Have you ever put a bunch of energy into manifesting something only to have it show up looking different than expected? Did you then think “Well shoot, I guess I manifested wrong…”?
For a fleeting moment, this happened when Jim and I manifested our second dog together. We spent weeks working with the universe and keeping our vibrations high, listing out our “dream dog” attributes and waiting patiently for our little girl to arrive.
We rode the high’s and low’s of filling out applications for rescue dogs, thinking we had our girl, and then getting our hopes dashed when someone ahead of us in the adoption line got to her first. We knew it meant that our pup was still out there, and that she was as excited to find us as we were her.
And then it happened… We spotted our girl on a rescue website, put in an application and affirmed that if she was, indeed, our perfect-for-us dog then everything would go through without a hitch.
Pretty much, that’s how it happened. (There was one tiny glitch, but it went away without any effort from us.)
The day we picked her up, which was the day we met her in-person for the first time, it was love at first touch. She was beautiful, with soft shiny fur, amber eyes, and a propensity to flip on her back immediately for belly rubs. The volunteers at the rescue organization told us multiple times “You got the best dog.” And heck, they should know, right? They’d just rescued 100+ dogs from the south. Our hearts beamed.
We named our pup “Gracie Buttercup,” took her home…and then the first week happened.
We thought we manifested wrong.
While our newly adopted dog fit about 75% of the attributes we had on our perfect-for-us dream dog list, the missing 25% was concerning. In particular was her over-the-top hyped-up energy upon smelling and seeing our cat, Lucy, for the first time. It took a lot to calm Gracie down, and the experience sent Lucy into deep hiding.
That, coupled with additional outdoors experiences involving squirrels and other animals, made us think Gracie couldn’t be trusted. She had high chase instincts and impulse control didn’t come naturally. Oye… Not what we expected!
Our vision of bringing a newly adopted dog home included everyone falling into step with everyone else pretty much right away. Sure, our cat Lucy might not be thrilled with the new addition to our family, but after seeing how sweet her new canine housemate was, we knew she’d adjust.
The thing is, many rescues – especially when their histories are unknown, like with Gracie – need time to relax into a new mix of energies. Trust isn’t immediate, on anyone’s side of things… Ours included!
Enter Gracie and a wonderful lesson in remembering how & why the manifesting process works!
As manifesters the most important thing we can keep in mind is that everything we’re seeing around us is a reflection of ourselves.
I repeat: IT’S ALL REFLECTION!
The moment we remembered that, things started to shift for the better.
The energies Gracie was displaying were the energies Jim and I held in us when we brought her home: nervousness, excitement, hyper-vigilance, uncertainty…
Gracie was simply reflecting our initial “new dog in the house” vibration. I can’t speak for Jim, but on my side of the fence I was dealing with:
- Anxiety & stress over every little thing because change makes me uneasy (even if I’ve asked for the change!), which led to …
- Hyper-vigilance. If Gracie moved an inch, I was watching (same as she was with squirrels, cats, dogs, everything smaller than her).
- Wanting to control the outcome.
- Nervousness, wondering if everything & everyone would be alright.
- Imbalanced energy, since all of the above was causing me sleepless nights. When I don’t sleep, I get real crazy real fast.
Here I was trying to tell Gracie – whenever she got too worked up – that she had to relax, center her energy and be a calm dog, and I wasn’t doing any of those things!
The moment I recognized my faux pas and shifted my energy, however, she turned a corner and began revealing that other 25% from our “dream dog list” we’d hoped for.
She still has some things to learn and we’re getting help from a professional trainer, but happily both Jim and I believe – and can feel in our hearts – that Gracie Buttercup is perfect for us. What’s more, her “best yet” is revealed more and more each day, especially as we continue to ground our own energies and let our love shine onto her.
Key Manifesting Takeaways
The bottom line for all of us – no matter what we’re trying to manifest – is to:
- Recognize when the thing we want to manifest has actually shown up. That takes being awake and aware. Matter of fact, a great affirmation is “I am awake. I am aware.”
- If what we’re seeing doesn’t look quite right, we need to realize that every experience is created by us. If we see it, we’ve attracted it through our vibration.
- Reaffirm that everything in our life happens perfectly, and that life is for us rather than against us. The more deeply we believe and feel those things, the easier and gentler our manifesting experiences will be. It’s about trust. Everything we create is part of our path.
- Look for synchronicities and signs that tell us “It’s all good!” Those signs are out there. Ask for them to show up clearly if needed, and then recognize them when they do. (There’s that trend of awareness again!)
- Focus on the end result we want in terms of FEELING. The details of a thing (aka, looks) can be deceiving. Feelings, on the other hand, can be trusted.
Thanks for reading & happy manifesting! 
