How I Manifested My Dream Car

Okay, hang on a minute. You’re telling me that in order to ‘manifest’ my dream life, I only need to remain solely focused upon what I want, be happy in its absence, knowing that I will get it, then it will be mine? This sounds way too good to be true.

This was my thought process the first time I heard of manifestation and the Law of Attraction three years ago. I’ve always been a closet nerd and when I hear or learn about something new, I want to know everything about it. But when I first heard of manifestation, I truly thought it sounded a bit too woo-woo for me. However, it got my attention and the more I read, researched, rationalised, and investigated the science behind it, I was hooked. It all made sense. I became obsessed with learning from teachers such as Dr Joe Dispenza, Wallace D Wattles, Napoleon Hill, Bob Proctor, Esther Hicks, Tony Robbins, Bruce Lipton; the list goes on and on. I read and watched everything I could, and I got very excited. Here was the belief factor that plays the most important role with manifestation. If you want to manifest, you have to believe in manifestation, or a higher power, and that it will work for you; other wise your resistance to it will block it every time.

At this point, I was really devling into this new world that I was discovering. I sat down and thought about exactly what it was that I wanted to bring into my life. I had a vision, and it went straight onto my vision board. But I really wanted something measurable, to test this manifestation claim. And so I pinned the picture of my dream car smack bang into the middle of my vision board. Along with the rest of the stereotypical female population, I had always dreamt of owning a white Range Rover. I know, so original, but can you blame me? At this time, I already had a car that I loved, so I thought it was a bit obnoxious of me to put this on my vision board, but it was something I have always wanted and something physical that could prove or disprove this theory that I was learning about. The thing was about this desire was, I was already happy. Getting a Range Rover wouldn’t make me happy, I already was. Its just a car. My happiness was internal. It wasn’t dependant on manifesting my dream car. And so I was not attached to the outcome.

As I had been learning, our resistance and control is detrimental to the process of manifestation. And so I let go of any resistance to everything on my vision board, including the car. I focused on my point of vibration, visualised, practised gratitude for everything that I had and everything that I knew was coming to me, and carried on living. When I was driving, I was so grateful for my car and my freedom. As I would drive to work, I saw Range Rover after Range Rover (Well played, Universe) and instead of thinking “Wow, I wish I had one of those, I wish I could afford one!” I would get so excited. A huge smile would cross my face and I would say “Thank you thank you thank you!” Somehow, though I had no idea how, I knew I would have one. I didn’t know when, and frankly I didn’t care. It just felt so good to be excited and happy every time I saw one. Funnily enough, I was feeling grateful about having something that I didn’t even have. Woo-Woo, I know.

One Saturday about 4 months after I had made my first vision board, feeling the happiest and most alive I had in forever (mindset truely is everything people), my husband mentioned that we should go for a day trip and get for some ice-cream from my favourite ice-cream shop about 45 minutes away. Two things crossed my mind; day trips are my favourite, not so much his, and I love ice-cream, not so much him. But I really didn’t question it because it sounded great, and if he was delirious I was going to take full advantage. So we got dressed, and off we went. To say that I am bad with directions is an understatement, and considering this ice-cream shop is 45 minutes from our house, I had already lost attention to where we were about 20 minutes into the drive. As we were driving I noticed that the road we were on, is full of car dealerships. Weird, I thought, he must be going a different way. “I just want to pull in here for a second” he said looking at me, as I was looking at the car dealership to the right of us. “Nooo” I protested, seeing the ice-cream in my mind slipping further away. “And we are not looking at cars right now, we don’t need a new car.” As soon as I said it, it felt wrong. Wasn’t I in the process of manifesting a new car!?

We pull in, and inside the dealership, through the floor to ceiling glass building, I see it. The Range Rover from my vision board. Not just a Range Rover, the EXACT Range Rover from my vision board. White, with a Black sky roof, in all of its beautiful, stereotypical female glory. That little thought popped back up in my head “Ugh its so beautiful, but I can’t have it yet, I haven’t had the answer on how it’s going to be mine. Isn’t the Universe just supposed to drop this in my lap?” I looked at my husband, and laughed. “We’re not buying this you know?” He looked at me mischievously and said, “I thought we could just have a look, you can visualise it better now.” I knew what he was doing. My husband is the risk taker, the one that acts before thinking, and too his credit, this usually works for him, and is the reason we have such fun together. But this time, I was going to stand my ground. “I’ll look, but I’m not driving it!”

