Pod Insights The Psychology of your 20s 263. The psychology of manifestation About this episode Manifestation far more mystical than scientific, but there is some important psychology behind how it works and why. In today's episode we break down the exact science and research behind the power of manifestation and 5 important exercises that can help you create powerful, positive shifts in your love. This includes:
The roots of manifestation The science of the law of attraction and detachment What is a self fulfilling prophecy? How does positive thinking attract a positive reality? The power of affirmations, scripted manifestation, music and more Listen now!
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0:04 Jemma Sbeg? If you've ever gone into a store for two things and walked out wondering how it cost forty seven dollars? Yeah, same. That's why some people like keeping things simple with Bank of America Advantage Safe Balance Banking. If you're under twenty five, there's no monthly maintenance fee. Plus, you can enroll in B of A rewards and enjoy benefits like cash back on brands you love. Plus fraud and identity monitoring. And there's no fees to enroll. It's one less thing to stress about. Learn more at B of A dot com slash simple banking. Member FDIC. Hey, question. Are you an extra care member at CVS? Because there is literally no reason not to be.
0:45 Jemma Sbeg? It's super easy to join and members instantly get extra big deals on things you buy most. I mean, this is stuff you're already buying, things like snacks, personal care products, all of it. And after you join, the savings just show up. Deals refresh every two weeks, but they don't last long. Head to your local CVS or open the CVS app, look for extra big deals and start saving today. This episode is sponsored by Gymshark. Gymshark has spent over fourteen years obsessing over gym clothing and the people who wear it. And let me just say, I think we all know they are very, very good at what they do. No, seriously, their stuff is so good. Their everyday seamless collection is light, it's soft, it's stretchy.
1:30 Jemma Sbeg? All of their stuff just looks good on and it's made for people who love to exercise, whatever exercise that is. Lifting, cardio, Pilates, running around campus, maybe just doing errands. Discover Gymshark and find your new favorite gym clothing at gymshark dot com.
1:48 Jemma Sbeg? These days, there are more people than ever telling you how to manage your health. Your social media feed is packed with wellness trends telling you to cold plunge, protein max and so much more. But what's actually real? What's exaggerated? What's just wrong? Health versus hype from the American Medical Association breaks it all down.
2:10 Jemma Sbeg? Host Trace Dominguez talks to health influencers, real people, and most importantly, doctors to separate fact from fiction. Because when it comes to your health, who you listen to really matters. Listen to Health vs. Hype wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the show. Welcome back to the podcast, new listeners, old listeners. Wherever you are in the world, it is so great to have you here back for another episode as we, of course, break down the psychology of our twenties. I hope you all had a transformative fun but safe start to the new year. Welcome to 2025. Before we get into this episode, a few months back, I said that I had a lot of surprises in store
2:55 Jemma Sbeg? for this year. And guess what? You did not have to wait long for the first one. And probably one of the biggest ones. I am so beyond excited to announce that my brand new podcast, Mantra, will be launching on the 13th of January. Yes, that you heard me right. A brand new podcast. And if you are a fan of the psychology of your twenties, you're going to love this. If you're interested in expanding your mind, improving your mindset, growing as a person, learning, Mantra is going to be the perfect fit for you. Every Monday, I focus on a new
3:35 Jemma Sbeg? mantra. So you can begin your week with a mental reset. And I talk to you about the meaning of the mantra, how to really take advantage of what that mantra can do for you, where we can see it show up in our lives, and also journal prompts a weekly challenge. We have been working so hard on this. And the reason I really wanted to do a show like this is because I love the psychology of your twenties. It is, of course, my creative baby. But I also wanted to have a space that isn't just the science, it's more inspirational and reaffirming, perhaps even more spiritual, which is also an important part of who I am, along with my love of humans and numbers and studies and the psychology of things. And mantra just
4:20 Jemma Sbeg? Felt like the perfect way to do this. Every Monday is a mental reset. You tune in on your morning commute, when you're at work, when you're at the gym, and it just sets the tone for the rest of your week. You can be one of the first people to hear it and listen to the brand new episode. If you subscribe to Mantra Now on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. It's already up there, it's ready to go. The first episode drops in less than a week. I hope you love it. I really, really do. It is just such a passion project for me, something I think is going to be such an important thing to put out into the world, hopefully make a huge difference. Hopefully just inspire you, give you more things to listen to.
