How to Manifest Money: A Creative Generalist's Guide to Abundance Mindset

Most advice on how to manifest money reads like a lottery ticket with extra steps. Stare at a number on a vision board, repeat that you are a "money magnet," and wait for the universe to wire it over. That's not what happens when manifesting money actually works, and it's not what I practice.

I'm Murielle Marie, and manifestation has been part of how I've built my life and my businesses for years, money included, long before "manifest money" became a search trend. So here's how to manifest money in a way that holds up: by pairing a real inner shift, the abundance mindset, with the belief work and the action that make it land. If you're a creative generalist with more ideas than income streams, and a slightly complicated relationship with money because of it, this one's for you. It builds on my broader guide to how to manifest anything, narrowed down to the one outcome people ask me about most.

What Does It Mean to Manifest Money?

Manifesting money means deliberately shifting your inner relationship with money, your beliefs, your felt sense of what's possible, and your focus, so that your choices and actions start to pull toward more of it instead of quietly working against it. It is not wishing. It is not sitting still and hoping.

And to be clear about where I stand, because I know the science-minded version of this topic usually strips the magic right out of it: I do believe manifestation is magic. I've manifested the life I'm living now, money and all. What I'm giving you here is the practical half of a practice that, for me, is both real and magic at the same time. The two aren't in competition. The inner work and the mystery run on the same track, and money responds to both.

The reason the mindset piece matters so much is that most of your money behavior isn't a conscious decision in the moment. It’s the result of beliefs you absorbed early, often before you could question them, about whether money is safe, whether there's enough, whether people like you get to have it. Manifesting money starts by updating that often unconscious layer, the same way you'd update old software (yes, I do love tech analogies 😄), so your day-to-day money choices stop being governed by an outdated operating system.

Does Manifesting Money Actually Work? Here's What the Research Says

Parts of it hold up under research, and it's worth knowing which parts so you build your practice on the pieces that work.

Start with your money beliefs, because they aren't just a "vibe." Harvard economist Sendhil Mullainathan and behavioral scientist Eldar Shafir showed that a scarcity mindset imposes a real "bandwidth tax": when your attention is captured by not-enough, you have measurably less mental bandwidth left for planning, self-control, and good long-term decisions. In their studies, the same people scored worse on cognitive tests when money was tight than when it wasn't. That's the mechanism underneath the woo. An abundance mindset frees up the very mental resources a scarcity mindset consumes, which is why the inner shift must come before the money strategy can even work.

Then there's the part where you get specific and write it down. Dr. Gail Matthews, a psychology professor at Dominican University of California, ran a study of 267 people and found that those who wrote their goals down were 42% more likely to achieve them than those who only thought about them, and the effect was stronger still for people who committed to specific actions and reported on them. A number in your head is a wish. The same number on paper, tied to an action plan, is where manifesting money stops being abstract and starts having something to aim at.

Put those two findings together, and the honest version of manifesting money looks like this: clear the scarcity beliefs that are taxing your bandwidth, get specific and write down the outcome, and stay connected to action. The belief work is real and worth doing. The plan and the movement are what let it show up.

Why Manifesting Money Usually Falls Apart

When someone tells me manifesting money "doesn't work" for them, it's almost always one of these, and none of them means the practice is broken.

The first is an inherited money story running underneath the wanting. You can consciously want more money and still have a belief you never chose, that wanting more is greedy, that money changes people, that it's safer to stay small. Those beliefs usually came from somewhere: a parent, a childhood, a culture. If the outcome you're programming quietly contradicts a story you absorbed at seven, the old story tends to win. This is the same trap I've written about with inherited dreams, just pointed at your bank account.

The second is manifesting from a felt state of lack. If you spend five minutes feeling into abundance and then twenty-three hours refreshing your balance in a low-grade panic, the panic is the state your nervous system actually spends the day in. Money manifestation asks you to hold the felt sense of enough, not to perform calm for five minutes and grip the rest of the time.

The Feeling of the Wish Fulfilled

The third step is not only to be in a state of lack but also to lack faith in the outcome. To counter this block, I practice what Neville Goddard so poignantly put: “Persistent imagination, centered in the feeling of the wish fulfilled, is the secret of all successful operations.”

In other words, you have to believe - and have faith - that the money is coming without questioning it, which is by far the most difficult thing to do, especially when money is tight. 

