The problem with manifesting...

Manifesting is all the rage, and being good at manifesting is seen as being spiritually strong, enlightened even.  Books about manifesting fill the New Age section of the bookstore, and many of the popular spiritual teachers talk about it, share how to do it.  It is seen as being closely connected to the Divine.  Maybe it is, but in truth, I have a conflicted feelings about manifesting. 

Manifesting is the act of calling something into being that is not currently present in a life.  Maybe it's more money, a bigger audience, a new job, a new car or house.  I think it's important to be clear what is working in our lives and what is not, what feels good and what does not.  But my conflict is this: in my experience, there is a pain at the root of wanting - at a deeper level it can be about wanting something to be different.  For me, any desire I have for something to be different is rooted in an underlying pain.  There is an underlying pain that we think that thing or that experience is going to fix.

For me, I find more power in looking at the pain beyond the desire.  To look directly at it, getting really honest with myself about the desire and what I think it represents.  It frequently represents something, it is not about the thing.  So, I get still and quiet, look beyond the desire, see the pain or fear directly, name it, claim it, and get comfortable with the root pain.  When I do this, I can't help but know myself better, and see myself with more compassion.  And when I feel compassion for myself, thing I want no manifest longer satisfies me, no longer holds the spark it once held.  It is no longer needed. 

​Somehow, this awareness, this attention, this compassion all helps me to know myself better.  And then, somehow, nothing has to change as much on the outside.