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In 2015, Oprah Winfrey said in an interview, “You control a lot by your thoughts, and we control a lot by our joined thoughts… By what I [and we] believe [1].”
Manifestation is simply actively using your thoughts to attract something into your life, and understanding this process is the key to figuring out how to manifest your dream body.
9 Tips to Manifest Your Dream Body Fast
You might have heard of the “Law of Attraction”, outlined by Rhonda Byrne in her massively popular self-help book, The Secret. In a nutshell, it asserts that we aren’t just passive recipients in the grand scheme of the universe but that we assert an influence on this universe through our thoughts.
Hence, if you think positively about something, i.e., manifest it, it’ll eventually come to you. So, your perfect body can be yours, no matter how long it takes.
This idea has recently gained a massive surge in popularity. Even if you don’t believe it’s true, these tips may still motivate you to work towards your dream body!
#1. Set Positive Intentions
Intentions work like goals, but while goals are static and in the future, intentions exist in the here and now. When you decide to think and act in a particular way to manifest your dreams, you’re creating an intention!
Firstly, decide what your ideal body would look like – your own, not comparable with someone else’s. Figure out what steps you’ll need to take to reach that dream, whether it’s changing your diet, lifting weights, running every day, or any combination of positive changes. Create a concrete routine, at least for your plan’s first couple of weeks.
Next, intend to let go of negative thoughts about your body and your ability to reach your goal figure. Instead, decide to think positively about your current body and your determination to stick to your diet and exercise regimen.
Once you consciously decide to think positively and stay on the path to health and fitness, you’ll complete the first step towards manifesting your dream body.
#2. Define Your Why
You can’t successfully manifest your dream body without knowing exactly why you want to achieve that goal. Is it for health or to look better? Is it to gain confidence in general, feel great at your wedding, lose weight for a new summer bikini, stun at a much-anticipated vacation, or anything else?
Whatever your reasons are, write them down. They can be one or multiple, profound or vain, but they’ll serve as your motivation to continue thinking productively. This positivity will lead you to work out and eat healthy every day.
Whenever you focus on manifesting, your whys will act as a powerful tool to help you visualize your ideal body and your life and emotions once you achieve your goal.
#3. Practice Gratitude & Scripting
If you’re just unable to engage their mind’s eye or would like to add more details to your visualizations, scripting can be a great way to manifest your dream body and plan out how you’ll achieve it.
- Every week or few days, take some quiet time and get out your journal.
- Write out what a day in your dream body would look like. How would you feel while working out? If you’re going to the beach in your story, how good will you feel? What will you do with your newfound confidence?
- Describe every detail, every emotion, and even bodily sensations you think you’ll feel – increased energy, better mood.
- Be as creative as you can – the goal is to write out a story you fully believe in, so go wild!
Mindset and Manifestation coach Laura Herde says, “The key is focusing on the emotions of how your desired reality makes you feel and using your creativity to write or talk about the desired outcome and what it’s like to have it.” The best way to feel emotions in real-time is to write in the present tense (“I am…”) and not the future tense (“I will…”) – it’ll increase your odds of believing in your story.
The most important part, though, is to practice gratitude both before and after scripting, as it can make you feel more optimistic [2]. Before you start, write out at least five things, people, or places you’re currently grateful for and, finally, write out at least five things you’re thankful to for getting you to your goal.
This gratitude exercise will ensure that you don’t start scripting while feeling inadequate – instead, you’ll start and finish with a feeling of fulfillment, which is key to successful manifestation.
#4. Change the Narrative & Don’t Compare Yourself to Others
Believe it or not, 80-95% of people who lose weight eventually gain it back [3]. Facts like these and our personal experiences affect our story, which molds our actions and personalities.
For example, you might think, “I’m just not good at sports,” because the kids always picked you last in gym class, or “Everything I love to eat makes me fat” since a lifestyle of junk and fast food may have harmed your health and hunger cues.