5 minutes later, I’m pulling out of the car dealership, test driving the car of my dreams. “I’ll give it a drive” I finally agreed to the salesman, “But we’re not buying it.” I couldn’t believe that we went out for ice cream and now 45 minutes later I’m driving around in a Range Rover? Everything inside was so beautiful. I looked at the steering wheel with its Range Rover badge, and the Land Rover logo that shone on the dashboard and screen. The sun blaring over-head through the huge sky roof. The smell of leather seats. The details. Ugh it was so beautiful. ‘This is going to great for my visualisations’ I thought. I wasn’t even upset by the fact that I clearly wasn’t going to buy this car. I was grateful that I got the chance to drive it, and that my visualisations were going to be taken to the next level.

When we pulled back into the dealership I returned the keys back to the salesman and thanked him for letting me drive it. The boys looked at each other and my husband so casually turned to me and said “Okay, so lets sign the paperwork then”. They both looked at me, knowing what my response would be. This is crazy, I can’t afford this car! I thought. And then BAM! I had a breakthrough. Those limiting beliefs rang so loudly in my head that I was able to catch them right away. I can’t? I CAN. And we always make things work. My husband knew this, and that’s why he bought us here. Something felt so right about this. I honestly had no idea how we’d do it, but I just knew we would. “Adam, we need to talk about this. Not today, we’ll think about it.” The salesman looked at me and said, “What car do you drive?” He explained that with a trade-in on my car and the lowered interest rates (Due to COVID) that we could in fact afford a car like this, and that this opportunity was too good not to at least look in to. So we looked into it, right then and there.

I signed my name on the dotted line. 02/02/2020. I remember it so vividly, because even though it is just a car, it is something I have wanted my whole life. I genuinely could not believe we were doing this, a million thoughts flew through my mind. Will we be able to afford this? Did I just make a huge mistake? No, no, no, Ria. Trust. Trust. Trust.

All the nerves melted away when the paperwork was signed, and the salesman told us we could pick up our car in 3 days. That was enough time for the official paperwork to be completed, and for the official finance approval to come through. We both walked out of the dealership like giddy teenagers, looking at each other and just giggling. I got back into our car, and looked at my husband. “What the f*&%” I laughed. I could not believe we had just done that. Funny looking ice-cream!

Needless to say, in a state of nerves and disbelief, we skipped the ice-cream and instead went straight to the pub. I needed a wine to celebrate and soothe my mind. I had just rang my mum. “Mum, I can’t believe it, WE JUST BOUGHT A RANGE ROVER!” My mum was so excited for me, and bought me back down to earth. She was so supportive of the decision and her vote of confidence had me feeling better. But as happy as I was, I still couldn’t shake the feeling that maybe we just dug ourselves in a bit too deep financially. Over wine, we chatted about the decision, and an idea popped into my head. If I could just change my work shift by starting an hour later, and finishing an hour later, I would be saving the same amount of money in Before-School Care Fees, as the new car payment would be. It was something I had been thinking about long before the prospect of a new car, as I wanted so badly to be able to walk my children into school every day. I knew that it would work with my job, I was just so rooted in routine that I never asked. “Maybe its time to ask? What do we have to lose?” I pondered.

Two days later, I had a meeting with my boss and put the question to her. To my surprise, she was totally on board, and told me that we could try it right away. I was so grateful to her, and assured her that we’d make it work. It worked. Not only was I now able to drop off and pick up my kids from school, which I’d been longing to do for the past 6 years, I literally just had my car payment! My dream car would technically not be costing me a dime! I was so used to paying for childcare, we didn’t even notice it coming out of our bank account. I couldn’t believe that one simple decision, one question, was the answer! I was kicking myself for not doing it earlier.

