Today is 11/11. The powerful manifesting day. Manifestation is thrown around a lot and there are many views on how and why it works or doesn't. There is often this perspective that you are creating something from nothing or filling a void. That's not how I see it. For me, it's about transmuting energy from one place to another or from one thing to another, and this is done on an emotional level. Energy is constant; nothing is ever fully destroyed or created to or from nothing. So, when you are manifesting, you are calling energy in or taking old energy out and shifting it. This is possible through emotions and thought.
The thought is the last part; it is the witnessing. We create by witnessing. Healers heal by witnessing the change and that witnessing creates it in our reality. So, manifesting with thought is witnessing what you want to create and bringing it forward in this reality. Witnessing is validation. So, it is good to have positive thought and think what you want to create, but that works best when your emotional self is in alignment.
The Fairies talk about how we create from what we feel, not what we think. This is seen as, I feel like I lack, so I create lack in my life. It can manifest that way, but what if you were not in conflict and judgment about lack? What if you were at peace with what something was? It is our emotional attachment to an experience that makes it recreate in our lives. This emotional attachment looks like conflict, power struggle, and the inability to let go. This can be internal, but it also can be acted out in our life and relationships. Our emotional attachments can be so strong that we take them on as identities. “I'm no good with money.” “I'm stupid.” “I push everyone away.” These are phrases that show emotional attachment to an experience that will keep recreating itself to validate your reality. To put it another way, you experience something where the feeling is so strong that you become emotionally attached and continue to witness it into your reality. So, even when you try to change your thoughts, you think “I am abundant,” but you feel like that is a lie. That feeling is so strong, you are witnessing your thought as a lie.
So yes, over time, positive thought can help change the emotion and the witnessing. Another way is to address the feeling and acknowledge that it is just a feeling and doesn't have to be your truth. Accepting that the past was true then or the current feelings are true now but that doesn't mean it has to continue to be true helps release the attachment or need for validation. Each day is a new day and you need to open to the possibilities. Just letting go of a need to know the outcome or thinking you know the outcome can bring change. This is why I think it is better to open up yourself to not knowing the outcome. If you can't believe you can have $500 show up (for an example, this could be a new love or job or whatever else you are trying to manifest), and when you say it, you feel like it is a lie, and all it does is bring up guilt, shame, or feelings of lack, then you are going to struggle with manifesting it. If you can say, “I don't know how money is going to come into my life or how much, but I am open to having more money,” you are side-stepping the emotional attachment. I understand why many people talk about being specific in their manifesting, but honestly, I see that hurt and block more than it helps. It also, to me, speaks to a level of not trusting the Universe/God.
If you have faith in any kind of high power (within or outside of you), then you need to trust that it is always bringing you your highest and best. I didn't say your most joyous or most comfortable, just your highest and best. You also have to accept that you will not always know the reasons why or understand how a situation that is painful is your highest and best. Again, we are talking about detachment. To me, detachment means you let go of trying to understand, control, or be invested in any outcome. You open to experience the present moment and allow the moment or path to unfold.
How I would suggest you manifest is explore the feeling you are longing for. Maybe what you think is money is really safety or stability. Maybe what you think is a new relationship is really being supported or seen or just loved. Think about the feeling and start opening to that. Take your focus to the feeling instead of the how. This, again, side-steps the emotional blocks you have about what you think you are lacking and frees the Universe to bring you what you want in any way you can receive now. Then, it will open you to more and more of that as you become more and more comfortable in that experience.