Lovely friends,
I caught myself doing something recently that made me laugh because I know I can’t possibly be the only person who does this. I was thinking about something I would really love to have happen, and within about thirty seconds my brain had moved right past how nice it would be and started working out everything that could possibly go wrong. What if it doesn’t work? What if I put all this effort into it and nothing comes from it? What if something happens that I haven’t even thought of yet? Apparently my imagination is perfectly trustworthy when we’re preparing for disaster, but ask me to imagine something going beautifully and suddenly we need documentation and three forms of identification.
I think we can get so used to worrying about the future that we don’t even realize how much imagination it requires. We can spend half an hour thinking about a conversation that hasn’t happened or worrying about a problem that may never exist, and somehow that feels responsible because we’re preparing ourselves. Meanwhile, sitting down and imagining what we would actually love our lives to look like can feel almost indulgent. I have been thinking about that lately because I don’t want fear to be the only part of me that gets to make plans for the future.
I want to look forward too. I want to think about what I would love to experience, what I want my work and home to feel like, where I might want to go, what sounds fun, what I would like to create, and what would make me proud of myself a year from now. I don’t need some perfect fantasy life where nothing difficult ever happens and birds sing outside my window while somebody magically appears with my coffee every morning, although I remain open to the coffee portion of that arrangement. I just want to give myself permission to believe there are good things ahead of me and then actually participate in creating some of them.
There have been times in my life when I really couldn’t think very far ahead. Sometimes life gives us so much to deal with in the present that we have to take things one day at a time. We handle what needs handling, get through what is in front of us, and don’t have much energy left over for imagining where we might be six months or a year from now. I think there is a point after those seasons when you start looking farther down the road again, and lately I have noticed more of that in myself.
I have goals again. I have things I want to create, things I want to change, and ideas I am genuinely excited to explore. I am curious about what my life could look like if I keep showing up for the things that matter to me, and I really like feeling that curiosity again. I don’t know exactly where everything is going, and for once I don’t think I need to know before I allow myself to be excited about it.
That has probably been one of my bigger lessons around manifesting because I can get very focused on how everything is supposed to happen. Once I decide I want something, I can immediately start wondering how I am going to get there, when it will happen, whether I am doing enough, whether I am going in the right direction, and whether there is something obvious I have somehow missed. Before long, something that started out feeling exciting has become another project for me to manage.
I am trying to leave a little more room for Spirit in there.
I can have a very clear idea of what I would love to create and still allow the path toward it to surprise me. There are practical things I can do, of course, and I believe strongly in doing them. I can work toward the goal, save the money, make the call, learn the skill, create the project, send the email, or finally start something I have been talking about for six months. I can also ask Spirit to help me recognize opportunities and possibilities that I couldn’t have planned from where I am standing right now.
That feels like a much healthier relationship with manifesting for me. I can say, “Spirit, this is what I would love to create. Help me move toward what is for my highest good, and help me recognize the opportunities when they appear.” Then I pay attention and do my part, because Spirit can put an opportunity right in front of me, but apparently I am still expected to answer the email.
I also think there is something healing about allowing ourselves to imagine a future we actually want, especially after we’ve been through a period where so much of our attention has been on getting through what is happening right now. At some point we get to lift our heads up again. We get to look around and realize there are still things we haven’t experienced, people we haven’t met, ideas we haven’t had, places we haven’t gone, and versions of our lives we haven’t created yet.
Our past gets to give us information about all of that. It has given us experience, wisdom, some funny stories, and probably a fairly decent list of things we never want to do again. I just don’t want everything that has already happened deciding what I believe is possible next.
I know enough about life by now to understand that I cannot control every outcome anyway. Other people have free will, circumstances change, plans fall apart, and occasionally the thing we were convinced we wanted doesn’t happen and we realize later that we are incredibly grateful it didn’t. That is why I don’t feel the need to manifest every tiny detail anymore. I would rather think about the life I want to experience and leave some room for Spirit to surprise me with how I get there.
Maybe what I really want is more freedom in my life, more peace in my home, work that continues to feel meaningful, relationships that feel good to be in, enough money to feel secure and enjoy myself, new experiences, laughter, creativity, and time to actually enjoy what I am building. Those things give me a direction without requiring me to know exactly what every year ahead is supposed to look like. I can begin making choices that support them right now while staying open to opportunities I haven’t even considered yet.
That is where hope becomes very practical for me. Hope gives me somewhere to point myself. When I believe there could be something good ahead, I am much more willing to take the next step toward it. I become curious again, and curiosity has a very different energy from sitting around worrying about everything that might go wrong.
That is really what I wanted to create with my new Manifest a Beautiful Future guided meditation. For thirty minutes, we get to step away from the noise and spend some time looking forward. There is space to think about what you genuinely want to experience, how you want your life to feel, and what you may be ready to create next, while still leaving room for Spirit to bring through something you hadn’t thought about yourself.
You may receive an idea during the meditation, see something clearly in your mind, feel drawn toward a particular direction, or simply notice that one part of the future feels especially exciting to you. I wouldn’t worry about trying to make something happen while you’re listening. Sometimes the best thing we can do is get quiet enough to notice what starts coming forward when fear isn’t doing all the talking.
Then we come back to real life and see what we can do with it.
Maybe there is one small step you can take. Maybe something you saw during the meditation gives you an idea you want to explore. Maybe you simply come away feeling a little more hopeful about where your life is going. I think all of that matters because manifesting has never made sense to me as something we do only in our heads. Eventually we have to get up, live our lives, make choices, and give Spirit something to work with.
There will always be practical things to think about. There will be bills, responsibilities, decisions, changes we didn’t plan for, and things happening in the world that we have absolutely no control over. I can take those things seriously and still believe something wonderful could happen in my own life. I can be responsible with what is in front of me and still get excited about what I am building.
So I am giving my imagination another job.
It has spent plenty of years helping me think through everything that could possibly go wrong. I think it can spend a little more time helping me see what might go beautifully right.
You can meditate with me here:
Manifest a Beautiful Future 💜 30-Minute Guided Meditation for Hope & New Beginnings
Listen to the 30-minute guided meditation on YouTube
Much love,
Lisa 💜
