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KEY TOPICS in this episode

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How habits in the mind can sabotage your manifestations

- Recognizing mental adversaries and their impact on manifesting desires

- Identification of mental patterns and beliefs that hinder manifestation efforts

- The futility of trying to manifest your desires without first addressing the sabotaging patterns in the mind

- How the mind can become the biggest obstacle to manifestation

 

How yoga’s Science of Mind can powerfully aid in manifestation success

- Yoga as a science of mind and its relevance to manifestation

- Understanding the forgotten wisdom of yoga beyond physical practice

- Yoga's focus on taming and controlling the mind for spiritual realization

- Importance of yoga in achieving happiness, joy, and conscious manifestation

 

How to use yoga techniques to overcome manifestation blocks

- Explanation of specific yoga practices beneficial for manifestation

- Pratyahara: The withdrawal of the senses to maintain focus on the desired outcome

- Bhavana: Generating positive feelings like gratitude and satisfaction

- Dharana: Training the imagination to focus on thoughts and feelings that align with manifestational goals

 

How doubt can powerfully block your manifestation efforts

- Highlighting doubt as a common manifestation hindrance

- Focus on different forms of doubt affecting manifestation efforts

- The difficulty in managing thoughts directly

- The yoga secret to neutralizing doubting thoughts without friction

- Introduction of yoga’s practice of dharana to overcome doubt

 

Manifestation Exercise

free custom meditation recording

TRANSCRIPT

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Trying to manifest your heart's desire while ignoring the sabotaging thoughts, beliefs and mental narratives that are holding you where you are, is like trying to race a speedboat across a lake while ignoring the lines that are tying it to the dock.
 

Welcome to the Manifestation Matters podcast dedicated to exploring the divine creative power that lives inside us all and how you can use the spiritual science of manifestation to create the life of health, happiness, love and abundance you deserve. I'm your host, Eric Walrabenstein, and I'm glad you're here.
 

As we've seen, the science of manifestation is quite simple. That which you consent to be true manifests.
 

Sculpting your future is a simple matter of sculpting your imagination so that your conscious thoughts and feelings can imprint your creative subconscious and give rise to the experience you wish to have.

 

And that's true whether you desire to find the love of your life and wake up every day feeling cherished and cared for, or you're looking to manifest a tremendous wealth and abundance and success in life. Or even if you simply wish to be able to manifest a downtown parking space on a busy Friday night. And for more on the exact science of Manifestation, of course you can check out episode three of the podcast called The Law of Manifestation.
 

But as simple as it may be, it's important to remember that simple doesn't necessarily mean easy. Because the truth is that for most of us, we have an army of mental adversaries living in our brains, diligently working against us.

Things like inherited limiting beliefs that keep you playing small and settling for way less than you deserve, or sabotaging doubts that fill you full of anxiety and worry and derail your ability to hold the vision of what you want in life. Or even destructive mental narratives that blind you to the limitless possibility that your life truly does hold for you.

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But here's what you need to know about all of that.

These mental adversaries, in whatever form they take, they aren't who you are. And more important, they need not shape your future, though they will if you let them. These mental patterns are just a collection of learned and inherited stories that have become lodged in our brains and nervous systems. They’re mental patterns–or habits–that we call samskaras in yoga. And each and every one carries within it the power to derail your efforts to create the life of your dreams.

 

So yes, it's true. The biggest obstacle to manifesting anything that you may want and living an abundant, healthy and fulfilling life, that obstacle is your very own mind. Even worse, most people struggle consuming all manner of videos and books and teachings on manifestation or trying every manifestation technique and trick in the book without ever addressing the mental poisons that are foiling their efforts at every turn.

 

And so, the bottom line is this if you want to race that speedboat across the lake, you need to first untie the lines holding it to the dock.

 

And the very same thing holds true if you want to deliberately harness your powers of manifestation. Only with manifestation, those so-called lines are your sabotaging mental habits and beliefs and perspectives we call samskaras in yoga. And actually, this is where yoga comes in.

 

Because while it's not commonly known, yoga is actually a science of mind, specifically created to manage and modify the patterning that lives in our brains and nervous systems. You see, the ancient yoga masters saw how taming and controlling the mind was the real key to spiritual realization. And it just so happens it's also the key to all of our other successes in life, from happiness, joy, to consciously manifesting whatever it is that your heart desires.

 

But of course, the yoga I'm talking about here is well, it's very likely not the yoga you're thinking about. I'm not talking about the bending and breathing and sweating that goes on down at your local yoga studio, though there's nothing wrong with that.

 

I'm talking about yoga's deeper wisdom. It's teachings and practices that have largely been forgotten in today's world, even by many yoga teachers. And more important, teachings and wisdom that have been proven to snuff out the very same sabotaging thoughts and worries and doubts that can keep you blocked from using your manifestational powers in the way that serves you.

