You’re Not Manifesting What You Want Because Your Brain Won’t Let You

You know what you want, more money, better health, a thriving business. 

You visualize, affirm, take action… but somehow, your brain keeps redirecting your focus away from what you actually want.

It feels like no matter what you do, you can’t keep your focus on what you want to manifest. Frustrating, right?

So what’s the problem?

It’s not you. The biggest block to manifesting is your brain. Yep, the very thing running the show.

Your Brain is Wired to Block Manifestation

Yes it is. Your brain isn’t designed to create what you want. It’s designed to keep you safe.

And safe, according to your brain, means sticking to what’s familiar, obsessing over worst-case scenarios, and generally being a total buzzkill to your dreams.

Here’s how your brain keeps you stuck:

• It fixates on the past of what “used to be” or it dredges up old failures and makes you feel the pain of them all over again. Not helpful.

• It worries about the future, spinning up worst-case scenarios, taking your mind where you never want to go.

• It scans for threats, locking in on problems instead of possibilities, which is why you’re still over analyzing that awkward client call from last week.

Your brain is constantly redirecting your focus to the exact opposite of what you want to manifest. Because why make things easy, right? (Don’t worry, I have some suggestions for you further along.)

The 60-Second Brain Reset

(This is a simple exercise to instantly snap your brain out of its survival loop and shift into manifesting mode.)

The “Right Here, Right Now” Reset:

• Close your eyes, take a deep breath.

• Name three things that feel good in this exact moment (warm coffee, cozy socks, the fact that you didn’t have to set an alarm this morning, hey, small wins count).

• Smile, I mean literally. This forces a physiological shift in the brain.

• Whisper: “Right here, right now, all is good.”

This exercise grounds your brain in the present, stopping the past/future spiral that blocks manifestation. Simple and effective.

How to Trick Your Brain into Manifesting What You Want

Since your brain is naturally wired to focus on what’s not working, you have to trick it into cooperating. Here’s how:

1. Positive Emotion Saturation. Your brain is like a sponge, it soaks up whatever it’s exposed to most. And since it defaults to soaking up stress, fear, and that cringe moment from 2014, you have to flood it with feel-good emotions daily.

• Blast your favorite music.

• Move your body (yes, even a dramatic stretch counts).

• Celebrate small wins like you just won an award (body posture can change your brain!).

2. Mental Venting. Your brain needs an outlet for its constant noise. So, instead of letting those worries sit in your head on a playback loop, dump them onto paper.

• Write out everything weighing on you.

• Then, rewrite it as if you were coaching a friend through it. (You’d never talk to your bestie the way you talk to yourself.)

• Or let your thoughts drift in any direct during your next meditation till all they just go… silent (It can happen, I promise.)

3. Happiness Cultivation. A happy brain is a manifesting brain. And no, this doesn’t mean forcing positivity 24/7. It means actively choosing joy, even if it’s only in small doses.

• Start your day with one thing that makes you feel happy.

• Give yourself permission to enjoy the present moment without turning it into a to-do list item. (Raising my hand to denote my own guilt in this type of behavior.)

• Make a list of all the things that make you feel happy.

The Daily Practice That Keeps Your Brain Aligned with Your Desires

Manifesting is about training your brain to hold the desired energy, vibration, or frequency of what you want to experience.

The “3-Minute Future Lock-In” Exercise:

• Every morning, imagine the moment your manifestation arrives.

• Focus on how it feels (not just what it looks like).

• Carry that feeling into your day, your brain will start seeking ways to match it.

This isn’t just some woo-woo BS. Your brain literally filters the world based on what it expects to see. So make sure it’s looking for what you actually want.

No more letting it distract you.

If you’re struggling to focus on what you want to manifest, it’s not a “you” problem, it’s a brain problem.

But you can outsmart it.

Train your brain to stay present, feel good, and expect the best, and watch how quickly things start shifting.

If you want healthier finances, pull the happiness you’re cultivating into that thought. If you want more clients, more success, pull that into your thoughts during your daily practices. 

To become good at anything, you have to practice and manifesting is no different. Practicing honing your focus despite your brain’s natural tendencies, is the goal. 

As you get stronger, you can keep your focus on what you want to manifest longer and I think you’ll find that your life (and business) begins to change. Try it.

Michelle Sera is a Coaching Business Growth Specialist who’s worked behind the scenes of 4 multi-million dollar coaching brands, learning what truly works to grow a thriving coaching business. As a Certified Happiness & Manifesting Coach and founder of ElevatedMind®, she guides coaches to consistent growth with strategic simplicity and energy alignment.

If you’d like to join her tribe of Client-Getters, subscribe to her newest newsletter: Find Coaching Clients — The Newsletter that shows you where to focus your energy, so you can find plenty of clients.

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Michelle Sera

Join her tribe of Client-Getters, subscribe to her newest newsletter: Find Coaching Clients — The Newsletter that shows you where to focus your energy, so you can find plenty of clients.