The sense of self-agency is essentially the feeling of being in the driver’s seat when it comes to intending, initiating, and carrying out our actions. This gives us the reassuring sense that we can control the outcome of a given situation through our own actions or our will. Studies have demonstrated that the sense of agency is much more flexible

The reality, though, is that our feelings of disempowerment are often an illusion. If we examine each moment in which we appear to involuntarily give away our power, what is happening is the reactivation of an old habit. Our conditioning to react in a particular negative way to a particular external stimulus is just a pattern of physical, mental,

Similarly, research has shown that as we scroll through our phone, we are essentially manifesting the Vegas Effect: notifications produce a sense of anticipation that activates the reward system, which then captures our attention in an endless loop. As we incessantly check our messages or doomscroll through content for the one piece of information

When, on the other hand, our actions result in frustration, confusion, or even harm to ourselves or others, we can pause to take stock of whether our intention actually serves us, and whether we want to continue to pursue it with passion or resilience, or alter it to better serve the lives we are building and the context in which we want to make a

I will say it again: manifesting is not a one-off. On the contrary, it’s the process of refining one’s intention more and more specifically and clearly. As we practice visualizing our intention, putting it out into the world through our speech and actions and seeing what comes back, we create a feedback loop that helps us get in closer touch with

As counterintuitive as it sounds, part of the manifesting process is the necessity of letting go of our expectations. One of the pitfalls we can easily fall into when we are manifesting is to become overly attached to the outcome of our actions. Attachment to outcome, and the suffering that arises when we are overly attached, takes many forms. We

Nothing important comes into being overnight; even grapes and figs need time to ripen. If you say that you want a fig now, I will tell you to be patient. First, you must allow the tree to flower, then put forth fruit; then you have to wait until the fruit is ripe. —Epictetus

Another way to approach blocks to manifesting involves making use of our brain’s natural ability to scan for clues in our environment. In the previous chapter, we learned about the filing clerk and the bloodhound in our subconscious. Once the filing clerk has classified our intention as salient and given its scent to the bloodhound, the hound will

It is not only repetition that forms a habit; it is the positive emotion we attach to doing a good job and completing it.