During this pandemic, we have witnessed trends come and go. A trend currently circulating the internet is manifesting.

Manifesting is the practice of having aspirational thoughts or goals with the purpose of making them real. The practice of manifesting is not new; the concept derives from the law of attraction, which is the belief that all thoughts eventually become things. According to the law of attraction, if you think positively, positive things are likely to happen.

In other words, manifesting lets the universe take the wheel and wait for something to eventually happen.

There is no “right way” to manifest either. 

All you need are your aspirations and to think about how nice it would be if they became a reality. According to some people, connecting yourself to the spiritual world by writing down what you desire or saying it out loud can help with achieving that desire.

We see an abundance of social media pages and blogs dedicated to manifesting, offering different steps to achieve your aspirations. These blogs claim the practice is a great way to uplift your mood.

But does manifestation work and will it help with your mental health?

In an interview with Vox, NYU psychology professor Gabriele Oettingen states, “the more positively people dream about the future, the better they feel at the moment.” 

In essence, manifesting helps people stay in a positive mindset.

Manifesting differs from traditional goal setting strategies because it doesn’t have a set timeline to achieve these goals. There is less focus on when and how your aspirations or goals will happen. Manifesting can also help in solidifying your goals because you are vocalizing what you want to achieve.

Even with the incentive to have a positive outlook, there is a possibility that manifesting may not work in everyone’s favor.

You need to have the energy to manifest and set yourself in a place where you can think positively. 

Manifesting overestimates the power and meaning of people’s thoughts. This is due to the notion that thinking about something will increase the likelihood of it happening to you in real life.

The idea of only possessing positive thoughts is not good for people who struggle with mental illness. Manifestation implies that we should avoid having negative thoughts because then negative things might happen.

Cognitive neurologist Rhiannon Jones researched the brain activity of people who believed that their bad thoughts could turn into reality. 

Jones discovered they had more activity in the area of the brain called the precuneus, located between the two cerebral hemispheres. This is the area of the brain often associated with OCD and disorders like schizophrenia.

Jones believes that manifesting can be damaging and dangerous to people with anxiety disorders and has the possibility to cause the same symptoms in people who don’t originally suffer from anxiety. 

For people who do struggle with anxiety or depression, it may be challenging to suppress negative thoughts.

There isn’t anything bad with thinking positive thoughts and believing good things are going to happen to you. It may not work for everyone, but it may be worth giving it a shot, especially during times like these.

Manifesting can work in your favor, but you will never know until you try it.