Many Law of Attraction and manifestation teachers suggest acting ‘as if’ in order to achieve goals.
There are dozens of articles and books preaching the ‘fake it till you make it’ approach.
Some say that achieving what you desire is as easy as pretending you are already living it and then somehow this will magically become your life.
It would be great if that actually worked!
If we could vacation in a 10,000 square foot home where we could sit in the giant leather-clad office and bark on the telephone “buy all the shares of that stock, I know it will make me millions“, and then wake up the next day and be living that kind of lifestyle… then we would all be taking out loans for vacation rentals and not college education.
The real point is to experience a glimpse of the same feeling you’ll have when you have attained your dream.
Instead of acting ‘as if’ to attract what I want, I prefer to think of it as acting ‘as in’.
Embody/enter/experience the essence of what you desire and you will become a magnet to draw it into your life.
This is how you can leverage the Law of Attraction to take care of all the details for you (instead of trying to do everything yourself and getting exhausted in the process).
The process I’m about to share has worked wonders for me and for hundreds of my clients and course participants. Try it out and get ready to be amazed!
“The Universe does not know whether the vibration that you’re offering is because of something you’re observing or something you’re remembering or something that you are imagining. It just receives the vibration and answers it with things that match it.”
~ Abraham-Hicks
1. Identify what you want.
Decide what you’d like to invite into your life.
Let’s say I want to attract the perfect business partner. If I took the advice to act ‘as if’, that might mean writing emails to a future business partner, opening a celebratory bottle of champagne and pouring glasses for two people or in some way pretending I have someone to collaborate, strategize and celebrate with.
I find that this approach frequently backfires because it can activate a feeling of oh-God-I-want-this-so-bad-but-it’s-not-here-yet-and-it’ll-never-get-here… And that just repels the manifestation that I want.
2. Focus on why you want it.
So instead, ask yourself: ‘Why do I want a business partner?’ and ‘In what ways will this experience please me?’
I usually write out all of the reasons my life would benefit if I were living this desired reality. Then I tease out and identify the core feelings that I will feel when I already have the manifestation.
Maybe I imagine that when I have my dream business partner I will feel so much more supported and empowered, more focused on having fun and enjoying my business, and excited about growth.
3. Find a way to experience what you want now.
When I’ve identified my core-desired feelings of fun, success and ease, I look for ways to embody those feelings in my life now.
I might consider how I can have more fun in my life and decide to deliberately schedule hanging out with a friend who I always have a blast with. As we are having fun together, I may acknowledge that I’ve stepped into the together-we-have-even-more-fun-than-alone mode that I’ve been seeking. So I am living my core desire.
If I want to feel more successful in a partnership, I might think about a relationship that already feels like it adds a lot of excitement, collaboration and success to my life. For me, one example is my marriage.
By the 10th thing I’ve thought about or written appreciating how my wonderful husband adds to my life, I’ve convinced myself that I am great at attracting amazing people into my life who I love to co-create with. And if I can do this in my personal relationships, then of course I can do it in my business!
Another one of my favorite ways to embody my core-desired feelings about a specific situation is to do a guided meditation or visualization. You can YouTube specific guided meditations or visualizations, there are thousands of them.
When I couldn’t find anything I liked while searching for ‘ease visualization’, I decided to record one myself (get it for FREE by leaving your email in the box below)!
Now when I want to feel more trust, space and flow in any area of my life, I just hit play and enter a space where I am experiencing the feeling that I want, even though nothing in my life has changed in those 4-minutes.
During the time I am focusing on these core-desired feelings and hearing words that take me right to the heart of what I want, I am living those emotions as reality.
And my brain can’t tell the difference between imagining it and living it, and I begin to shift my point of attraction (perspective) to attract people, circumstances and opportunities that will bring my intention to reality.
Eventually it becomes clear that the only reason I want something is because I want to feel ease, abundance, love, relief, etc… some core feeling.
But since I can feel those feelings now (through remembering experiences where I’ve felt them or doing a guided visualization), there isn’t such a rush to get to the manifestation. And the great irony is that once I am not forcing something to happen, it can easily flow into my life.
