Our mind is our most powerful device because it can make, break, control events happening in our life. It can control the way we feel, we behave, we achieve things. Positive or negative thinking often starts with self-talk. Self-talk is the endless stream of unspoken thoughts that run through our head. These habitual thoughts can be positive or pessimistic. Some of our self-talk comes from logic and reason. Other self-talk may arise from false impressions and wrong information which we hear from here and there, and that we create because of lack of information. We talk to ourselves all day long and, unfortunately, this self-talk is often negative. Often it is filled with guilt about our past or anxiety about our future. This negativity can destroy any seed of hope that we may otherwise have in striving for our dreams. Self-talk is a form of manifestation.

We all replay conversations in our head, wondering if we said the right thing? Whether we did the right thing? Whether we are in the right job/profession? Why so and so is a friend/foe? Such thoughts can spring unhealthily and result in our thoughts controlling our actions and behaviour.

This article is about manifestation. What is manifestation? How do you manifest the things you want in life? Manifestation is about turning your dreams into reality by making and implementing strategies…in other words to take practical steps towards whatever it is that you desire. Daydreaming is a form of manifestation; when we daydream, our mind visualizes things almost without any efforts. If you are a daydreamer, you already have the ability to visualize.

Researchers at University of California have established some facts that most important scientific breakthroughs ever made by scientists including Einstein and Newton came about as the geniuses allowed their minds to wander. Daydream is the key to solving trickier questions playing on our minds. Einstein is believed to have begun his theory of relativity while he daydreamed about riding or running beside a sunbeam to the edge of the universe, Newton too developed his theory of gravity after he happened to see an apple fall from a tree in his mother’s garden in Lincolnshire.

It is not just simply daydreaming about what you want. When we are randomly daydreaming, we are not focused and we are not immersing ourselves fully into the experience of “being” and “living” what it is that we want to manifest. The truth is, we are manifesting at all times. Manifestation does not mean that when you desire something in life, it to happen instantly or overnight while you sleep.

Essentially, manifestation is bringing something tangible into your life through attraction and belief. It requires strong willpower and positive thinking. It is making everything you want to feel and experience in reality. Manifestation’s origins are in religion and spirituality because if something spiritual becomes real, it is said to be a manifestation. The word’s usage has spread to include all aspects of life. So before you manifest practice the following steps:

Be clear about what you want. If you want a job imagine you doing the job, with all particulars such as your position, the ambience of your office, your cabin, you signing papers, your gait while walking in the office, how you would travel to work etc. Manifestation needs clarity with details; it will not work if the thoughts are vague. Figure out how you feel while imagining that you have the job. Create a plan to get the job and most important be persistent, stick to it. Have gratitude, thank your God for giving the power to imagine a job, for giving power to fill the details. In the process you might get some limiting thoughts. Brush them aside, trust the process. Raise your vibration, you might receive signals from the universe, acknowledge those signals.

Many times we get dejected when we ask for something but don’t get it. For example wanting to marry a particular man/woman, wanting a profession, a position in society, lots of money, a house, car, number of children….but we don’t get many of these. We immediately become negative, we question God’s plan. The whole notion of deserving is a human concept. That is, it is a subjective thing. There is no objective authority that can determine what any individual deserves. The notion that we do or do not deserve things is highly subjective and usually irrational.

If only you trust God’s plan and surrender to Him, you can remain in blissful state of mind. People get what they get. Sometimes people get a huge windfall for almost no reason at all certainly nothing to do with their work. Or they might work hard and get a lot. Or work not at all and get next to nothing. I am giving here below a case I read on bbc.com to emphasis on how powerful manifestation is.

A 74-year-old woman had initially been troubled by a rash that wouldn’t go away. By the time she arrived at the hospital, her lower right leg was covered in waxy lumps, eruptions of angry red and livid purple. Tests confirmed it was carcinoma, a form of skin cancer. The future looked bleak. Given the spread of the tumours, radiotherapy would not have been effective; nor could the doctors dig the tumours from the skin. Dr.Alan Irvine, the patient’s doctor at St James’ Hospital, Dublin felt at 74 the patient was unlikely to adapt well to a prosthetic limb.

Shortly, the “miracle” started. Despite receiving no treatment at all, the tumours were shrinking and shortening before their eyes. Just in few months and the tumours just disappeared. After 20 weeks, the patient was free of. There had been no doubt about her diagnosis, but after about 20 weeks there was nothing in the biopsies, or the scans.

Somehow, she had healed herself of arguably the most feared disease. Everyone was thrilled, and puzzled. Her doctor Irvine said with some underestimation “it shows that it is possible for the body to clear cancer even if it is incredibly rare.”