But you can change your story! Here’s how to start:
- Examine the story and see why you think it’s true. What do you love to eat? What kind of sports do you think you can’t play? Do you think you don’t have the stamina to play or don’t have the taste to like healthy food?
- Introspect about how you can change the core reasons behind your story. Can you start walking instead of going straight to heavy weightlifting? Can you eat your favorite food in moderation instead of exclusively eating unhealthy stuff?
- Once you’ve identified the changes you can make, congratulations – you’ve changed the narrative!
However, don’t try to make your story match anyone else’s. We automatically compare ourselves with others in this age of social media, but it only hurts our self-esteem and mental well-being. Everyone’s body is different, so everybody’s dream figure will vary.
Focus on your personal story – it’s the only one you can change after all.
#5. Address Limiting Beliefs & Believe in Yourself
Limiting beliefs are thoughts or beliefs that prevent you from achieving your goals and internalizing how to manifest your dream body. You can also call them abundance blocks since they prevent you from gaining abundance, whether that’s in the form of health, happiness, or body.
These beliefs can range anywhere from “I can’t possibly run that fast” if you run to lose weight, to “If I eat carbs, I’ll get fat”. The fact is that, no, you can run that fast, you can hit that weight, and you can eat anything in moderation. Removing these limiting beliefs is key to creating an intention, changing the narrative, scripting, and successfully manifesting your dream body.
Once you identify a limiting belief, examine its emotional impact on you, and figure out why it affects you in that way. For example, the idea that you can’t lift weights and gain muscle may impact your self-esteem while also coming from low self-esteem.
If a belief has a profoundly negative impact on you – discard it! One way to do so is to replace it with a more helpful idea. For example, you can replace, “I’m not strong enough to hit that weight,” with, “I can become strong enough to hit that weight.”
Of course, letting go of limiting beliefs doesn’t happen overnight, and you’ll need to work on believing in yourself to replace negative thoughts with positive ones. Acknowledge your daily accomplishments by writing them down or sharing them with your loved ones, no matter how small they are. Some days, even taking a shower and going to work can be an accomplishment!
Kristin Neff, a professor teaching human development at the University of Texas at Austin, says, “Love, connection, and acceptance are your birthright. [4]” Build a strong support system that believes in you, and eventually, you’ll start believing in yourself.
#6. Love Your Body & Work on Your Self-Image
You must learn to love your body as it is to enhance it healthily! If you hate something, you’ll want to destroy it, but if you love something, you’ll cherish it and wish to improve it.
If you hate your body, you’re much more likely to lose weight in an unhealthy way. Crash diets and overexercising might feel good in the short term, however, extreme calorie restriction over long periods can slow down your metabolism and make you gain weight easier after your diet [5]. So, these unhealthy practices will only lead to weight gain and self-hatred in the long run.
Researchers define self-love of self-compassion as a combination of three significant factors:
- Self-kindness
- Recognition of our place in shared humanity
- Mindfulness [6]
Researchers have developed a technique known as “Mindful Self-Compassion Training” with these factors in mind. Just eight weeks of training 40 minutes per day raised participants’ self-compassion by 43%, which means you don’t need to be perfect to work on your self-image [7].
Besides, self-compassion reduces stress in times of high pressure and failure and allows you to keep going and try again instead of crumbling in despair [8].
Also, if you have a positive self-image, you’ll be more motivated to get out of the house and go to the gym, cook something healthy, and participate in active hobbies. You’re likely to feel too embarrassed to get out there and live your life with a negative self-image.
This positivity is essential to manifest your dream body successfully. Trying to manifest with a negative mindset isn’t very effective, so it’s best to work on loving yourself while you improve yourself.
There are a few small things you can do to develop a positive self-image and self-love:
- Don’t beat yourself up every time you cheat on your diet or miss a run – promise yourself that you’ll do it tomorrow instead.