One way I have found to help me get over losing faith and falling into fear over money, something that happens quite a bit when you're investing in the business ideas that you are building, is to center on my heart and feel love and gratitude for what I already have. When I feel stressed out about things, or when financial pressures get too much, I breathe into my heart and summon that glowing feeling, that I purposefully attach to a positive mantra about the money or success that I know for sure is coming. It may feel a bit mechanical at first, but over time this practice helps to change the underlying beliefs - and fears - I have about money and rewires my brain and nervous system to allow for new, positive beliefs about what I am capable of achieving and what I deserve.

One such mantra that I love to use (and that I write out in my journal every morning as I am doing my morning pages) is this famous manifestation affirmation from 1925, "Infinite Spirit, open the way for my great abundance. I am an irresistible magnet for all that belongs to me by Divine Right," from spiritual teacher Florence Scovel Shinn, another one of my favorite manifestation old masters. Her book “Your Word is Your Wand” focuses on using spoken words to program the mind and manifest prosperity. Try it, you’ll see.

The fourth step is skipping the action half entirely. Feeling and faith are not the finish line. The felt state clears the inner block; it (unfortunately 🤓) doesn't send the invoice, pitch the client, or raise your rate for you.

My Own Money Practice

For a long time, I carried a very stubborn belief about money, that it had to hurt to be real. If it came easily, some part of me didn't quite trust it, or didn't feel I'd earned the right to keep it. So I did exactly what that belief tells you to do. I over-worked. I white-knuckled every launch. I treated exhaustion as proof that I was serious, and I quietly assumed the money would only ever match the amount of suffering I'd poured in to get it.

Frustratingly, a belief like that doesn't just wear you out; it actively blocks the thing you're chasing. I was so busy grinding for money that I was holding on to it too tightly, and squeezing it like a lemon is the opposite of the state that actually lets money in.

The shift, when it finally came, didn't look like working harder. It looked like doing less of the busy, hustling part. I started holding the feeling that there was already enough, that I was allowed the frictionless path, that money could move toward me without me bleeding for it first. Then I let go of the how. I handed that bit over to the universe with faith that it would work itself out.

What I can tell you, without dressing it up, is that money then showed up in ways I hadn't planned and couldn't have engineered if I'd tried. Not from the thing I'd been straining at. From directions I wasn't even looking in, like the friend who offered to gift me some money right when my business needed it to grow, or the investor who called me out of the blue to tell me they wanted to double down on their investment. And every time, I had that slightly disoriented, is-this-actually-allowed feeling in my body, the old nervous system still half-waiting for the catch. There wasn't one. The money didn't arrive because I'd finally suffered enough for it. It arrived once I stopped believing suffering was the price of entry.

And yes, I do think there's magic in that. I'm not going to tidy it into pure psychology, because that isn't what it feels like from the inside and it isn't what I believe. Something larger tends to meet you the moment you stop stressing out and holding too much. The practical half is real too, though, and that's the half you can practice on purpose.

Which, for me, looks like this: mantras and frequency music each morning to reprogram the money beliefs running underneath everything else, feeling into the abundance as already true, unwavering faith in the Universe, saying thank you for it, and then letting go of exactly how and when it arrives, while still taking the next obvious action in front of me. Letting go of the "how" is not the same as doing nothing. I follow Neville Goddard's teachings here, and his short bookFeeling Is the Secret lays out the felt-state idea most clearly.

How to Manifest Money: A Step-by-Step Practice

This is the practice I'd hand you if you asked me how to manifest money, not "more abundance" in the abstract, but an actual number.

1. Name the real number, and write it down. Not "more money." The specific figure, tied to a specific window: this income by this month, this rate on the next project, this amount saved by year's end. Writing it down is where the 42% lives.

2. Find the money belief in the way, and say it out loud. What do you actually believe about having that much? "It's greedy." "It won't last." "People like me don't." You can't reprogram a belief you won't name.

3. Reprogram it. Write the opposite belief as a mantra on a flashcard and read it daily in the felt state, ideally with right-brain frequency music, so it reaches the unconscious layer rather than remaining a nice idea in your conscious mind.

4. Feel the abundance as already true, in your body. A few minutes daily in the felt sense of already having it, not "I hope," but the settled, it's-here version.

5. Have unwavering faith that it will happen, no matter what. Whenever you feel doubt, focus on the belief that success is your birthright and that the Universe always delivers.

6. Take the next visible money action. Send the pitch, raise the rate, list the offer, have the conversation, start the second venture (hey, you’re a generalist after all!). One concrete step, right now, not the whole plan.

7. Say thank you, and let go of the how. Drop the grip on the exact mechanism and timeline. Keep showing up for the parts you can act on, and trust the rest.

