How to Manifest, The Science Behind Making Your Big Dreams Your Reality
31 Dec 2024 · 28 min
Lori and Chris Harder break down manifesting through neuroscience, connecting visualization and belief to brain regions like the prefrontal cortex and mirror neurons. They walk through seven concrete steps: clarifying intentions, visualization, emotional alignment, belief formation, aligned action, overcoming doubt, and gratitude.
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Belief alone can cause measurable changes in your brain and body.
That's real science. Happens all the time with science, clinical.
Trials all the time. So just even thinking that it can happen is going to start to change you and make it happen. And we're back with another episode of He Said, she Said.
Happy New Year, guys.
Happy New Year.
Dang. Who's feeling good? Who's feeling like rested? Who's feeling like, oh, my God, I gotta start catching up?
You know, in the grand scheme, it just really doesn't matter how you're feeling right now because you have plenty of time and everything that you need to get everything back on track. And something that I try to think about during the holidays is no matter how far backward you think you went, you went forward in enjoyment and in time with your family and friends and taking time off of the thing that you do all the time. And I think that's really vital for our creativity and just for getting back to remembering that we actually, you know, really enjoy work. And so no matter where you're at, I want you to remember that that time that you spent was not wasted. And it's really, really important.
Yeah, you know what? It's going to surprise you coming out of me, but here's the truth. A really fast start or being ahead of the game, you know, right away on New Year's is totally overrated. There's 365 days. A lot of them are going to go well, a lot of them aren't. Sometimes you can be ahead of the game, sometimes you're going to be behind. And there's really no control in that ever flow. So if you're feeling like, oh, I don't have the running start, everyone else does, that will have no bearing on the outcome of your year this year. So let's freaking go.
But look, I love a fast start.
Oh, boy. All right, we're gonna talk manifesting. Is it real? Is it fake? Does it work?
I mean, we know it works.
Yep. We're team manifest over here.
It's the new year, and it seems like this is the only crap you guys want to talk about. So it's kind of the only thing that I like, really. It's just that topic for me that I always come back to because so many of the things in my. I mean, everything. Everything in my life. How does this little Upper Michigan didn't graduate high school. Figure it all out. Yes, of course I took massive action, but I'm telling you, manifesting was the main first thing that I did.
Yeah, yeah. And here's what's funny. The real's been manifesting a fitness comeback for you. Should we make an announcement?
What are you talking about?
You know, I'm talking about the glossy New Year workouts.
You guys, if you want to just jump back into feeling amazing in five days, January 6, starts the glossy Glow up challenge.
Glosy glow up challenge. Let's go.
I recorded workouts just for you, so you get to work out with me. I'll be your personal workout buddy throughout these workouts. Trust me. I feel like these are really fun, motivating, energizing, and if you know me, I like to just make these count right away. And I like to make them really fast. Fast. So they're fast, they're fun, they're effective. There's a detoxifying meal guide on there. There's manifesting meditations from Natalie Ellis and manifesting journal prompts. And you just got to join. So go to the link below and join. It's totally free.
Yeah. No strings attached.
No strings attached. We just want to build the GLO community, so go and check it out.
By the way, when she says link below, gotta go to the show notes. Find the link in there. It'll be really easy to find, but it's totally free. This. I wonder how many listeners don't know you from your fitness days because it's been a while. Like, they probably don't know that you had this monthly program with thousands and thousands of women on it and you do these same 20 minute workouts with them and have the meal guide and have all these things. Like, this was a big business for us for many years.
This was our business for a lot of years. I know. I talked to somebody the other day and they were like, you had a fitness membership. You were on fitness magazines. I was like, oh, my God.
I wonder how many listeners don't know that you've had 11 covers of magazines.
I don't know.
That's wild. Back when covers were a thing that.
