What does it really mean, "manifesting"?

“Manifesting,” or the practice of thinking aspirational thoughts with the purpose of making them real, has never been more popular.

Materialising your wishes into reality only by wishful thinking, doesn't it sound too good to be true? Does it actually work?

For me personally, every time I "manifest" something, it works, 100%, every-single-time.

Before you turn away and say that this is all nonsense, I promise to provide a sensible explanation for what it actually means to manifest and succeed, not just giving you an instruction on how to say your wish out loud.

Last year, when my best friend came to visit me in the UK, I remember we had one of the best summer days. We hadn't met each other for so long. So we spent a weekend just us girls, being completely tourists and hit the beautiful old town of Chester. We had a hefty breakfast, visited a 500 year old church, watched a theatre play, visited an old bookstore and ended up at an outdoor screening of "10 Things I Hate About You". Everything was unplanned, everything was perfect.

As we were walking down the street, we talked about what we want in our lives. She told me she had been thinking about love, and I told her she should manifest her wish, and it will come true.

"I want to find love!" She shouted as we walked against a crowd.

A week later, she met a guy. They've been together since. He is the one. She's moving for him and he's building a house for her. I've never seen her happier.

She manifested, and it worked!

I knew it would work, because it worked many times for me.

Here are a few examples.

When I was looking for my first job, I watched the TV and saw the United Nations on the news, I told my mom: "I want to work for the UN!" She said no one would hire me. She had every reasons to believe so. I was 21, unemployed and unqualified, but 6 months later I got a job as a consultant at the UN Regional Headquarter in Thailand.

Ever since I first went abroad at 19, I had a goal to visit 25 countries before I turned 25. I said that to anybody who would listen, and achieved the goal at 25 having spent very little money.

I told all my girl friends a few years ago that my dream wedding is to have my children walking me down the aisle. In the same year, I got engaged, pregnant, and the year after I was walking down the aisle holding hands with my 18 month old son Harry.

When I announced that I wanted to become an artist, almost immediately, I found a wonderful teacher who is aligned with my art purpose, and was available to teach me her framework to create a successful art business. Within a short few months I have learned to define my art genre, target audience, launched a business website, finalised planning for my first collection, sold several paintings and set up my pricing.

So based on my actual experiences, I know manifesting works. But is it really as simple as thinking it hard or saying it out loud?

In this blog I'll attempt to decipher what does it really mean, "manifesting".

It's all about intentional actions

When I looked back into all these "successful manifestations", I find a similar commonality.

I took very "intentional actions" to make each of them come true.

Saying your wish is only the first step of knowing what you want.

Saying it to others makes it "official", a commitment to yourself.

The next step is to act on it, to make it come true.

When I "wished" for a dream job that I was unqualified for, I took all my life savings to buy a one-way ticket to Thailand and volunteered for 6 months with UN partnered events and organisations, to prove myself to the bosses who would later hire me. It was a wild chance in the dark but it worked. I was hired just when I was just about to run out of money for rent.

When I "wished" to travel to 25 countries in 6 years, I took countless roles not just working full time but also volunteering, coaching, speaking, mentoring, at different events and conferences to travel. Instead of focusing on making more money to travel, I focused on learning to take up different roles and acquire different experiences that would bring me to new places.

When I "wished" for my dream wedding, I proposed to my man, physically trained my body to the best shape, detox my mental health of stress, deprioritise everything else in my life to conceive and give birth, and of course planned the wedding only at the time when my son is old enough to be able to walk me down the aisle.

When I "wished" to become an artist, I invested in myself and my learning professionally. That meant investing in my art materials, online courses, private coaching, and enrolling myself in a course with a teacher that I found most aligned with my values and vision.

When my best friend "wished" for love, she went on a plane to meet a guy she had never met before, and took another flight to see him again within the same week. She took risks and made extraordinary effort for her shot at love. She grabbed it as tight as she could right at the first opportunity.

They all seems almost like "chance", "luck", or "divine intervention", but really, it is the sheer intense and conscious energy of investing all you have into what you want, to turn that "manifestation" into reality with the best of your abilities, using intentional actions.

You have to be ready to receive

I think the key to "manifestation" is not only to be ready to give your all, but also to be ready to receive.

In all my big achievements in life, I had help. I was never ashamed of receiving help, and I never will. Whatever help I receive, I remember, I am grateful, and I give back, either to those who helped me or to others who need my help.

When a gift comes to you, you have to be prepared, open and ready. Never turn away from any kind of help. It may be a financial support you may think you don't need, it may be an opportunity you may not consider, it may be a connection you don't think is useful or it may be a gift you think you may not need.

A gift may also comes as a stern teacher, a challenge you are not ready to face, a lesson you are not ready to learn, or a wound you are not ready to heal.

Receive what comes your way with an open mind, an open heart. Let go of any expectations of what's "supposed" to be. Embrace the unexpectedness of life. Hold the hands that reach out to you. And you will find your journey to "manifest" is so much easier and more enjoyable.

Trust that you will receive what you need

I told you many examples of successful manifestations, but I haven't told you that I also have many manifestations that have not yet come true.

Still, it doesn't discourage me from bracingly going all in with every decision I make. I trust that I may not receive what I want right away, but I'll always receive what I need. And in time, I'll have what I need to get what I want.

Sometimes the universe honestly throws me what I can only describe as "bad luck", a series of unfortunate events that I have no way to control or alter. But I always see them as valuable lessons that I do not yet understand. Whatever comes my way, I embrace and trust that I am more than just self, I am my journey and my experiences as well.

I told you at the beginning that every time I "manifest", it works 100%. I didn't lie. I believe this to be true. Whatever hasn't manifested yet for me, it will, in time, when I'm ready to receive and when I have what I need. My intentional actions today will get me there eventually. That's why I know it will work for you too, 100%.

What about you? What will you choose to manifest?

From my heart to yours,

Milie