 

And that's why in this episode, exploring exactly how you can leverage yoga's ancient wisdom is what we'll be up to. As usual, you'll want to stick around to the very end of the episode because I have another special manifestation exercise to help you tap the true power of yoga to make your manifesting more powerful and effective. And don't worry, you don't have to be able to touch your toes to use it. I'll tell you more about it and how you can get it free at the end of our time together.

 

So let's jump in.

 

As many of you know, I'm an ordained Yogacharya or yoga master, and I've been practicing, studying and teaching yoga's ancient science of mind for over 30 years now. And in that time, I've worked with thousands upon thousands of people, from empowering trauma survivors to break free from anxiety and depression, to helping those caught in the web of addiction to reclaim their healthy lives, and to helping over 6000 US. Veterans struggling with PTSD to heal from the horrors of war. In fact, in my Phoenix based yoga center alone since we opened our doors almost 25 years ago, we've seen over 750,000 students.

 

Now, the reason that I share this with you is that in all of those years and in working with all of those people, here's what I've come to understand–no, make that what I've come to witness with my own two eyes:

 

That when it comes to healing and when it comes to self-empowerment and when it comes to sculpting yourself to be the kind of person who can create the life you truly deserve, yoga is perhaps the most powerful set of tools and techniques ever devised by man.

 

And of course, again, I'm not speaking of yoga postures or even yoga meditation, at least not exclusively. But I'm referring to the deeper practices that can help us break through the most common blocks and obstacles that hinder our manifestations.

 

I'm talking about techniques like pratyahara, or the withdrawal of the senses that can help you to hold steady to the vision of your wish fulfilled, no matter what your three-dimensional experience may say.

 

Or yoga's practice of bhavana or cultivation, which is all about creating positive and uplifting interior feelings like gratitude and satisfaction and the feeling of the wish fulfilled.

 

Or the ancient practice of Dharana, a technique which, when used correctly, can actually train your imagination to dutifully linger on the thoughts and the feelings that marshal the creative forces of the universe in your favor.

 

And I could go on.

 

You see, over the years, I've been cataloging the main manifestation blocks, both as they have appeared in my own life and in the lives of my students for well over ten years. And as it turns out, even with the many, many different types of blocks that keep people stuck, there happens to be a yoga technique or practice that is proven and effective as an antidote for each and every one.

 

In many ways, it's as if yoga and again, I'm talking about real yoga, not just yoga postures, but it's as if yoga has been actually custom made to awaken our divine creative power, if we use it correctly.

 

So I was thinking about listing the most common manifestation blocks together with their yoga antidotes, but something about that felt, well, a bit superficial in that sure, it might be interesting, but I'm not convinced it would leave anyone able to take any meaningful action, which, of course, is what we're all about here.

 

So instead, we're going to look at a single manifestation block and then match it with the yoga technique that is most helpful to overcoming it. And then, of course, if there's interest, we can tackle some of the other blocks and yoga antidotes in future episodes. So, you can let me know in the comments if that's something of interest to you.

 

So last night I spent some time going over all of the manifestation blocks that I've cataloged over the years. And I settled on one that, if we're honest, affects us all. And that's doubt.

I'm talking about doubt in all of its forms.

It could be a doubt about the workings of the law of Assumption and the science of manifestation, or it could be a doubt about your own abilities to stay focused on your desired end state long enough for your desires to outpicture themselves. Or it could even be a doubt about your very own deservedness or worth.

 

But in whatever form the doubt may arise, we have to be clear that doubt is a significant problem when it comes to manifesting deliberately and in the direction that we want to go. And that's because doubt has a well, a kind of double whammy effect.

Not only does it poison your experience of the moment with the potential to fill you full of angst and worry and dread and a whole host of other sabotaging thoughts and feelings, but it also works powerfully to manifest precisely what you do not want.

 

You see, here's what's important to remember. Doubt is not just doubt. It's an expression of your imagination, an expression of your divine creative power.

I mean, think about it. When you're doubting, you are imagining, you're thinking, you're visualizing a negative outcome, or the very least, the possibility of a negative outcome.

So, we just need to stop doubting, right?

Well, the answer would be a resounding yes if it were that simple. But if you've ever tried to simply stop a doubt or a fear or a worry, or in fact, any thought in its tracks, you know, it's not that easy. And in many cases, it's downright impossible. And that's because while it's true that we do have some power over our thoughts, that power is significantly limited because of the nature of the mind.

You see, our environments, our circumstances, and the people around us can and do dramatically influence our thoughts in every moment of our lives. Because the mind is an associative mechanism. It tends to think about what it perceives. And just in case you have any doubts about your ability to control your thoughts, including doubting thoughts right now, try not to think about a purple squirrel riding a unicycle in a top hat.

Put the purple squirrel out of your mind.
Don't think about the unicycle.
And whatever you do, don't for a second think about a top hat.