How to Manifest Money Fast (Even When You're Broke)

Speed comes from specificity and from clearing resistance, not from wanting it harder. If you're trying to manifest money fast, the fastest lever is usually to narrow the ask; "this specific 500 by Friday" gives your actions something concrete to aim at in a way "a lot more money, soon" never will.

Manifesting money when you're broke is its own case, because that's exactly when the scarcity bandwidth tax is highest, and your mind has the least room to see options. So, when money is tight, the move is to deliberately widen your focus back out: name one small, believable next amount rather than a rescue-sized number, because a believable target is one your nervous system won't immediately reject. Then look for money that's already near you. This is where the tactical piece of my 5 ways to manifest more money post pairs well with the mindset work here: things you can sell, skills you can trade, an invoice you haven't chased. Abundance, when money is tight, starts with a decision to look for what's already there rather than only what's missing.

How to Manifest Money as a Multi-Passionate Creative

If you're a creative generalist (a polymath, multipotentialite or multihyphenate), manifesting money has one extra wrinkle: you don't have one income stream to feel into, you have four half-built ones. And the usual advice, "focus on one thing," has always felt like a cage.

Here's what I tell the creatives I coach: combine, don't choose, but manifest one income stream at a time. A portfolio career can absolutely include several ways to make money; that's the whole point of building your work life around earning income while living your purpose rather than picking one lane and abandoning the rest. What you can't do is hold the felt state of five different "already true" income outcomes in the same five minutes and expect any of them to land with real focus. Pick the stream with the most charge and the most nearness right now. Manifest that one fully. 

The others don't disappear; they take their turn. 

---

Common Questions About How to Manifest Money

How do you manifest money fast?

Get specific and narrow the ask. A precise, believable target ("this exact amount by this date") gives your actions something concrete to aim at, which moves faster than a big, vague wish for "more money soon." Then clear the belief that says you can't have it, and take one visible money action immediately rather than waiting for the whole plan to feel ready.

Does manifesting money actually work?

The parts backed by research do. Updating a scarcity mindset frees up real mental bandwidth for better money decisions, and writing a specific goal down makes you 42% more likely to reach it. What doesn't work on its own is visualizing a number and waiting. Manifesting money works when the inner shift stays connected to a plan and to action.

How do you manifest money when you're broke?

Start smaller and more believable than the rescue-sized number, because when money is tight, your mind has less bandwidth to see options, and it will reject a target that feels impossible. Name one small next amount, look for money that's already near you (something to sell, a skill to trade, an unpaid invoice to chase), and take that action while holding the felt sense of enough rather than the panic of not-enough.

What is an abundance mindset, and why does it matter for money?

An abundance mindset is the felt belief that there is enough, and that more is available to you, rather than the constant background sense that money is scarce and running out. It matters because a scarcity mindset measurably taxes your mental bandwidth, leaving less for planning and good decisions, so shifting to an abundance mindset is what makes practical money work possible in the first place.

Do you have to believe in the universe to manifest money?

No. You can run a working money-manifestation practice purely on the "personal power" side, updating your own beliefs, focus, and actions, without any belief in an outside force. Personally, I land on both: I do the inner and outer work, and I also believe something larger is responding. You don't need to share that for the practice to work. I just do.

Ready to build a creative career that actually pays?

Manifesting money works best when it isn't a solo project. Most creative generalists I meet aren't short on ideas or ambition, they're carrying old money beliefs and a pile of half-built income streams with no one to help them see the pattern. That's the exact knot coaching is built to untangle.

Book a free 20-minute coaching clarity call, and let's talk about your specific situation, your money mindset, your income streams, and what's actually in the way. No pressure and no sales pitch, just a real conversation about whether coaching is right for you.

Book your free session

Or if you're not ready for a call yet, grab the free Big Dreamers Manifesta and get specific about the number you're actually manifesting instead of staying vague about "more."

How to Manifest: A Practical Guide for Multi-Passionate Creatives

Manifestation has a marketing problem. Vision boards, glitter affirmations, and the idea that thinking happy thoughts will deposit your dream life on your doorstep while you sit on the couch. None of that is what's actually happening when manifesting works, and none of it is what I practice. Except for the happy thoughts, that is. But there's another reason for that. Read on, and you'll find out.

I'm Murielle Marie, and manifestation has been part of how I build my life and my businesses for years, long before it became a wellness-industry punchline. So here's how to manifest something real: not by sitting back and waiting, but by combining a specific inner practice with real movement in the world. If you're multi-passionate and have a hard time trusting that any of your thoughts and ideas will actually turn into things, this is for you.

What Does It Actually Mean to Manifest Something?

