Ms. Nafousi explains in her book ‘Manifest – Dive Deeper’ how to manifest the life we envision in our dreams. The life and goals we wish to achieve, not the place we are at presently. She believes that ‘Life is beautiful and you have the power to make it so.’ A bold mantra and one she keeps reiterating. Ms. Nafousi says that she practices what she preaches: she regularly goes through exercises she has detailed in her book and makes vision boards to fulfill her dreams. She tells us that no dream is too small, dream big. She starts by defining key manifesting terms such as: ‘the universe’ – an energetic force greater than ourselves, ‘high-vibe’ – like attracts like and high-frequency attracts high-frequency, ‘low-vibe’ – low-frequency attracts low-frequency, ‘abundant mindset’ – a belief that there is more than enough for us all that helps us to attract abundance in our lives, ‘scarcity mindset’ – a belief that there is not enough for everyone which hinders our ability to attract abundance.
According to Ms. Nafousi, the first step towards manifesting your dreams is to be clear in your vision. Decide what you want, visualize it in your head. When visualizing be sure to immerse yourself in the feeling of already having ‘that’ dream – dream home, dream job, dream family, dream body, whatever your goal might be. Next, make a vision board – a physical representation of what you want your life to be. Ms. Nafousi urges readers to ‘Dream big and don’t hold back!’ She explains in bold print that manifesting is not just about attracting ‘things’ into your life, rather, it is about being content and fulfilled. To live a life that gives us joy, excitement and love. “Getting to the crux of what will bring you those feelings is the key,” says Ms. Nafousi. What you want may not be what everyone else does, and wanting something different is completely okay. It alright to be unique and to understand that each human soul is unique.
‘Manifest – Dive Deeper’ is full of short exercises for self-reflection: questions such as ‘What clues does memory give you about what you want to manifest?’ and ‘How do you want to feel? In [love & relationships, career & work, home & day to do, experiences & leisure]’ These questions and exercises are helpful for self-reflection and introspection and help guide the reader on their journey towards discovering themselves and asking the deeper, more pertinent question: what do I want from life? What do I wish to manifest?
Ms. Nafousi gives detailed guidelines on how to create a vision board. Firstly, light some candles, play relaxing music and set the scene. Then choose your medium: words, images, paper, card, coloured pens, how to put down your dreams in tangible form? Try to have fun in this process. Thirdly, choose your timeline, at the top of the page choose the exact date that you want to manifest these goals – six months, one-year or five-years. Ms. Nafousi says she does all three. Next, get into the zone and embody the feeling of your future self when writing on the vision board. Also, separate your life into categories: personal development, love and romance, career, friends and family, house/home, leisure/hobbies. For each category write down the things you want to manifest. Finally, when you’re done put your vison board away. Ms. Nafousi suggests doing this so that the reader can surrender to the journey that will get them to their desired goals. In this way, you know what you want but are already grateful for what you already have. The trick is to write down exactly how you want your life to look and feel and to allow yourself to be honest about your deepest wishes.
The second step towards manifesting your dreams is to remove fear and doubt. We don’t manifest just from our conscious thoughts but also from our subconscious beliefs of what we deserve and our self-worth. Our feelings of fear and doubt are a culmination of our low self-worth, insecurities, limiting beliefs, conditioning and past experiences. Fear and doubt are the two things that stand in the way of us and our dreams. We need to master our thoughts, using positive mantras, switching our language, changing our perspectives and using visualization techniques. To manifest your dreams, you must first believe you are worthy of them. Removing fear and doubt is going on a journey back to ourselves. Regaining our confidence in ourselves that life sometimes saps as we grow older. Each time we are triggered, we must become acutely aware of our wounds and heal them rather than the symptoms. To truly break free from the shackles of the past, we must heal. Ms. Nafousi invites her readers to be acutely aware when something is triggering them, causing them to feel angry, frustrated, sad or anxious. Awareness of our feelings, allows us to zoom out and realize that our narratives, thoughts, feelings and interpretations are not necessarily aligned with what is happening. Techniques to help along this journey are: ‘Journaling’ you inner most thoughts and reflecting on them, ‘Inner-child meditation’ which involves reaching into your past and realizing that we cannot change the past but we can change the power it has over us, and so offering your younger self love that is needed in the moment, ‘feeling all the feelings’ by emotional expression and release and allowing ourselves space to sincerely feel the range of emotions so that we can process them and let them go and as a result shift our energetic vibration. This leads to greater peace and serenity. Some additional tools are knowing that, ‘the past does not dictate the future’ – we must remember that fear and doubt are holding us back from unlocking the abundance of the universe, ‘mindfulness’ – being awareness of the present moment and being fully immersed in the now without attachment or judgement and ‘worst-case scenario’ – voicing our worst-case scenario openly with someone close and feeling the relief realizing it will probably never come true.
