Meditation for Manifestation

Can meditation help us manifest?

I believe the answer is an unequivocal YES! 

I also understand that sometimes meditation can feel hard...I know from firsthand experience...
 
It was 2007 when I started my commitment to meditation. I figured I could handle five minutes. And those five minutes changed my life. As the years went on, and my enthusiasm for meditation grew, I often would write about meditation, shared workshops about it and guide others on how to create a simple meditation practice.
 
After years of committing to five minutes a day, my alarm went from five to fifteen minutes. And then, one day, I just couldn’t do it. Well, it wasn’t just one day, it was multiple days of feeling like I needed something else. So, I started to listen to guided meditations for the first time, and this was really helpful for a while. I even went to a meditation retreat, and I loved sitting for long periods (like an hour or so). Then, back on my own, I ebbed and flowed. I remained committed to setting my alarm everyday but something was feeling different, maybe you could say more difficult.
 
There would be some days where I needed to set my alarm for 20-30 minutes to figure out things that were bugging me, and that was immensely helpful and clarifying. But the daily 5-15 minutes was proving a challenge. And then I remembered why it was so important to maintain the short meditations, and it was just the nudge I needed to get back in the flow.
 
I was re-reading Ask and It Is Given, a book about manifestation, and one of their practices is meditation: to use the power of meditation to help clear resistance and open up to receiving that which we want to manifest.
 
I needed that nudge to remember that even if I felt I was slogging a bit, even if my mind was taking over a bit, this time of deliberate and conscious practice was still akin to sweeping away the debris on the ground. Sure, some debris might get swooped up into the air and come back to the ground, but I could just go on sweeping, and in that act, a lot of the dirt was getting into the dustpan, and then at the end, the rest of my day, or whatever predicament I was in, became clearer.
 
I share all of this for multiple reasons:
1.To normalize that meditation isn’t always easy, even if you’ve been practicing for over a decade. Whether you are brand new, trying to start, re-starting, or been pretty consistent for a long time, it is normal to go through ebbs and flows. Just like anything in life, sometimes we need to get re-inspired.
2.Meditation is a great way to welcome clarity. It is like a cleaning method. I think this is one of the best metaphors because for many it is easy to visualize, and imagine how sweeping the floor or cleaning a window – can take some time, and there may still be some smears on the window or dust on the floor, but overall, the surface is much cleaner and clearer. And just like cleaning it requires consistent maintenance. And, no doubt about it, the end result is refreshing and feels so much better.
3.Meditation is a pretty simple way to help speed up the manifestation process. I’ll give another example: Have you ever worked really hard at something, struggled, then, finally took a weekend or a few days away, and suddenly you have your answer or it seems like some miracle and breakthrough came through? I’d dare say it is because you released resistance. In other words, some would call this the art of dipping into surrender, and in that, there was space for life to come towards you and meet you with that which you seek. Sometimes letting go is the best way to make things happen.
 
There are many ways to meditate. Whether you set a timer and just sit and observe your mind and breath, and be with your experience, or whether you listen to a guided meditation, or countless of other methods, and sometimes trying a few different methods is the best way to find what will click for you now. Whichever method you use, I am pretty convinced it is one of the best gifts we can give to ourselves which then extends to how we are with others – more harmony, understanding, and expansiveness.