Manifestation is the art of the bringing an idea into reality; making the non-physical physical. The way we think has a direct impact on our physical environment, through changing our thinking we can shift our life in incredible ways.
Now this basic principle is nothing revolutionary but it can be difficult to put into practice. As humans who exist in the physical world, it’s often difficult to detach from our current circumstances and create something new for ourselves.
The 3 step nighttime manifestation routine I will share below isn’t going to change your life overnight, but with some consistent effort you will notice long-term impacts.
1. Relax the body
There are so many manifestation techniques out there, and what I think a lot of them miss is the physical relaxation element. A lot of focus goes to our thoughts, but our body plays as big if not a bigger role than them. Thoughts aren’t random, they come from somewhere, they pull from our larger pool of experiences.
Our bodies hold a lot of memory, tension, heaviness etc. Often when we think positively we don’t see an actual shift in our environment because our bodies are still in survival mode. There is a conflict between the body and mind, if that doesn’t get resolved, we stay in the same spot.
So before you begin setting an intention make sure the body is properly relaxed. Get into a seated position if you can and take deep breaths from the stomach area. It’s going to be easy to spot the tension residing in the body when the lungs start to expanding and all parts of the body have to open up a little.
Breathwork can help bring us out of survival mode (the fight or flight nervous system) and so sets a nice base to work off of energetically. You want to be as calm as possible before sending out a request into the Universe.
Don’t worry if your body still feels very tense the first time before going onto the next steps. This is something you can come back to each night, and you will notice there is less initial tension in the body to release.
Another thing I like to do at nighttime in relation to the body, is to just give it thanks for doing its job. Often we ignored our body entirely, we might work our bodies but that doesn’t necessary mean we work with them. Often we only acknowledge our body when something goes wrong or it performs exceptionally.
As you are falling asleep you can recite this affirmation: ‘I thank my body for supporting me, I appreciate you’.
Remember that anything we build energetically, anything we affirm, has to come through our bodies. In order for us to see a physical reality our body has to be on the same page as our mind/spirit.
2. Shift your energy
The next step is to shift your energy. I think this is another important step that isn’t often explored well enough. Before you vocalize or put words to your intentions, seeing how your energy is doing.
Do you feel low or high? Do you feel in a state of scarcity or gratitude? How do you feel in general, what is the vibe?
Just take a few minutes to appreciate (acknowledge) how you are feeling in the present without needing to set any new goals or intentions just yet. If you find you just aren’t feeling it, if you are feeling so low that it would directly conflict with your intention, come back another time.
For this second step I recommend doing some visualization; depending on how you feel this can be as light or extensive as you want.
I like to visualize a white or gold light streaming down into the crown chakra, take a deep breath in and feel/visualize this flowing all the way down the down. Take a deep breath out and feel/visualize this energy flowing down and out the root chakra, back into the Earth. Repeat this to create a cycle of flowing energy down and out.
This is a great way to clear your energy before moving forward. As this energy moves down through the body you can imagine that it is flushing out any density, tension etc.
3. Set an intention
The final step is to set a clear intention. An intention is simply a statement of what you want to come about or be true, for example ‘I am full of abundance’.
I have a whole post on setting intentions that goes into more detail but to summarize here, you want to set intentions that feel attainable. This isn’t to limit yourself, but to make moving from one environment/way of being to another as easy as possible.
Often when we set these big ambitious intentions right away, particularly if we haven’t tried to do so before, we end up feeling pressured and give up. If we set intentions that push us a little but that ultimately feel possible we can start to build some momentum.
I think momentum is the key here, one of the main reasons people don’t see results is because they don’t focus on building things up gradually. They expect one intention to get them somewhere that months or years of work hasn’t, all of those subconscious beliefs come up and sabotage things.
Rough guidelines for intentions:
- Does this feel attainable from my current position?
- Do I really want this thing/lifestyle to come to fruition?
- What beliefs would i have to drop to make this possible?
Keep your intention short and concise, phrase it in the present tense. Rather than ‘I want abundance’ try ‘I am abundant’. You want your brain to view this affirmation as something you already have, something that is accessible to you, rather than something you lack or are chasing after.
Shortly before sleep you want to recite your chosen affirmation either in your mind or out loud and you can visualize how having this thing/being a certain way would feel. The more emotion you can infuse with your intention (as if it were actually happening to you) the easier it will be to see a result.
Setting intentions at nighttime is powerful because on the onset on sleep we start to enter into theta brainwaves, which are a lot more suggestible. Nighttime is great for manifestation because there is a buffer period while we are asleep – our conscious mind cannot come in and disrupt the intention we set, our subconscious mind can get right to work on it.
Align your energy over 30 days with my Self Love Manifestations printable journal. I created this specifically to help you use intentions consistently and start seeing real change in your life.
FAQ:
How often should you practice this routine?
You could do this routine every night if you wanted to but it is not required. Whenever you want to put some energy towards a goal this routine will come in handy. As long as you are consistent, even if that is just once a week, you will see results.
How long does this take to work?
I think the way we approach manifestation often mirrors the way we approach physical pursuits, in this culture it’s all about fast results or strict timelines. Working with your energy doesn’t really work like that. The goal of this practice isn’t to get something in a specific time frame, but to build consistency in your energy.
Why isn’t it working?
To carry on from the last point, the more consistent you are, the easier it will be to shift your reality, but also find what intentions are actually aligned with you. Sometimes failure is what gets us on the right path, so don’t worry if you don’t see results right away – adapt your approach/intention.