A sample of Manifesting for Beginners: A Step By Step Guide To Attracting A Life You Love
Manifesting for Beginners
A Step-by-Step Guide to Attracting a Life You Love
Victoria Jackson
Thought Catalog Books · thoughtcatalog.com · New York • Los Angeles
First published in Great Britain in 2022 by Aster, an imprint of Octopus Publishing Group Ltd Carmelite House 50 Victoria Embankment London EC4Y 0DZ www.octopusbooks.co.uk
Text copyright © Victoria Jackson 2022 Design and Layout copyright © Octopus Publishing Group 2022 Illustrations copyright © Elise Conlin 2022
Published in the USA by Thought Catalog Books, a publishing imprint of Thought Catalog, a digital magazine for thoughtful storytelling, which is owned and operated by The Thought & Expression Company, an independent media group based in Brooklyn, NY. Founded in 2010, we are committed to helping people become better communicators and listeners to engender a more exciting, attentive, and imaginative world. As a publisher and media platform, we help creatives all over the world realize their artistic vision and share it in print and digital forms with audiences across the globe.
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All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Victoria Jackson has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work
ISBN 978-1-949759-53-2
Printed and bound in China
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 Senior Commissioning Editor: Natalie Bradley Art Director: Juliette Norsworthy Editor: Sarah Kyle Designer: Rosamund Saunders Illustrator: Elise Conlin Senior Production Controller: Emily Noto
Contents
- Preface 6
- Introduction 11
- STEP 1 — Visualize your future self 21
- STEP 2 — Set your intentions 35
- STEP 3 — Connect with the universe 51
- STEP 4 — Raise your vibrations 69
- STEP 5 — Embrace the energy of gratitude 87
- STEP 6 — Believe 99
- STEP 7 — Take action 115
- STEP 8 — Let go of the outcome 129
- STEP 9 — Pay attention to synchronicities and signs 145
- Final thoughts 154
- References 156
- Index 157
- Acknowledgments 160
Preface
If you had told me as a stressed, cynical, 20-something journalist that by the time I hit 30 I’d be surrounded by crystals, meditating each morning and spending my days teaching people how to use the power of their thoughts to shift their reality, I’d have scoffed.
Scrap that. I’d have scoffed and dropped the tiny violin I insisted on playing daily, as I eye-rolled so hard only the whites could be seen. You see, when you believe that life happens to you, rather than for you, it is hard to shift that negative, victim mentality many of us find ourselves experiencing on a day-to-day basis.
Life just happens and there is nothing we can do to control the outcome, right? Wrong.
On paper, my life was good. By the time I was 25, I had worked up the ranks to become the editor-in-chief of a men’s fashion magazine. I traveled the world each year and was lucky enough to meet some amazing people on my journeys.
To those who followed me on social media, the highlights were all glitz, glam and another stamp in my passport.
Except that, away from the stress and late nights, I felt stuck in this energetic limbo of knowing that while I had so much to be grateful for, I craved more. Have you ever experienced the feeling of posting on Instagram and then sitting in guilt because you know what you’ve just shared is pretty far from reality?
I craved something more soul connected. Something that fulfilled me. Something that made me excited to wake up in the morning, rather than burying my head in paper towels as I cried in the ladies’ room.
And just like that, right at the stage in life when I needed it most, I came across a book explaining the concept of the law of attraction and its partner in magic, manifestation.
My discovery of manifestation could have simply been a coincidence, or it could have been put in my path by a higher power to help me find the life I was meant to live. My hope is, by the time you finish the last page in this book, you’ll believe the answer to be the latter.
As anyone with an all-or-nothing personality like mine does, I devoured every piece of knowledge I could about this unfamiliar concept. I listened to audiobooks as I drove to work, every plane journey would feature a new book, and I scoured the internet for real-life stories of manifestation working. I suddenly found myself in this new world of experts, studies and spiritual enlightenment.
I felt an affinity with the idea that there was a higher power guiding me on this path we call life. For you, it may be Source, God or even your spirit guides and ancestors; for me, it was the universe. I’d reached a point in life where I had no clue which way to turn next, and this was something I could finally have faith in to steer me in the right direction.
If you are familiar with the phrase ’ask, believe, receive’ - which is synonymous with manifestation - then you’ll know we ask the universe for our desire, we believe it to already be ours and on its way to us, and we are open to receiving it however it may come into our lives.
I began with small experiments to see if my cynical outlook could be altered. Truth be told, I started small because I didn’t understand how attracting something into your life through your thoughts could be possible. I was certainly open to believing a new reality, but I needed proof to build trust, just like we do with anything uncomfortable and new.