5:03 Jemma Sbeg? If you need a new podcast, there it is. Without further ado though, let's talk about the psychology of manifestation, which is of course today's topic. One that I have been really excited to do for a while, actually. It's very much been at the top of the list, but just keeps getting bumped down by things that felt more important. But it's a brand new year and this just felt like a great episode to dive into straight off the bat. So if you are brand new to manifestation, I'll give you a quick one oh one. Manifesting is this very affirming, significant idea that you can attract your dream life by using your thoughts. How you view a situation matters.
5:47 Jemma Sbeg? And it's a powerful way to bring about your greatest desires. So basically, if we think positive things, they will happen. If we think we are lucky, lucky things will happen to us. That is the whole premise. And manifesting, it's become so incredibly popular in recent years, specifically after the success of a book called The Secret, actually was written by an Australian author back in two thousand and six. And it reintroduced this ancient idea that your thoughts are a powerful magnet for the reality that you want. That premise has of course existed in a number of cultures for thousands of years. It's important to acknowledge that Buddha, for example, taught that our thoughts shape us
6:31 Jemma Sbeg? and that our intentions determine our destinies. So it's definitely not a new idea, but it's a very powerful one that has reached a whole new audience. If it sounds too good to be true, I get you. I totally understand, especially if you're someone who is quite scientific like me. Anything that offers a simple, quick fix, easy solution to transform your life, to make everything possible, to, you know, make a million dollars, sounds like a scam. Additionally, we do really have to talk about how elitist manifestation can sometimes seem for people who are experiencing poverty or starvation or war, for whom thinking positive things will most likely not change a larger systemic problem.
7:16 Jemma Sbeg? There are some criticisms of manifestation. It's definitely got some major issues. We're going to talk about that later on, but I also really want to break it down for you and show that it's not just a magical mystical idea. For the people who successfully implement manifestation, a lot of it is really rooted in psychology and in our cognition and in our subconscious minds and how our beliefs and our mindset subliminally control our actions and our behaviours. You know, if you really believe something will happen to you and you have the ability and the resources to action that belief, that's crucial. It does create a self fulfilling prophecy where you are more likely to act in a way that ensures that it will, even if you don't realise it.
8:00 Jemma Sbeg? You know, obviously, if you think something will happen and you don't do anything about it, manifesting will never work for you. If you think, yeah, it would be nice to be rich and then just sit twiddling your thumbs waiting for it to happen, that's not how manifestation works. There is some really powerful psychology and neuroscience behind this very legitimate self-help practice that can spur on goal-directed action. And it really relies on things from cognitive restructuring to the power of self-talk, the power of self-belief and concepts, neurological concepts like long-term potentiation. So today I want to talk about it. If you're on the fence, if you're completely committed to the idea, if you're just trying to level up and improve the way you manifest, this episode is for you.
8:45 Jemma Sbeg? There is so much science, so much fascinating research to cover in this episode. And I also want to provide the five most powerful manifestation exercises that you can use based on all this psychology. So all of that and so much more. It is a jam-packed episode after this short break.
9:11 Jemma Sbeg? Manifestation has definitely been having a moment in the self-help wellness space in recent years. I don't know when I first really became aware of manifesting as a concept, but when I did, I will admit, I thought it was ridiculous. You know, how could your thoughts make anything magically happen for you? You know, I have thousands, millions of thoughts every day, very few of them ever come true. Uh, I think that definitely came down to being a bit of an overachiever as well. You know, I really believed in the absolute power of blood, sweat and tears and hard work. Really, that was my like, that's my equation. You work hard, you get what you work for and what you deserve. But in 2019, I really had my first instance of kind of realizing that I had manifested certain things in my life.
9:56 Jemma Sbeg? I'd gone through a breakup. I was, you know, really committed to repeating all these positive statements to myself. I was journaling about what I wanted in the next month, three months, year. And strangely, a lot of it was coming true. And when I was investigating it, I was like, wow, why is this happening? You know, it can't just all be luck. And I think it really came down to how these practices were restructuring and shifting how my mind thought about problems. Okay, I've already gone off on a tangent. Let's dial it back for a second. Let's talk about the pillars of manifestation, the most common manifestation techniques, themes, topics, basically. So the biggest formal theory of manifestation is undoubtedly the law of attraction.