I rang my husband to tell him the exciting news. He laughed as I told him, and explained to me that he’d just had a call from our banking manager, to inform him that due to COVID, interest rates were plummeting, and we can remortgage our home loan, to save nearly $500 a month. I could not believe it. Not only did we have our car payment already, we were going to be SAVING over $500 a month.!?

I knew this was all happening because I trusted it would. I never pushed getting this car, I never tried to control the circumstance in which it came around, I never tried to rush it, or force it. It came organically, and while it didn’t technically just land in my drive-way, it really did present itself to me. I made the decision, trusting in my vision, and my newly adopted beliefs, and left the rest to the Universe (Woo-woo, I know). Initially I didn’t know how we’d afford it, I didn’t push or try to control how. I released resistance, and answers literally came to me. The decision in that dealership to trust, led us here. If I let my limiting beliefs over-power me that day, and didn’t take the risk, my dream car would have been snapped up by someone else, and I would still be dropping my children to Before-School care every morning, paying huge fees and missing out on being able to walk them into class myself. I’d of been carrying on as normal.

Three days passed and we pulled into the dealership. I was in genuine disbelief, and so nervous. My nerves quickly melted away when I saw our salesman, his face excited and cheerful. “Everything is ready to go”
I once again signed my name on the dotted line, but this time a key was placed in my hand at the end of it. “Range Rover” it said. It’s mine. I have my dream car. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! I pulled out of the dealership, in my dream white Range Rover, with my husband sitting next to me, his hand on my lap, and my two beautiful boys safely in the backseat. Thank you thank you thank you. My body was literally vibrating with joy and gratitude. And in that moment, I knew I’d never question manifestation.

“Eliminate doubt and replace it with the full expectation that you will receive what you are asking for.”
Rhonda Byrne

How You Talk to Yourself, Matters.

Self talk is the internal narrative that we tell about ourselves. It is the inner dialogue that shapes the ideas and beliefs that we hold on to about ourselves. Have you ever really thought about the things that you say to yourself? Not listened, not witnessed, but really thought. What is it that you are telling yourself? What is it that you are believing about yourself? Then ask, two of the most important questions you can ask of yourself;

Is my self-talk empowering, or destroying me?

Would I say these things to somebody else I care about?

Often we reserve our love, encouragement, support, and belief for others. We watch closely the lives of others, and we form our own judgements and assessments on these people, based on our own reflections of ourselves. Are you jealous of somebody? Inspired? Angered? Any reaction that is sparked in us from another is truly a reflection of our inner most thoughts, feelings and desires. And what brings us to these thoughts, feelings and desires? What is it that encourages or destroys these desires, these feelings? Our self-talk. We often see in others the things that we lack or desire for ourselves, and this can be either a blessing; inspiring change, motivation, ideas, actions – or a curse; sending us into a spiral of self criticism, dwelling on all of the things that we don’t have and justifying all of the excuses we tell ourselves for why we don’t have them.

Here is where our self-talk comes into play. Think about it – you wake up in the morning with the attitude that life is hard; I promise you, you’re day will be reflected to you in that way. You will be stuck in traffic, or late, or spill your coffee, you’ll have disagreements with others and things will get to you. Or, you wake up with a sense of joy, gratitude, love and commitment, and your day will be reflected back to you in this way. You might still get stuck in traffic, you might still spill your coffee, someone may disagree with you, but it won’t bother you.

Its the same with our self-talk. Whatever you tell yourself over and over again is what you will inevitably believe about yourself. If there is something that you want, that seems hard, or out of reach, and you justify its elusiveness by telling yourself “I am too lazy, I am too dumb, I am too unqualified, I am too broke, I don’t have the time, I don’t have the connections, I wouldn’t know how”… Well guess what: You never will.

If you flip the narrative however, things change. While it might be true, right now in this moment, you might not have the time. But you’ll make it. “I am creating time” is more powerful than “I don’t have it.” You’ll prioritise; you’ll wake up earlier, you’ll take small, consistent steps, you’ll time block. You’ll make it work. You might not know how, but if you believe and commit, putting one foot in front of the other, you’ll be further than you were than if you hadn’t started. And in time, the way will be shown to you.

