🎵 I have a dream, a song to sing
to help me cope with everything.
If you see the wonder, of a fairy tale,
you can take the future, even if you fail - ABBA
Have you ever had a dream that came true?
Personally, I have dreamed of being on a podcast since 2020 when COVID-19 hit and I started listening to podcasts to keep my spirits up. I spent a lot of my free time having pretend conversations where I was being interviewed. Similar to how some people might act out scenarios where they win an Oscar!
Then my dream came true.
I was recently interviewed on The Dream Catcher Podcast! (You can listen below) 👇🏾
I was over the moon.
Daydreams can be a powerful gateway into future belonging, and manifestation. Scientifically, manifestation is part of the Law of attraction.
The Law of attraction states that like attracts like. In other words, things with similar energy attract each other.
Lets analyse this in a bit more depth.
The Law of Attraction
Have you ever thought, “I want to be more fit.” That thought recurs many times.
Suddenly, you notice signs for reduced gym membership. You might think, “Hey, that’s a great deal!”
When you’re walking down the street on the way to work holding your coffee, you notice that many corporate people wear sneakers as they power walk to work, and then discreetly change into more professional shoes right before entering their office. A light bulb moment hits you as you realise that you could easily incorporate that into YOUR routine!
Your eyes keep straying to the bright blue dumbbells you bought a year ago, thinking to increase your strength training at home. They seem to be popping up everywhere, even though in reality, they are inanimate objects and stay still.
This is the law of attraction. A recurrent thought, feeling or daydream is a mental image created by your imagination that manifests around you, because like (the story your thoughts are creating) attracts like (opportunities in reality that echo your internal story). The Law of Attraction is a law of the universe which states that each human thought has an energy signature which the energy of the rest of the world responds to.
If you can accept the idea of cause and effect - that everything in your present is a result of your past choices and decisions - then it’s easy to see how daydreams and visualisation can create your current reality. Things you have thought about in the past have created an energy shift to become reality in the present.
In coaching, there is a unique concept called future belonging. When you can visualise an outcome, using as many senses as possible, your brain accepts that you belong to a future group of people as reality. In the real world, opportunities start presenting themselves that you instinctively become more attuned to. The puzzle pieces that are your life rearrange to neatly fit together to allow your future self to manifest as you imagine.
Overturning Negative Bias
The human brain is hardwired to notice and place more importance on negative things. This is a survival technique that has allowed our species to survive throughout time.
Imagine if you are walking along and you suddenly notice an orange and black striped furry thing, moving in the bushes on your right side. That’s right, a tiger is rearing to attack you.
At that moment, you are more aware of the tiger and the danger to your person than the beautiful field of flowers to your left. You run away. That instinct that made you focus on the tiger is called negative bias - your brain channels energy into noticing the things that might cause you harm.
To counteract negative bias, you need to apply MORE force into positive directional thoughts. Actively focusing on the positive outcomes you wish to see in your life, even just in your imagination, activates the brain areas as if you were actually performing the activity.
Experiment Choose something you want to create in your life (eg. more fitness) and prepare a positive thought path around that goal (Eg. I always make time to exercise so that I can become super fit.) Follow this thought path for 90 days |
I once did an experiment around this. I breathed quickly and heavily for 1 minute, and watched as my heart rate on my Fitbit increased, and my active minutes increased to reflect my increased heart rate. I wasn’t running, but my fitbit registered the change in heart rate as if I was!
A 2020 study by Hynes and Turner around muscle growth, showed that people who positively visualised themselves performing strength building activities that they regularly executed in their training regime had a significant increase in the amount of weight they were able to lift.
Similarly, a process called Visual Motor Rehearsal shoes that Olympic athletes who visualise themselves performing an exercise, ideally using more than one sense, have been able to see the physical benefits of the exercise in their muscles without physically exerting themselves. Of course, when combined with the physical activity, the results increased tenfold.
So, overturning negativity bias by counterbalancing it with positive imagery is incredibly effective in manifesting positive change. As well, you can use your thoughts to create energy shifts in your body that show up as physical reactions in your body.
Conclusion
Yay! You reached the end of this reading quest!
If you want to listen to the podcast episode, here is the link, or you can listen from this page (head to the top.)
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1TgNBbFYOFgXmRfIpS4dL2?si=ePt0-EsGQAGqRKYg6s-kzQ
Let me know in the comments how a dream has become reality for you. How did it happen? Was it a fleeting thought, or active visualisation?