Unlocking the Manifestation Power of Focus and Imagination

Melanie Mishler (: 00:25

Hello love and welcome back to the podcast Happy Thursday. Today I want to talk about focus and imagination because these two things are the master key to manifesting anything you desire and yet they're very often overlooked. Most of us are taught to do more like we're going to focus on doing more, working harder, pushing, grinding, hustling.

But manifestation doesn't work that way.

one of my teachers, Neville Goddard, who I'm sure you've heard me talk about him quite a bit here.

He said, you're only limited by weakness of attention and poverty of imagination. And when I heard this for the first time, it was really interesting to me because I had never heard the word poverty used in that way before. I'd only heard it in relation to money.

Or I also heard it maybe with spirituality, but when I heard this for the first time, I paused because I really felt it in my body. So I want to say this again and really let this land for you. You're only limited by weakness of attention and poverty of imagination, which means We're not limited by time, not by talent.

not even limited by money, we're limited by where we place our attention and how willing we are to imagine something bigger for ourselves. And what that really means, what it truly, truly means is that you and I, are literally unlimited.

And when I first heard this from Neville, I really had to sit with it for a little bit because it's both empowering and a little confronting, right? Because it made me ask myself, where is my attention actually going? Where am I letting it leak? And where have I stopped imagining what's truly possible

just because maybe I'm afraid it won't happen or I don't think it's possible or worse that I'm not worthy of it. And really, where is my attention going? And honestly, like most people for years, my attention was focused on reality. I would look at the results around me on what was already manifested, my current circumstances, my current results.

And I would simply react to that instead of focusing my attention on my imagination, on using my imagination, on what I wanted to be true, on what I was becoming or on what was possible. And doing this, it kept me limited. It kept me looped and limited in all aspects of my life.

and there's a quote by another brilliant man, Abraham Lincoln, who said, to believe in the things that you can see and touch is no belief at all. But to believe in the unseen is a triumph and a blessing. And Lincoln was talking about the same thing as Neville.

It takes zero imagination or effort to just look around at the world around you and react to what's happening.

what happens when we live this way, when we are just constantly in a state of observing and reacting, all we do is create more of the same. We don't change our lives. We don't step deeper into our creative power and manifest our deepest desires.

We create by seeing beyond what's visible, by focusing on our vision, on the unseen.

which means living in our imagination until it actually becomes reality. It's holding that vibration steady. So today I want to talk about

having belief before evidence on focus as a superpower and the very real ways that we limit what's possible, not because we're incapable, but because we're distracted or discouraged or even afraid to dream bigger. use a really personal example. I love using myself as an example, but let's talk about wanting financial freedom.

you probably know that Andy and I have created a life with a lot of freedom that many people dream about. We live between our homes in California and Belize. We run our own business and we have a ton of freedom and flexibility and choice.

but it wasn't always that way for me

because there was a time when I was barely making any money and I was saying all the right things. I was saying things like I want abundance. I want ease. I want to feel supported and I was journaling about it and I was visualizing it. But what was happening is underneath it all. I was still carrying fear and like an energy pattern

that I had held since I was a little girl because I grew up with this deep fear of being homeless and it was due to a trauma that I experienced as a child, a trauma that lived in my body, not just in my mind, but in my nervous system. And for me, it wasn't just about not having money. It was about not being safe, not having a place to live.

So I carry this energy into my young adulthood. And every time I would look at my bank balance, that fear would flare. Even if I had enough money, even if I had enough money for plane tickets and groceries and all of that stuff, my body would just go into lack

an into the story of

Well, what if or what if something happens? My attention, it would get stuck on the current balance or on the upcoming bills and really on just the gap between where I was and where I said I wanted to be. And even though I always had enough money, what I learned to do was very, very subtly was to dim my desires. I learned to shrink my vision and to kind of

edit down what I allowed myself to dream so that it matched my current reality. So it matched what was quote realistic. I'd find myself saying things like, well, what do I even need that much money for?

or taking the like self righteous route of, well, I don't actually need that much money anyway. I could do without. But that wasn't humility. It was fear. was fear dressed up as practicality. So instead of growing my capacity to call in more and to have more desires, what I was doing is I was shrinking down my imagination to match what I already had.

