In the world of manifestation and personal growth, mindset work is really popular.
You’ve got to work on your mindset because your thoughts create your reality.
Right?
Which means you’re just one [rainbows / puppies / gummy bears] thought away from what you truly Desire.
Right??
Except… you’ve been working on your mindset and nothing is really changing…
Ever wonder WHY that is?
Early in my magical studies, I noticed that some people would get desired results from their spells and workings… and others didn’t. Later on, I noticed the same thing happening in the personal development world.
Sometimes the transformational modality (coaching, energy healing, etc) quote-unquote “worked,” and sometimes not.
By the time I was downloading Feminine Magic®, 5, 6, 7 years ago… “mindset” work was EVERYWHERE.
And I started to pay attention… in that witchy engineer sort of way.
In myself, I noticed a couple of things. A big one was that controlling my thoughts was next to impossible. Meditating helped, but only so much.
Then I started noticing what was going on with other people; namely, my clients.
When they focused on mindset, and shifting their thoughts… they only went farther down the rabbit hole. They would spend a LOT of time rooting around in their “mindset,” and not enough time in activities that would bring them closer to their dreams and goals.
Meanwhile, this idea that “your thoughts create your reality” prevailed in the collective consciousness.
And it’s accurate, of course. My reality DID reflect my thoughts, pretty much, by and large. The same is probably true for you.
The problem is, “our thoughts create our reality” is incomplete.
We are NOT our thoughts.
We are NOT our emotional states.
And come to think of it…
We are NOT our bodies.
We are NOT our behaviors.
We are NOT even… our spirits or souls.
We are ALL Of them. And so much more.
All of these – thoughts / emotions / body / energy systems / spirit / environment / actions – contribute to the BE-ing that is… YOU.
Your energetic imprint. Your vibration.
I found another word for this via an old Tony Robbins video. There I was, up late perusing YouTube, simultaneously vegging out AND looking for inspiration. (Come on – I know you do it too. 😉 )
“What’s the #1 thing that affects people’s results?” an interviewer asked Tony, who must’ve been 5 years old at the time. (If you’ve seen the old videos you know what I’m talking about.)
Without missing a beat, he said… “Their STATE.”
In other words…
Your thoughts.
Your emotions.
Your physical body.
The energy systems running through your body.
Your higher self, aka Spirit, Soul, Essence.
Your environment.
Your actions.
Okay, so WHY is this so important? Because it gives you soooo many more ways to shift.
Instead of focusing on your thoughts, you can change your emotions. Want to drift toward what you want automatically, in spite of yourself, in a way that you can’t turn off? Change your environment to be in alignment with that you want.
Soooo much easier than focusing on thoughts!!
Deepening the picture of what’s REALLY going on always gives us more options. “More options” == “good” when it comes to manifesting.
Yes, your thoughts and thinking have a massive effect on the others. Because your BRAIN has a massive affect on all the others.
But make no mistake – the others ALL affect your brain, too.
Tweak one, the others will change. Your vibration will change. Your energetic imprint will change.
Now here’s another thing about reality-makin’…
What happens when you focus your attention on something?
It grows. Expands. Manifests.
The same thing happened in my earliest magical workings. What we gave our energy to, and what we would DIRECT our energy toward, both in AND out of the “spell”… would manifest.
It’s pretty easy to raise power and direct power at any one time. It’s pretty easy to generate energy over a few minutes. A little harder to sustain it longer, but of course it can be done.
What maintains that energy after the working is over?
I’ll give you three guesses and the first two don’t count…
Your STATE. Your thoughts / emotions / physical body / energy systems / spiritual connection / environment and actions.
What creates transformation or calls in your Desires isn’t the thoughts you think. It’s the energy you impress on creative substance that determines what comes back to you on the physical plane.
In other words, our power to create comes from a place that’s deeper than thought.
Thoughts are merely another form of energy. What you energize (give your energy to), manifests.
And by the way, your beliefs don’t matter quite as much as you think either.
In fact, beliefs are merely a symptom of what’s going on underneath our whole neurological wiring as humans.
A “belief” is merely a generalization about a relationship between experiences.
In other words, our mindsets are generally just a description of how we perceive the experiences we’ve been living.
Because the strongest instinct we have is to replicate what came before, and because your brain WILL do it unconsciously… you look around at what’s in front of you and go, “Oh, I must have a belief that I’m not good enough.” Or “there’s not enough” or whatever the heck it is.
The belief is the meaning your mind has made for a state that your critter brain has figured (a long time ago) that you can “survive.”
Your critter brain is more interested in maintaining a survivable state than anything else. And that’s why working on your mindset isn’t, well…working.
Because it’s not really the beliefs, it’s the STATE that your mind has a vested interest in keeping around. And until you change your state, in one way or another… it’s going to stick around.
So what do you do instead?
The answer to that is… what would you like?
What do you WANT, Goddess? What do you Desire? What do you wish for? What do you want instead?
You create what you want by focusing on the OUTCOME, love. Over and over again.
Reach for what you Desire more.
Focusing on the outcome means bringing your attention BACK to the outcome. Back to your Desire. No matter what. Because your thoughts, feelings and perceptions are not Truth. It’s what you ENERGIZE that’s gonna manifest.
The outcome, in this context, also relates to who you BE. It requires focusing on who you have to become to have whatever it is you’re trying to create or experience, including the aligned actions that She who already has it would be taking to make it so.
Interestingly enough, it’s from this place of embodiment that it’s actually very useful to consider your mindset and look at your thoughts.
Because when you begin to practice the new vibration you need to hold within yourself and begin to take aligned action from that place to call things in, that’s when your critter brain will start to freak out.
At that point you can shift into, what I call witness consciousness or observer mode and examine the narratives and stories that are coming up to keep you from taking aligned action (because they will).
If you come at mindset from that place, understanding what’s at play and what’s required to create change, it’s much easier to affect. Not because you’ll be able to shut off your thoughts, but because you’ll be conscious of them and empowered to make choices in spite of them
Soooo… should you really stop working on your mindset? Throw all the books off the shelf?
Not at all!!
Our brain is powerful. Our beliefs are powerful, in part because we create as we speak, and think. Your mind energizes those beliefs on autopilot.
But it is time for us to evolve beyond seeing mindset work as the be all, end all and the place that needs work.
Your reality is a direct reflection of who you BE. What you direct your energy towards (including your thoughts) is what will manifest.
So direct your energy toward what you WANT. Not the rabbit hole of mindset.
When you do that, and shift your BE-ing to be as in alignment with that outcome as possible… you can’t help but call it (or something better) into your life, faster than you can say… it is done, it is done, it is done.
Because when you BE as you will BE when you have what you want… guess what? There it is.
It is done, it is done, it is done.
Great article, Elizabeth! Makes so much sense
Elizabeth, This is the message I have been circling around for months. Thank you for sharing your wise words and cutting through the chaos in my mind like a hot knife through butter.
I have printed this article out to read each time I turn away from my desired state and outcome. I have been a member of your tribe for years and am constantly shifted when you speak your truths.