Manifesting means deliberately shaping your inner state, your beliefs, your feelings, your focus, so it lines up with what you want instead of working against it. It is not magical thinking. It is also not the same as wishing.

One of the main components of manifesting is therefore the rewiring of your unconscious mind. Since 95% of our thoughts are unconscious and our thoughts drive our actions, 95% of what we do is based on unconscious beliefs. One of the ways I practice this is with my "morning mantra cards," which I read while feeling into them while listening to specific brainwave-enhancing music. Here is the playlist I currently use on Spotify.

Manifesting is what happens when you stop arguing with your own desires and start acting like they're already allowed to exist. That argument is almost never a conscious one. You can want something with your whole conscious mind, be sure you're not self-sabotaging, and still be carrying a stack of unconscious beliefs underneath that desire that argue the opposite: that you're not safe taking the risk, that success like that isn't for people like you, that wanting this much is asking for too much. Because so much of what you do runs on that unconscious layer, those contradicting beliefs tend to win by default. Most people don't fail to manifest because the universe said no. They fail because the unconscious belief underneath the wanting never got updated, and an outdated belief will keep overriding a conscious desire every time.

Does Manifesting Actually Work? Here's What the Research Says

Some of it holds up. Some of it doesn't, and it's worth knowing which parts before you build a practice around it.

A 2025 study published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin developed a scale to measure manifestation belief across two dimensions: Personal Power (the belief that your thoughts directly shape outcomes) and Cosmic Collaboration (the belief that something outside you, the universe, a higher force, is responding to your intentions). More on where I personally land on that second one in the FAQ below. The researchers found that strong manifestation beliefs made people feel more confident and positive about their chances of success, but those beliefs had no measurable effect on their actual, objective success. Believing harder doesn't change the outcome on its own, because the belief that matters here isn't the conscious kind. Until you reprogram the unconscious beliefs underneath it, they keep outvoting whatever you're consciously trying to believe.

Separately, NYU psychology professor Gabriele Oettingen has spent two decades studying what drives outcomes, and her findings run counter to the popular version of manifesting in an interesting way. People who vividly imagine themselves already having achieved a goal, with no thought for the obstacles between here and there, actually exert less effort toward that goal afterward. Their brain treats the daydream as close enough to done. What works instead is what she calls mental contrasting: picture the outcome, then picture the specific obstacle in your way, then make a plan for it. That combination, not the visualization alone, is what predicts follow-through.

Put those two findings together, and you get a useful, less mystical version of manifesting: clearing the inner noise that blocks you is real and worth doing, but it has to stay connected to a plan and to action. The noise worth clearing usually isn't conscious noise either. Research on self-affirmation backs this up from a different angle: when people work directly on the underlying beliefs driving their behavior, not just their conscious intentions, their actual performance improves, not just how confident they feel. Feeling is not the finish line.

My Own Manifestation Practice (No Vision Board Required)

I follow the teachings of Neville Goddard and others, and, as I mentioned above, the version I practice every morning is simple. Mantras and frequency music to settle my nervous system and reprogram the beliefs running underneath everything else I do that day. I'm looking for joy and for the frictionless path, the version of getting there that doesn't require me to suffer first to earn it.

I feel into what I want as though I already have it. Not "I hope this happens," but the felt sense that it's true right now. I say thank you for it. And then, this is the part most people skip: I let go of any attachment to how it arrives. Goddard's own teaching on this is worth reading directly in Feeling Is the Secret; his point is that the subconscious responds to the state you hold while imagining, not the literal words you use.

Letting go of the how is not the same as doing nothing. I still take the next obvious action in front of me. I just stop trying to control the exact mechanism and timeline by which the outcome shows up, because that's the part of manifesting that turns into anxious gripping instead of clarity, and what often causes clients to stop trying. Spoiler alert: a few tries won't get you there; you have to keep going, especially when all you hear are crickets.

How Do You Manifest Something? A Step-by-Step Practice

This is the practice I'd hand you if you asked me how to manifest something specific, not just a vague better life.

1. Get specific about what you actually want. Not "more success," but the actual thing: the client, the income number, the move, the finished project. Vague desires produce vague results. If you haven't put it on paper yet, [writing your dream down is usually where the specificity finally clicks.

2. Feel it as already true, for real, in your body. Spend a few minutes daily in the felt state of already having it. This is the part that overlaps with Oettingen's outcome visualization, and it works best paired with what comes next.

3. Reprogram your unconscious mind. List all your fears and limiting beliefs that are blocking your vision from manifesting. Then write down mantras that affirm the opposite on flashcards, and read them a few times a day with right-brain-frequency music so they actually reach your unconscious mind.