It can feel unnatural to lie to ourselves. If you are broke, telling yourself “I am rich” can feel unauthentic. So flip it and tell yourself, “I am open to receiving financial abundance. I am committed. I am resourceful. I take inspired action toward my goals.” Whatever it might be that feels authentic to you is a step in the right direction.

Our limiting negative self talk is a sentence. We are imprisoned by it. You tell yourself “I am broke”, that’s it; you make it so. You tell yourself “I am in control of my financial choices”; you just gave yourself the key. It is open ended. It is full of possibility. Your words, your choices, and your actions are your freedom.

Empower yourself with your thoughts. Give yourself the same love, belief support, and encouragement that you give to the people that you love. Ultimately, you are the most important person to you. You are the only one that has control over you. We are thinking, feeling beings, and our external lives reflect our internal voices. Give yourself the power to believe in yourself. Living in growth, hope, faith, knowing and expansion, is more fulfilling than resigning yourself to the negative lies that you have been telling about yourself.

It can feel safe, and comfortable, to stay where you are. There is comfort in what you know, its what you’ve always known, its what you’ve always done, and what you’ve always counted on. It can feel easier to remain comfortable where you are, than to step into the discomfort of change, commitment, and effort. But remember, nothing worth having ever came from within your comfort zone.

Change your inner dialogue, and you’ll re-write your narrative.

We Cant Heal What We Don’t Feel

There is a common misconception in the world of self help and spirituality that we are supposed to be happy, positive, mindful and thriving, all the time. 

We equate feelings of happiness, love, joy, motivation and passion with success,
and feelings of sadness, anger, hurt or disappointment with failure.

As human beings we put so much pressure on ourselves to be perfect. We have adopted the belief that feelings are either good or bad, and connect how we feel with either our successes, or setbacks. In truth, there are no good or bad feelings, there are just feelings. A feeling only becomes negative when it is suppressed, denied the right of expression, or believed as being so. 

When things are going well, we are so quick to express it. We are fuelled by our egos, and when we feel good, we want others to know it. And yet, when we feel bad, we immediately put up a guard. Our egos try to protect us from feelings of hurt,  judgement, or shame. We use so much of our energy trying to deny our negative emotions; pulling our focus away from them, rather than embracing, accepting and releasing them. 

It is okay to have ‘negative’ emotions. We are human beings, having a human experience, living in an ever changing and high pressure society.
Yes, practise self-care and mindfulness, establish healthy habits and routines, and rely on any practises that can help you to cultivate a sense of happiness and wellbeing, but don’t accept that you are a ‘failure’ if you have days where you let these practises slip. Don’t believe that you are inferior for a having a normal response or reaction to an internal or external stimuli. 

it is normal for our emotions to ebb and flow. And while yes, we are responsible for how we choose to respond to triggers and stimuli, the reality of the situation is, we are human. There are going to be days when we feel down, flat, unmotivated, upset, or anxious. Our lives can change in a moment; we could experience a loss, or a trauma, a diagnosis, or a disappointment. Or we could simply just be having an off day.

And that’s okay.

Where we can begin to go wrong with our emotions however, is by suppressing them, and accepting the belief that our negative emotions equate failure, shame, or inferiority.

Feeling sad, angry, impatient, hurt, scared or upset, is JUST as important as feeling happy, excited, motivated and loved.

Our emotions serve us. 

Don’t run from them, don’t fight them.

Face them, and invite them in.

Remember, it is what stays inside of us, that makes us ill.
When we fail to express our emotions, our brain signals a stress response and we enter into a state of ‘flight-or-fight’ mode. Our body uses energy needed elsewhere in our bodies, such as our immune and digestive systems, to deal with the perceived threat that it believes we are experiencing. Our body responds in this state of stress by increasing our blood pressure and heart rate, causing feelings of anxiety and depression, and supresses our immune system leaving us susseptable to illness and disease.

“The opposite of depression, is expression” – Edith Eger

So how can we healthily express our emotions?

