Why Manifestation Alone Isn’t Enough (And How to Avoid Spiritual Bypassing)

In this week’s episode, we’re breaking down the common misconceptions around manifestation and why simply visualizing your dream life isn’t enough. While manifestation can be a powerful tool, it must be paired with action, self-awareness, and inner healing to create real, lasting change.

We’ll explore:
 - Why manifestation without action can lead to frustration
-  The dangers of excessive positive thinking and spiritual bypassing
-  How unresolved emotional wounds can block your manifestations
 - The balance between mindset, psychology, and real-world action

If you’ve ever felt like manifestation "isn’t working" for you, this episode will help you understand why—and what you can do instead to create real transformation.

Thanks for listening!

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Chapters

• 0:00 The Power of Manifestation and Action
• 4:05 The Power of Belief and Healing
• 10:41 The Integration of Spirituality and Psychology

Transcript

Speaker 0: 0:00

Manifestation is everywhere these days, and we've got different methods and tools to help us manifest, such as creating vision boards, affirmations, visualization, trusting the universe, all these different things. While these different practices and modalities can be very beneficial, I truly believe that by themselves, manifestation alone isn't enough, and sometimes it can even lead us to avoid doing the deeper work. It can lead to a form of spiritual bypassing, which is what I want to talk about in today's video, and I'm even going to share a bit of my own story with this and how I kind of came to this conclusion, if you will. So, to start off, I think that a lot of us are familiar with manifestation, right? So we just we want to create the life that we dream of. We want to manifest something in our lives, whether that's the perfect partner, the perfect relationship, the perfect career, perfect body, all these different things, right. But here's the thing that's so important to highlight as well as that manifestation isn't magic, right, and manifestation without action is, in my opinion, just wishful thinking. Okay, I truly believe that sometimes it's a bit misleading, because we talk about manifestation, writing the intentions and creating the vision boards, and sometimes I think we can get so stuck into that that we're not actually taking the action and doing the necessary steps to get to where we want, right. So again, vision boards, visualization, all powerful stuff, right. So for me personally, visualization is something that I've used many times in my own personal life. Okay, it's backed by science, it's a powerful method, right. I've used it when I started coaching. Coaching, I would visualize myself on calls with clients. I would visualize myself practicing the podcast and doing the podcast and you embody how it feels in the present moment. Right, and it's almost like this mental rehearsal, if you will. Very powerful practice. But if I didn't take action to do the actual steps to start my podcast or start my coaching, all these different things, right, then that's just, in my personal opinion, wishful thinking, right. So this is why I'm saying action is so important.

Speaker 0: 1:47

With manifestation, one goes with the other, right. The same is true for let's talk about a relationship, for example. Right, let's say you want to manifest a perfect partner, the ideal relationship in your life. You see, you're like, okay, I really want to manifest this. Right, you're doing all the right things, you've set an intention, you're writing things down, you've done the visualization.

Speaker 0: 2:06

Maybe you do a practice as an example, where you write down who your ideal partner is, right, which is a great exercise, because obviously, sometimes I think it's really important to sit down and truly, you know, think about what type of person do I want to spend my life with, as an example, right? So you write down their physical traits, what you, you know, what you look for in that person physically, you write down their qualities, their values, or you write down the type of life that you want with them. Maybe that's an adventure buddy, maybe that's a gym buddy, different things, right, you're doing all the right things, but you stay at home and you never leave the house and you don't put yourself in an environment where you can meet people. Right, this is exactly what I'm saying. You need to take action, regardless of what it is, to actually make that manifestation a reality. Right, and again, if we're talking about the relationship here, if you're doing all these things but you're not leaving the house, right and again, putting yourself in an environment to meet people, then chances are that person won't come just knocking on your door, right?

Speaker 0: 3:02

So that's the first point that I really wanted to highlight is that manifestation without action, in my personal opinion, is just wishful thinking, right, and I also think sometimes there can be this over-focus or this over-emphasis on positive thinking right, where we just you know we are so positive, we're so optimistic. I'm going to do this, I'm going to believe in myself. You know all these different things and we put all of our trust in the universe and you know we're positive that the universe will have our backs and look out for us and all these different things right Now. Here's the thing I truly believe that having trust in the universe or God, whatever that is for you, I think that's powerful, right. I think that's also amazing. My belief personally. I truly believe that we are part of something greater and I do put my trust in the universe right. However, I do also put trust in myself. I don't put the entirety of my trust there and hope that everything is just going to fall into place right, in my personal opinion. I put trust there, I put trust in myself and I also hold myself accountable and responsible to create the life that I want right, which means that I need to take action and take the necessary steps in order to do that.