4. Name the obstacle, then make a plan for it. This is the step most manifestation content leaves out entirely, and it's the one the research says actually predicts whether you follow through.

5. Take the next small action. Not the whole plan. The next visible step, right here, right now.

6. Let go of the exact path and the timeline. Instead, say thank you often and deliberately. You don't need to control how it arrives or when, just keep showing up for the parts you can actually act on.

How to Manifest Your Dream Life When You Have More Than One Dream

If you're a multi-passionate creative (or a creative generalist, as I like to say), this is usually where manifestation advice falls apart for you. Most of it assumes you have one dream life to script, one outcome to feel into. You might have four (or five, or six, like me 😅).

Here's what I tell the creatives I coach: manifest one thing at a time, not one thing forever. You can absolutely run multiple businesses, build multiple creative outlets, and hold multiple identities. If money itself is one of the dreams in the mix, I've written a focused practice just for that that you can run alongside this one. You just can't hold the felt state of five different "already true" outcomes in the same five minutes and expect any of them to land with real focus. Pick the one with the most charge for you right now. Manifest that one fully. The others are still allowed to exist, and you can even work on them alongside the main focus; they just wait their turn in the practice, not in your actual life.

"But I've Tried Manifesting, and Nothing Happened"

Usually, one of three things is going on.

1. You visualized the outcome without ever naming the obstacle or making a plan, which the research above says is the exact gap that kills follow-through.

2. Or you held the felt state for five minutes and then spent the rest of the day arguing with yourself about why it's unrealistic, which cancels out the practice before it has a chance to work.

3. Or the outcome you scripted wasn't actually yours; it was borrowed from what you thought you should want, and your nervous system knew the difference even when your mind didn't.

None of those means manifesting doesn't work for you. They mean the practice needs the action half, not just the feeling half. And you have to be willing to let go, trust, and have faith in the process.

To say it in the words of Neville Goddard, what you need is: "Persistent imagination, centered in the feeling of the wish fulfilled, is the secret of all successful operations."

---

Common Questions About How to Manifest

How to manifest something?

Get specific about what you want, spend time daily in the felt state of already having it, name the real obstacle between you and it, make a plan to address that obstacle, and take the next visible action. The feeling clears the inner block. The plan and the action are what actually move the outcome.

How do you manifest something fast?

Speed comes from specificity, not intensity. The faster path is to name exactly what you want and remove your own resistance to it, rather than manifesting harder. Vague, oversized wishes ("a better life") take longer to land than precise ones ("this specific client by this date") because there's nothing concrete for your actions to aim at.

How to manifest your dream life?

Treat it as one dream at a time rather than as a single combined dream. Pick the outcome with the most charge for you right now, run the full practice on it, and let the rest of your dream life take its turn. Trying to manifest everything at once is usually what makes multi-passionate people feel like manifesting "doesn't work" for them specifically.

Do you have to believe in "the universe" for manifestation to work?

No. The Cosmic Collaboration's belief that something outside you responds to your intentions is one path some people take, but it isn't required. The Personal Power side, the belief that your own focused thought and feeling shape your behavior and choices, is enough on its own to build a working practice. Use whichever framing actually feels true to you.

Personally, I land on both. The science on Cosmic Collaboration isn't there yet, and I'm not going to pretend it is. But my own life keeps showing me I'm not doing this alone, that I'm tapping into something larger than my own effort, call it the universe, a greater field, the realm of consciousness itself. You don't need to believe that for the practice to work. I just do.

Ready to manifest this for real, not just feel it?

You've got the felt-sense part down. The harder part is the obstacle you haven't named yet, the one quietly keeping the plan from forming. That's usually where manifesting alone hits its ceiling.

A free 20-minute coaching clarity call is where we name that obstacle together and build the next real step toward the thing you're manifesting. No pressure, no sales pitch, just a conversation that moves you from feeling it to building it.

Book your free session

Or if you're not ready for a call yet, grab the free Big Dreams Manifesta to get specific about what you're actually manifesting instead of staying vague.

Why forgiveness is an act of kindness towards yourself

Last week on the blog I wrote about what to do when someone hurts your feelings. One of the things that I mention in the post is forgiveness, as a way to help you move past whatever someone did to hurt you.

Since the post has been up, I’ve received a number of emails from readers telling me how difficult it is to practice forgiveness sometimes, and how unfair it feels having to be the one “doing the work” when someone else should be doing it instead.

