MANIFEST: (verb) to invite our goals, values, and passions into being.
I believe in the ability to Manifest things into being.
It is challenging to create growth, foster progress, and achieve goals when you’re constantly telling yourself (or even saying out loud during your therapy sessions), “I can’t do this.”
Manifesting the good is about shifting the way you think. It’s an important skill to learn, because Manifesting works in both directions - you can invite positive things into your life, and you can invite negative things into your life.
For example, waking up in a bummed-out mood, then not allowing yourself to perk up, then bringing that less-than-desirable attitude to work and showing off those negative energies to your coworkers will not cause your coworker to respond positively to you. You’ve all heard that you’ll be treated the way that you treat others, and that is one example of manifestation.
You manifest the tone of the interactions in your life; you manifest the progress or lack of progress towards goals in your life; you manifest the outcomes of your performance in personal and work life. The list goes on.
The reason I bring this topic up is because I once had a patient who consistently said, “I can’t do it.” A little background: This patient had a right hemisphere stroke and had significant impairments to the left side of her body. She had so much difficulty using her left hand. We practiced hand-writing, we practiced grabbing (while exercising her cognitive skills, of course), etc. We worked so hard, but (predictably) she would say, “I can’t do it.” (Ps. I will NOT discredit this woman. She is a super hero. I admire her for her persistence. She is constantly happy and bright and ready to participate in speech therapy).
One day, we were working on a fine-motor and cognitive task and she was so challenged by this task, to the point where she stated, “I can’t do it,” and she physically and mentally gave-up in that moment. Her progress pretty much halted.
I always encouraged her to think positively. Yet during this time in my career, I limited how much I focused on positive thinking in my therapy sessions because I was concerned that teaching the concept of “mindset” was not within the scope of practice as a Speech Pathologist. Well…No More.
From then on, I realized that in order for my patients to be successful, I needed to take a holistic approach to my therapy. That starts with shifting the way we think. Then we start shifting the way we talk, and then we start MANIFESTING progress. My patients will be successful only if I teach them to manifest their own progress and facilitate this process. This skill promotes rehabilitation and healing, growth and development of new skills, and empowers our patients.
Manifestation makes sense in the context of healing and skill-growth for our patients now, doesn’t it?
I have a “mini-cise” (miniature exercise) for you. I want you to do this in your head, on your way to work, in the shower, wherever. Don’t write it down, yet. Ask yourself one question. What am I Manifesting into my life? (Remember, manifesting works both ways!). Ask yourself this question and come up with some mental answers. The next part of this exercise will come in my next blog post!
What are YOU Manifesting into your life?
-EmpoweringSpeechie