The Word of the Year

The word of the year in 2024 is one I know well because I've had trouble with it. That word is manifest. Like me, you probably saw Rhonda Byrne's The Secret. That video was the first I'd heard that one could train your mind to attract whatever you wanted, but there was more to it than that. I learned the thing you really wanted had to be something you were passionate about. You had to want it daily and not give up, then let it go with thanks for already receiving it.

The concept was confusing and I guess I just didn't buy it. I could 'will' all I wanted and I still couldn't make enough money to retire early, take that trip I'd always wanted to, or buy the property I'd seen in my dreams.

I heard I had to write out what I wanted in detail as if I already had it. That worked a little. Really, if I'm honest, perhaps there were beliefs inside me that were blocking my ability to manifest something. Did I believe I deserved or really wanted it? Was my Christian upbringing of serving, and not wanting for anything because 'God would provide all my needs', getting in the way? What about my wants? Was wanting materialistic and anti-Christian? Certainly not in some circles.

There must be something more to it. A manifesting meditation was next on my growing list of things I must do to manifest. I tried a few and, while they were wonderful meditations, I just couldn't decide what I wanted. I know, you're supposed to be specific, and I was for certain tangible wants like wanting to take a specific course to help me with my business. I managed to go to one course, but my manifesting results were pretty 'hit and miss'.

Research is always my go to when I'm stuck. Here are a couple of definitions:

manifest (v.)

late 14c., "to spread" (one's fame), "to show plainly," from manifest (adj.) or else from Latin manifestare "to discover, disclose, betray." Meaning "to display by actions" is from 1560s; reflexive sense, of diseases, etc., "to reveal as in operation" is from 1808. Related: Manifested; manifesting.

It's an old word. The next example is from the 1800's. Here it's used as an adjective.

Manifest destiny, "that which clearly appears destined to come to pass; a future state, condition, or event which can be foreseen with certainty, or is regarded as inevitable" was much used in American politics from about the time of the Mexican War "by those who believed that the United States were destined in time to occupy the entire continent" [Century Dictionary].

I can see how today's meaning of the adjective manifest as in manifest destiny follows the above definition closely, "destined to come to pass; a future state, condition or event which can be foreseen with certainly or is regarded as inevitable".

(All three quotes from https://www.etymonline.com/word/manifest)

What does manifest mean today? Let's take a look at why this word was Cambridge Dictionary's top pick in 2024:

...'manifest' can mean to make something more likely to happen through repeated positive affirmation and mental visualization. Think: I’m 'manifesting' that the Eglinton LRT will open in 2025.

Regardless of whether people actually believe manifesting is real — many Gen Zers use it ironically, while those in the self-help community consider it more seriously — Cambridge said “manifest” was picked after it was looked up almost 130,000 times on its website, making it one of the most viewed words of 2024.

I'm not a Gen Zer, so I wanted to find out about that. Here's an interesting take on the subject from Business Insider:

Online, the trend is owned predominantly by Gen Z women. They use social media and self-help apps and even artificial intelligence to manifest romance, financial stability, career success, and cozy homes. These are all things that for generations have felt out of reach for many young people, but perhaps none more than Gen Zers, whose high-school and college years were further destabilized by the pandemic. They're facing a glut of algorithmic-driven dating apps, a tumultuous housing market, and lots of uncertainty about the future. Some faceless TikTok accounts even encourage people to like or share their posts in order to find love, farming engagement the way millennials once shared email chains threatening years of bad luck. For Gen Z, the divide between the divine and the digital can be razor thin.

I remember those email chains and every time I received one, heart pounding wildly, I broke it. That reminds me of another word whose meaning has changed dramatically through time, 'karma'. Maybe I couldn't manifest because I broke all those chain letters....

Seriously, there are steps to manifesting today and all those steps make sense. I remember making a vision board way back in the late 1990's. Remember those? I cut out pictures of everything I wanted in my life, put them in a picture frame and hung it up in my ensuite bathroom. It cheered me on every morning and every evening, but I didn't come close to manifesting anything on that board. It was interesting that when my partner, Chris, moved in with me and my three children, he said he'd had the same dreams right down to the Subaru wagon with leather seats. Maybe he was what I was manifesting. We never did buy a Subaru, but we knew we were on similar paths.

The next stage in my manifesting was different. I was not in a great place emotionally or financially so you'd think I'd be really into serious manifesting work. Instead, in an effort to clear some of the clutter out of our house, another trick I learned could be good for manifesting, I began cutting out pictures, again, from the decorating magazines I'd collected over the years for my staging work. I didn't set out to make a vision board at all. I just picked out the photos I loved. Colours, objects, textures, people, things, clothing, words, anything I loved, was cut out and sorted into colour schemes. When I thought I had enough pictures cut out, I started positioning and gluing. By the time I was finished over the span of two years, I had four large pieces of artwork I called Montages. I loved them, but it wasn't until four years later that I realized what they meant. They were visuals of my future. They described in pictures the intuitive process I'd experienced between the time I made them and the day I started writing my first book.

This word of the year in 2024 means something to me now. It means that through a lot of work, study, research, introspection, frustration and pain, came something I'd hunted most of my life for. I discovered myself and the purpose that brought all the different parts of me together. I'm living my purpose and passion that transforms the process of creating into a force, a deep ribbon of energetic creativity swirling through me connecting with the pulses of my heart. When that happens, joyful action follows. I realized this discovery of me and my purpose was the piece of the manifesting puzzle I'd been missing. Manifesting is not a process I try to do anymore, it's become a synergy of all the parts of me and who I am today. From Franklin Covey:

Think of the ingredients in a recipe coming together to create a dish or each instrument in an orchestra creating a song. That’s synergy.

To sum up my experience with the word manifest, I'd describe it as an intuitive process, the creative expression that came from reaching deep into the depths of my heart and soul for inspiration. In other words, I completely bypassed my thinking mind and managed to dip into a deep well of passion and love. It definitely wasn't the longing I'd felt when putting together my first Vision Board. Maybe that's exactly what manifesting is.