Speaker 0: 4:05

And the other emphasis that I wanted to talk about as well, on the positive thinking is with affirmations, right, and I've talked about this before, but I really wanted to talk about this again. Right, affirmations are powerful, don't get me wrong. Right, but the thing I've noticed with affirmations and sometimes this, you know, kind of overemphasis on the positive thinking. Right, I am worthy of love, I am good enough, all these different things can be very powerful. But what if you have deeper wounding that needs to be addressed? What if the things that you're telling yourself you actually don't believe, right? So let's think with the example of a relationship.

Speaker 0: 4:34

Okay, so let's say you are trying to manifest this dream partner, right, this ideal partner. You're doing all the right things as per the manifestation guidelines. You've created a vision board with that person. Maybe you have visualized where you would meet that person. You are writing the blueprint of what that ideal person looks like, kind of like we talked about. You're reciting all these affirmations right, I'm worthy of love, I'm going to get this person. All the like, you're doing all the right things, right? Okay? But maybe you start noticing that as you're writing stuff down, there's resistance that comes up. Okay, maybe you're writing these things down about this ideal partner and you're like I'm never going to get this person, I'm not good enough for this person. Okay, maybe you are reciting things like I am worthy of love, I'm worthy of all these different things, and deep down you're like I am not worthy of love.

Speaker 0: 5:24

Okay, maybe you've got these beliefs about yourself that can stem from childhood, that can stem from different experiences in your life. Maybe there's deeper wounding there from something in your life. Right, it could be from, you know, an ex relationship that you're not over. It could be, as an example, just a fear of rejection, a fear of abandonment. Maybe you had, you know, childhood trauma as an example. That's stemming there. That again is triggering that fear of abandonment.

Speaker 0: 5:39

There could be so many other things, but manifestation alone here won't be enough, right? So this is what I'm trying to say you can sit there and create vision boards and visualize and do all the right things, but if you actually don't believe what you're telling yourself and there's deeper wounding there, there's no amount of reciting something over and over that's going to brainwash you into believing that. Right, because, again, that can stem from deeper childhood wounding. You could have to work with your inner child as an example to develop that relationship with your inner child. There could be other work that needs to be done there.

Speaker 0: 6:10

But until that's done, it's going to be very hard to manifest someone, right? Because there's still different wounding. And maybe even, as an example, you've met a few people, but you're self-sabotaging these connections because of this inner wounding, this deeper wounding that was never addressed. Okay, so maybe you're doing all the right things and now maybe there's a potential match here, right, that you're interested in, but then again, I'm not worthy of this. I'm enough. They're going to leave as an example, right, you've got this fear of abandonment, all these different things, okay. So this is just an example.

Speaker 0: 6:39

But again, no amount of reciting something over and over is going to address that deeper wounding. Let's just give another quick example, right, let's say you want to land your dream job, right, you create a vision board, you recite all these affirmations you'll get the job. You're worthy of this new job. You're visualizing yourself in the new role, doing all these things, right. But again, as you're doing this, deep down there's a fear. There is a fear of something right, fear of failure, fear that you're not going to be good enough for the role, fear that you're going to get in the role, and there's imposter syndrome. There's all these different things, right? So now, this fear, even though you're manifesting and you're visualizing and everything, this fear is actually self-sabotaging you because now you're actually not taking any steps at all. You're not updating your resume, you're not applying for the position at all, maybe you're not networking with the right people that you need to network with as an example, right? So again, this belief that you're not good enough or this fear that you have is holding you back from living the life you want, and until that is addressed, there is no amount of manifestation that will actually be able to help you. Right? So, again, this is what I mean. Sometimes I feel like recite these things over and over and do these different practices and hope that we're going to get it, but again, if we're not addressing the underlying cause here is going to be very hard to actually manifest that into our lives.

Speaker 0: 7:53

And just to share my own experience with this personally, when I started my healing journey a few years ago, I started more on the spiritual perspective, if you will. Right so I started more in books like the Secret right, which is all about manifesting. I read the Power of Now. I read a variety of different quote unquote spiritual books, right, more of the new age, spirituality, if you will, and all these books are great, by the way. They have great wisdom, they have great insights, they have great lessons that have helped me profoundly and I still keep with myself in my toolbox to this day.

