The Create Your Day Podcast

95. Manifest Your Reality: 5 Steps to Making it Happen

• Jenn Cody • Episode 95

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Manifestation requires more than just wishful thinking—it demands a scientific approach that aligns our beliefs, attention, and actions with specific outcomes. We explore the neuroscience behind manifestation and provide a practical five-step protocol to make it work in your life.

• Manifestation is the process of aligning beliefs, attention, and actions with specific outcomes
• The reticular activating system (RAS) filters information based on what we're focused on
• Neuroplasticity allows our thoughts and intentions to physically reshape our brain's structure
• Mirror neurons and embodiment help normalize our desired version of ourselves
• Energetic congruence ensures our emotions align with our desired outcomes
• Clarify your outcome by writing it down specifically as if it's already happening
• Spend two minutes daily visualizing your goal and anchoring it with a physical cue
• Journal as the version of you who has already achieved your goal
• Take daily micro-actions that align with your desired outcome
• Regulate your nervous system to feel safe receiving what you want
• Manifestation combines intention, aligned action, and nervous system safety

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Speaker 1:

Hey everyone, welcome to this week's episode of the Create your Day podcast. I'm your host, jen Cody, and, as always, I'm so happy you're here. If it's your first time here, welcome. If it is not your first time here, welcome back. I am happy that you chose to join us again. So what are we talking about today?

Speaker 1:

Today, we are speaking about manifestation. This is something that I have consistently spoken about in the way of saying that we can't just try to manifest things by thinking about them. We can't just sit and visualize and then wonder why nothing's happening. The reason I always approach manifestation from that perspective is because I'm super action-oriented. I believe that we need to take action in order to actually bring our goals into existence, and manifesting is part of it. But how do we actually do that is in taking action. So I 100% am sticking to that. However, what we're going to talk about today is the science behind manifesting, because, while we have to take those action steps, it is in the science of manifesting that we put ourselves in the mindset and in the position to actually do those actions, to take that action and be in the correct frame of mind to have those actions bring our goals into fruition. And there is a science to it. So when we talk about manifesting in the past, I've always spoken about it as one side being just sitting, visualizing, chanting and then wondering why nothing's happening, and the other side is taking all the action underneath to bring it forth. What's actually happening in the middle, though? So this is where the science comes in. It's not about the vision board. It's not just about sitting and thinking. It's not magic. This is not think pretty thoughts and wait for the universe to send you a Venmo. It's absolutely not bypassing reality. We're not pretending everything's fine when it's not. We're really digging into the science behind manifesting. Why does it work? How do our brains and our nervous systems react and what role do they play and why? None of that matters if you don't actually take action. So have you ever tried to manifest something and ended up feeling frustrated, feeling stuck or thinking like what did I do to make the universe hate me? This episode is for you, so let's start by talking about what manifestation actually is.

Speaker 1:

I want to redefine manifestation in a way that your logical, high-achieving brain can get behind. So manifestation is the process of aligning your beliefs, your attention and your actions with a specific outcome. I'll say that again Manifestation is the process of aligning your beliefs, your attention and your actions with a specific outcome. So it's not about controlling the universe. It's about actually rewiring your brain, specifically something called your reticular activating system, or RAS. This is the part of your brain that is filtering out which information gets through and which information gets ignored. So the more clearly you can define what you're looking to achieve, what you actually want to bring into your life, and the more you emotionally connect to it, the more your brain starts noticing opportunities that support that outcome. So, to put this in really simple terms that you can understand immediately, I want you to think about this as if you were trying to buy a red car. All of a sudden, everywhere you go, you see red cars. Every single time you turn a corner, there's more red cars. Those red cars were always there, you just were not tuned into them before. So manifestation is when your brain is doing the same thing, except for your goals, not for the car you're trying to buy or the lottery numbers that you're choosing. You know, like my mom always talks about her favorite number, her favorite number, her lucky number, and how she sees it everywhere, no-transcript. I also am with her when those numbers are around, but I'm not tuned into it so I don't notice them as much.

