Essential Art of Manifesting Protocol Step 5 ~ Action

What's the difference between Manifesting Action* other actions?

Manifesting is a transformational process of growth and healing that empowers and integrates inner and outer realms. It’s a way to create our experiences consciously for optimal wellness and success.

Action is just one of six Steps we can use to Manifest consciously and skillfully rather than just wishing and hoping, or at the other extreme, controlling and trying to force things to happen.

Manifesting Protocol

The 6 Steps of the Essential Art of Manifesting Protocol are more like steps in a dance than a linear progression. It can help to focus on one at a time, then move with them as they are most helpful in your Manifesting practice, back and forth, around the circle, etc. For more on the previous Steps leading up to Action, see recent Essential Art blog posts on each Step.

This moonth’s Step: Action

Each lunar month, from New Moon through Full to Dark Moon, Essential Arts focuses on one of the Manifesting Steps. The idea is not to use this Step exclusively during this lunar month, or “moonth,” but to deepen our understanding of that Step in the context of the whole Manifesting Protocol.

The Action Step we’re focusing on this Moon cycle is also the culmination of the previous Steps, continuing to flow through the final Step, Celebration. Think of each Step more as a thread woven into the tapestry of your Manifesting practice than an isolated phase.

This moonth, Action rises to the front of the tapestry to shine in all its beautiful color and texture, while interlacing with the other Steps for both structure and beauty.

When we’re in Action, it’s important to continue to hold the energy of the other Steps or we’re not really Manifesting consciously, we’re just busy. Or playing, without a specific purpose in mind - which, by the way, is also crucial for our wellbeing! 

How do we know what Action to take?

All the Steps together guide our Actions. Starting the Manifesting Protocol with Vision helps us connect with our passion for what we want to Manifest right from the start, and provides us with a fuel source that keeps us going through the process. Actions we take within the Essential Art of Manifesting Protocol are aligned and joyful expressions of the Vision and Intention we already hold within us. 

Every time we remember and cultivate that feeling of joy that comes when we imagine our Vision Manifesting, we are guided to choose Actions that are more effective and easeful. We also use the Steps of Appreciation and Listen to help shape our thinking and feeling patterns and habits so it becomes more and more natural to make the right choices for us.

Each Manifesting Step contributes to Action, even when we’re meditating, journaling, listening for Divine guidance, appreciating our blessings or wondering what the heck we’re wanting to Manifest. That’s because energy and Intention infuse our bodies, minds, hearts and energy fields, radiating from us what we’re experiencing within. It’s also because we’re initiating Action in a certain direction with our thoughts, feelings and inquiries, gaining momentum before an Action is expressed visibly.

Focus on Feelings

Action is the joyful expression of the feeling at the heart of our Vision and Intentions. Action in this Manifesting Practice is meant to have an easeful quality to it, even when it’s hard work. It’s that feeling of doing something you love even if it’s quite strenuous and challenging. Easeful isn’t necessarily the same as easy, though Manifesting Action can be easier than we expect or are used to when we use all the Steps together.

The work ethic of Manifesting is not salvation earned through suffering, hardship and exhaustion, motivated by fear. The work ethic of Manifesting is joy, ease and fulfillment, mutual empowerment and wellbeing.

Some Actions that would be drudgery for someone else but are fun for me include mucking out stalls, polishing tack and grooming horses. Riding is great, yet I love all the aspects of being around these magnificent creatures. In fact, I believe they taught me to meditate and provided a significant part of my spiritual life as a child. My family couldn’t afford our own horses, or even riding lessons most of the time, so I visited any stables I could find. Often, that meant just hanging around stalls or paddocks for hours on end, waiting for the chance to help with chores, getting to know the horses individually and blissfully relishing every moment.

Awakening our natural superpowers, spiritual senses

When we use our natural superpowers like healing, intuition, creativity, empathy and other spiritual senses - well, simply put, it’s magic! We can get so much more done when we cultivate these very real and universal abilities we all have to some degree, each in our own way.

Intellect, information and logic alone are not enough, and brute force is not the most effective approach on its own. We need our emotional intelligence and spiritual literacy to make the best choices and take effective Action.

Doesn’t Action just make us more tired and burnt-out? I’m already exhausted!

One of the most important facets of the Action Step is to not get lost in thinking Action is the answer for everything. Act now, move faster, work harder, prove, strive, conquer! It’s exhausting and will just Manifest more busy-ness and fatigue, and eventually illness.

Balancing Sacred Feminine & Masculine Actions

The kind of forceful action associated with masculinity can deplete our energy if it’s all we value or strive for. Acting from conditioning that teaches us we need to constantly prove our worth is doubly exhausting with mental and emotional stress piled on top of the fatigue that naturally comes from being active.

Aligned, mindful, skillful Action actually saves energy because it’s the opposite of mindless busy-ness or overcompensating. Action that moves from passion and joy, in service to our Vision and Intention, is fundamentally rejuvenating. Our human suits still get tired, though, so it’s important to balance vigorous Action with restorative practices like resting, Reiki, good sleep and meditation.