10:40 Jemma Sbeg? Law of attraction, you would have heard it everywhere. And this law basically suggests that your thoughts and beliefs can attract people, events and circumstances into your life. And it's very much based on the idea that people and their thoughts are made up of pure energy and like energy, similar energy attracts similar energy. Thereby allowing us to improve our health, wealth or personal relationships by thinking positive things and attracting those positive things to us. So basically, your thoughts are a magnet. They attract whatever you think you desire, that you think of and that you focus on. Another very famous form of manifestation is of course the law of detachment.
11:25 Jemma Sbeg? This sounds like the opposite of the law of attraction, but it's definitely not an entire contradiction. It basically suggests that in order to manifest our desires, we have to release our attachment to a specific outcome. So if you are trying to manifest love, I know that's a big one. You need to release the idea of what love could look like for you. So you cannot keep expecting that love is going to be this six foot four dark haired person who is a lawyer who does these exact specific things and their name is Andrew and they're twenty seven. Like you can't imagine a specific kind of person. You have to detach from your expectations about how
12:08 Jemma Sbeg? whatever your desire will come to you, like what's the outcome going to be? You have to detach from a specific outcome. Same with a, you know, a dream job. If you're manifesting your dream career, you have to accept that maybe what you have in mind isn't right. And let's, let's say the universe or a higher power. That's how a lot of people normally talk about this. How, you have to let that guide you. So, why I see this working on a psychological basis is that this perspective creates an internal shift and it puts us into a growth and curiosity mindset. So that opportunities we may have previously not looked at now become available to us. So it keeps us more open.
12:50 Jemma Sbeg? I definitely have some issues with the premise behind the law of detachment because I think especially for people who are anxious or who have anxiety or who have OCD, detaching from an outcome or breaking out of a thought pattern can be extremely hard, near impossible. That doesn't mean that these individuals don't still have dreams that come true. So there are certainly some holes in this logic, right? People who are overly anxious don't just have bad things happen to them as well. You know, the opposite of law of attraction, you know, if law of attraction is correct, you know, thinking about negative things would make negative things happen to you. Someone who was overly anxious, that's not always the case.
13:31 Jemma Sbeg? So moving back to the law of attraction, because I think that is really the manifestation technique that we're zoning in on today. If you think it's simply about asking the universe to reward you, as I once did, I really want to explain further that psychology and that psychological explanation. And we have to start with this very fundamental logic. Believing that you can accomplish something is going to make it much more likely that you do compared to not believing. What does this rest on? It rests on the power of self-belief. Self-belief, that is the number one biggest factor in any success story that you will ever hear.
14:14 Jemma Sbeg? And yet, I think it is the least talked about. You cannot be motivated, you cannot be disciplined, you cannot be a risk taker, you cannot bet on yourself if you do not believe that success will be yours. So not believing in yourself is a goal-ending contradiction.
14:34 Jemma Sbeg? The reason that the law of attraction works and that many people see manifesting is a very golden key that unlocks this incredible life of theirs is because of how it changes our underlying subconscious subliminal thoughts to do with self-belief. This is called by another name, it's called cognitive restructuring, which you've already mentioned a couple of times. It's a very well researched legitimate therapeutic technique. Basically, what this method has people do is identify negative thoughts or self-limiting thoughts and challenge them, replace them with more positive thoughts. So let me give you an example of how this could be used, using the American Psychological Association's accredited five-step process to cognitive restructuring or CBT.
15:19 Jemma Sbeg? Firstly, a person identifies the situation and feeling that they would like to change. For example, let's um say anxiety about the future, it's a one I always use for people in their twenties. Then you identify the underlying thoughts about the feeling. So for example, why am I feeling anxious about the future? Well, probably because, you know, I I'm uncertain, I'm scared of failure, I expect the worst-case scenario to happen. And then it asks people to look for evidence of that being the case in the past. So what is your worst-case scenario here? I'm gonna fail, I'm gonna be miserable, I'm never gonna find success. They say, what's the evidence for that being the case? What, who's telling you this?
