I'm A Neuroscientist: These Are The 3 Most Common Manifesting Mistakes

There is a wrong way to manifest—and there's much more to it than thinking about your dream life today and expecting something to change tomorrow.

When you look at manifestation from a neurological perspective, you'll see it's more about training your brain than daydreaming, which is where neurosurgeon, compassion researcher, and author James Doty, M.D., comes in. 

In this episode of the mindbodygreen podcast and his book, Mind Magic: The Neuroscience of Manifestation and How It Changes Everything, Doty delivers a crash course on how to put your dreams into action and how to manifest things like wealth and success in a meaningful way. 

One essential step to manifesting is uncovering why you want what you're manifesting. Doty uses the example of a new house: "If you sit there and say, 'I want to live in this house because it's bigger than everyone else's house, everyone will look at me and believe I am a success and that will show everyone that I'm worthy because I have this,' that's the wrong approach." 

Instead, "If you sit there and say, 'I need a home so that I can have experiences with those I love, it is a place of warmth, it is an inviting place, it is a place where people can be comfortable and be themselves,'" that's how you'll get closer to achieving your manifestations. 

The next mistake: You let self-doubt take over. "If you put into your head, 'I am not able to,' 'it is not possible,' 'I don't deserve,' then that becomes fact," Doty says. You begin to convince yourself that you cannot achieve your goals, and sabotage your manifestations from the start. 

The more time and space you devote to these negative thoughts, the less time you'll have for actions that lead you toward achieving your goals, whatever they may be.

Now, don't get me wrong—self-doubt is a normal human experience. The crucial step is to acknowledge these thoughts as self-doubt when you catch them, and then release them. This is a classic mindfulness practice, and one that will benefit you in numerous aspects of life, extending beyond just manifestation.

"What people need to understand is that their mind, their ability to change their brain, is extraordinarily, extraordinarily powerful," Doty says. So keep tabs on recurring thoughts, as they have the power to influence your decisions, mindset, and ultimately your future success. 

Finally, you want to ensure that you're not expecting too much from too little action. Doty illustrates this point with the example of training to become a runner.

"The best thing is to set an alarm, get up early, and not try to run 2 miles or 3 miles, but simply to get up and maybe walk to the corner, walk around the block, and do this over and over because then it gets embedded," he says. 

"When your expectation is too high, in the sense of what you want at that moment, you're going to be very disappointed," Doty adds. There's nothing wrong with having high expectations for your long-term goals, but be realistic about what you can and can't do at the start. 

"We know that through repetition, we manifest our intentions," Doty says. "And what I mean by that, there's a saying that 'What fires together wires together,' meaning that when you do something over and over, you create [new] neural pathways." 

Three of the most common manifestation mistakes are focusing solely on material items, letting self-doubt infiltrate your mindset, and expecting too much without putting in the effort to make things happen.

For more manifestation tips and to dive deeper into the science of manifestation, tune in to this episode.