Thank you all for sending me these great questions. They made me think, and want to dig a little deeper into what forgiveness actually is, and why it’s a true act of kindness towards yourself…

Learn to forgive yourself first

We all have things that we’re not proud of, that annoy us about ourselves, that linger on from the past. Bad decisions we made, situations we didn’t deal with as good as we could have, people we hurt…

I like to think that everything begins with ourselves, forgiveness included. And just like I believe you cannot love someone deeply, truly, fully until you give that same kind of love to yourself, I believe you cannot enjoy the benefits of forgiveness entirely until you’ve learned how to forgive yourself.

So the first step towards forgiveness is not about giving your blessings to someone else, but surrounding your own bright self with the loving-kindness that comes from not beating yourself down anymore over a mistake you made, accepting that you’ve dealt with a situation in a shitty way or made a mistake, and silencing your inner nasty when she’s putting on the blame game.

An easy, yet super powerful way to practice self-forgiveness is this:

• Give yourself credit for recognizing your mistake (or whatever it is you’re blaming yourself for). This is the first step towards growth, and not a trivial thing! You deserve to be proud of yourself. Shoulder tap lady!

• Accept that mistakes are a part of life, and that you’re not the first one to make one, nor that this is the last one you’ll ever make. As a recovering people-pleaser, and somewhat of a recovering perfectionist too (hum hum), this was a difficult lesson for me to learn. For a long time my anxiety, and worry revolved almost entirely around me making mistakes. This made it hard for me to be social, go out and enjoy myself because the next days I would be filled with anxiety, worrying about what those people at the party thought of me, and whether or not I’d said the right thing, and been the right way (as if that exists!) all night long. A total nightmare! Until I accepted that I would never be perfect, and that mistakes were part of my life’s journey.

• Know that you are a magical being that learns, and grows all the time! Mistakes are always in the past. And guess what? You don’t live there! You live in the present. Every moment of your life you have the choice to learn from your mistakes so that you can grow into a better version of yourself. I use this growth mindset attitude on a daily basis. Understanding that I’m not my mistakes, that I can outgrow them, and learn from them at the same time comforts me, and helps me to forgive myself.

Now it’s time to start forgiving others

Forgiving yourself is the most important step – but it’s only the first one. Practice it often, whenever you feel you need to. But don’t fall in the trap I fell into for so long: becoming great at forgiving yourself, but walking around with frustrations, sadness, and hurt feelings as a result of what others have done to you.

If you do, you’ll hang on to toxic energy that – newsflash! – only you feel! That’s right. The person that hurt you is most probably totally in the dark about what you’re feeling, and is not being hurt back. Only you are – again!

Forgiving others is a difficult thing to do. Believe me, I know!

And if you’re anything like me, it won’t come to you overnight either… (damn ego!). But you can do it, and it is so absolutely liberating, that I promise you.

The way I forgive others is not driven by selflessness (sorry Buddha, not there yet) but by sheer self-love.

Because forgiving others means being happier, living a better life, removing toxic energy, moving on… good things that will affect your own life first, not always that of the person you’re forgiving.

Forgiving someone comes down almost the same steps as the self-forgiveness practice above:

• Give yourself credit for recognizing that someone has hurt your feelings. You’re protecting your boundaries, and taking good care of yourself there. Well done! As a people-pleaser, I really had to learn this the hard way… actually recognizing that I’d been hurt instead of internalizing all of it.

• Accept that mistakes are part of life, and that other people are only human too. It might not make the hurt go away, but it can certainly deflect it from your ego, and help you realize that we’re all in this human experience together.

• Use the growth mindset to figure out what you can learn when someone hurt your feelings. I believe there’s a silver lining to everything, and this is no exception. Maybe you’ve stumbled on a sensitivity you have that you need to safeguard more, or you weren’t clear on your boundaries enough. This is certainly not to say that you are to blame for someone hurting you, but simply that you can learn how to protect yourself from it.

When you learn to forgive yourself, and others, there’s one universal outcome I believe will come your way: you’ll have a better life. Less stress, less worry, more love, more compassion, and so many other wonderful emotions, feelings, and experiences.

That’s why it’s an act of kindness towards yourself. And for that alone, it’s worth it.

Now do tell me. Is it easy for you to forgive yourself? Others? What works well for you? Let me know below.

Gratitude as a pathway to success

Very often, we turn to science for help when we want to achieve something. Or medicine, for that matter. Sometimes it seems there is a pill for everything, or when there isn’t, we wish there was. Many of us look outside of ourselves for things that will make us feel better, gain more self-esteem, sleep better, be happier, be more productive, and so on. The list is endless.

And in all this, we forget the things that are closest to ourselves – within ourselves – and that cost us nothing to use or practice. Like gratitude.

