Manifestion: When to Say No and Yes

Querida Amiga,

The last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind!

Registration was open for The Chingona’s Sabbatical, I was packing up my home in Oakland (more to come on that), coaching clients, meeting with potential consulting clients, and was a guest speaker for doctoral students at CSU Sacramento.

Each of those is a carta in itself. What’s been on my mind is the manifestation conversation that emerged with the doctoral students.

This is the second year I speak in the Transformative Leadership course. The workshop I facilitate is Transforming Self to Transform Systems. The gist of our time together, which never feels like enough time, is that if we don’t take the time to pause and turn inward to heal what systems have done to us, we will not be as effective in transforming systems to be equitable and anti-racist for others.

As we explore their passions, strengths, and who they want to be as leaders, we are really removing the cloudiness blocking their purpose and the life meant for them. Often there are bigger dreams that live inside of them and more possibilities to show up as their authentic selves.

I highlighted that the word manifestation gets thrown around a lot without a clear explanation of what it means. When we are clear on who we are and the life we want to see unfold, we are able to manifest with ease.

I’m sure you’re still thinking, “What does that even look like?!”

The popular description of manifestation for a long time has been putting images on a visionboard and waiting for that image/idea/experience to pop into our life. I will tell you that in my early years of exploring spirituality/self-help/intuition I put a lot of images on boards that never came to fruition.

What I have learned through life experience, patience, and clarity of purpose, is that manifestation is not opportunity magically appearing. Manifestation is clarity that guides us when to say no and when to stay open to yes, so we are able to receive what moves our purpose forward. Often we make decisions in the moment that are fueled by insecurity and/or impatience. Those decisions can close us off to something more aligned to who we are.

When we take the time to know clearly who we are, how we want to show up in the world, and what our long-term dreams are, we cannot settle for less than what is meant for us. We confidently say no to that which will not serve us and where we are headed. We say yes to opportunities that are aligned with our joy, brilliance, purpose, and values. Those moments of enthusiastic YES move us forward to opportunities greater than what we even imagined was possible.

When I was on my 6-month sabbatical, lots of people started reaching out with job opportunities. Many of them were aligned to who I had been for the first 15 years of my career. However, I was taking this intentional pause to pivot in a new direction. As I turned inward and unpacked what was truly living within me and ready to emerge, there were clear non-negotiables that rose to the surface.

For the first 4 months of the sabbatical, I said no many many times to opportunities that were presented to me. Each time I said no I left myself open to possibilities for yes. Towards the end of month four, an invitation was presented to me that was an immediate and clear YES! The road to manifesting the life I live now started unfolding at a fast pace with a series of decisions that were easy for me to make because I was clear on who I was, what I deserve, and where I saw myself going in the future.

Our dream lives to do not magically appear one day. They unfold from a series of choices we make that are either aligned with who we are meant to be or rooted in who others feel we should be. 

Amiga, my wish for you is that you trust yourself enough to know when you are meant to confidently say YES. May you welcome opportunities into your life that will manifest dreams bigger than you currently are able to see.

Quiero saber de ti. What are you currently manifesting in your life? What do you need to learn about yourself to manifest the life meant for you?

Un Abrazo, 

Michelle