16:04 Jemma Sbeg? Where's the magic ball? And then it gets you to really focus on the alternative. What if the worst-case scenario didn't happen? What if you were a success? Why couldn't that happen to you? What if it all worked out for you? Then, they ask you to make a decision. And when a future dilemma like this one comes up, do you continue to choose the more helpful thought or do you continue to choose the less helpful thought? This really changes how our brain responds to a problem by changing our thought circuits and pathways that are attached to it. Cognitive restructuring sounds a lot like manifestation in that way. Manifestation is working to create more positive thoughts for a positive outcome.
16:49 Jemma Sbeg? And really, you know what that entails, it's introducing positive scenarios into your mind. Cognitive restructuring kinda sounds the same. There is a lot of evidence for this kind of technique working. So there was a two thousand and twenty study that looked at a hundred and forty one individuals who received cognitive restructuring treatment. And it found that at a twelve month follow up, individuals reported lower depressive symptoms, less anxious avoidance. And this is the really big one, greatest self efficacy. So self efficacy, we talk about it a lot. It's probably one of my favorite concepts. And it basically says that our ability, our belief in our ability to achieve an outcome that we want
17:34 Jemma Sbeg? is really, really important. So self efficacy is is basically your self belief in bringing about your future or being able to work hard or be consistent. So you know, if you have a big project at work or you wanna launch a business, people who are high in self efficacy will say, yeah, I'm capable of that. It's gonna be hard, but I'm ready for the challenge. I can do it. Whereas if you're low in self efficacy, you'll doubt yourself into an inaction, basically. Luckily, self efficacy is something that you can change, and this is one way of doing it, that cognitive restructuring. Another explanation for the psychology of manifestation is what we know very commonly as a self fulfilling prophecy. So
18:17 Jemma Sbeg? a self fulfilling prophecy occurs when our beliefs and expectations influence our actions in ways that bring those beliefs to life. So in the context of manifestation. By visualizing success or a desired outcome, we subconsciously align our decisions, attitudes and actions with that goal. This focus really increases our motivation, our perseverance and our openness to those opportunities we might previously overlook. So in essence, manifestation leverages the psychological mechanism of a self fulfilling prophecy by turning positive beliefs into deliberate action, really bridging the gap between intention and achievement.
19:03 Jemma Sbeg? So if you walk into a room thinking everyone in this room is going to fall in love with you, is going to think that you are charismatic and attractive and alluring, you are going to feel better about yourself. And so because of that, you'll probably speak to more people, you'll be more open, you'll make more eye contact, you'll feel better. And you might walk out and say, oh my God, I manifested that. That is really actually a self fulfilling prophecy. And if you want to see it in action, you've got to hear about this very famous experiment from the nineteen sixties. You've probably heard about it before, but it was about how teachers' expectations of students actually determined their grades and the students who performed best.
19:47 Jemma Sbeg? And it really came down to the students who wore glasses. Because the teachers assumed, you know, if you wear glasses, you're more intelligent. So they treated them as such. They treated them as if they were already intelligent. And therefore it created that self fulfilling prophecy. It meant that they gave them more attention. It meant that they gave them more praise. It meant that they spent more time with them, that gave them more challenging work. And so they were the ones who achieved all because of a self fulfilling prophecy. And you can use that same formula on yourself. So two final points on the psychology of manifestation. The other reason that we tend to think that what we think about attracts what we experience also comes down to how the thought patterns that occur with manifestation
20:32 Jemma Sbeg? unlock a growth versus a fixed mindset. So a fixed mindset assumes that our abilities are innate and unchangeable. That what we're born with is what we're given and you know, if we're lazy, we're lazy. If we're not good at sports, we're not good at sports. If we're not disciplined, we're not disciplined. A growth mindset means that we believe that all humans, you and I, are capable of change and that we can improve. And that means that our beliefs about our ability to learn, grow and succeed, our growth mindset, can indeed affect whether we effectively manifest what we desire. Importantly, the research really suggests that if we truly believe we can achieve something, we are more willing to do the hard work to achieve it.