Speaker 1:

So let's talk about the neuroscience and energy of manifesting, because what's actually happening behind the scenes when you manifest something? And there's a few things going on the first one is neuroplasticity. This is when your thoughts and your intentions are literally shaping your brain's structure. Repetition of new beliefs equals stronger neural pathways, and the way that I like to describe this this is not something I came up with. I heard it somewhere years ago. But if you imagine, like a patch of mud right, really, really packed mud, and a single drop of water keeps falling in the same place, eventually it creates a pathway right, and you can picture that little drop of water making its way through the mud and every drop that follows takes that same pathway. That's what we're doing to the pathways in our brain when we focus on one thing, the same way that drop of water focuses on that one spot. Our thoughts focusing on one thing shapes our brain's structure differently, and that is called neuroplasticity. You heard me mention earlier the RAS, the reticular activating system. What do we do with that? How do we actually make that work for us? Well, we train it by visualizing, by journaling, by declaring what we want, by putting it out there. This starts filtering our world through that lens, like the red car, like the lucky number. It starts opening our mind to seeing all the things around us that support what we are visualizing. What are we journaling? What are we declaring that we want to bring into the world?

Speaker 1:

Next, we're going to talk about mirror neurons and embodiment. So what I'm talking about here is that when you act as if something is already true, aka fake it till you make it, your body and your nervous system start to normalize that version of you. So think about someone that may be really nervous to go out on stage and speak. If you start to act as if this is a normal thing for you, that you are the greatest speaker, your body and your nervous system start to normalize that. They start to just have you act as if that is true and your nerves can start to dissipate a little bit. So that's what mirror neurons and embodiment is about.

Speaker 1:

And then, lastly, we're going to speak about the energetic congruence. This is when your emotions are acting like tuning forks, when you're trying to attract something like abundance but you're vibrating in scarcity. Your actions are going to reflect that. Same thing with everything else we're trying to accomplish. If you are like my daughter right now is training for a marathon, if she's trying to attract that energy and that mindset but she's acting as if she is never going to be able to accomplish it, her actions and her results are going to reflect that. It's going to cause her to not work as hard, to not train as hard. But if she focuses on being the person that already can win that marathon well, not win that marathon but can finish that marathon then her body and her nervous system are going to normalize that for her and her training is going to reflect it and her results are going to reflect it. And this is the intersection. This is the intersection where spiritual meets strategic.

Speaker 1:

So, yes, manifesting can come across sometimes as a little woo-woo, but there is real science behind it. So if your inner world is running right now on fear and scarcity and you're constantly caught in those loops, no amount of journaling is going to override that. You have to actually change your internal set point. You have to change where it is all coming from. And how do you do that with integrity? How do you do that without feeling. I mean, I guess I want to say like a fraud. I'm not sure if that's exactly what I mean, but how do we use this in real life? Let's talk about real science-backed manifesting protocol. Let's talk about real science-backed manifesting protocol. You know we can hold our crystals and just pray for the best, but this is something that I want you to be able to really understand the science behind, so that you can think of the next thing that you're trying to bring into your life, the next thing that you want to manifest, and actually have a plan to bring that forward. So here's your first step.

Speaker 1:

I want you to clarify the outcome, and this means writing it down like it's already happening. Your brain needs you to be specific. Your brain needs you to be so specific that this is not writing down. I am going to be wealthy. I am going to make more money. This is being super specific. I am going to make $20,000 a month. I am going to land my dream clients by June 1st. I am going to finish this marathon with a two-hour time frame.

Speaker 1:

Whatever it is that you are thinking, you want to really be very, very specific and then write it down as if it's already happening. So let me actually backtrack a minute, because I think what I just said is I want to finish the marathon. What you would actually be writing down is I am finishing the marathon in X amount of time. I am making X amount of dollars by this date. I am achieving X goal within this time frame. It always has to be as if it is already happening. You want your brain to start to think in that way, to start to think about it as if it's already going on, and then you're going to engage that RAS, that system. Right, you're going to engage that by visualization and anchoring.

Speaker 1:

So what I want you to do here in step two is actually close this is the woo-woo part, right. Close your eyes, really see yourself achieving that goal. See yourself opening up your bank account and seeing that money. See yourself crossing that finish line. See yourself achieving, maybe, a health goal, if you're trying to weigh a certain amount or fit into a certain size or eat healthier. See yourself eating those foods, looking at the scale. I want you to really feel it. I want you to feel what do you feel like in your body? What does your nervous system feel like when that is achieved?

Speaker 1:

And then anchor it with some sort of phrase, some sort of physical cue. Maybe it's something like pulling on your ear, maybe it's writing something down, like it's already done, something that you can do every single day for two minutes. I want you to just sit there and do this really spiritual part of the manifestation. Allow yourself to see it, feel it and anchor it for two minutes every day. Two minutes is not a long time. You can do this when you get into bed at night. You can do this before you get out of bed in the morning. It doesn't have to take up time away from other things. Two minutes, that's all it takes, but it's really important. This is how you're going to engage that reticular activation system.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so then step three is we want to rewrite the script. Think of this part as your rehearsal for your beliefs. This is where you're journaling the version of you who already has this done. How does that person show up every day? How does she speak? How does she make decisions? How does she set boundaries? So really think that through, and then you're going to write in your journal as if you are that person already. Today, this happened. Today, I made this happen. This is who you are now. How do you speak? How do you make decisions? How do you set boundaries? How do you interact with other people in your life? Journaling that version of you helps bring that version of you into your body. That's step three.