That, my friends, is what Abraham-Hicks call the ‘Art of Allowing’ or ‘The Science of Deliberate Creation’.
4. Celebrate being a deliberate creator.
By the time I finish these alignment practices, I feel super clear on why I want what I want AND I feel totally capable of achieving it… now the ‘work’ is done.
I know that in a matter of days or weeks I will be toasting to a new relationship with the perfect business partner who will add more fun, success and ease into my life.
And the best part is that I manifested this person deliberately and am now feeling even more capable and empowered to achieve what I desire!
Now I would love to hear your thoughts.
Let me know by leaving a comment below: Has acting ‘as if’ worked for you? How has your perspective on manifesting shifted with the idea of ‘acting as in’?
Deliberately ease-ful,
Lana
P.S. Please share this with anyone who wants to understand how to manifest what they truly want!
Love how you’ve written this blog post Lana. Totally with you on fully experiencing the feelings to bring what you desire closer. It’s funny as there is something I want and I usually skip straight to the feelings first. But that little bit you’ve included beforehand – to write out all the reasons your life will benefit if you were living this reality – and then extract the feelings from it, is an absolute gem. Am doing that bit now. And I’ll be referring back to this again. Thanks!
I’m so glad you will now be more focused on identifying the core-desired feelings, Lisa, because that’s where the manifesting power lies! We attract with our feeling-state (aka vibration) and not just with the thoughts that we think. I am certain that you will see amazing results by focusing more on why you want what you want! Please come back and give an update!!
Lana Banana… Oh I love you!
This post makes me feel like I’m not crazy. We’ve talked about this before, and you know I feel like a natural born manifestor.
Here’s what I’m currently manifesting, and it’s recently brought me to tears.
There is a planned community building up 30 minutes away from me – it’s everything I want and more. For 2 years now I’ve been obsessing, I always have a tab open to there website full of images of the home I want, I visit the neighborhood monthly at least and just drive around, I meditate and “fake it” pretending I’m just moving in, driving into the neighborhood with a moving van – and I open my eyes from meditation in happy tears. (And many of things, I calculate home loans weekly at least haha!)
It is everything I want and the #1 thing I notice – and this is HUUUUGE Lana – when I focus on living here, I feel the experience, I focus on what I want… doing what I need to do to get there becomes a breeze.
It’s like the universe is giving me what I need to get there, motivation. I’ve developed this path and all I needed was the huge motivating.
I begin each day writing, and working and it’s just… easy and magical.
I feel so much closer to physically living my manifestation every day.
SO glad I’m finally sharing this for the first time. I know I have a passion for children and gardening, but this is my #1 motivation, aid I feel no shame in that.
Big Love!!! <3
You are totally a natural born manifestor, Brandon!!! Loved hearing your story about the planned community and I have no doubt that you will be living there in no time physically because you are already living there in your mind! Thank you for sharing your big dream here first, I feel honored!
“Easy and magical” – that’s how life can be for any of us if we allow ourselves to focus on what we want instead of unpleasant manifestation that are results of old thoughts. What we are thinking and feeling now, right at this moment, is what determines what we will be living tomorrow! And I know that you, Brandon, are going to be sending me pictures of your new home sooner than you think. 🙂
Eeeek I hope! I feel it – I made a HUGE milestone today and I’m over joyed.
I adore YOU Lana. Keep writing, you inspire me to stay inspired.
Thank you for being a friend!
Hi Lana,
Thank you so much for this article! I literally pulled out a notebook as i read this and tried it out because I’ve quite stuck in the weeds and been trying to figure out how to feel better! I’ve been flip flopping between different LOA books looking for a set practice to follow. I know though that ultimately its about here, now, and feeling better here and now. I think I just have to keep working on finding a way to experience what I want now. I wonder if you’ve got any tips for how to stay in the state of ease, fun, joy, etc. once you’ve found it? Sometimes I feel like I go downhill again pretty fast after I meditate and I want to sustain the feeling throughout the day as much as possible. Any suggestions? Thanks you much! You’re the best. 🙂 <3 xoxox
I’m so glad to hear that you found this article beneficial! And you are totally ‘barking up the right alley’ with your questions, Anita! To me, success is living in a state of ease, fun and joy and that is what I support my clients in achieving. I have been receiving so many questions like this, especially after those that read my Visioning blog post series that I’ve created an 8-week online course called Accessing Alignment to help the participants get steady in their alignment practices.
