How to Manifest for Beginners – The Ultimate Manifestation Guide - SelfMadeLadies (2024)

Before you can manifest your dreams, you should understand the principles of manifestation.

There’s so much content on the topic (from famous books like The Secret to thought leaders like Oprah, everyone talks about it) – and still, not many are teaching the true science of manifestation (and rather sell it as some woo-woo concept).

As a bestselling manifestation book author, I know that too well.

I had so many readers reach out to me, telling me that my book was such an eye-opener, even after reading many other books on manifestation or investing in expensive courses and coaching sessions.

So, what does manifesting mean? Manifestation comes from the Latin word “manifestare” which mainly means to make something real.

And most important: “manifestare” is a verb, and verbs express action.

It means that YOU make something real, you create your new reality, and you do so by leveraging the power of your subconscious mind.

AND with a specific manifestation technique (which I show you later on in this manifestation guide.)

There is actually a big misconception about the law of attraction. Many do believe that to manifest something, you just have to “think it into existence” or wish for something and then believe in it, and you’ll get it.

BUT manifestation is not magic.

Manifestation means that you set your goals, get vibrational aligned with them, and finally manifest them into existence by taking inspired action.

But don’t worry; in this manifestation blog, I will show you step-by-step how to do that.

Who invented manifestation? What’s the history of the law of attraction?

Because it became well-known through the book and movie “The Secret,” which screened in 2006, many believe that’s where it did originate.

“The Secret,” including its famous casts like manifestation coach Bob Proctor and (my dear mentor) Jack Canfield, definitely helped to make it more mainstream.

But did you know that the Law of Attraction dates back over a hundred years?

The concept of manifestation originated in 1906 when author and publisher William Walker Atkinson released his book: “Thought Vibration or the Law of Attraction in the Thought World.

Manifestation is based on the universal law of attraction, and the definition of it is that like attracts like (what you send out to “the universe” you receive back).

It’s all about energy and vibration when you attract your dreams.

This applies to everything in our existence, from the people around us and all the material things. And even non-tangible stuff like situations, thoughts, feelings, and emotions.

The problem is that this often gets misunderstood.

There is this famous quote stating, “Your thoughts become your reality.” – That’s not really how it works.You can’t just “think things into existence.”

What you do when you concentrate on your manifestation goals and align vibrationally with them is to attract opportunities, ideas, people, and situations… they will then make you take inspired action.

And THIS creates your new reality.

It’s all connected to your subconscious, and I will explain that in more detail in a moment.

But it’s crucial that you understand that the law of attraction is not some magic trick that turns you into an abundance magnet. It is also not as woo-woo as many make it look like, and it doesn’t require some fancy ritual to make it work.

It might not happen overnight, but…

Yes! Manifestation works.

We are all attracting things into our lives, 24/7, subconsciously, so you better learn how to make it work for you.

I’ll tell you more about it in this manifestation blog, but to get all the ins and outs of my action-based manifestation technique > join my free manifestation email course.

Before we dig into the single steps, let me clarify one more thing.

Since manifestation became so popular, many are talking about it on platforms such as TikTok or YouTube, and there are more and more misconceptions coming up.

One confusion is about different manifestation methods and which technique is the best. Many people are mixing up manifestation tools with the actual manifestation process.

But let’s have a quick look at them for a better understanding…

While the manifestation process always follows the same steps, manifestation methods are like a toolbox you can use to unleash the full manifestation potential.

They can help you on every step of the manifestation:

The above manifestation methods are really my favorite to support the manifestation journey. I use them daily, so I created a toolkit for every single one of them (you can find them in my manifestation shop.)

There are other manifestation methods that gained some popularity, mainly from influencers on social media platforms, such as TikTok. Here a few examples:

Your subconscious is co-creating with you; it has your back when you manifest things, and therefore, “manifestation” does not 100% equal regular goal-setting and achieving.

But manifestation is also not magic or a spiritual ritual, as some want you to believe.

People love to talk about asking the universe or manifesting from the universe, but this “universe” is not out there; it’s within you. It’s your subconscious mind.

In a nutshell, your subconscious mind holds the key to successfully manifesting your dreams.

This is where everything happens. And that’s why I connect everything back to the subconscious:

You will not manifest successfully when you fail to trigger your subconscious and listen to the signs and hints it will send you. No matter how much you believed in it.

So, how do you manifest with your subconscious mind? Let’s find out…

There are three main steps when manifesting. Some call these three steps: “ask, believe, and receive,” which is really how “The Secret” laid out how manifestation works.

And while I do think The Secret is a wonderful book and a very inspiring movie, I do not agree 100% with its message.

I actually believe that’s oversimplifying manifestation.