Speaker 1:

And then step four is essentially these little micro actions that bring everything into alignment, which is essentially acting like you mean it. What would future? You say yes to what would future? You say no to today and then you're going to take one little action in that direction. What you're doing with these little micro actions is collapsing the timeline. Instead of looking at this as something that's going to take years and years and years, you're taking little baby steps every single day to bring that timeline closer together. So that is step four act like you mean it.

Speaker 1:

And then step five is where you're going to regulate your nervous system. This is really the missing link. The missing link because manifestation is not about fake positivity, it's about capacity. It's about the capacity that your nervous system has, because if your nervous system doesn't feel safe, receiving what you want, it is going to sabotage that result subconsciously, unconsciously. So this is where maybe breath work comes in somatic tools like EFT tapping. What are the things that you need to do to regulate your nervous system, because no amount of strategy can actually override a dysregulated system. So, regulating your nervous system I want you to think about that as like the bow that ties it all together. Again, manifestation is not about fake positivity. This isn't about just faking it till you make it in a way that is detrimental to your mental health. So you want to think through all of these things. If we go back and think about these steps right, so we go to step one, clarifying the outcome Then we're going to visualize and anchor the results. We're going to rewrite the script right, journal that version of you who already exists, and then start acting that way with micro actions and then regulating your nervous system. So when you think of all of that, what it's doing is taking the outcome that you're looking for and making it safe for yourself.

Speaker 1:

Because how many of you out there are thinking about something you want for your life and you are potentially sabotaging yourself because you haven't allowed your nervous system to get used to what that version of yourself looks and feels like? Does that make sense to you? Because our nervous system is built, our brains are built to protect us. So when we think something might be a little bit too risky, our nervous system is absolutely going to sabotage that and try to keep us safe from that result. And I know from my conversations with all of you guys out there the things that you want for your life. They're big, they're beautiful, they're risky. So when we are trying to bring things that are risky into our lives, we have to go through these steps in order to make sure our brains, our bodies, our nervous systems are ready for us to live in that reality. And until we do that work, we are not going to be able to bring those things into our lives in a way that is sustainable.

Speaker 1:

So when we think again, go back to the top of this episode, talking about manifesting in a way that does have science behind it. You know, all of these things that we discussed today, they're scientifically proven. This is not something that someone's trying to sell you, you know. I mean, it just is the way that our bodies and brains work. So when you think about that, that's the difference between sitting and visualizing future gen right? So I'm going to give you a real world example.

Speaker 1:

When I try to manifest, when I try to bring something into my life. If I just sit and visualize, let's say, you know, I want to scale my company to be a multi-million dollar company, if I just sit and think about that and don't do all of these steps to make my body and brain feel safe with that outcome, my brain is going to encourage me to be comfortable, to stay where I am, to stay still and not really go after the risks that are required in order to scale to that level, because it's risky and my brain wants to keep me safe. But if I go through all of these steps and I actually do each one intentionally, I'm teaching my brain and teaching my nervous system that I am going to be just fine in that space because it is safe for me to live there. So manifestation, it's not a loophole, it's not a trick, it's a tool. So when you combine intention and those micro-aligned actions and your nervous system safety, when you combine all those things, that's when things click into place fast. And it's not because the universe suddenly cares about you, it's because you care about you, it's because you're finally attuning to the outcomes that you say you want.

Speaker 1:

So go ahead. I want you to journal it out, I want you to visualize the hell out of it. But then you have to get your butt in motion, because the magic happens when you are taking those micro-aligned actions. I wish you so much luck with this, and I want to hear how it's working for you. If you feel like this is something that you would need help with, I'm happy to discuss it with you.

Speaker 1:

If it is something that you feel like you just want some regular support with, head on over to JenCodycom J-E-N-N-C-O-D-Y and just sign up for the weekly balance. It's free Newsletter goes out every week some tips, some tricks, different ways that you can actually put these things into action in your life. So thank you for spending time with me today. I hope you guys are finding this information helpful and useful and I hope that you go out there and you use it to create your day and your life in the best way possible. Until next time, take care of yourself, take care of each other, and I will see you back here next week. Thanks so much.