The Mystery of "Manifesting" and Positive Focused Intention
If you are a follower of New Age spirituality and personal development, I'm sure you have come across the concept of "manifesting," particularly made popular by Rhonda Byrne's 2006 book "The Secret."
The very short version is that if you put your mind to something and truly focus on it, you can "make it" happen.
Unfortunately, it's an idea that has been misappropriated by hucksters and people primarily dedicated more to selling expensive workshops than to actual personal development. Along with that comes the unfortunate association with "get rich quick" schemes and promises that bear no relation to reality!
The idea of "manifesting" is nothing new; it just received new packaging in the late 1990s.
For example, industrialist Henry Ford allegedly stated that "Whether you believe you'll succeed or fail, you are probably right!" alluding to the idea that your thoughts — your focus — tends to be highly predictive of the outcomes in your life.
But the basic premise can be traced all the way back to ancient Sanskrit texts, dating to thousands of years before the birth of Christ, as well as to Chinese writer and philosopher Lao Tzu.
But, as mentioned, modern-day versions have been hijacked and often turned into "money-for-nothing schemes" marketed as a way for people to gain great material wealth, merely as a product of focusing their thoughts on such things.
Which is not exactly how it works.
I'll offer a recent real-life example.
We have had a rusted out and slowly leaking water heater that has been slowly getting worse for several years and is in desperate need of replacement. But water heaters and expensive... typically about $2,000, including installation and removal of the old tank... and we are poor, so the solution to date had been buckets under the dripping pipes.
Recently, I just got fed up and tired of feeling (a little) anxious every time I stepped into the shower, and started really focusing on the idea of getting ("manifesting") a new water heater on a shoestring budget.
The truth about manifesting is that you don't just expect something to drop out of the sky like magical unicorn dust... you have to take action in service of what you want.
Within a couple of weeks, I came across a notice from a local "handyman" who was offering up a couple of gently used water heaters for $20 each because he had just installed a tankless waterheating system at a house in our neighborhood, and he just wanted to get rid of the used tanks.
A couple of text messages later, it turned out that he didn't mind coming by and installing one of them, because it was "right around the corner" from where he was already working and so — just $100 later — we have a relatively new water heater and no more leaky pipes!
So while we can argue that I "manifested" a new water heater, it didn't exactly come falling out of the sky. I was actively looking at buy-sell-free listings, and had intention, but no expectations.
And so, I will close out by also remembering perhaps the most important part of the process: Gratitude.
Always be thankful for what the Universe provides!
Thanks for visiting my blog and Bright Blessings to all!
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