But not in a good “let’s make things easy for you” way – but to make it more mainstream and sell better. Therefore, it gives false hopes and leads to a lot of confusion.

Of course, telling people that all they have to do is “to believe” sells better than what I do: telling you that you have to take action.

But I always aim to give no BS manifestation advice, even if it might not be as popular.

In my book “Become the CEO of Your Dream Life” (which I later turned into my award-winning manifestation course ), I teach a more advanced manifestation process.

One that is tailored to your needs and specific to your situation.

But for this post, and to make things simpler for you, let’s concentrate on the three main steps.

The first step would be what many call “ask” or “order from the universe.” But you know by now that this universe is not out there.

So you don’t just tell “the universe” what you want, or write your goals down, or glue some images with your dream life on a vision board… There’s a bit more to it.

What you really do in this first manifestation step is to become crystal clear on what you want, set manifestation goals, and then communicate them to your subconscious mind.

The second step on how to manifest is the “believe” part. An important step, but I often see that people think it’s enough to just “believe enough” – you then hear bad manifestation advice like:

“you just have to trust the universe”
“the how is not your job”
“the universe will just deliver.”

The problem is that this leads to a lot of disappointment, and I had many reaching out to me because they believed that manifestation wasn’t working for them when, in fact, they just followed bad advice.

The truth is, “believing” is just one (small) part of this step.The second manifestation step is where you vibrationally align your goals with your subconscious.

This process means that you have to overcome your major abundance blocks, such as limiting beliefs, emotional blocks, bad habits, or a negative self-image. But also outer manifestation blocks play an important role, such as your relationships, your environment, your looks, and your health.

It’s about decluttering your entire life and making space for abundance.

That’s when you become “open to receive” – when you truly align with your desires. Your subconscious will have no choice but to get you there.

So you see that this goes way beyond just “getting high-vibe & believing” – this is a personal growth transformation that goes much deeper.

As long as you have major blocks standing in your way, you will have a hard time manifesting your desires.

That said, I’m not here to sell you expensive coaching sessions. I personally “retired” as a manifestation coach because I found something that works so much better to mastering manifestation: Self-Coaching. And that’s one of the many things I teach my readers and students.

The third step is the most important one. It’s really the manifestation itself.

This is where you make your dreams come true.

And that’s where I absolutely NOT agree with what The Secret teaches us. Because calling it “to receive” makes this step very passive. And this couldn’t be further from the truth.

(Fun fact: the makers of the movie recently “corrected” that point and said they kind of “forgot to tell” about the importance of taking action.)

That’s a huge point to miss when you understand that taking inspired action is key for manifestation to work.

Manifestation is about starting to tell your subconscious a new story; your subconscious then starts to believe it, accept it as the new reality and then does everything to guide you there.

That’s how you become your higher future self. The person that is, already living the dream life you desire.

But your subconscious can ONLY guide you. It’s still YOU that makes the manifestation happen. It’s you, that takes the needed inspired action to achieve your goals.

The process stays the same; it doesn’t matter if you want to manifest love, more money, better health, or just a new car.

Still, every area of your life has its own abundance blocks or needs a different kind of inspired action. Also, the manifestation methods can vary.

That’s why I created guides for whatever you want to attract into your life. So, if you want to learn how to manifest something specific, then check out my manifestation guides:

Manifesting health is another topic I helped many readers and students with. It’s also something I studied a lot for myself since I have several chronic health issues to deal with.

But the connection between our body and mind is so strong; there is a lot you can do. Get in this health manifestation guide, my top manifestation tips for healing, and how to manifest health.

I started this manifestation blog because I wanted to share with others how manifestation finally worked for me (after many trials and errors.) It was life-changing. SelfMadeLadies started as a community to give other women hope and inspiration.

This soon turned into the top manifestation blog (with over a million readers), my bestselling manifestation book Become the CEO of Your Dream Life, and the 7-week transformational program, with thousands of students from all over the world.

My own manifestation success story started more than 15 years ago when I was at a very low point in my life, and a friend and NLP coach helped me to get out there. That’s when I started to become interested in the subconscious mind…

I try to keep this short here, but here you can read more about my personal manifestation success story.

But more grateful than anything else, I’m for the amazing success stories from our manifestation community. I helped to transform so many lives, and there is nothing that could make me happier.

Here are just a few of them to show you that this isn’t just a “manifestation worked for me, so it should work for you” kind of post. I have seen thousands of transformations over the years…

So you see, manifestation works when you know the HOW.

While I hope this beginner’s guide on how to manifest answers your most burning questions, I would like to invite you into our community, where I send you daily manifestation tips via email (many of which I have never shared before.)

The best way to sign up is by joining my free 5-day manifestation course.