- Do something small to feel accomplished when you can’t work out or eat healthily. For example, even doing ten sit-ups is better than doing nothing!
- Acknowledge your achievements every day – no goal is too small to celebrate.
- Practice saying positive affirmations about your body and its ability to do beautiful things while looking in the mirror every day.
- Check yourself every time you notice your inner monologue getting too critical of your body.
- Write yourself a letter from the perspective of an encouraging friend or loved one – they would never be as mean to you as you are to yourself.
- Write down your criticisms of yourself and interrogate yourself – are they true? Would you say them to a friend? If they aren’t kind or helpful, try not to think that way again.
- Develop a self-love mantra, such as “My body gets better and stronger every day”, to interrupt self-critical thoughts.
- Meditate every day or night, concentrating on letting go of self-critical thoughts and negative emotions while manifesting your goals.
#7. Use Affirmations and Speak it Into Existence
You’ve come across the idea of affirmations plenty of times by now, but what exactly are they? Well, they’re one of the most helpful tools for successful manifestation.
Affirmations are positive, encouraging phrases you say deliberately and regularly to require your brain. They’re part of almost any steps for manifestation, as you can see throughout this list. They can boost your confidence, reduce stress, and improve your self-esteem, becoming a constant source of motivation [9].
But how do you construct affirmations that can get you close to manifesting your dream body? The basic concept is to create phrases that discourage a critical attitude towards your body and its abilities and encourage self-love. When creating affirmations:
- Make sure to say them in the present tense.
- Use words like “I”, “me”, and other first-person pronouns.
- Avoid negative words like “don’t” or “can’t”. For example, instead of “I don’t get fat when I eat”, say “I can eat healthy and stay in shape”.
- Use affirmations personal to your goals instead of cliches.
- Find a quiet place and repeat them throughout the day.
Some examples of such affirmations include:
- “I run faster/get stronger/lose pounds every day.”
- “I am comfortable in and love my body.”
- “I enjoy and savor every bite of healthy food I eat.”
Positive weight loss affirmations like these encourage you to stick to your plan, and you can tailor them to be as personal to you as possible. The best way to utilize them is to look in the mirror and focus on your body, then speak self-confidence into existence, even if you don’t feel confident!
#8. Manifest & Envision Success with Positive Imagery
Visualization is an effective way to manifest your dream body, and it involves nothing more than focusing on the image of your goal physique in your mind.
When you visualize, you imagine your goal in the most vivid detail possible, getting lost in your fantasy. It should not just look real – it should feel authentic and evoke the same emotions in you as achieving your dream body would in real life.
The best time to visualize is while meditating in a quiet place. You might want to dim the lights so you’re less aware of your surroundings and can focus on the image in your mind.
This practice may increase athletic performance, relieve anxiety and depression symptoms, promote self-love, and improve self-confidence, so it’s worth a try [10][11].
Visualizing your goals works by making you feel you’ve already achieved them. If you imagine a day in your dream body and focus on it, you’ll feel like you’re already living it [12]. Besides, the positive emotions visualization generates new neural pathways in the brain, so you start associating excitement and pride with your dream body instead of fear that you’ll never achieve it.
Another way to manifest through positive imagery is to create a vision board – a collage of your goals in visual form. No, it’s not just a Pinterest trend – it can actually help you manifest your ideal physique!
To start a vision board:
- List out a few goals you want to achieve – a healthier body, more energy, better mood, etc.
- Find inspiring images that relate to each goal.
- Don’t compare your body to others – find images that remind you of how you want to look in general.
- Create some personal images, like a marathon medal with your name.
- Specify within what time you want to achieve these goals and write it on the vision board. For example, “2022 Goals” or “Goals for April”.
- Get a bulletin board and hang it somewhere you’ll see it every day, such as over your work desk, and pin your chosen images! You can even add some positive affirmations here and there.
Constantly visualizing your goals in this way will get you excited every morning and give you newfound motivation every time you look at the board!