Action in the realm of sacred feminine power is not only effective, but also nourishing, gestating, midwifing - often acting in ways that don’t seem very active and may indeed feel passive. That doesn’t mean nothing is happening. This quiet work is some of the most important in Manifesting, in balance with more obvious and stereotypical masculine types of Action.

Reiki in Action

Reiki is an elegant example of gentle Action that can be very powerful. By creating a self-care hands-on practice, healing sessions, and deeply mindful way of life, we create transformation that empowers ourselves and others that can never be achieved by force or logic alone.

The fourth Reiki Precept known as gyo o hageme in Japanese, invites us to align our Actions with other Reiki Precepts of principles of calming our anger and worry, and cultivating gratitude and compassion. It welcomes us into our deeper purpose and passion that lie beneath our choices and Actions.

This Reiki Precept is really all about Manifesting! It’s not only about what we do, but how and why we do it, and that’s the heart of Manifesting consciously.

Challenging gifts

Every Step in the Manifesting Protocol can bring up frustrations, snags, vulnerabilities and other interesting aspects we might prefer to avoid, but these also hold gifts that are crucial for transformation and success in our Manifesting process.

When you open to your Vision and Intentions, your desire, joy and enthusiasm are the most powerful meaning and motivation. Yet there may also be shadows of doubt and distress. 

Notice where tension arises in your body, what thoughts come into your mind, what feelings flood or creep into your heart. This is exactly what has appeared in order to be transformed and transmuted. It’s actually why you’re doing this practice, not just to get the things you want!

Embrace the resistance, the obstacles, the procrastination, the overload, with gentle arms. Create a safe place for them to land and find healing so they can reveal the blessings they hold for you.

This is why rest, meditation, prayer, journaling, divination, and fun are absolutely vital to the Manifesting process and practice. We don’t just get things done, we are becoming more clear and powerful versions of who we really are.

It may be challenging just to make time for these seemingly nonproductive aspects of Action, but it is absolutely critical to our health, harmony, prosperity and success. 

You can start with just a mindful breath, a minute-long pause, a 5-minute practice, a 10-minute walk, 15 minutes of Reiki in bed, a weekly 20-minute bath, an hour of reflection each New Moon, an afternoon or evening retreat of self-care and deep practice in every season.

See how simple it can be, and how it can grow? These are just suggestions, but they are real possibilities, even if it takes longer than you’d like to move from that moment to the hour to the retreat.

Not doing anything is just as important as the more visible activities, and both carry us where we need to go if we take them in context of the other Manifesting Steps, starting with Vision, Intention, Appreciation and Listen. If we do this, by the time we get to Action, we’ll be ready to create significant changes with just a light touch and joyful expression of the success and gratitude we’re already feeling.

No failure

An important part of Manifesting is course correction, making big or small adjustments along the way. 

Good news! There is no failure if we don’t give up or change our minds. Once we’ve made a commitment to an Intention, its Essence will Manifest even if the form is quite different from what we originally expected. 

The other Steps around Action allow room for our Intentions and Vision to grow and for us to heal and transform as well. Setbacks and surprises offer us a moment to reflect and regroup. My writing mentor, Beth Kempton, describes a crucial phase of creating a book as the moment when it all falls apart - and then comes back together again, even better!

What Action steps will you take to clarify, empower and Manifest your Vision and Intentions?

If you have a passion for helping people and making the world a better place, you can discover your own unique way of fulfilling your purpose in the upcoming online class, Find Your Reiki Path, June 24-July 15. We'll explore deeper self-care, supporting family and friends, volunteering in community and even bringing Reiki into your work and business.

If you feel awkward explaining Reiki or wonder if you're doing it right when you offer sessions, the upcoming Sharing Reiki with Clarity & Confidence Retreat may be just the catalyzing support you need! It’s open to all levels of Reiki practitioners. July 21-23 in beautiful Wilmington, Vermont

If you’re new to Reiki, or haven’t been practicing for a while, you can begin with a Quickening Reiki Starter Kit so you’re ready for the class and retreat.

Manifesting Moondays

Join us every Monday 7-8 pm EDT for Manifesting Moondays, an online Manifesting practice circle. We start with a brief centering meditation and discussion on the Essential Art of Manifesting 6-Step  Protocol. Then for half an hour we work independently on our own Manifesting practice, whether in meditation, journaling or other ways that help you Appreciate and Manifest. Finally, we come back to share and support one another. And it’s all charged with the power of Reiki. 🙌

We’Moon

We’Moon is an annual almanac of astrological and seasonal wisdom, anthology of women’s art and writing with room for planning, gratitude, reflection, spells, affirmations or whatever you like to write.

You can purchase your own copy (and one for a friend!) in the Essential Arts Boutique.

*Conscious capitalization

I capitalize Manifesting, Intention and the other Steps in the Manifesting protocol to show that they are specific to this practice and not the general terms.