Speaker 0: 8:21

Okay, but again, when I started going deeper into my journey, this is where I noticed that I was missing something. Something was missing for me. I was doing the manifestation, I was reciting these affirmations. I've even tried reciting affirmations in the mirror. A lot of people say that Recite, tell yourself that you love yourself, tell yourself all these different things in the mirror. There's nothing wrong with that. But again, for me personally, what happened?

Speaker 0: 8:44

Right, one of my core beliefs about myself, which stemmed from a lot of different things in my life, was I am not good enough, right, I'm just not good. I'm not good enough for relationships, I'm not good enough to get that job, I'm not good enough was a core belief of myself, again stemming from a lot of different things. Okay, so, as I was reading this in a lot of books, what I noticed was that affirmations were a really cool thing or a really powerful thing, right, and I was like cool. So I kept telling myself you know I am good enough, yes, I'm going to do this, right, I am good enough to get that relationship, get that job, all these different things. And the more I said it, the more I realized there was a lot of resistance and I didn't believe what I was telling myself, right? So this kind of stems back to what I was talking about with the relationship earlier. These tools are very powerful. There's nothing wrong with that.

Speaker 0: 9:28

But if you recite something over and over and you don't believe yourself, then in my personal opinion, you're missing the entire point. Right, and that's where I, that's where, for me, I was like OK, where is this resistance coming from? Right, where is this actual core belief coming from? And until I realized that I wasn't actually able to really receive the power of the affirmation right. But when I was able to be like okay, you know, the story that I'm holding onto isn't my own, the story is from my past, I was able to do, to address that do the inner child work? All these different things. Then I was able to actually reframe that belief right, and I'm not good enough, became like I am good enough, right, I'm capable of this.

Speaker 0: 10:04

And I actually started believing myself in what I was telling myself, because I had an understanding of where the affirmation didn't stick for me initially, right, so this is where, for me personally, I kind of dove deeper into psychology because this was the thing, right, I was missing something. I realized that all these different practices and such were good for, like, temporary, temporary relief, but they weren't addressing the underlying issues. Right, and I feel for a lot of us, that's the thing. So this is why I realized as I was, as I dove into depth psychology and really working with inner child work and, you know, shadow work specifically for me, right, I noticed that I was missing a big thing.

Speaker 0: 10:41

Now, here's the thing that I also noticed as well is that spirituality and psychology are a bridge, they go hand in hand and they can, you know, they merge together. Personally, right, I think that's the, the wisdom and the insights from our spiritual traditions and all these different things are powerful, they're beautiful, right, Paired with psychology and a deeper understanding of your wounding and a deeper understanding of whatever's going on in your life. You mix those two together and that's where I think everything falls into place, right. So, and just to kind of go on a little side tangent here as well, sometimes, things like terms that don't resonate with me, specifically, things like killing your ego or transcending your ego Right, for me, that's not. It's not about killing your ego, it's not about transcending your ego. It's about healing and developing a mature, healthy ego Right, healing and developing a mature, healthy ego, right?

Speaker 0: 11:28

So this is really just the perspective that I wanted to share in today's video about how, you know, manifestation is powerful but alone, I truly believe, isn't enough, right, and that's why it needs to be paired with deeper, deeper healing, right? If, again, maybe the manifestations aren't working for you, or you're trying these things and you're not believing you know what you're telling yourself, kind of like I was writing, and for a lot of people, right, that's the same case. I've spoken with many people who are like you know what? I've been trying these things and I don't actually believe what I'm telling myself, right? So this is really just a perspective that I want to share on this topic.

Speaker 0: 11:56

So, again, this is really all I wanted to share in today's video, and I hope that this can shed light on a different perspective when it comes to manifestation and really how the more spiritual approach and depth psychology really go hand in hand, right. So if manifestation isn't working for you and you, you know you're listening to this and you're realizing, hey, you've got deeper wounding, that you know. Maybe flip that a bit onto the deeper depth psychology side and address that inner wounding, right? Maybe you work with a coach, maybe you work with a therapist, but I'm very certain that if you merge the spiritual perspectives with the depth psychology, right, those go hand in hand, paired with action of course, very important action, but I think that's truly how you go about manifesting the life that you want and creating the life that you genuinely want, right? So I'd love to know your experiences and your own journeys with manifestation, and you know just everything that we've talked about today. So leave that in the comments below and I hope you have a good day and we'll see.