How to Keep a Mental Diet when Manifesting
In this article, I’m going to discuss how to keep a mental diet when manifesting using the law of assumption, which is a principle popularized by New Thought author Neville Goddard and states that your beliefs and assumptions about reality directly create your reality.
There is a lot of information out there about mental diet, and one of the most common misconceptions about this concept is that it involves flipping every thought you have throughout your day, and that you can never have a negative thought. This in turn causes us to be fearful about having any type of negative thought whatsoever. Additionally, (speaking from personal experience) this is not sustainable and will lead to burnout pretty quickly. With manifesting, it’s important to understand that thoughts alone do not manifest. Your thoughts, combined with feeling, plant seeds in your subconscious and this is what ultimately manifests. Our thoughts are a reflection of the state of consciousness we are currently occupying.
So, how do we keep a mental diet?
Begin by using self-observation to become aware of what is going on with you internally (your inner dialogue, inner conversations, your thoughts, moods, and how you feel) through self-observation. This is an extremely important part of conscious creation, because it is these things that are ultimately going to determine what you experience externally. If you have been manifesting for a while and still aren’t seeing results, self-observation can be very helpful with identifying which state of consciousness you are occupying throughout your day. I reached a point on my conscious creation journey where I became extremely frustrated, because I thought I was doing everything right, so to speak- I was using techniques every day and getting into the feeling of the wish fulfilled. However, I still wasn’t seeing much progress, and when I really observed what was going on with me internally, it became pretty obvious why I hadn’t gotten what I wanted yet: throughout my day, I was on autopilot and often dwelling in a state of lack (by feeling frustrated, wondering why I hadn’t manifested yet, feeling resentful that I hadn’t manifested yet, feeling like a victim, etc.). I also realized there was still this tiny voice in the back of my mind that was telling me I wouldn’t ever get the things I wanted, accompanied by feelings of doubt. This really alerted me to the fact that I was not in fact living in the end the majority of the time, and I needed to take another look at some of the limiting beliefs behind why I was continuing to experience these things.
Second, get in the habit of redirecting your mind when you are on autopilot to the desired state you want to experience. Neville Goddard said in his lectures that successful manifestation is directly proportionate to the frequency with which we occupy the desired state. I do want to mention that it can be quite difficult to go from one extreme to the other (for example, if you’re feeling hopeless, extremely depressed and you try to get into the feeling of the wish fulfilled). This is completely normal! Instead, I recommend focusing on neutralizing the state you’re in. You can do this by taking a walk, watching something you enjoy on TV, reading a book, or doing something else to take care of yourself.
Third, be mindful of the content you are consuming every day, whether it’s watching the news, politics, being on social media, etc. because watching these things can put you in an unwanted state. Our subconscious mind is always picking up impressions throughout our day to day, so it’s important to be aware of what we are consuming regularly and whether it’s helpful to our self-concept and what we are manifesting or not. I personally rarely watch the news, and I’ve chosen to restrict how much time I spend on social media all together. Instead, fill your day with things that support what you are manifesting, such as by making a playlist with positive content, reading inspirational books, watching inspirational shows, etc.
Fourth, continue to focus on your self-concept (in other words, the beliefs and assumptions you have about yourself, the world, other people, etc.). The first goal with the law of assumption is to change our inner world, because that is ultimately what will be reflected in our outer world. Additionally, even if we do successfully manifest something, if we haven’t changed our self-concept, we most likely won't be able to keep it as we will revert back to the dominant state of consciousness (which is determined by your self-concept). As mentioned above, I needed to come back to this and spend more time working on the limiting beliefs I realized I still had.
