Can you really manifest the life you want?
Visualising your goals is back in vogue. Can it really work, or is it just wishful thinking? Vanessa Holburn finds out
When hard-partying Roxie Nafousi hit rock bottom in 2018, the then 27-year-old was deeply unhappy, with no job, direction or sense of purpose.
“I’d battled with depression for over a decade, had no self-worth and felt hopeless,” she says.
Then a friend recommended a podcast on manifesting – and it changed her life.
The first thing Roxie manifested was unconditional love, visualising daily exactly what she hoped to find.
A week later she got a message on a dating app from her now boyfriend Wade. Two weeks later they met up, three months later Roxie was pregnant, and on June 7, 2019, a year to the day after receiving Wade’s message, their baby boy Wolfe was born. “There it was – unconditional love,” she says.
Now Londoner Roxie, 31, is a published author and selfdevelopment coach with a podcast of her own. “The results were like a miracle,” she says.
Manifesting is not new. It became a worldwide phenomenon in 2006 when The Secret by Rhonda Nafousi Byrne was published, selling more than 35 million copies.
But fast forward to 2022 and it’s had a resurgence, with celebs from chat-show host Oprah to pop star Lady Gaga claiming manifesting has helped them get what they want. Author Bernardine Evaristo even says she visualised winning the Booker Prize – which she did in 2019.
Manifesting claims to be the ability to create the life you want simply by visualising it and believing in it. It’s the idea of bringing something tangible into your life, such as a career or relationship goal, through the “law of attraction”.
“The idea is that if you think it, it will come to you,” says clinical psychologist Dr Marianne Trent.
“It’s all about your mindset. If you believe you can do something you’re a lot more likely to go out and do it.”
It sounds too good to be true.
“There are limits,” agrees psychologist Dr Audrey Tang. “People tend to manifest by making vision boards and speaking their intentions out loud.
“But how can the universe know exactly what we want? Yes, using positive language and being focused on goals can help us to achieve what we want – but there’s only so much wanting can do. We have to do the rest.”
That said, I am willing to give it a go. Indeed I have been struggling to regain my focus after catching Covid before Christmas so would like to receive this “gift from the universe” as I head into 2022.
“It’s not a quick fix,” Roxie tells me as we settle down for a chat. “It’s a way of living, it takes time.”
Over the next couple of days I put Roxie’s manifestation advice into practice. Before I fall asleep I repeat a confidence-boosting affirmation: “self-worth is at the core of manifesting”. I’ve got to believe that I deserve the good things I say I want.
Then, when I wake, having identified my list of goals and visualised all the details, I look for ways to reach them.
My immediate goal was to get back my pre-Covid mojo. I want to be out of bed before 9.30am and get back to eating fresh food. I also want to find a publisher for the memoir I wrote during lockdown.
It’s a great way to kickstart my morning and, if I start to waver mid-afternoon, I flick open my notebook to refocus myself. Within days I feel more energised and my head is clearer than it has been in weeks. With renewed focus, I discover a suitable publisher to submit my memoir to. This in itself recharges my determination to get it into print.
I also start noticing the coincidences that successful manifestors talk about. For example, after writing down “I want to be healthier”, almost instantly a juicing recipe pops up on my Instagram feed. I follow the recipe, which is delicious, and this spurs me on to find more ways of eating tasty, healthy food.
Later on, while thinking how much I admired a contact who made a Tedx speech last year, someone else I follow posted that they would be doing one too. This leads me to look up the application procedure and see that it could be a possibility for me in the future. I ask Dr Trent how this is happening.
“You are tuning in to what you want, seeing what is relevant, making connections and becoming more focused,” she says.
Beverley Densham, 48, from Poole, Dorset, found exactly this when she began to manifest. Facing divorce and illness, the Pilates teacher manifested writing a book using visualisation and affirmation techniques.
“Manifestation is a key part of my morning routine, during which I use a vision board and set intentions,” she says. In 2020 she published her book I Talk to Angels (£12.99, McNidder & Grace). “I manifested it,” she explains. “I believe the brain doesn’t distinguish between what you imagine and what you experience.”
I must admit, although I was sceptical at first, I can see how it could work. I feel more positive than I have done in ages and ready to take on the year ahead – 2022, I’m coming for you.
■ Manifest: 7 Steps to Living Your Best Life by Roxie Nafousi (£14.99, Penguin Michael Joseph) is out now. Follow Roxie at @roxienafousi
‘‘ Manifesting is not a quick fix – it is a way of living and therefore it takes time