There will be times we doubt ourselves, when our restricted beliefs and insecurities take over and want to hold us back but with consistency and deep desire towards positive change, we can liberate ourselves and unlock abundance in our lives. We must cultivate and practice self-love, says Ms. Nafousi.
Thirdly, to manifest we must align our behaviour. Aligning your behaviour means showing the universe, by your actions, what you believe you deserve. Remember, you behaviour is a direct reflection of your self-worth. Manifesting isn’t passive, you have to be proactive in attracting the things you desire in your life. Fake it till you become it and behave the way your future self would. In order to create change, you must be the change. You must break free from yourself which means breaking free from old habits and patterns that are inhibiting you. Ms. Nafousi gives a list of thirty things you can do to align your behaviour. The list has simple items such as drinking enough water and getting enough sleep. It is manageable. The one that resonates with me is saying ‘no’ to things you don’t want to do, because a lot of us struggle with saying ‘no’ in our daily lives. You must also learn to step outside your comfort zone. To live a full life, we must free ourselves from the subconscious desire to stay confined to what we are used to and instead give ourselves the chance to experience all the things the world has to offer. Finally, don’t use ‘excuses, excuses’ to stop yourself from doing actions and things. Ms. Nafousi says that ‘you are already ready’, just ‘think, then do.’ Get into the habit to taking immediate actions without talking yourself out of them. The choices you make matter and will show the universe how worthy you feel and what you believe you deserve.
Fourthly, to manifest we must overcome tests from the universe. Tests come in the form of obstacles, challenges or people that ask you to settle for less than you deserve. When things don’t go our way, we are given opportunity to show up for ourselves while building inner strength, resilience and courage. When we overcome a test from the universe, we are rewarded with abundance. You must learn about hitting ‘rock bottom and levelling up’, ‘learning to say no’, to ‘stop settling’, to ‘let it go’ to ‘redefine challenges.’ Pay attention to how things make you feel instinctively and never forget to protect your energy.
Fifthly to manifest, we must embrace gratitude (without caveats). Gratitude is a feeling of appreciation that we use to get out of a low-vibe energy. Manifesting is knowing where you want to go but being entirely grateful for all that you already have. It’s simple – the more you focus on the good, the more good will come to you. A positively journal is a tool to use to be grateful. A grateful heart attracts miracles. Use ‘slow-drip dopamine’ – enjoying the small things in life such as a cup of tea or a home-cooked meal, be proud of how far you’ve come, use ‘self-celebration’ to enjoy your wins big or small especially your progress, commitment and effort, tell someone your good news, journal, stop moaning please and appreciate the ordinary.
Sixthly, to manifest turn envy into inspiration. Envy is a low-energy emotion that stems from a scarcity mindset while inspiration is a high-vibrational emotion that stems from an abundance mindset. We often try to deny and bury our envy rather than validate it. The antithesis of envy is inspiration. To let go of envy, become aware of it, remove self-judgement around it, learn from it and turn it into inspiration. We should be celebrating others and dealing with comparison because it holds you back from your manifestations. Comparison is the thief of joy it just distracts you from your goal and exhausts your time and energy.
The seventh and final step to manifest is to trust in the universe. This means knowing what you want and then having firm faith that it will manifest itself into your life. This trust is a ‘knowing feeling’. You don’t know how, you just know it will and staunch confidence is magnetic because manifesting is not about control it’s about surrender. You have to let go to waiting and not let impatience interfere with divine timing. Trust is the glue that holds all the steps of manifesting together. For this, Ms. Nafousi details how the readers should surrender to the universe. She explains that surrender is high-vibrational, while control is low-vibrational. She says you should let things unfold as they are supposed to without any expectations as expectation is just fantasy. To truly trust the universe, we need to let go of all the ways we would like things to happen and have unwavering faith that what we want to manifest will come to us, while surrendering to the journey that will lead us there. Ms. Nafousi ends by saying: “Life is wonderful and you have the power to make it so.”
The book is a light, enjoyable read and a powerful reminder that how we think and feel controls our small and big actions and drastically changes our lives, leading us to our higher goals – if we want to put in the effort required to work on and improve ourselves. Each one of us is a work-in-process, Ms. Nafousi’s ‘Manifest – Dive Deeper’ is a guide to being a positive work-in-progress – a helpful human to those around you whether it’s your partner, family, friends, colleagues or even strangers and also achieving your dreams if you’re able to reach a high-vibrational frequency. I would strongly recommend it to those who are into self-help books or those looking to change their lives for the better.
