Top Five Manifesting Teachers and Conversations
#4 Four teachers who are able to explain manifesting in simple, non woo woo ways EXCEPT for the one who is excellent but might be too far out
Back in the day manifesting was such a pie in the sky, crazy concept with only a few teachers who dared to explain it. It was probably such wacky talk back then that they might’ve been tagged as devil worshippers and witches.
But now the world is a (semi) safe space to talk about things outside the square with famous thought leaders - Hello Oprah! - and even scientists taking manifesting and turning it into a fascinating practice of mindwork and belief system redirection.
There are a gazillion teachers out there but the following are the top five teachers and conversations that have been helpful to my current dive into a daily manifesting practice - which to be honest is just about checking in with myself through the day, making sure I’m feeling good about where I’m at, what I’m doing and who I’m with and ensuring that it all aligns with where I dream of going.
These conversations are in order of what I think are easiest to understand and by easiest I mean that if you knew nothing about manifesting or were somewhat skeptical, you would be able to get something from your time spent with them. Well from most of them. Read on and you’ll understand what I’m talking about when you get to #5!
It’s nice to be able to have a conversation about manifesting from the point of view of a neuroscientist. Dr Tara has cool scientific explanations about how the mind can work in our favour if we choose to believe it has those capabilities. This particular episode on Lewis Howes’ The School of Greatness was one that I’ve passed to others who are looking for a more legitimate explanation to manifest. Also who doesn’t love a neuroscientist who does vision boards!!
Life coach and podcaster Mel Robbins is currently doing the media rounds for her "Let Them” bestseller but her brand is pragmatic. Her down to earth explanation on manifesting, which also includes science, will likely resonate with those who like stoicism and their woo woo delivered in a no BS style. One aspect of Mel’s take on manifesting that I don’t resonate with is her suggestion to imagine the work to get to your desire as hard, as gruelling, as a real drag. For example if you want to run a marathon, she believes you need to think about all the shitty things you’ll need to do to cross the line, eg you have to imagine yourself hating waking up for your training and visualising yourself training in a storm and getting soaking wet and forgetting your ear pods. My route is the easy, feel good path - taking inspired action - which yes might be challenging - but for me, as a person who naturally leans towards stoicism and doing the hard thing, leaning in to having life be easy and figuring out ways to ultimately love what I’m doing and where I’m headed is my preferred practice. There’s room in this subject to choose what you need. Some people are too soft on themselves. Others too hard. Learning to practice a middle ground has a place as well.
I could seriously listen to both Louise Hay, the mother of modern New Age education and Cheryl Richardson, a well respected life coach and author, forever. They are like chicken soup for the soul and this particular conversation, done in front of a live audience, is a perfect introduction on how to learn to listen to ourselves so that we can hear what we truly want. This concept of feeling good, which I feel is a key part of manifesting the type of life we want to have, can be a very difficult concept to grasp but the pair explain how to begin this attitude in ways that might seem simple but are much needed.
Another bit of inspiration from The School of Greatness Podcast! Rhonda Byrne is an Australian television producer and is behind The Secret documentary and book- the projects that brought the word “manifesting” and phrase “the law of attraction” to the masses. Lewis Howes has done a couple interviews with Rhonda but this is one of her most recent and inspiring to listen to. I have to admit that twenty years ago when I first encountered The Secret, it went right over my head. I really couldn’t grasp how any of this “law of attraction” stuff works. Rhonda’s more recent interviews seem to explain it better with her emphasis on being happy and maintaining an awareness that a lot of what we obsess about isn’t real. On her main YouTube channel, she has several Q&A events that are interesting to listen to. I think that if I hadn’t grasped consciously nurturing the quality of feeling good every day, of practicing gratitude and looking at my belief system, I might still not understand what she’s actually talking about but she does seem like a delightful person and I simply like her vibe!
Once upon a time there was a mild, mannered woman of a certain age named Esther Hicks who discovered that if she meditated for 15 minutes, she could channel the wisdom of a group of enlightened masters collectively known as “Abraham”. Are you with me still? This is where manifesting gets pretty far out but if you can let go of any skepticism and just look at what Esther Hicks has to say, about the importance of being in a vortex of feeling good and of accepting that what we want is here right now, you might understand that we pretty much choose to get in the way of the dreams we desire. As mentioned before, it took me years before I felt I had the basic skills to understand what she or they were talking about. This particular conversation - between Abraham and the late spiritual teacher Wayne Dyer could be a good gateway introduction to the teachings of Abraham but if it doesn’t work, there are a gazillion animated snippets from Abraham on YouTube the explain, over and over and over again of how the way to manifest what you want is to feel good. My sense is that when you get to the place where you “understand” the teachings of Abraham, you finally get this manifesting thing.