21:15 Jemma Sbeg? So manifesting by saying all those positive statements to yourself, by saying, this is what I really want, this is who I am, this is what I'm going to achieve. It means that the parts of ourselves that are willing to work for that are more activated, that we're more willing to grow into a challenge. And finally, the reason that manifestation works is what we call the upward spiral of positive emotions. So the thought process behind manifestation actually, incidentally, also creates an important cognitive positive feedback loop where the more we think positive good things, the more we actually tend to see positive good things, like a confirmation bias. And then it goes a step further, which means that we actually are generally more optimistic,
21:57 Jemma Sbeg? motivated, happy about our current state because all these good things are happening to us. We can see all these good things around us because we've been queued to see those things, primed to see those things. And of course, someone who is more happy, optimistic, is going to be more motivated. So manifestation techniques like the law of attraction or the law of detachment, they really seemingly work because of how they transform the perception of our circumstances, our self beliefs, and therefore trigger important goal intentional and activating behaviours. I want to be really, really clear, there is zero proof that manifestation works on its own. Some people do like to cite this idea of quantum theory,
22:39 Jemma Sbeg? which states that everything in the universe is made up of energy. So when we declare an intention and we practice manifestation, we align our energy with the universe's energy. But specifically, I really think what it comes down to is our actions. And I want to talk about how we can get better at activating important motivated behaviours and actually going after what we want, with the help of manifestation, of course, after this short break.
23:13 Jemma Sbeg? There's this moment in your twenties where you realise, oh, no one is double checking my finances for me anymore. It's just me, my bank account and a growing list of, wait, I forgot I subscribed to that. And honestly, that can feel overwhelming. So you could look into Bank of America Advantage Safe Balance Banking. It's perfect for this stage of life where you're figuring things out as you go. There are no overdraft item fees and if you are under 25, there's no monthly maintenance fee, which just makes it easier to stay on track. What stands out is that it doesn't try to overcomplicate things. It's not about being perfect with money, it's about having a system that helps you feel a little more in control.
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26:00 Jemma Sbeg? These days, there are more people than ever telling you how to manage your health. And we've all gone down an internet rabbit hole exploring the latest health trends. Your social media feed is packed with wellness advice, telling you to cold plunge, protein max, detox, track your sleep. But what's actually real? What's exaggerated? What's just wrong? That's exactly what Health vs. Hype from the American Medical Association and iHeartMedia's Ruby Studio is here to find out. Each episode, Emmy nominated science communicator Trace Dominguez, who's racked up billions of views across PBS, Discovery Channel and YouTube, talks to health influencers, real
26:41 Jemma Sbeg? people, and most importantly, doctors, to separate fact from fiction. Because when it comes to your health, who you listen to matters. Listen to Health vs. Hype on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
26:59 Jemma Sbeg? So the most powerful quote I have ever heard about manifestation came from an interview with a professor at Stanford University. His name is Dr. James Doughty, and this is really what he had to say. "Manifestation is not about asking the universe to reward you, it's about rewiring your brain to reward itself." Love that quote. Absolutely loved when I heard it for the first time. And what's really describing is agency. This is how I see it. When our mind is on board and convinced of our success, it's kind of like turning the wheel in a huge semi truck. Right? So our positive thoughts turn the wheel and then all the carriages follow behind it.
27:40 Jemma Sbeg? So once we have a positive appraisal of our situation and of our beliefs, our beliefs will then shift, our attitudes will then shift, then our ambition, and then our actions will follow. So when your mind and your thoughts are on board, your behaviors and intentions follow suit. And acknowledging this is really essential because we are, after a really balanced approach here, manifestation is not just about wishing. And we don't want it to lead to a lot of, um, you know, unrealistic expectations and blame. You know, sitting there being like, I'm wishing for something. I want it to happen so badly. And it's not coming true. And that means I must be doing it wrong, or I'm a bad person, or I don't deserve good things because the universe isn't giving them to me. Absolutely not.