Is just that set up the whole foundation, which is why I'm so excited about this challenge, is because fitness is a foundation for your goals. You're only as good as your energy. Trust me. You're only as good as how confident you feel in working out and keeping promises to yourself. Little ones through working out and through choosing better food. I'm not saying you have to be perfect because I am far from that. That is going to give you the confidence that you need to build these big dreams on.
All right, well, people manifested free Workouts with Lori. She's making a comeback, folks. Here we go. Go to show notes. Click that free link. But let's talk manifesting for real. Obviously, it's made a massive impact on our success. We literally manifest every single day, right? Part of our power. 9. Easy for me to say. And, you know, we say out loud every day three things that we're grateful for, three things that we're excited about, and three things that we are manifesting happen that day or this week.
Okay? So I wanted to also add some science to this, so just so all of you can really understand what's going on in your brain. I'm also reading this book called Mind Magic by James R. Doty. I'm like, literally only on the first four chapters, but I really love it because I always just like to read about how real this is and why it works. So the first thing that you're going to want to do is just clarify your intention, and it's just setting your goal. And so one of the most important things that you can do is write down, get really clear on exactly what you want. And I think that it will move even faster if you rewrite it down every single day. I don't know what it is. I think it's some sort of spiritual thing that God had us express through our hands in writing or hieroglyphics or whatever that looks like. I really believe that the expression from brain onto pad of paper, stone tablet, whatever it was, it's just built into us to want to almost declare that. So start writing it down. And what this does, this is prefrontal cortex activation. So this is the part of the brain that's responsible for planning, decision making and setting goals. And when you clarify what you want, that region engages in creating a mental map towards your desired outcome. So write it down and visualize it.
So that's an awesome spiritual description I see. I. I tend to be or try and invite in team logical as well. And here's how I see it from a logical standpoint. I know, I know, but you got to enroll everybody, right?
Faith over logic.
And here's kind of how I see it playing out in a logical way for those of you that are like, I still need a little logic behind it. It's just common sense that if you repeat a mantra, you repeat a thought, you're more inclined to take the actions to make that thought or that desire happen. And writing down like you talked about every single day is just repetition of a thought expressed through action. If you're willing to write it down every single day, Then your body naturally is going to be willing to take a few more steps than it would have without you doing that every single day. So you're actually building this muscle of consistency and repetition that's guiding you towards a target. Because when you write it down every single day, whatever it is, you're really just defining a target. And when you define a target, your body naturally aims towards it.
Okay, so the next thing that we're going to talk about is creating the vision, and that is just a mental rehearsal that you're going to do every single day. I've been telling Chris, like, I wake up in the morning, and I'm actually, we're kind of manifesting a different home right now because we want a little more room with where we're at. And so I've been telling him I've been drinking my coffee every single day in this other house that I have in my mind.
And that you have as a screensaver on your phone.
I have it as a screensaver. I'm like, I'm already living there. And I tell him that. I'm like, oh, I like, you know, had all of these experiences in our house today because I did this visualization, and here's what I did, and I. I feel them so clearly. And here's why. So we have mirror neurons, and then we also have a reticular activating system. So the mirror neurons are the things that fire when you visualize yourself achieving something, and they help you practice mentally before it happens. And it truly is like it's already happening. And then the reticular activating system, this is where it starts to get really real. It's a network in the brainstem, and it filters information and focuses your attention on what matters most. So, like, key details that you're going to need in order to make this happen. And when you visualize your goal, your RAS primes you to notice opportunities and resources related to it. So these things might have always been around you, but you weren't looking for them. They weren't always like, you know exactly what you're looking for. And I know that Tony Robbins does this at his events all of the time. He says, you know, okay, everybody, I want you to look for blue. Look for blue, look for blue, look for blue, look for blue. And then he says, how many of you noticed red and nobody saw red and. Because you weren't looking for it, and then he makes you look for red, and all of a sudden you see thousands of red things. So it's truly like, that's the thing about writing down your goals and talking about them, especially sharing them with people. All of a sudden, all the things and all the people start to hear, like, it's this energetic cry. Not only that, but like this universal cry, this verbal cry. You're, like, saying all of these things out loud. You're writing it down, and everything is starting to tune into what you want. You're becoming a magnet.
