Let’s first get clear on manifesting, which can often be understood as wishing things into existence. “Manifesting is using the power of your mind to change and create the reality you’re living in—it’s a self-development practice,” says Nafousi. She explains that it is often confused with the law of attraction (in which it is believed that positive thoughts lead to positive outcomes). With manifestation, she tells me, we’re instead attracting what we already believe to be true.
“A big part of manifesting is about our belief system,” says Nafousi. “Our belief system not only changes what we attract into our lives, but it changes the way we feel about ourselves. And so manifesting is really about empowerment, self-belief, confidence and becoming the best version of ourselves. It’s about being able to step out of our own way, take risks and go through with the things that we actually want,” she says.
With that being said, there are limits to manifestation. And no, you probably can’t manifest winning the lottery (sorry). “I always get asked, ‘Can you manifest a specific person?’ And the answer is no,” says Nafousi. “You also can’t manifest for somebody else, and you can’t manifest something that is only to do with luck, like winning the lottery. There has to be a degree of an element of something that you have control over,” she explains.
Manifesting can act as a useful framework to create goals that you’ll actually stick to. “I always say that the goals are actually the cherry on top, that the actual gift of manifesting is helping us become happier,” she says. Ahead, Nafousi tells us exactly how to implement manifestion into our New Year’s resolutions and goal-setting practices.
