a real fire and passion for those things, and you can't be fearful of the road that will lead you to them. You must feel inspired and have complete trust that you are heading there, one way or another, with a positive energy & attitude.
Because manifesting needs to happen all the time, it needs to be integrated in your day to day. You can't just visualize your goals during your yoga class or a random zen meditation session. You need to bring your goals with you, daily, all the time. This way, your actions will unconsciously lead you to your goals, no matter how many challenges you encounter.
Ultimately, like with Law of Attraction, manifesting is where your thoughts and energy create your reality. Because if you are constantly negative, feeling down, and thinking that you'll never accomplish anything, you'll only attract negative energy.
So the first thing you need to do is change your mindset, thoughts and feelings. Remove toxic people from your life. And start being positive, grateful and motivated, believing you deserve to grow, and trusting the process and opportunities that happen along the way.
Do you practice manifestation?
Do you find it hard to manifest the things you want into your life?
You can check out this post on How To Start Manifesting for more.