Recognise them. Accept them. And Express them.

Recognise what it is you are feeling, feel it, and accept it.
You can even delay your response to your feeling, just remember not to let it go unchecked. For example, if somebody does something that makes you angry or upset in a social situation, it might not be the ideal or appropriate time to start yelling and screaming.

You can say to yourself, “I am feeling angry right now, and that is okay. I accept this feeling, it is a normal response, and I am deciding to sit with it right now.”

Or, let it out! Its okay.

Cry, shout, scream, punch a pillow, throw yourself a pity party!

Just don’t stay there!

That is the key.

Expressing our emotions is a release. And when we release the feelings, we can be free of them. We don’t need to remain imprisoned by our emotions. We don’t need to be bogged down by our own high standards of what we think should and shouldn’t be feeling. Just feel it. Really feel it. Accept it. And let it go.

When we don’t accept, feel, express or release our negative emotions, they begin to take root and become embedded in our being, our subconscious, and our beliefs.

The quicker that we are able to recognise our sadness, fear, anger, or any other low feeling emotion, the quicker can acccpt it, express it, release it, and replace it with higher feeling energies and vibrations that are in alignment with our true selves.

Remember, life is a balance. Take the good with the bad, and be kind to yourself. Stop striving for perfection, and strive for being human.

The Life Changing Power of Gratitude

The power of gratitude cannot be overstated. Its impact is immense, transcending, healing and an essential part of living a happy and fulfilling life. Gratitude is a power that we all have access to, regardless of who you are, where you are, or what you have. It is quick, easy, and doesn’t cost a cent, yet produces the most profound benefits to our health and quality of life. 

So what is gratitude? 

Gratitude is simply the acknowledgement of the good in life. It is the act of appreciating and seeing the value in all things. We waste so much of our lives waiting for something extraordinary to happen before we can express any sense of gratitude; a raise at work, a new job, a new home, a new car, a holiday, receiving a gift, the start of a new relationship or the birth of a child. And on the other hand, we find it near impossible to express any sense of gratitude when we are going through a hard time. Cultivating a sense of gratitude from the smallest of things, to the grandest, from the ups to the downs, means that we leave no room for anything to be taken for granted.

Living in a state of gratitude not only make us feel good, but the act of expressing gratitude itself has been scientifically linked to an array of health benefits including improved physical and mental health, elevated moods, closer relationships, more life satisfaction, enhanced empathy, better sleep, increased self-esteem, strengthened immunity, and the ability to better navigate through and recover from tough times. 

Before all else, simply waking up to a new day is something we should all be giving thanks for, and yet sadly few of us do. We get so caught up in our external environment, our schedules, our egos, and our emotions, that we don’t take the time to feel grateful for all things that we have right now, in this present moment. Every day we let small things go unnoticed, while magnifying our problems and misfortunes. We spend more time complaining about all the things that are going ‘wrong’ then we do appreciating all of the wonderful things that we have. 

Being grateful doesn’t mean that we are ignorant to the problems or emotions that surface in our lives. But it does mean that we are better equipped to shift our focus and perspective from the things that we don’t have, to the things we do. And when we compare our problems to our blessings, we are able to become more grounded, more present and see that our ‘good’ always outweighs our ‘bad’. 

How to Start a Gratitude Practise

Keep a Gratitude Journal
Start a journal that you will commit to writing down a list of things that you are grateful for daily. When you wake up in the morning, write down a list of all the things that you feel grateful for, and before bed write down a list of things that you noticed and appreciated throughout your day. Commit to this simple practise and see for yourself the changes and shift in mood and mindset that it cultivates.

Don’t just write it, feel it
Its important when writing in our gratitude journal that we really feel the feelings of appreciation. Feeling grateful is a sure way to raise our vibration and shift our point of attraction.

Be Mindful
Being mindful is a great way to cultivate gratitude. When we ‘get out’ of our own heads, we give ourselves the opportunity to become more focused in the here and now. We can start to notice and appreciate things that we might normally overlook; a smile from a stranger, the cool breeze and the morning sun, the beauty of nature, or simply the satisfaction of our morning coffee.