28:24 Jemma Sbeg? It may be because you're not allowing your actions to follow along. So I want to talk about five manifestation techniques that can really inspire that positive restructuring and therefore spur on change. And how that can bring about your dream life. And the biggest one, the first one I really want to speak about, that I see people using all the time and that I actually personally use. I've just recently been doing this a lot with the new year, is scripted journaling or narrative conjuring. Sounds fancy. It's actually really simple. What I want you to do is write out a very detailed journal entry, as if whatever you are desiring has already happened.
29:06 Jemma Sbeg? And I want you to write it out in as much detail, and I mean overkill with the detail. So this method, I did some research, it really emerged as an offshoot of this nineteen seventies kind of project to do with neuro linguistic programming, so boring. But basically, this project encouraged individuals as part of this process to visualize their futures using all five senses. And basically, what they found was that when we thought about our future using words and actions, and then using all these different sensory inputs, our subconscious perception of the world changed and ultimately determined what we believed was possible for us to attain, achieve, and attract.
29:50 Jemma Sbeg? So that project kind of like came across this incidentally. And I'll give you an example of how you can use scripted journaling in your own life. Say you are really trying to manifest a huge lifestyle change or overhaul. So you wanna make yourself into someone who is active, who has a large group of friends, who will boost each other up, who goes on hikes, goes to Pilates, whatever it is. Get out your journal, get out a pen, and write a journal entry that sounds like, "Today, I woke up in my beautiful linen sheets and the sun was shining through my apartment window and that apartment looked out onto Forty Ninth Street. And I'd bought it a couple of months ago and I decided that I would text my friend group to go to Pilates with each other. And this was what the picture for my friend group looked like, and this was what we called
30:35 Jemma Sbeg? the group chat name, and this is how many people were in that group chat. And I put on this outfit that was this color from this brand, and I ate this for breakfast, and these were the ingredients, and this is how it tasted, and this is what my carpet looks like, and these are my steps down to the street. And you know, this is what the Pilates studio looked like, this is the perfume that my friend was wearing, she smiled when she saw me." Every little detail, I feel like you get the picture as much as possible. If writing isn't really your thing, you can also use an audio journal where you describe your perfect workday at your dream job, or an amazing date you're yet to go on, but that you know is in the future, you know, with as much detail as possible.
31:16 Jemma Sbeg? That scripting doesn't just have to be, you know, written down, you can also make it verbal, that can be really, really powerful. And the reason that it's powerful is because it gets you to think about aspects of your goal or your dream that you might not consider. You know, often when we set goals or we're manifesting something, we're so just focused on it happening, right? We're so focused on the future and the outcome. And we don't really have an idea of what we need to get there, or timelines, or small components, or what needs to happen between then and now, and what it could feel like. And the scripted writing in this narrative exercise gets us to fill in a lot of the blanks. And I'm gonna get a little bit scientific here, but there was actually a series of studies conducted between
32:02 Jemma Sbeg? two thousand eight and two thousand and fourteen that examined what happened when we visualized future goals in this way, or we engage in positive thinking and writing, or mentally simulating future events. And what it found was that two important brain areas are activated by exercises like this. The ventral medial prefrontal cortex and the posterior cingulate cortex, both of which, by the way, are implicated in attention and self-reflection. But more specifically, these areas of the brain support internally directed action. Basically, they are the parts of the brain that when a thought comes in, they say, okay, we're gonna make this happen. How do we do this? What parts of our body do we need to put into action?
32:46 Jemma Sbeg? What other thought processes in our brain do we need to switch on? Even if a visual or written script isn't your thing, and you're more of a visual thinker or learner, you can also utilize the power of a good old fashioned vision board. I'm sure you've all seen the videos of people sharing their vision boards from two thousand twenty-three, and how many surprising things from those boards actually happened. I really think it's because representing your goals visually in this way is such a great physical visual cue or reminder of what you are working towards. And therefore, when you have that more in your focus,
33:26 Jemma Sbeg? you are more likely to remember, hey, I actually want this thing. What have I been doing to make it happen? Maybe I should be working harder on that. There's a famous quote that you become what you behold, or what you see, your environment and what you are visually exposed to, that really does influence mood, motivation, attitude.
