Are we egoistic or just scared of rejection?
For every new season, a new trend begins; this summer it was manifestation and spirituality. All over social media, I saw people manifesting different things: a perfect summer body, wealth, college acceptances and even someone to date. This raised a single question in my head: if you manifest love, is it true love?
Soon enough, my question was answered when my friend initiated their “hot girl summer” with a new love interest. The notion of not wanting to make the first move by texting first was soon resolved when they discovered a new manifestation technique that took over TikTok: the “3-6-9 Method”. The idea is to write what you want three times in the morning, six times during the day and nine times during the night. According to my friend, the secret ingredient for this method to work is figuring out the intention behind it and acting like you already have everything you’ve written down.
They performed this method for about a week on a guy they have never talked to before, and honestly, I was unsure whether it was going to work or not. Is one person’s intention so strong that they can make somebody text them? It wasn’t until they received a text from their mystery man almost a week later that I realized, it really was. A simple “hey” from him was a complete shock to the both of us. They talked and met up a couple of times, but things never really took a turn for the better. I began noticing a change in their behaviour as they became increasingly stressed out about this “situationship” that had come to light following the realization that their expectations were completely different from one another. Soon enough, I came to the conclusion that not everything you manifest is meant for you.
After this incident, I questioned my beliefs. Would people actually rather write multiple steps of manifestation during the day just to get a text from somebody instead of texting them first? I wondered whether making the first move was now considered old-fashioned?
After their somewhat successful journey with manifestation, I tried it for myself. I started out by watching YouTube videos and attempted to manifest closure from my past. Personally, I did not have the willpower to use the 3-6-9 Method, so I tried something completely different: I asked the universe. The next day, I got the most unexpected text from that person––I was completely shocked. To this day, I cannot fathom whether it actually worked or if it was all just a mere coincidence.
At the end of the day, all I can say is that I started believing in the reality of manifestation and its power, however, it did raise a lot of unanswered questions. Does manifestation kill the element of surprise that life brings? As nature demands balance, won’t manifesting or asking the universe for something that wasn’t meant for me take something else from my life? Moreover, I am the type of person who believes that there is a time and place for everything, so wouldn’t manifestation completely overstep that? I guess it isn’t for everyone; it is still a personal journey that I’m navigating through.