#9. Take Action & Manifest Your Dream Body Overnight
The last step, of course, is to take action! No matter how much you try to manifest your dream body, you won’t just wake up looking like a model one day – you have to work for it.
Manifestation is all about self-motivation. It may or may not work – although there is evidence that positive thinking improves your well-being in many, many ways, there’s no such evidence that proves the Law of Attraction.
However, it doesn’t matter if manifestation works or not. All that matters is how it changes your mindset and drives you to work towards your dream body. As NYU psychology professor Gabriele Oettingen, author of Rethinking Positive Thinking: Inside the New Science of Motivation, says, “The more positively people dream about the future, the better they feel at the moment. But you need energy to implement your wishes.“
So, although you can’t wake up with a chiseled body overnight, what you can do is start changing your mindset in just a day or two to manifest weight loss from dream body to reality. It takes a lot of focused work, but it’ll be worth it every day when you can successfully push yourself out of bed even if you don’t feel like it.
It’s also vital that you remember not to get obsessed no matter how badly you want your dream body. Letting go is also a crucial part of manifestation – sometimes, you need to enjoy yourself and let the universe do the work.
You won’t find it too hard to figure out how to manifest your dream body, but you need to do the mental and physical work to get you to your goals.
References
[1] SuperSoul. (2018, September 9). Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn, full-length SuperSoul conversation [Video]. Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/SuperSoulOfficial/videos/jeff-weiner-ceo-of-linkedin-full-length-supersoul-conversation/1871822132896084/
[2] Harvard Medical School. (2021, August 14). Giving thanks can make you happier. Harvard Health. https://www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat/giving-thanks-can-make-you-happier
[3] Wing, R. R., & Phelan, S. (2005). Long-term weight loss maintenance. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 82(1 Suppl), 222S–225S. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16002825/
[4] Neff, K. (2015). Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself. HarperCollins.
[5] Fothergill, E., Guo, J., Howard, L., Kerns, J. C., Knuth, N. D., Brychta, R., Chen, K. Y., Skarulis, M. C., Walter, M., Walter, P. J., & Hall, K. D. (2016). Persistent metabolic adaptation 6 years after “The Biggest Loser” competition. Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.), 24(8), 1612–1619. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27136388/
[6] Sbarra, D. A., Smith, H. L., & Mehl, M. R. (2012). When leaving your ex, love yourself: observational ratings of self-compassion predict the course of emotional recovery following marital separation. Psychological science, 23(3), 261–269. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22282874/
[7] Neff, K. D., & Germer, C. K. (2013). A pilot study and randomized controlled trial of the mindful self-compassion program. Journal of clinical psychology, 69(1), 28–44. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23070875/
[8] Seppala, E., & Seppälä, E. (2014, May 8). The Scientific Benefits of Self-Compassion – The Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education. Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education. http://ccare.stanford.edu/uncategorized/the-scientific-benefits-of-self-compassion-infographic/
[9] Kang, S. K., Galinsky, A. D., Kray, L. J., & Shirako, A. (2015). Power affects performance when the pressure is on: evidence for low-power threat and high-power lift. Personality & social psychology bulletin, 41(5), 726–735. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25888684/
[10] Ranganathan, V. K., Siemionow, V., Liu, J. Z., Sahgal, V., & Yue, G. H. (2004). From mental power to muscle power–gaining strength by using the mind. Neuropsychologia, 42(7), 944–956. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14998709/
[11] Mastropieri, B., Schussel, L., Forbes, D., & Miller, L. (2015). Inner resources for survival: integrating interpersonal psychotherapy with spiritual visualization with homeless youth. Journal of religion and health, 54(3), 903–921. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25862338/
[12] Schacter, D. L., Addis, D. R., Hassabis, D., Martin, V. C., Spreng, R. N., & Szpunar, K. K. (2012). The future of memory: remembering, imagining, and the brain. Neuron, 76(4), 677–694. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3815616/