33:47 Jemma Sbeg? Vision board work actually works on a part of our brain called the reticular activating system, R A S. It's actually located in the brain stem. It's a very essential part of our brain that filters information and determines what's important. And when you visualize your goals frequently, as you do with a vision board, your R A S becomes more attuned to opportunities that align with those goals. So this process really helps you notice things in your environment that can help you achieve your aspirations, making you more focused and intentional. So here's the thing that you really need to do, though, to make a vision board work for you. Don't just choose the photos that are available to you in a magazine
34:28 Jemma Sbeg? or that you have lying around. You really have to be intentional with setting this up. So choose the photos that most resonate with you. Choose to have a few options. And I really like to have four segments of my vision board. One segment is for career, one is for relationships, one is for lifestyle, one is for personal growth goals. So things like hobbies, travel, spiritual goals. And I really, really make sure that it's not all material things. There should be experiences on there, too. There should be things that really activate my senses, things that are small and daily. And something that Mel Robbins actually said that was really powerful in a recent episode of hers is that you can't just have big life-changing goals
35:11 Jemma Sbeg? on a vision board. This is more about the lifestyle that surrounds achieving those goals. You can't just have a picture of the finish line of, you know, the New York Marathon without a few pictures of you running, you know, or of a training plan, or of healthy fuel. Your vision board needs to be focused on the building blocks as well as the big outcomes. Let's talk about another very well-known manifestation strategy or accompaniment, and that's affirmations. This is probably the strategy that I rely on most heavily in my own life, mainly because I know that scientifically speaking, how I talk to myself matters. Also, affirmations are so accessible on a daily basis, you know, vision boards.
35:57 Jemma Sbeg? Scripting, they're a real time commitment and a very worthy time commitment. Not necessarily something that you can do every day, but affirmations you could even do a few times a day. And when I was going through a really transformative time, when I was twenty two, I had a list of ten affirmations written on a big piece of paper on the inside of my bedroom door. And these affirmations were genuinely so important to me. And I really think that they were a huge, huge kind of way in which I was able to lead a more fulfilling life compared to the life I was living before. And I actually went searching for these because I was like, these affirmations are really good.
36:38 Jemma Sbeg? And it took me a while to come up with them. Like, it was a very finely tuned list. And finally, I found a picture in my phone of this list on the back of my door, and I want to read these out to you. These were the affirmations I used to really help me bring about a more positive way of seeing my life and therefore a more positive life. I radiate confidence and self-assurance. I have an attractive aura. I am someone who goes after what I want. People feel good around me. I trust myself to make the right decisions. I am a powerful creator of my reality.
37:18 Jemma Sbeg? I am a hard worker. I am constantly attracting incredible things into my life. I release the need for others' approval. I am in control of my best and my worst thoughts. These were the affirmations that I would recite to myself every morning for over a year. And it was like putting on a mental armor every day. The first thing I said to myself in the morning was, I'm not stressed about the day. I'm not overwhelmed. I'm not worried about how I look. All of these natural thoughts were, would pop up and instead I would. Put myself into a place of self empowerment by making sure I left my house
38:03 Jemma Sbeg? every single morning with a more positive statement and positive feeling about myself in mind. And it really did change how I approached challenges, change how I approached people, how productive I was as well. Um, I really think that it also changed um how I made friends. Like, there was this huge shift for me between being quite lonely and then suddenly having all these people in my life. Because I was, I really think, entering the outside world radiating positive energy because I felt good about myself. Um, I also have affirmations that I use for specific circumstances. Um, before, you know, I mentioned a public speaking. I have five affirmations for that in my notes up. Anytime I need to public speak, I say, I am prepared for this.
38:48 Jemma Sbeg? My voice is strong and steady. The people in this room will be captivated by me. I speak and communicate with ease and I am excited for the opportunity to share knowledge. Um, very, very effective. And if you want a fun psychology study that provides evidence for the effectiveness of this method, we can actually look at one from two thousand and fifteen, conducted at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where sixty seven students were asked to either participate in an affirmation exercise before a task or not. And those who outperformed the other students, all of them were those who had done affirmations because they felt more capable. And it's free, like, that's the crazy part. You don't need to do some crazy thing. You just have to make your list and stick to it.
