Why Manifestation Is Failing For You: The Hidden Role of Trauma

Manifestation is the buzzword of the moment—the big promise that you can achieve anything you want in your life just through the power of the mind.

But if that’s true, why are most people not living the life of their dreams? Maybe, you’ve tried manifestation already, but it didn’t work for you.

In this article, I will explain what manifestation really is and how it works (at least, in my understanding of it), why it may not have worked for you (and for most people), and how you can make it work.

And yes, we’re going to be talking about Trauma.

The Promise VS Reality

So, you probably want your life to be better, right? Maybe better relationships, better health, more money, more success, more time, more freedom, more love, more happiness. And how cool would it be if you could achieve that just through the power of the mind? All you’d have to do is think about what you want, believe it’s real, and *poof* it’s there!

This is what the manifestation gurus most often promise, and I want to begin by deconstructing that idea.

While that may be true on a certain higher level, in this physical world that we live in, thoughts and beliefs manifest through attitude and action. So, if you’re wanting to manifest more money, but you’re just sitting there wishing for it to happen… it’s possible, but less likely. As I like to say, the best way to manifest an apple is to go to the grocery store and buy one.

Thought, Emotion, and Belief

So, action and attitude are essential. But—and this is where the gurus are right—action and attitude begin with thought. To get that apple from the grocery store, you had to think about it first. So that’s true.

But—and now this where they usually don’t go deeper and the biggest reason people fail—thought itself is just the most surface level of the mind. Behind thought there is emotion and belief. They are what give strength and foundation to our thoughts. They create our thoughts.

If you want to manifest what you want, you must start from the foundation: your beliefs and emotions. Then, those will lead to the right thoughts, and in turn those will lead to the right attitudes and actions. To go to the grocery store and get that apple, you first had to believe you’d find an apple there, you had to feel good about the idea of getting an apple, and you had to believe in your ability to go get that apple and actually eat it.

The Problem of Incongruence

If you try to force the thoughts you want into your mind but they’re not backed by your emotions and beliefs, or worse, are in disagreement with them, then they will be empty and powerless. They won’t work.

Besides, the thing you want to manifest must be congruent with who and how you are within. If you wish for a better, healthier relationship, but you’re full of insecurities and patterns that make you sabotage and destroy your relationships, then it simply can’t happen. As much as think about what you want, and as much as the universe may want to give you that, it can’t happen because you’re not compatible with it.

This is the idea behind affirmations, and it’s also why they don’t work in a profound and lasting way most of the time. It’s also why manifestation doesn’t work for most people—because their emotions and beliefs are not aligned with what they want.

The Role of Trauma

Okay, but why are your emotions and beliefs not aligned with what you want? Doesn’t that seem counterproductive, not to say illogical? Well, this is where we need to talk about Trauma.

I’m not going to dive deep into what trauma is and how it happens in this article—for that, you can find my other posts on this subject. But trauma is essentially an experience where you or a part of you feels unsafe to exist—and you learn that. That experience creates in you a deep belief that you can’t be, do, or have that thing, and out of that belief are born protective emotions that will prevent you from being, doing, or having that thing again.

You can probably already see where this is going. If you experienced some form of trauma—and we all do, all it takes is a negative experience early in life where we feel helpless or unseen—you might have internalized the belief that the very thing you want to be, do, or have now is not safe for you to be, do or have. And, of course, you created the corresponding protective emotions that now prevent you from taking the attitudes and actions that would allow you to be, do, or have that.

So that’s how trauma hinders manifestation. It creates beliefs and emotions that, although with a self-protective intention, become self-sabotaging instead, as they are contrary to what you want now. Thus, they prevent you from moving forward and taking the necessary attitudes and actions—no matter how much you try to change your thoughts or how many affirmations you say every day.

But there’s an even deeper layer to this. Because you could think, “Okay, then I just have to believe that I can be, do, or have this instead, and I’ll be able to achieve that”.

Well, not so fast. Your protective parts are on to you. They know that, if you believe you can, then you will… and they’re terrified of that. So, besides stopping you from being, doing, or having that… they must also prevent you from believing you can be, do, or have that.

In other words, your traumatized parts will do anything to stop you from achieving what you now want to achieve—because, remember, they learned it was unsafe and are trying to protect you. And they know that belief is the most powerful and essential part of you making something happen—in other words, manifestation. That means that preventing you from believing in it is also the most effective way of ensuring that you stay safe and stuck and thwarting any attempts of achieving it. Belief is the biggest threat to them, and they make sure to kill it and bury it six feet under.

Interestingly, the idea for this post came from a recent conversation with someone close to me. This person has been going through a period of profound personal growth and transformation, and was sharing how for many years she didn’t believe life could be better—in fact, she couldn’t even picture it. Even now, believing that was very challenging and was one of the main things she was working on.

Through that conversation, I helped her understand why that was so. Early in her life, she had experienced a lot of pain and helplessness, even inside her own family. To protect herself from despair and survive, she had had to prevent herself from believing that life could be any other way. And that survival mechanism was still very active today, still preventing her from dreaming of and creating the life of her dreams.

Healing Trauma to Manifest Your Dreams

“So what’s the solution to this?”, you may ask. Are we fated so stay stuck with these patterns forever?

The good news is we’re not. Trauma can be healed by reverting the very thing that created it: unsafety. It’s by bringing safety to your protective, traumatized parts that they’ll relax, get out of the trenches, and finally allow you to be, do, and have that which you most want to.

In other words, to manifest the life you want successfully, first you must find and heal the shadows that are keeping you stuck no matter how hard you try. Once you do that, the doors of transformation will open and what you want will naturally flow in (provided you still take action).

This is exactly what the person I had this conversation with is doing now, and her life is beginning to change and align with her deeper wishes. And you can do it too.

Hey, easier said than done, right? The process of meeting and healing our shadows is a delicate and challenging one, and you might have no idea how to do it safely and effectively. Don’t worry, while this is not the topic of this article, stay tuned for my next ones where I’ll walk you through this process.

But here’s something you can start doing right now: the biggest challenge with this process is that our emotions and beliefs are usually subconscious. To be able to meet and work with them, first we need to improve our capacity for Emotional Awareness.

I’ve distilled more than eight years teaching people how to develop it into my Step-By-Step Guide to Emotional Awareness… and the best part is, you can get it for free!

Oh, and one last thing. I also personally guide my clients through this exact process of Healing Into Flourishing™. If you want me to help you do the same so you can heal your traumas and manifest the life of your dreams, you can apply for a free Breakthrough Call here.

Thank you for reading this article until the end” If you liked it, make sure to leave a comment for me, like, share, and subscribe for more!