I recently read an enlightening article about how to manifest our desires and would like to pass on what it says because so many people want to change but have trouble doing so. Dr. James R. Doty, MD on the faculty of the Stanford University School of Medicine looks to the brain to give us answers about getting and staying on track. He starts off by making sure we understand that the pain of trauma is “powerful enough to alter not only our own genes, but, as researchers in the field of epigenetics have discovered, the genes of subsequent generations.” PTSD happens in your body, especially your brain.

Because many people don’t recognize they’re trauma victims or survivors, that’s the place to start if you’re not living the life you want. Understand that: 1) the difficulties you had earlier in life (due to family, class, race, religion, gender, etc.) may have altered your brain and, therefore, how you react to life now, and 2) you have the ability due neuroplasticity to change your brain to work more optimally for you.

Doty explains how your post-trauma brain predicts negative outcomes as a way to take care of you. Anxiety thinks it’s protecting you (it was at one time) by being on guard for failure or people hurting you. He encourages instead “dispositional optimism”: “The true gift of visualizing our intention again and again is to go through life with a buoyant sense that things will work out for us which liberates us to be both responsive and resilient no matter what our external circumstances bring.” Of course, you also want to be fearful when appropriate because there are hazards and dangerous people in this world. 

As our beliefs dictate our behavior, if you think negatively, you’re not going to succeed. Doty explains that “When we consciously direct our attention towards our desired goals, the images we evoke become important to the brain. The way the images get installed is through a process called ‘value tagging,’ the brain’s way of deciding what is significant enough to be imprinted at the deepest levels of the subconscious.” Read Doty’s article on retraining your brain by directing your attention to positive intentions.

Honestly, I cringe inside whenever clients engage in negative self-talk (far too frequently), which keeps the brain stuck in post-trauma mode. Every time we conjure up anxiety and say we can’t, that’s what our brain manifests: fear followed by failure. Pay attention to how you talk to yourself and only reinforce your positive intentions.

Manifesting is a simple process which science has proven works. All it requires is for you to pay attention to what you desire. Really, is that so hard?

Best,

Karen