39:33 Jemma Sbeg? Okay, before we talk about limitations, I want to talk about one final way to combine manifestation and psychology in your pursuit of your goals. And it's called a sensory anchor. And the sensory anchor we're going to be talking about today is music. So a sensory anchor is a stimulus such as a sound, smell, touch, that triggers a specific emotional or mental state. Music in particular is highly effective because music is very emotional and it directly triggers a lot of emotional centers of the brain. It's why we get tingles when we listen to songs. It's why we have a physical reaction. It's why it evokes memories. By pairing music with your visualization or manifestation practice,
40:16 Jemma Sbeg? you can train your brain to associate certain songs or sounds with a mindset of success or confidence or joy. So what I want you to do is put together a playlist of songs that make you really like motivated, inspired, pumped up, feeling good about yourself, like alive. Make a playlist like that. And anytime you are in the mindset, you're in the mood, you're in the place to achieve something to get shit done, or you're just feeling low as well, play that playlist. I've already seen so many examples of these on Spotify, like you can look up manifestation playlist or mindset shift playlists, anything like that.
40:58 Jemma Sbeg? And people have already curated music that is intended to evoke a really like excited, motivated, passionate, creative mindset. And I just wanna say one final thing with all these methods, the thing that really links them and why they are implicated in the manifestation process is that all of them in some way using, you know, um, writing, using your words, using what you see, using what you hear, all of them are influencing us to see outcomes as happening in our favor by influencing how we think about things. So before we conclude this episode, I really think that
41:43 Jemma Sbeg? it would be remiss of me to not consider the limitations of manifestation and the privilege that definitely comes with being able to implement things like scripting or affirmations and see them as being effective. You know, manifesting that lifestyle that we want. If that's something that is really happening for people, we have to question why it's not happening for others. And let's be honest, a lot of the things that we wanna manifest, they are luxuries. And we could not begin to be, you know, even dream of them, let alone receive them, receive first-class flights, receive dream jobs, receive money. If our fundamental, basic human needs weren't already met.
42:27 Jemma Sbeg? So food, water, security, safety, health, emotional and social support.
42:33 Jemma Sbeg? Those are the fundamental foundations of hu- of human life. And so many people don't have those things. There are people in war zones or experiencing violence or poverty who may be wishing harder than any of us, than you and me, for a life of peace, of safety, food in their bellities, bellies, and they're not receiving it. So I think that we also have to recognize that in order to manifest anything, you do actually have to have the ability to action your desires. And that means privilege and resources. You know, if we think that manifestation is just this immaterial energetic quantum force at work,
43:19 Jemma Sbeg? why is the quantum force not helping so many people who are really doing it hard? Why does the universe's energy seem to neglect people that are struggling in poverty? Or that are less privileged than us? Cause I don't think that's how energy works. You know, if the quantum theory is positive energy attracts positive energy, like it's forgetting about a large group of people. So it is a privilege to be able to use psychological methods of manifestation to really bridge the gap between intention and motivation and therefore achievement. And I think that before we go out there and say, yeah, I'm like, just manifest it.
44:02 Jemma Sbeg? Like just think positive things and good things will happen. You've got to remember that's not the case for everyone and that it is really a blessing and something you should be grateful for, that this is a technique that you are exploring and that could work for you. So I find that when I think about manifestation as an exercise that is rooted in self-belief, psychology, and then having the ability to take actions based on your positive thinking, that makes a lot more sense to me. And that's something that, um.
44:33 Jemma Sbeg? Yeah, again, I think we should be grateful for. So I really hope that you learnt something from this episode. You learnt something about the science from the studies, about the research, the concepts that make up manifestation as such a powerful method of attraction or of detachment, whichever one you choose to believe in. If there's something I missed here, I would love to hear from you. Please share your manifestation exercises that you use. I would love to hear from them, like I would love to hear them, sorry, and love to hear from you because there's so many out there that I probably haven't mentioned that people could learn a lot from. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure you share it with a friend, share it with family members, share it with your
45:14 Jemma Sbeg? partner, someone who you think could learn as well. We are always open to episode suggestions. You just have to DM me on Instagram. That is how we get so many ideas for the psychology of your twenties. And make sure you're following along. Make sure you're subscribed. Make sure you follow us over there on Instagram. And until next time, stay safe, be kind, be gentle with yourself, and we will talk very, very soon.
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