There’s a lot of research that shows the many benefits of having an attitude of gratitude – an attitude defined by the simple act of being thankful: for your life, for your work, for what you have, for your health, for your friends and family members… for being alive. And for realizing what a miracle that is, and how fortunate you are for being able to experience it.

As Goeffrey James so beautifully says in this Inc.com article about the benefits of a gratitude muscle:

People who approach life with a sense of gratitude are constantly aware of what’s wonderful in their life. Because they enjoy the fruits of their successes, they seek out more success. And when things don’t go as planned, people who are grateful can put failure into perspective.

On the other hand, people who approach life with a negative attitude will approach success and failure in a completely different way, too, and will never be able to truly enjoy what they have worked for, or to cope well and overcome the failures that are inevitably part of life, and business, in a way that helps them to grow and move forward.

If this is true, and I believe that it is, the real question is: how can we remember to be grateful? And, how do we live with an attitude of gratitude?

During one of my coaching calls, though, someone asked how to stay motivated to write down such a list “when nothing much happens in your life”. I thanked my coachee for this question, as this is something that has been hard for me to deal with at times, too. We live in a world where everything needs to be big and grand it seems, but gratitude doesn’t work that way. At least, not if you want a sustainable practice.

So, how do you keep an attitude of gratitude, whatever your day looks like?

1. Celebrate the little things

You don’t need be superwoman to be grateful. Look around you – at your life, at yourself. There are so many things to be grateful for, most of which go by unnoticed. Did you have comfy shoes on today (okay, that one might be tricky for some women, I admit), or did you have a beautiful pair on (there, that’s probably more like it)? Be grateful! Do you have a roof over your head, and enough food to eat? Be grateful. Is it warm enough where you are? Is the Sun shining? Be grateful. Did you see a flower today? Did someone smile at you? Be grateful. These are just a few of the many experiences and things we encounter on a daily basis in our lives, and yet we feel to recognize them for the blessings that they are. So, make sure to include the little things in your gratitude practice. Believe me, there is plenty to be thankful for.

2. Don’t be afraid to say ‘thank you’

I have found that saying ‘thank you’ to those around you for all that they do for you, and for what they mean to you, really helps to put you in an attitude of gratitude. And the added benefit is that you’re spreading the love and gratitude around at the same time. I have never seen anyone remain unhappy after someone thanked them from the heart. On the contrary, thanking someone almost always lifts the mood of that person, and of the one saying ‘thank you’, too. It’s one of the best remedies I know to get myself into a state of happiness. Try it, and you’ll see. Oh, and smile – that’s a good one, too, I promise.

3. Check in with yourself and count your blessings

Hectic moments can sometimes follow one another for days on end, without giving us enough time to even catch our breath, it seems. In the midst of chaos, take a moment to check in with yourself and remember something that you’re grateful for. It can be a little thing, or a big thing. Whatever you want, really. It might help you to keep a note on your phone, or on a card with a list of things you’re grateful for. Then, when it’s time to check in with yourself, just read the list and say “Thank you”.

4. Keep a gratitude journal

Writing things down is often more powerful than reading things, or even saying them out loud (it’s not me saying this; it’s research!). I cannot recommend anything more than for you to keep a gratitude journal. Journaling in general is a very efficient way to get to know your deepest thoughts and desires, and when you’re focused on gratitude, journaling becomes a way to see all the beautiful things in your life. Journaling doesn’t need to take long either; you can choose how long you want to spend writing. But I encourage you to try, and feel the benefits for yourself.

Ultimately, every day is a new opportunity for you to say ‘thank you’. And in the comments below, I’d love to know what it is you’re grateful for.

Real Magic: How Thoughts Become Things And Why it Matters

I believe thoughts are REAL things. As real as physical things, and even people. I also believe that thoughts shape our reality and our life. What we think manifests in our life. That’s why having a strong mindset, aka being in control of your thoughts is so important. Because if you are, you also become the master of your life. The thing that makes thoughts so intangible is – obviously – that we can’t see them, at least not just like that. But thoughts are all around us, constantly shaping the world. Although they seem invisible, you can do many things with thoughts, and thoughts become many things, too.

• Thoughts can be smelled. Perfume is a beautiful example of thoughts that manifest into real life. The creator behind the perfume had an idea once, and started playing with flowers and oils. Eventually, that thought manifested into a (hopefully) delicious scent.

• Thoughts can be shared. Ideas is probably one of the things we share most with each other. In fact, pretty much everything we do online comes down to sharing our thoughts.

• Thoughts can be bought or sold. Lobby groups know this all too well. But they’re not the only ones. Silicon Valley is full of idea buyers. But so are book stores and theaters.

