I recently discovered an Alan Watts video which offers a radically different perspective on what “manifestation” really is and how best to approach it.
If you’ve ever wondered why it seems to work so well for some—and fail miserably for others—what follows are 3 counterintuitive insights on the subject.
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#1 – You Always Get What You Want
According to Watts, we do always get what we want in life.
But not the wants of our conscious mind.
It’s the wants transmitted by our nervous system.
It’s almost like at every moment our emotional state is sending out an energetic signal that the universe is “listening” to, and responding accordingly.
So although I might say I want peace, if I’m running around 12 hours a day in a stressed state, then I’m communicating to the universe that I want more stress.
In this paradigm, the external world is like an “energetic mirror” which reflects back to us the state of our internal world.
Watts uses the following analogy to illustrate this:
“Imagine you are holding a magnet and the world around you is made up of countless tiny metal shavings, people, opportunities, and experiences, all swirling around, waiting to organise themselves around your magnetic field. If your magnet is shaped by fear, the shavings arrange themselves into fearful patterns. If your magnet is shaped by resentment, your experiences form themselves into echoes of that same bitterness. But if your magnet is shaped by peace, by trust, by a quiet knowing that life supports you, then the world reorganises itself in ways that reflect that trust. Everything in life is responding to the tone of your being. As within, so without.”
Our usual approach is to reorganise the shavings (i.e. external circumstances).
But here, Watts is suggesting we’d be wiser to focus on changing the vibrational frequency of the magnet we are holding.
Because if we can do this, the shavings (i.e. circumstances) of our lives will soon reorganise themselves accordingly.
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#2 – Goals are Emotions in Disguise
When we pursue a goal in life, often what we are really chasing is the emotional state we believe achieving it will grant us.
We think we want a relationship, but what we really want is connection.
We think we want money, but what we really want is the security and freedom that money represents.
We think we want success, but what we really want is a sense of purpose and significance — to feel like we matter.
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#3 – Be Your Future Self Now
If what we are really after is the emotional state, why not start by creating this internally first, before chasing the goal?
In other words, what if you created the internal state of a person who would naturally attract what you want — before you pursue?
For example, if you’re chasing a relationship because you feel disconnected and empty inside, you would first focus on creating a deep state of inner connection.
If you do this, it’ll mean that when the right person walks into your life, you won’t be coming from a place of desperation and scarcity – hoping this other person will fill the holes you feel inside.
Instead, the wholeness and love you now carry within, will overflow abundantly from you into the relationship.
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So a few questions worth thinking about…
1.) What goal do you want?
2.) What is the underlying emotion you are chasing in this goal?
3.) Is there a way you can create that emotional state internally now, so that achieving the goal would be a natural byproduct of that state of being? So you wouldn’t be chasing from a place of scarcity, but attracting from a place of abundance instead?
You can see the full video here.