Not because I didn't want more, but because I didn't yet feel safe to receive more. And if you didn't listen to the episode two weeks ago, that was all about receiving. I'll link it in the show notes. And I really encourage you to go listen to that because we have to expand our ability to receive before anything can show up for us.

So when I was doing that, when I was shrinking my desire, when I was focusing on what is, like what was currently in my bank balance, that's what Neville meant by weakness of attention and poverty of imagination. It wasn't that I wasn't trying. It was that I was still being the version of me who feared it could all fall And so I kept manifesting unconsciously, of course, but kept manifesting from that place.

that's why focus and imagination matter so, so deeply because they're not just mindset tricks. They're the tools that help us shift our identity, not just in thought, but in energy and in embodiment and the way that we actually show up. And here's the part I want you to remember when you're doing the work, when you're focusing with your attention.

not pretending or delusional. It's rehearsal. It's energetic and emotional rehearsal. You're not faking it. You're literally training your body and your nervous system and your energy to believe in a new reality.

And it's not about ignoring what's real. It's about refusing to build your future from it.

Because the version of you who already has what you desire,

She actually already exists. Because you've heard me say this before, if you have a desire inside of you, then you already have everything you need to bring it to form, to bring it into the physical reality. job is to become her through your focus, through your imagination, by creating a nervous system that can actually hold it when it shows up. And so this is where

the belief in the unseen becomes everything

Because especially when it comes to things like money, our belief in the unseen gets tested constantly. Because it's easy to believe in abundance when we have deposits flowing in and our invoices are paid and our savings account is stacked up. But what about when it's not? Right? What about when the numbers they don't quite reflect your vision yet? And the clients maybe they haven't said yes yet.

and the payment plan falls through or your launch flops or your bank account makes you want to just up on your dream and go back and get a quote real job.

That is when belief matters the most. Not belief in a fantasy, but Belief hasn't shown up yet, but what already exists in the field of possibility.

And that kind of belief, it doesn't come from logic. In fact, it doesn't even seem logical. It comes from devotion and from understanding that a focused imagination literally creates your world. It creates your reality. It comes from choosing to anchor your attention and what you know is real, even when you can't see it yet. It's not blind faith.

deliberate faith. It's almost like when you plant that seed and the little sprout hasn't broken through the soil yet. But you know, you know, shit's happening beneath the soil, the seed is becoming alive, the roots are going down, it's preparing to break through the soil.

And when you start practicing that belief, it's a knowing. It's like a deep, deep knowing. When you start to practice that daily Not just thinking about it, but feeling it, rehearsing it. Experiencing the emotions and embodying it, then that's when everything really starts to shift. You stop reacting to what is and you start.

aligning

with what's coming to and that my love is where the real magic happens is

where all kinds of synchronicities and really fun things start happening.

You are allowed to dream bigger than you ever have before. Another one of my teachers, Charles Handel, he said, dream bigger than you ever have before. Don't be afraid. is part most people skip.

not because they don't want big things, that feels too big or too much or maybe too far away. So again, like I explained earlier, we start to shrink our desires so that they feel

we added our vision so that it feels more realistic.

which is basically just watering down our dreams so that we are not disappointed. But that's not manifestation. That's management. That's fear disguised as strategy. So I'm inviting you right now to stop managing your desires and start expanding your imagination. Let it be

bold and wild and stretch beyond anything you've ever dreamed or imagined before. if you can imagine it and you can hold your attention on it long enough to become it, then you can experience it in physical reality. But here's the thing. I want you to remember attention is another one of those master keys to manifestation and we have to protect it because right now in today's world,

We're being constantly pulled in a hundred different directions. We're scrolling and checking and comparing and all of that noise. It's not neutral. It chips away at our focus and it clouds our clarity and it makes it harder to stay connected to the vision that we're building. So if you're feeling scattered or uninspired, it might not be that your dreams are

maybe not flushed out yet. It might just be that you haven't had enough time or quiet to really let them develop and to really hear them.

sometimes the most powerful thing you can do for your manifestation practice isn't doing more, but doing less, having less input, distractions and more intention. So turn down the volume, come back to your body, come back to your vision because

That, my love, is where your power lies.

okay love, if this episode landed for you,

s to be the exact midpoint of: 2025

goals and hit your vision for: 2025

's go into the second half of: 2025

keep manifesting an epic life.