See what I mean? My silly suggestions are instantly and effortlessly projected by your mind, by your imagination, and there's very little you can do about it.

But don't worry, because all is not lost. Because that doubting thought about the negative outcome is not what gives doubt its real sabotaging power. Doubt's power comes not from the thought itself, but from you focusing on it. It comes from you paying attention to it, even obsessing over it.

And this fact, the fact that your attention to your doubts is what really gives them power, creates an opportunity for you to rob doubt of the power it has to block your manifestations.

Because you don't need to extinguish the doubting thought, you merely need to withdraw your attention from it. Because when you do, you're robbing the doubt of the energy it needs to survive. And when you do that, it loses its power to affect you or your manifestations.

 

Even though it's undeniable that the conscious management of our own attention is the master key to so many of life's riches. I mean, it's the key to happiness. It's the doorway to spiritual realization. It's the secret sauce to lasting, loving relationships. And it's the very foundation of you controlling your power as a conscious manifestor.

Even so, very few of us have been taught to deliberately manage our attention. And as a result, most of us have a quality of attention that is more like a free-range chicken than the dutiful and powerful servant that your attention was intended to be.

For the vast majority of us, our attention wanders all but completely unmanaged, going here and there, focusing on regrets and worries, obsessing over damaging narratives, coddling sabotaging beliefs, and generally working against us. And by the way, there is a biological reason that this happens. It's instinctual, actually. Again, something for a future episode.

Of course, the upshot of all of this is that as you're doing your best to manifest whatever it is that you want, your attention is busy sticking its nose into every doubting thought and feeling that comes down the pike, effectively blocking your manifestation from becoming your reality.

And this is where yoga's practice of Dharana comes in.

Now, Dharana is traditionally translated as concentration. It's your ability to focus your attention on one thing to the exclusion of other things.

It's the ability to focus attention on the feeling of abundance, to the exclusion of your current bank account balance.

It's the ability to focus your attention on the feeling of being loved, to the exclusion of your divorce.

And it's the ability to focus attention on the feeling of celebrating radiant health, to the exclusion of the scary news the doctor gave you last week.

And Dharana means to have the ability to focus in this way whenever you want, for however long you want, and no matter what's going on around you.

But what's important here is to realize that the practice of Dharana is not just concentration per se. It's really about training.

Training your attention so that it becomes the faithful servant of your highest good and of your manifestational power can take many forms, but some of the most effective include particular forms of meditation. And I've included a recorded meditation of one example of the practice with this episode and I invite you to give it a try.

But I do want to warn you, because if you're anything like I was, with an unruly and wandering attention like 99.9% of the people on the planet, a distracted attention happy to put its nose into any and every thought of doubt and worry and dread and worse, if that sounds at all familiar, prepare yourself to put in some effort.

Because remember, your attention likely has years, if not decades, of momentum behind its wandering habits. Momentum that takes a counteracting force to overcome it.

You see, the truth is that training our attention is well, it's a lot like training a puppy dog. Only because of the years and years of momentum behind its bad habits, we're not training a brand new, curious, and playful puppy dog. Most of us are training an old, stubborn dog, one who's been allowed to chew up the couch and eat from the table and bark his ever-loving head off whenever he pleases for decades.

So it's only logical it's going to take a bit of effort, but–and this just might be the most important thing I say in this entire episode–don't let that dissuade you.

Put in the work to train your wayward puppy dog of attention so that it can effortlessly work for you–for your manifestations–instead of against you. For once you do, you'll be opening the door to experiencing the true divine power that has always lived within you.

Well, that's it for this episode. I'm hopeful that you're walking away with a newfound appreciation for the power of your attention and are feeling inspired to train your own attention to be your faithful servant using yoga's ancient practice of Dharana.

Thanks so much for taking the time to listen, and as always, a big, big thank you to all of my patrons, whose donations allow me to bring this podcast to you.

As usual, I'm including with this episode a manifestation exercise. This one to help you train your puppy dog of attention. It's a custom recorded meditation that will help you use the practice of Dharana to calm your mind and begin the process of winning your attention over to your side.

You can get it free on my Patreon page. And while you're there, if you're finding value in the podcast, consider becoming a supporter of the show.

For just a couple of bucks a month, you'll be helping me with production costs, and you'll also get some pretty amazing bonuses each month as my personal thank you. You can learn more over at www.patreon.com/manifestationmatters and I'll put a direct link in the show notes.

Lastly, anything you could do to help spread the word about the podcast would be appreciated more than you know. Share it with friends, post an honest review, or even give it a thumbs up if you're listening over on YouTube. It all helps to spread these powerful teachings and hopefully to make our world a better place.

Thanks again for being here and I look forward to seeing you in the next one.

CLICK HERE to get the Customized Manifestation Meditation for this episode
 

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