Manifestation Destiny

Along with being a huge personal development buff, I am also a huge fan of history. It was my favorite subject in school, and I was even dubbed the "history channel" by a very well meaning class my freshmen year in high school. A couple of days ago while I was watching a documentary on western expansion, a very interesting idea hit me. What Manifest Destiny was in the 1840's, Manifestation Destiny (a term I coined) is today.

For all those who favored math (or science, or English, or lunch) over history, Manifest Destiny was the belief that the United States was destined to expand from the Atlantic Seaboard to the Pacific Ocean. It was the obvious (manifest) choice of fate (destiny) for the U.S. to expand.

I believe we are in the middle of something very similar here. We are in the midst of an internal expansion, and we are going into uncharted territories. Back then the fear of expanding into a new land were hostile tribes, wild animals, and tricksters looking to make a quick buck. Today we have inner fears, doubts, and questions of self-worth that act as obstacles keeping us from venturing forward. Back then, there were guides who lead caravans of people into the new world. It was a physical expansion, and the quality of the guides often determined the success or failure of the caravans. Today, we have authors, coaches, and other teachers who have ventured forth and are willing to guide the way. Are there tricksters amongst them as there were in the wild west? Sure, and that is for you to judge.

So what does this inner expansion mean? It means that we are destined to reconnect with our higher selves and to raise human consciousness. We are going where no other generation has gone before. As a human race, we have colonized outer worlds, and now it is time to colonize and cultivate the most important of all worlds-the world within. The human race stops, and the human discovery begins.

And as always, we can learn from history. As the old adage goes -"Those who do not learn from history's mistakes are bound to repeat them."The western expansion, our country's Manifest Destiny as it was known, was a time of adventure and glory. It was also a time of great lessons.
And I wonder how many of those lessons are applicable to today's manifestation destiny. Here are my top three lessons.

1) Be willing to see beyond the illusions. As the brave settlers moved westward, all they saw was wild land, and harsh opposition. The trails that many followed to the west were littered with carts and other people's belongings. Often bodies were found floating in the rivers. However, those who made it saw beyond that. They saw a bustling farm where there were only weeds. They saw their children playing in open lands instead of seeing dangerous strangers. They saw life where there was barrenness. So it is with us today. We have to see beyond the illusions of the life we have created. We have to see what we want to create and hold steadfast to it, because those who do will reap the rewards.

2) Trust your inner-compass. There were no real "do's and dont's" back in the West. What made one person millions could easily ruin another. The only way to really succeed was to trust one's intuition and one's inner compass. I have clients who come to me and say "but I don't know how." It has been so long that they have forgotten, and often I help them get back in touch with it. The bottom line here is that there are many ways that work, and you must choose the one that resonates best with you.

3) Don't let detours get you down. Often a caravan of wagons would take many detours before arriving at their destination. This was due to various reasons-hostile tribes, or unexpected depth of rivers, or even news of bandits up ahead. However, the ones that persevered made it to the land they had been dreaming of for so long. Such detours occur while we fulfill our manifestation destiny as well. We feel that one way just didn't work or we disagree with someone so we give up and go back to our old mode of thinking-of reacting instead of creating. We start to re-think this inner expansion, because honestly change can be discomforting at first. The settled East was comfortable for many and they stayed there, but the pioneers who dared to venture forth created new worlds for themselves. They blazed the trails.

We are the trail blazers that are venturing forward to get in touch with our high selves and raising human consciousness. It is our "Manifestation Destiny" to do so.