Yeah. And here's what team Logical kind of thinks of this mental rehearsal.
And that is every time I'm going to do it.
And that is every professional athlete, like the best golfers in the world, they play specific holes in their mind. Exactly. Over and over and over again. What are they going to do when the ball's right here and they're 150 yards out? What club are they going to use? How are they going to swing it? And they take those mental reps. Quarterbacks do the same thing, literally, the first 15 scripted plays. They take those mental reps over and over and over again. What happens if the pocket collapses? What happens if this. And so Team Logical says, when you've taken so many mental reps, then it's already kind of occurred in your mind, so you don't panic, you don't freak out. You actually know how to react to it. And so, again, whether it's the mental reps, because the way I'm team visualization, when I meditate, I just visualize over and over in my mind. So I am on team mental reps for sure. But for the logical ones, it just makes you feel like I've already been here before, so I'm prepared to execute.
You know, when I was doing fitness routines where you do, like, a whole fitness routine on stage for two minutes, like, all out, I had gotten really injured. Like, I don't. I don't know. It was like four or four or six weeks before, and I butthole, right? I did not sprain my butthole. I think it was an ankle, but close enough. Whatever.
It's all the same.
It's all the same. So I had called one of the girls who competes all the time, who is like a. A champion in fitness, and she was like, okay, you're gonna be just fine. In fact, I promise you that you might even be better than if you practiced. She said, I need you to run your routine for one hour a day, over and over and over. Set your alarm. It's gonna get exhausting. It's gonna get tiring, but I music. And I want you to run your routine, move your arms, like, do all the things, but, like, lay there. You know what I mean? And so I did this. And I'm not even kidding you, by the time I got better, I think I had one week left to practice. And it was all there. It was sharp because I pictured myself kicking high, I pictured myself flexible, I pictured myself nailing it. And it was all there and then some. Like, I had practiced over time. So the next thing that I want to share with you is the emotional alignment portion of this, which is so important. This means that you have to feel like the goal is real. So the brain connection with this, this is limbic system activation. This system regulates emotions. And when you attach positive emotions to your goal, whether that's joy or gratitude, it reinforces neural pathways associated with your desired outcome. This is gonna feel way more natural to you. This is just gonna feel like who you are in life. Which means when you feel this way and you believe this way, that's what you're going to start attracting. And this also releases dopamine, which anticipating and envisioning success triggers dopamine, which will create that reward chemical which also keeps motivating you to take action.
Here's how I feel. Like this one. If you can feel something as though it already happened, then you can attract it. But team Logical would say, how can I feel this is true if it doesn't seem like it's a reality for me yet. And I think people get tripped up here and I don't have a logical answer to this. Maybe you do, because people say, you know when you say feel the goal is real? All right, well, the goal. Pretend you make $300,000 a year and you're like, this is the year I make a million. I'm feeling the million as if it's real. I'm feeling the million. But your brain's saying, dude, you haven't come close to a million yet. So how do you feel the goal is real here from a logical standpoint.
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Starts to become a reality with reps.
Like, if you're getting into a Bentley, then that weekend, why don't you go to the Bentley dealer and go sit?
I was literally feel the goal is real.
Go and do the things. Like, you and I will walk through houses that are so far out of what we can reach, and we'll go in there and literally, like, the, you know, the agent will be in a different room, and we'll just pretend it's our house. We don't do anything too crazy. But, like, literally, I just pretend I live there. I'm like, coming home. I'm like, what would I do in this room? What would I do in this room?
Speaking of, does anyone have $29 million we could borrow? I promise we'll pay back a little while. There's one house we want.