• Thoughts create your reality. Look around you. Everything you see as been called into your life by you. You’ve manifested it by first thinking about it. Thoughts are powerful beyond belief…

Almost everything that is man-made in this world started – at some point or another – as a single thought. Think about that for a minute (pun totally intended).

When I was a little girl one Christmas I received a magic box as a present. In the box was a black wand that I spent the entire day of Christmas swaying around, at everyone and everything, casting spells and trying to make my wishes come true. But nothing happened. So, that night I went to bed absolutely disillusioned, and in a last attempt to draw magic into my life, I invoked a prayer, asking the Universe to give my magic wand real magic. I don’t remember what happened after that, only that the next morning the magic wand still wasn’t of much use. It took me almost 30 years to understand that the magic is not in the wand, but rather in the thoughts of the one holding it.

When I understood that thoughts are *real things* I became much more mindful of what I was thinking and saying. I felt like a real magician, able to create my own reality by shaping my thoughts to what I wanted my life to be like.

It is my sincere conviction that the thoughts we have ultimately manifest into the physical world – all of them, with no exception. And I’m not the only one to think so. There’s a long tradition of thinkers and spiritual leaders who’ve come to the same conclusion as me (with much more gusto). Among them is Gandhi, who put this priceless and magical wisdom into words beautifully when he said:

Your beliefs become your thoughts,
Your thoughts become your words,
Your words become your actions,
Your actions become your habits,
Your habits become your values,
Your values become your destiny.
– Gandhi

How do you manifest the life you want?

Maybe you’re familiar with the concepts of abundance and the law of attraction. In a way, what I’m explaining has to do with all of that, too. But it’s not entirely the same. Yes, you can attract what you think about and wish for, but – and this is the key – by doing so, you can actively participate in shaping your reality. Everything you ever thought has brought you to where you are right now. This means that everything you’re still to think up in the future will bring you somewhere too.

That’s why I am extremely cautious of my mindset, beliefs, and thoughts. I understand their power and the magic that words hold. Although I’m not in control of the world, and I don’t know what the future holds, my thoughts allow me to create my own reality.

• I decide how to react to what happens to me.

• I choose my thoughts carefully.

• I make sure I think nourishing thoughts.

• When a negative thinking spiral starts, I know it’s only temporary.

6 steps to start manifesting your dream life now:

1. Understand that your thoughts create your reality.
   Every thought you have is creating your reality. If you want to manifest your dream life, you need to be aware of the power of your thoughts and focus on positive thinking.

2. Vibrate at the frequency of your dreams, not your fears.
   Change your negative thoughts into positive ones - If you find yourself thinking negative thoughts, consciously change them into positive ones. For example, if you're thinking, "I'll never be able to afford that," change it to "I can achieve anything I set my mind to."

3. Let go of the outcome.
   If you cling too hard to something, you're sending a message to the Universe that you desperately need it, aka that you don't have it. Trust that the Universe will take care of the details - Don't worry about how your dreams will come to fruition, trust that the Universe will take care of the details.

4. Be grateful for what you have.
   Gratitude is one of the most powerful manifesting tools available. When you focus on being thankful for what you already have, it opens up the possibility of more good coming into your life.

5. Visualize what you want.
   Another powerful manifesting tool is visualization. When you close your eyes and picture exactly what you want in your mind, you're sending a strong message to the Universe that this is what you're looking for.

6. Take action towards your goals.
   For your manifestation to become a reality, you need to take action steps towards your goal. For example, if you want to manifest a new job, start by updating your resume and sending out applications.

7. Have unwavering faith in your capacity to manifest.
   The most important manifestation secret is to understand faith and how it impacts your reality. You only manifest what you are absolutely believe in. If there is any doubt, it will be harder to create it. And faith is an emotion, you feel it deep in your belly, close to your heart.

By following these tips, you can begin manifesting the life of your dreams! Just remember, thoughts become things, so focus on thinking positive thoughts and watch as your life transforms before your eyes.

The magic is within you.

Think thoughts of love, success and joy for those around you, for yourself and the world. Love, success and joy is what you’ll get. Because thoughts become things, and they ALWAYS manifest.

Ready to Turn Your Thoughts Into Reality?

Manifestation is powerful - but it works best with a strategic plan. As a career and business coach specializing in supporting creatives and multi-passionate entrepreneurs, I help you bridge the gap between vision and action.

✓ Struggling to choose between multiple passions?
✓ Want to create a career that honors all your interests?
✓ Ready to stop overthinking and start doing?

Schedule your free session!