The participant results have been amazing!! So many that have been dabbling with meditation or visualization here and there, and who wanted to feel more ease, in the flow, clear, inspired and worthy, are now reaching new heights of feeling good EVERY DAY!
You can check out the visioning series here for a more detailed response on how to develop practices and habits that will guarantee living an exhilarating life: (https://www.lanashlafer.com/visioning-series-1/)
And you can sign up to be the first to know about the October Accessing Alignment course here: https://www.lanashlafer.com/work-with-me/
Love to you!!!
This stuff is so amazing, I can’t even begin to explain.
I got back with the love of my life following this .
We were in a relationship for almost 2 years before we were set apart for a little time by destiny.
We both made some mistakes that had made us both mentally negative and incapable of being together anymore. But we both knew we were something else, we were soulmates. So I found out about the law of attraction and decided to get my soulmate back .
For the first two months I decided to raise my vibration and be happy , I made new friends and went out , laughed and did a thing called 100 HAPPY DAYS .
At this point he had blocked me everywhere because I was too active on social media. And my vibration was so raised that We met in another city even though we live 2km away , we were there we talked .It sprouted a new friendship , we would hangout and text (once or twice a month but it was a big step forward for me after not talking at all for almost 3 months).
After that I would visualize being with him
Although at first it was difficult to become detached to the outcome but I made my peace with it because the more I got attached the slower my desire would manifest .
we were at a point of less contact again (more than once twice a month but lesser than I desired)
So I started visualizing 1 hour daily , I recorded audio for guided visualizations of us getting back together , enjoying on dates .
I started acting as if I pretended talking to him on call every morning and night (I would just pick my phone imagine him talking to me )
I imagined how secure I would feel if I was with the love of my life , I would be unavailable to guys who asked me out , I would have fun in my life knowing that the love of my life is here with me .
And guess what , in no time He called me up and asked me out , all that i visualized became true
And we are now together happier than ever , we handle our relationship so better now
Infact we are going to a trip to kerela this summer with all our friends , It is going to be amazing
Thankyou law of attraction for giving me what I wanted <3
That’s awesome Anonymous.
I have tried this for the past 5 years but its slow going. Something’s out of whack… My expectations perhaps…
In Harry Potter, he casts the spell “expecto patronum” to stop the dementors from feeding on his soul. The spell requires Harry to think of his happiest memory to be successful.
My question is, if someone grew up in a dark childhood and they have only known pain, failure and betrayal, how can one align their beliefs/thoughts in a positive enough way to impact their outter world when that feeling is completely foreign?
I have been involved in countless energy healing sessions, create accurate positive affirmations and worked incredibly hard at manifesting what I want. Still, I have not succeeded. So many trust excersizes and remedies…
I have no example of what success is like. It’s not something I’ve experienced. How can someone in my shoes manifest a happy, abundant reality?
Thank you.
Thank you so much! You have answered all my doubt about how to ‘feel’ in LOA. God bless you…
I’m so thrilled to hear that Vin!
Hey Lana…thank you for everything you share. I was wondering if you would be able to clear something up for me as maybe I’m getting confused between this post and a prior video I watched a while ago when you talked about celebrating what you want to manifest before it has…or talking about it like it is going to happen or happened and also when you spoke about how you manifested your dream house by going to hotels and looking at bathrooms you would like etc…am I misunderstanding that as oppose to what you are saying here? I think I am…but wanted to ask as I just love following you and have had some success with your advice…again thank you for all you share.
I just stumbled on this post and I love it! I saw that the abundance visualization video is gone. Do you know of any other links to it?