Yeah, no problem. All right, so the next one is just the belief in the formation of belief. So this helps rewire your neural pathways. So that's just neuroplasticity and repeating affirmations or focusing on your goal rewires your brain to believe that the outcome is possible. And this makes it easier to take aligned action. Because if you don't believe the goal is possible and it feels so wrong in your brain because you're not doing the reps, you're not doing these workouts, you're not sitting in the Bentley in the weekend, and then it's not going to feel real to you or even attainable or even possible. And honestly, you're not even going to really be able to picture it because you're not working to cultivate and picture it. And so there's something else called the cognitive bias formation. And your brain starts to focus on evidence that supports your belief, reinforcing confidence. When you do this, you're literally wiring your brain to win.
So this is like, for Team Logical, I always teach this. The world is always just going to send you evidence by default, and it's usually not going to align with your lofty goals, because the world can be a tough place, and the world can be a place full of negativity. So I always say you have to go out there and find the evidence to support the goals that you have to support the way you want to Feel to support the story that you want to tell yourself because there is plenty of evidence for both sides of any single argument. I swear to God, there is one set of evidence typically falls in your lap. The valuable set of evidence. You have to go out, seek, find it and then concentrate on that.
Okay, so the next one is taking a line to action. Duh. Obviously this is so huge. This is the part for me that when people are like, just really sit and meditate on it. Yes, yes. That's one of the most important parts. But then, man, you just gotta take aligned action frequently. I'm not saying that this has to be hard, but I am saying that you have to do those big needle moving actions all of the time. So this is the basal ganglia and this is the brain connection on aligned action. The brain region governs habits. So the basal ganglia governs your habits. And when you align actions with your vision and it reinforces neural circuits, making the behaviors automatic over time. So, like, these challenging things that I used to think were hard Chris are now like, it is who I am. I send the email, I reach out, I DM the person, I make things happen super fast. I put the money down on the event space and do the event. So. And then there's also executive function. Planning and persistence through small steps engage the brain's ability to turn abstract goals into reality. So it's all of this coming together so that you can start to execute consistently and have it feel like it's who you are.
Yeah. Here's my opinion. It's real simple. Manifesting without taking aligned action is just hoping. It's really that simple. Manifesting without taking action is just hoping. Here's why. Here's a really silly example. I'm manifesting for these castle doors to open up so I can get all the gold inside. I'm manifesting and manifesting and manifesting. Why won't these castle doors open up and finally they open up. But guess what? You don't walk your ass through those doors, right? Take aligned action regardless of what might be through them. It's good for nothing. It was just a whole bunch of hoping. And it's just common sense that when you take aligned action, even if you take some of the wrong actions, you're going to be taking steps towards your goal.
All right, so the next one is overcoming doubt because there's definitely going to be doubt when you are trying to manifest. So this is about managing fear and resistance. And this is where the amygdala comes in. This region processes fear and doubt. Uncertainty about achieving a goal can trigger fight or flight responses. So this is the one thing we don't want when you're manifesting is to constantly be going into fear and avoidance of, like, oh, God, this is impossible. I don't believe it. And so the prefrontal cortex modulation is the part where you're going to want to use mindfulness and cognitive reframing, because that is going to calm the amygdala and reframe doubts into opportunities for growth. So essentially, go back to all of the things that we said. Write it down, visualize it. Try to stay in this feeling and in this energy. And when doubt creeps in, we need you to reframe. Like, go back to why it's possible. Go back to believing it's possible. Go back to painting the vision. Go back to finding people who have made it possible beyond anything else in their life. Like, that really helps me. I go find somebody who, like, also didn't graduate. I go find somebody who is from a small town. I go find somebody who totally was not the person who was going to make this happen, and they did. And I hold that hope and I hold that faith.
Yeah, I call that. It goes back to a couple steps ago that's gathering the evidence. Because when you feel like there's no way I can accomplish X, but then you take the extra step of going and finding people just like you that accomplished it, now you're not allowed to doubt it anymore that someone like you could accomplish it, now you realize you are the problem. Your manifestation. Practice, your taking action. Practice. Something is the problem because you went, you found evidence that people just like you were able to do it. And so now that the doubt is just a story, you're telling yourself, all.