Express Gratitude 
When you practise gratitude, you are more likely to feel happier, and in turn be kinder to others, and when you are kind to others, you feel more grateful. And so by expressing gratitude, being kind or courteous, or doing something kind for somebody, we enable the good-feeling cycle to keep going. There is a term “Helpers High” which refers to the production of the ‘feel good’ hormone, dopamine, which is released when we do something kind for another.

Grow from Adversity
Gratitude allows us to shift our perception and therefore allow us to perceive adversity and struggles as not a negative, but a lesson or an opportunity for growth. We are more likely to see the positive in a negative situation when we are adapt at cultivating a sense of gratitude.

Living with gratitude is simply a shift in mindset. It’s an “I get to” instead of “I have too” attitude. It’s seeing the good in all things, big and small. It’s choosing to see lessons in adversity, instead of being a victim. It’s appreciating all of the things that we often take for granted. Its finding joy in simplicity, seeking out pockets of happiness where we would once overlook.

When we can find gratitude in the simplest of moments, we no longer need to live in anticipation of the next big thing to bring us joy, because we can feel it in every single moment, of every single day.

Limiting Beliefs

“I can’t afford that”
“I don’t deserve that”
“I’m not good enough to do that”
“I don’t have the time for that”
“I want that, but I wouldn’t be able to do it”

What if you were told that you could have, be or do anything you want in life? That you have the absolute control and power over everything that you have in your life now, and everything that you wish to bring into your life? Do you see others living the life you want and think, “Oh but they have this skill” or “They have that money” or “They can do that because they have…”, and “I can’t do that.. I don’t have enough of this… I can’t I can’t I can’t…” What if you knew that the only difference between them, and you, is mindset? Would you feel empowered to know that your thoughts control the outcome of your life experience, or would you feel afraid in the realization that your thoughts are full of limitation, doubt and fear? 

When we become aware of the thoughts and beliefs that we have, we can start to see how we have attracted the life that we are now living. 

From birth we are experiencing and associating, consciously and subconsciously every day. Our experiences and our environments shape our beliefs about every aspect of our lives. These beliefs shape the way that we live our lives and in many cases, they serve to protect us. We rely on our memories to show us what causes pain and what brings pleasure. For example – we know that a flame is hot, and so we act with caution around fire to prevent the pain of being burned. On the other hand, we form limiting beliefs that hold us back from reaching our full potential, and ultimately, our true happiness.  Say you grew up in household where money was scarce, and your father worked incredibly hard to keep food on the table so that you and your siblings didn’t go hungry. And so you grow up believing that you have to work hard for money, or that money is hard to come by, ‘money doesn’t grow on trees’, money is scarce and you should scrounge and save every penny you get for a rainy day. And so you live a life of financial stress and struggle, working hard to make ends meet, and experiencing rainy day after rainy day, because that is what you have been conditioned to believe and expect. Or lets say your parents go through a messy divorce, you overhear the arguments, you see their hurt, you feel their pain. And so as you grow up and start experiencing relationships of your own, you feel unworthy of love, you keep attracting the same type of unfulfilling relationship which ultimately ends in pain and heartbreak each time. Why? Because you expected and believed that they would, from the memories you experienced as a child, and the beliefs that formed as a result of them. And so you can see how our beliefs end up shaping everything you have and do in your life, all the good, and all the bad.

Now here is where your power lies. When you can identify your limiting beliefs and uncover the situations, experiences or events shaped that belief, then you have the potential to change them. You can literally re-wire your brain by letting go of old beliefs and replacing them with new ones – new beliefs that empower and serve you. When we challenge our old mindset and replace beliefs of lack, fear, doubt, worry and unworthiness, with thoughts of abundance, gratitude, love, confidence and joy, these new beliefs will become your new life experience.  You will propel your life into a new direction and ultimately change the course of your future. Now that you understand the power of our conditioning and the impact of our beliefs on the direction of our life, we can learn how to change them and start living the life that we deserve. Because whether you believe it now or not, you deserve to be living the life you desire.