Carolina asked a great question in her comment to my last post: “is there a timeline between alignment and manifestation? I’d really like to know.”

This is a question that comes up frequently. And this is what I know, from my experience. (In other words, this is what works for me - I can’t emphasize enough that every single one of us has an individual, personalized journey. Having said that, I always find, too, that learning about other people experiences helps me to find my own course.)

What you believe about your desire plays a very large role in how fast you manifest things in your life.

Has this ever happened to you? There’s something you really desire, and you’re doing it all - you’re meditating on it, visualizing it, creating vision boards, letting your imagination play around with it. In other words, you’re “doing all the right things”.

And two weeks down the road, it’s still not there yet. Not only that, but there’s not even a hint of it anywhere.

You’re okay with that. It’s only been two weeks, right?

Fast forward three months down the road. And it’s still not there yet. Not only that, but there’s not even a hint of it anywhere.

You try to be okay with it, but you’re really starting to wonder. What’s going on? What am I doing wrong?

Let Go of Self-Judgment

First things first. You’re not doing anything wrong. The moment you begin going down that road, you will move away from alignment. This is very important to remember.

You are an amazing individual, and you’ve got to step away from judging yourself. We’ve all been taught that judging others is not a good thing; I say that eliminating self-judgment is the starting point to alignment.

So, now you know, it’s not about me doing anything wrong. What’s up, then?

No matter how much you “work” the Law of Attraction, it’s the beliefs you hold that make the difference.

If deep down inside your beliefs support your desire, you’ll manifest it quickly.

But if your beliefs conflict with your desire, you’ll be in for the long haul.

If you’ve been reading the Abundance Journal for a while now, you’ll see the evolution in my experiences. What I’ve come to learn this year is that feeling good is a wonderful start, but without belief, all you’ll get from feeling good is … feeling good.

Which is NOT a bad thing. But when it comes to manifesting what you want, you need to take things further.

So if things just aren’t manifesting, even though you’re doing all the LOA things you’ve been taught - visualizing, feeling good, always reaching for the better feeling thought, playing with games and processes - take a step back, and take a close look at Who You are Being.

Is the You that you’re being someone who really believes in your desire?

It’s time to be brutally honest with yourself. What you need to know is whether you hold a belief that’s in conflict with what you want.

Having such beliefs doesn’t mean you’re “wrong”, or “doing the wrong things”. That’s just that self-judgment thing creeping up again.

Play the “But” Game

One easy way to find out if you hold any conflicting beliefs is to play the “but” game.

Sit down with a pad of paper, take a deep breath, and commit to being honest with yourself. Write down what you desire at the top of your page, and then, rapidly, write down everything that comes to your mind when you think to yourself, “I want _______________ BUT …”

You’ll find your beliefs in your “buts”.

It works.

I’ve Found the Conflicting Belief! Now What?

I’ll write more about shifting your beliefs in my next post. But for now, just discovering that you hold these conflicting beliefs is a good start.

Our beliefs create our reality. But remember this: YOU choose your beliefs. You do. Every single belief that you hold, you’ve chosen.

It’s just that usually we don’t consciously choose. We let habit make the choices for us. We let the familiar and the comfortable dictate our choices.

So for now, commit to taking charge of what you choose to believe. If it helps for you to get into the groove of consciously choosing, try practicing it on the smaller things. You’ll see quite quickly that you do get to choose what you believe.

Once you start getting this, it gets easier. You’ll still forget sometimes - that’s called living life - but each time you’ll remember even more powerfully. At least, that’s how it’s been working for me.