The question is, how? Irvine’s patient believed it was the hand of God; she had kissed a religious artefact just before the healing set in. But scientists are instead looking to the underlying biology of so-called “spontaneous regression” to hunt for clues that could make these rare cases of self-healing more common. This is the power of manifestation. You can train your mind and body to do this on a broader scale.  “What you think, you create. What you feel, you attract. What you imagine, you become.”

Many researchers have found that wandering mind can boost brainpower. Daydreaming is very good and actually boosts the brain, it is good for the health of brain. While we daydream, the brain is actually working more effectively. Daydreaming has a positive effect on our task performance. We all know that Albert Einstein was a daydreamer as a schoolboy, so much so that his headmaster informed young Albert’s father, “It doesn’t matter what field he goes into, he’ll never make a success of anything.” While daydreaming, at times a brilliant thought or a sparkling idea appears in our minds. Often, even before we start processing it – in flash of seconds it vanishes. Some other urgent thoughts replace this brilliance. It happens to poets, authors, painters, composers, to all creative minds. It is very difficult to catch or detect that elusive idea or thought again because of its abstruse nature. But, all good things happens in our imagining.

A study from the University of California, Santa Barbara, showed that people who continued to a difficult task after taking a break, and during the break if they just took a small nap or doing some easy task their performance got boosted by 40 per cent. Many scientific thinkers claim to have had their moments of inspiration while engaged in daydreaming, they experienced pensiveness during that time.

When we are relaxed, involved in a light-task, may be chatting with a friends, listening to music, or while involved in a hobby we get all those classical creative ideas. Daydreaming gives our mind that break which refreshes our mind. Mind wandering enhance creativity. I think it’s not less than a luxury.

When Albert Einstein used to wander off in his daydreams, what he termed as “thought experiments” were his foundation for his physics breakthroughs. He didn’t have the luxury to work with professors in labs day in and day out. He had a wife and child and required to earn money to run his family……that was also the time he wanted to legitimize his patents in in Switzerland. Einstein changed science in his free time. In 1905, when he had little spare time, he publishes four papers that changed the breakthrough fundamentals on light. 1) What is light? Explaining light particles (photons), disproving wave theory 2) First proof of atomic particle, even calculating their size 3) E=MC2: direct correlation between matter and energy 4) Theory of Special Relativity: perception of bodies in motion.

We do the best thinking, when our mind strolls. Cognitive scientists say that we all have an inherently distracted mind. The wandering mind is our brain’s default mode. If we are physically in a cinema hall, mentally we are in a shopping mall, if physically we are in office but mentally we may be at a friend’s party. Our mind is a gypsy, it’s a nomad. A 2009 neurological study shows that half of your thoughts are fantasies. Mind keeps wandering to solve an insistent personal problems or unresolved dilemma. Sometimes we are so overwhelmed by the degree of a problem that we dare not consciously think about it. But then, when we are half asleep or bored by some activity, our minds wander toward intimidating mental challenges. And, that state of mind finds solution.

True, sometimes mind wandering impairs focus on a task at hand. Daniel Goleman says the time a distracted brain spends tackling tough challenges makes up for diminished productivity. Mathematicians who excel at cognitive control and disciplined attentiveness, are low on creativity. Among the benefits of mind wandering, Goleman lists generating future scenarios, self-reflection, navigating complex social situations and incubating new ideas. He says the drifting gives your brain a rejuvenating vacation. Isn’t it inspiring?

As G.K. Chesterton – the famous English writer, poet, philosopher, dramatist, journalist, orator,  theologian, biographer, and literary and art critic once said that he scripted most of his novels when he lost his head, he got fabulous ideas for his novels and plays when his mind was drifted from his work. In such moments he put two and two together and made four million. When we focus our mind completely on resolving a task, the mind loses its creativity because of the controlling censor, “this is ridiculous”, “that won’t work,” “is this right,” “will that be right” “hey will this work”?  etc, etc. When mind wanders, the controlling freak is quiet.

Most of the adults are ADD (attention deficit disorder). A 2011 study showed that we adults with attention deficit disorder show higher levels of original creative thinking and more actual creative achievements. Richard Branson of Virgin Air, said the secret of his outstanding entrepreneurial success was due to his ADD. He kept being distracted by ideas for making money that nobody else would waste time on.

Friends, the fact is our brain has solutions for grave problems such as global warming, terrorism, hunger, crime, security etc. Sadly, we focus on short-term, immediate reckonings. If only we go beyond facts and think globally we might find surprising solutions. Let us all daydreamers, time wasters, goof uppers, span of attention defectors, wanders, time passers – all of us unite, let’s think out of box, we can do wonders for the planet.