Armed with this knowledge, I asked the universe to show me a bright pink feather, and then I waited patiently for it to arrive. OK, patiently might be a lie. At this point, I could pretend I surrendered to the universe and didn’t think about it again. In fact, that little pink feather consumed my thoughts. ’Oh, a feather on the ground! Has that white got an undertone of pink to it?’ ’Big Bird from Sesame Street! When I asked for a pink feather, universe, did you hear yellow? Is this my manifestation?’ ’Hang on, the sunset is pink! Did you think I said pink weather instead of pink feather, universe?’
Sure enough, two days later, an envelope came through the post, and stuck to the letter was a bright pink feather. Coincidence?
At first, I thought it could be. But as I continued to work on developing a more positive mindset and building trust that my thoughts could have more power than I believed, I began manifesting more and more into my life - be it a parking space, a friend texting after I thought about them, a free coffee as I sat in my favorite coffee shop, an ex-boyfriend getting back in touch to give me the closure I asked for, or even a lump sum of money from a lottery win or unexpected refund. In the space of three years, I had manifested close to £200,000 into my life and business.
And then the story takes us to the one manifestation that changed the trajectory of my life.
One Sunday evening, I sat in bed and asked the universe to help me find a way out of the career I was in. I closed my eyes and imagined what it would be like to work for myself, to build something of my own. I didn’t know exactly what I was drawn to, but I imagined how it would feel to have the freedom to work anywhere in the world. To sit with my laptop and write. To share my experiences. To never have a cap on how much I could earn or be told I couldn’t book time off for a holiday.
The very next day, my magazine was closed down and I was made redundant. If ever there was a sign from the universe to make the leap, this was it.
And leap I did.
Which leads us to now, as I sit writing as a certified mindset coach, specializing in Neural Energetic Wiring and Neural Energetic Encoding, Hypnosis practitioner, an EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) practitioner, community leader, number-one-charting podcast host, and founder of The Manifestation Collective, an online community guiding thousands of people across the world through shifting their reality using the power of their thoughts.
In all honesty, I feel like I’m a different person to the woman I described at the start of this preface. I continue to attract a life I truly love, and my aim through the pages of this book is to help you do the same.
‘The phrase “ask, believe, receive” is synonymous with manifestation’
Introduction
Manifestation may still feel like a new phenomenon to many, with social media propelling it to pop-culture status, but the ancient principles of the law of attraction have been discussed and utilized for centuries.
Manifesting and the law of attraction
In its simplest form, the law of attraction is the universal law stating that like attracts like. The more positive thoughts and intentions you put out into the world, the more positive energy you welcome back like a magnet. Similarly, the more negative your outlook, the more negative opportunities, people and situations you become aware of around you.
Manifestation, meanwhile, is the art of using your thoughts to create your reality and attract your specific desires. After all, the definition of ’to manifest’ is to make something happen.
You and I have been manifesting since the day we were born. Perhaps not consciously, but we’ve been manifesting all the same. I can recall numerous times as a child when I thought I had magical powers, watching something I had imagined come to fruition yet again. Was I psychic? Was I a witch?! Or was I someone who truly manifested dresses worn over jeans as a 1990s trend?
When combined, the law of attraction and manifestation are powerful and life-changing tools – something we will be exploring throughout this book.
‘Manifestation is the art of using your thoughts to create your reality and attract your specific desires’
The history of manifesting
When we consider the origins of manifestation, we learn that alternative teachings and abstract views on the power of our thoughts have been around for centuries.
The term ’law of attraction’ was not referenced in literature until the 1870s, when Russian author and philosopher Helena Blavatsky spoke of the connection between spirits. However, the New Thought movement, which had begun to take shape in the early 19th century, as well as in religious teachings prior to that, often shared the belief that what we put out into the world would return to us.
In the 20th century, thinkers such as Napoleon Hill (who wrote Think and Grow Rich), Norman Vincent Peale (author of The Power of Positive Thinking) and Louise Hay (who penned You Can Heal Your Life) delved deeper into the spiritual ideology behind the law of attraction.
However, one of the most mainstream forays into the world of manifestation came from writer and television producer Rhonda Byrne, creator of The Secret - a documentary film and book now synonymous with the law of attraction. Heck, if something as alternative as The Secret is featured on Netflix, you know there is potential for a cult-like following.
This breakthrough into conventional media allowed a plethora of minds to suddenly open to an alternative and more positive way of thinking. And, just like that, the world began to hear stories of how household names were embracing the power of manifestation.
Talk show host and actress Oprah Winfrey has shared many stories of her manifestation wins, but none was so powerful as her part in the 1985 film adaptation of Alice Walker’s book The Color Purple. After reading the book and being touched deeply by its story, Winfrey actively wished to land a part in a movie adaptation of it. One day she received a call from a casting agent asking her to audition
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