Why New Age Manifestation did not lead me to peace

Visualizing a world of limitless possibilities is a beautiful realm for us feminine souls to be in. 

However, what I have noticed around New Age LOA (law of attraction) teachings is how harsh, inauthentic, and disingenuine it can also be.

With disillusions like

Versace bags = higher self actualization. 

That a perfect Instagram influencer lifestyle = #goals. 

That “only if” you have manifested xyz = you will be happy.

With the rise of new age spirituality, what I’ve come to see is that spirituality, distorted through capitalism, can become another exhausting hamster wheel where we constantly chasing and striving “for more.” Instead of our feminine souls finding inner peace within herself, New Age teachings, in the guise of spirituality can suck us away from the beauty of our souls and instead toward what society (or perhaps Instagram) wants.

I did not realize this until I was deep into the trenches of the new-age manifestation industry myself. I was caught up in the never-ending treadmill of chasing more money just so I can look like a sought-out expert/coach in the “spiritual” industry. 

Back then, I was trying to quantum leap my way for outcomes (trying to speed up the process), I did not take time+space to connect to my soul and find what actually brings me happiness–- which includes drawing fairy art and writing in-depth blog articles from my heart.

I was pedastalizing the manifestation “gurus” who have manifested more than me, and in way was trying to force myself to become more like them, instead of finding out who really am, and thus what my soul (True Self) really wanted.

And now, I’ve come to see how my soul was stifled, constricted, and hampered down from being too far into New Age Spirituality. And how it can do the same for other sensitive, feminine souls like myself. Below are some of ways that I’ve realized, on how it does so:

Discontentment with current reality

When I was deep in the New-Age, I was too much in the head and not in my heart. Every day, I would be hyper-fixated on what I need to do/ who I would need to be in order to get the outcomes I want. I was trying to micromanage every behavior, every emotion, and every circumstance because I was afraid of being “low-vibrational” and attracting the “wrong” things. It was like I was walking on eggshells everyday trying hard to “embody my future self” just so I can get the outcomes I want.

To put it into simpler terms, I was obsessed with trying to “fix” the current reality in order to sky-rocket my way to a future reality. Whenever we do this, we are obstructing the flow of the Universal Spirit that nourishes our beings simply for who we are.

We disconnect ourselves from this Spirit that is contained in this present moment. 

You can also see this Universal Spirit as the free-flowing spirit that is contained within all of us. Whenever you are captured by the beauty of the present moment, you can co-create with Spirit, such as through your creative expressions, your blissful awareness, and your intuition. However when you are only thinking about getting to a future reality, you disconnect from this infinite, divine creative force. 

Also, to a lot of heart-led souls, the New Age advice that you need to “embody your future self” can feel unnatural, over-formulaic, and inauthentic, which is why a lot of us may be resistant to doing so. It is like trying to appear sexy just so a man finds you interesting, rather than expressing your true self and letting the right man come to you. 

In the above analogy, you will see that although you may get a man with the first strategy, it is unlikely that he is your true love because he isn’t attracted to you, he is only attracted to a scripted, perfected version of you. On the other hand, if you were to express yourself and be as you are, you are way more likely to attract the kind of love that you truly desire.

Just like that, when it comes to manifestations, if you are trying hard to portray yourself as your future self, the version you are portraying is likely not your true, authentic self. And because of that, the people/clients/things you “attract” may not be long-lasting and genuine nor you may feel intrinsically fulfilled on your path of doing so. 

Internalized Self blame 

The New Age teachings tell us that  “you create your reality.” – which can be helpful for taking personal ownership in changing our lives. However, when this teaching is taken too far, it can lead to a spiral of self-blame and ‘healing traps’ when life unfolds in a way that is different from what our minds have planned. 

For example, let’s say someone had a flat tire in their morning to work, got laid off from work in the afternoon, and then got broken up by their significant other at night. When we look through the lens of the Law of attraction, it may be easy to think to ourselves that “you must have attracted them” and then get into perpetual self-doubt, blame, and shame when things don’t go our way.

When the truth is, things happen, period. It doesn’t matter who you are nor what you do, sometimes the thunderstorms of life can just strike upon us. We can plan and predict the ocean winds of life but sometimes, it can also be unpredictable because it is the ocean’s nature. Yet no matter what, our peace rests upon our will to surrender to the currents of life, rather than resisting, forcing, and battling it, through trying to control (lol I mean create) your reality. 

Puffed up ‘spiritual’ egos 

On the opposite end of the Law of Attraction, when we DO attract the things we want, something that I see among the spiritual self-help industry is that we overglorify ourselves (our own egos). 

This is something I see especially in the wellness coaching industry– where coaches/gurus commodify their manifestation abilities to market themselves.We say things like “I am God. I am the Creator” which is true to an extent since we all have free will on what we want to create. 

However, when the ego takes on this identity of being God/Creator, it can disconnect us from our own interdependence and connection to the Divine that is beyond our personal selves. The ego can also take on the identity of being a ‘spiritual guru’ like you are superior to people, thus making you become further and further disconnected to your authentic truth and your heart. 

Bypassing our emotions. Soul. Truth.  

With the Law of Attraction, we’ve been taught to be “high vibe” and be in “positive energy” in order to attract the things we want. 

As a human being, this is impossible to attain. Experiencing a variety of emotions is a part of being human, especially as a feminine soul. 

When we make ourselves feel wrong for having certain feelings, it pushes us away from knowing the truth through our bodies (aka intuition). This happens because our bodies become ‘blocked’ with trapped emotions, therefore being unable to be a clear channel— that means receiving hunches, insights, and creative ideas. In other words, when we avoid emotions, we become too caught up in our heads (i.e. overthink) instead of channeling our highest creations and experiencing a heaven-on-earth Now.

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As a spiritual coach & healer myself, it is beautiful to see people taking ownership of our lives and envisioning where our souls desire to be, through LOA. I am also a firm believer that we are living under the provision of the Higher Realm (Source/God) and that the “Law” of consciousness being a source of creation is happening all the time.

However, these “Laws” of LOA can be easily distorted, misconstrued, and misapplied by our minds/ego. “Spirituality” can become a source of discontentment, frustration, and suffering, when the truth is, spirituality that is true to our hearts, should only bring us closer to the soul that is peace…