Right, we're going to end on this. The last one is gratitude and affirmation. This is literally what we do every single day in the Power 9. Like, you guys, the Power 9 does all of these things, and it's so simple. Like, three things you're grateful for, three things you're excited about, and three things you're manifesting. It, like, paints the vision every single day. It makes us think about it. It makes us stay in that energy. Like, we really get into it when we do it. And this reinforces success. So let's talk about the brain connection. The hippocampus and prefrontal cortex are a part of this. So gratitude strengthens neural pathways and enhances overall optimism, improving problem solving and persistence. Oh, my God. How true is that? Because when you're in a bad place. How many problems do you solve?
None. Zero.
Zero.
Unsolvable.
Unsolved. You're not thinking creatively. You're not thinking of people who could help you. You're certainly not attracting people who can help you. And then it also gives you a serotonin boost and pr. Practicing gratitude releases serotonin, which fosters a positive mental state, which again is going to help you solve those problems and get creative. So, all right, there's two other things. Just Heb's law is one of the things that supports manifesting. Neurons that fire together, wire together. The more you focus on your goal, the stronger the neural pathways associated with it become. And then the coolest thing also that I always think about is just placebo effect. Because belief alone can cause measurable changes in your brain and body.
That's real science. It happens all the time with science.
Clinical trials, all the time. So just even thinking that it can happen is going to start to change you and make it happen.
Listen, I don't care if it's real. I don't care if it's placebo. If I'm getting the keys of that home, if I'm getting the keys to that whatever car, if I'm getting the bank, I'll take it.
I'll take it.
I'll take it.
Placebo all day. Are you guys, we're so grateful for you.
Happy New Year.
Happy New Year.
We're by your side, we're behind you, giving you a little loving shove like you can count on us this year.
And we're still accepting some applications for the elite Mastermind.
You're right. Now this thing's filling really quick and I am in full enrollment mode. So I'm the one that you personally get on zoom with and do an interview. And if you're going to make over $500,000 in your business. Now keep in mind, most people in there are seven and eight figures. But if you're going to make over 500,000, your businesses here, you're eligible to apply. And when you apply, here's what you're getting. If you get in, you get a one on one strategy session with me. You get the two three and a half day retreats. First one's in Orange County, California, next one's probably in la. But that's where you really mix it up with the other groups. And 70% of it is sharing ideas, 30% of it is learning from us and our incredible network. You get monthly calls where we group problem solve any challenge that you are facing. Every single month. And then here's the one I'm most proud of. And this is absurd. You get to text us Monday through Friday, 10 to 5, any questions you have about your business or I need this, or do you know anyone that can do that? And we're there to the rescue. And this is the thing that blows Mastermind members minds, is how quickly I'm able to get back to everybody. Lori's teaching this thing with me. She'll be on the monthly calls, she'll be at the events, and you know, if you've got questions for her, the text runs through me, but I tap on her. It is the most complete mastermind that there is out there. So if you're going to earn over $500,000 this year, right now, hit stop and rush over to Chrishard Mesh Mastermind and click. Apply. Because the applications are coming in hot and heavy and I'm getting through a lot of these interviews, so time's running out.
And let me just tell you, if you want massive accountability, like imagine how that feels to have to show up for all of these people. If that kind of freaks you out and it rattles you a little bit, that's a good thing. It probably means you're lacking accountability right now. And when we have joined Master, it is the number one thing that has made us show the F up for.
Our dreams bigger than we would have.
It's intimidating. It totally is intimidating, but it's the best choice we have ever made year after year in our lives. It's how we've created the Sex. Sex success.
We created the success. We joined the Sex. We joined a mastermind. The Sex Master.
So it's not a sex my friends success. So there you go.
There you go.
Thank you so much.
Chrisharder, me forward slash Mastermind. Chrisharder, me forward slash Mastermind. All right, guys, thanks for listening. We'd love to appreciate you.
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