Self-Concept: Your Concept of Self Is the Secret to Manifesting

In case you aren’t familiar with this term, I’ll rewind a little: 

What the Heck Is a Self-Concept? 

Simply put, your self-concept is a set of beliefs that you have about yourself. It’s your personal identity. 

It’s how you see yourself compared to others, how you define your strengths and weaknesses, and how you view the world and your relationship with it. 

Finally, and most importantly, at least for the sake of this topic – it is how you perceive yourself in relation to what you desire. 

There are literally thousands of beliefs and opinions you hold about yourself. They are shaped by your interpretations of past experiences and by what you have been told is true at an early age, usually from your parents, teachers, and other trustworthy figures. Some of those beliefs are positive, and they serve you well. Others, however, only serve to hold you back. 

I can tell you I’ve struggled with some of them until I finally understood what I subconsciously believed about myself and how I could change it. 

It’s a process, and it usually doesn’t happen overnight. Still, once you really get it, your desires start unfolding so fast!

So, that brings up some important questions:

• • What has been your self concept regarding your health? 
  • And what about when it comes to money?
  • Or success?
  • How about your love life? 

It would be best to take a moment and write those answers down.

Now that you understand your current self concept, it’s time to create a new, positive one that will enable you to manifest your desires. 

Let’s get started! 

Neville Goddard

Neville Goddard was a spiritual teacher during the 1950s and 1960s. He taught that we create our own reality through the law of assumption. This law states that what we assume to be true must manifest.

Neville Goddard often spoke about how the way we see ourselves is the foundation of our entire reality. Therefore, if we want to change our outer world, we must first change our inner world. 

 The circumstances and people in your physical world only reflect your inner world. In other words, everything and everyone is just you pushed out.

How to Change Your Concept of Self and Manifest Your Dreams

The key to creating your new self-image is to change your negative opinions about yourself. And then recondition your subconscious mind. To make this process as simple as possible, I have broken it down into 3 steps:

#1 Define who you are

You are choosing who you want to be and what you want to experience. This is what manifesting consciously really means. 

So, stop looking back!

I want you to write down in present tense as if you already are that new version of yourself – the one that already has everything you want – all the relevant specifics about yourself and your life.  

As this new version of you, write down your answers to the following questions:

How do you think and feel daily? 

• • What opinions do you hold about yourself? 

• • What are your traits?

• • What are your daily habits? 

• • How do you behave toward others?  

• • What do you look like?

• • What is your lifestyle?

• • What does your day-to-day life look like?

Write down everything relevant to you. Get perfectly clear. 

Remember:

Do this step from the perspective of the person who is already all those things. 

People make the mistake of playing too small because they still act from their old limiting selves. Don’t let that be you.

#2 Watch your mental diet

Although you want to embrace your new concept of yourself, your doubts will most likely creep in to remind you that you haven’t been that person in the past. It’s perfectly normal to experience this. 

Your subconscious mind is programmed to keep repeating the same old self-talk it has had your whole life. So it will keep pulling up your memories and attaching meaning to everything in your life just to support your previous identity.  

This is where your mental diet comes into play.

A “mental diet” is observing and reframing negative self-talk when it occurs. 

Just like a regular diet, it requires discipline and attention. 

This is not a new idea. It has been taught by numerous spiritual and personal development authors such as Neville Goddard, Emmet Fox, Dr. Joseph Murphy, Brian Tracy, Tony Robbins, and many others. 

The point is:

You need to be intentional about your inner talk since it enormously impacts you and your life. 

The easiest and fastest way to shift your concept of yourself is by committing to your mental diet. 

From now on, observe your inner talk: 

What are your first thoughts when you wake up? 

If you are like most people, you are probably checking your phone as soon as you open your eyes. Being bombarded with new messages, emails, to-dos, and other things that trigger the same old inner chatter when your mind is still fresh and open to suggestions is not a good way to start your day in any circumstances. It only sets the tone for distraction for the rest of the day. 

Without getting too deep into brain science right now, it’s useful to point out that your subconscious is most active and open to suggestions right after you wake up. 

So you should use this time to train your subconscious to have only those inner conversations that are in alignment with your new self-concept. In other words, you need to deliberately talk to yourself as if you already are the person you want to be.  

If you are following all the instructions from this post, you have already figured out what those thoughts are in the first step. 

So, use those first 20 minutes of your day to feed your mind with the mental diet that empowers your new identity and assists you in manifesting what you want. The same goes for the time just before you fall asleep – your mind is then extremely receptive to suggestions. So it would be wise to use it to your advantage. 

Next: How are you thinking about yourself throughout the day?

When you notice that your self-talk contradicts your new identity, you need to revise it. You can easily do that by keeping a list of positive affirmations that you can repeat whenever you notice that your mental diet is going off course. 

For example: 

Whenever you notice something like: “It is so hard to change. I will never make it.” Turn it into the opposite: “Change is so easy for me. I am embodying who I want to be with every breath I take.“. 

Let me remind you:

It’s normal to have resistance at the beginning. It’s only a sign that your new programming is clashing with the old one. But, sooner or later, thinking from your new identity will become second nature. Then, all the resistance will dissolve. 

#3 Embrace your true nature: acceptance and love

As you may have noticed, self-love and self-acceptance are closely intertwined with your self-concept. They are not necessarily the prerequisite for manifesting what you want, but they play an important part in building a positive, healthy self-concept. 

When you are starting to change, all your suppressed and unprocessed emotions from the past will most likely come to the surface. It is common for people to get upset when this happens and believe that they are doing something wrong. But it is just all part of the process. 

Word of advice:

Be gentle and patient with yourself. You can’t maintain the same positive state all the time. While you are shifting your self-concept, your emotions will fluctuate. It may take some time until you settle into your new identity. This is where accepting and loving yourself comes in.

Change can take a while for most people, and that’s okay. So, keep in mind that you are doing this for the long-term benefits. Instead of worrying about how long it will take and seeking external validation to ease your worries, focus on the present moment and appreciate yourself and your journey. 

The point is:

You only hinder your progress if you don’t enjoy who you are in the present moment and continuously seek validation that your self-concept is changing. 

Remember:

By shaping your self-concept, you are not changing who you are.

This is a critical distinction! You are only replacing those negative opinions you hold about yourself. In your essence, you are already perfect. 

You are aligning your assumptions about yourself to match who you already truly are. 

That is why I emphasize love and acceptance towards oneself and enjoying the present moment. Right there, in the now, you can recognize your true nature as pure perfection. This is true regardless of what your current self-concept is. 

There are many ways you can practice love and acceptance towards yourself. 

My number one recommendation would be to meditate on your true nature – reside in your “I am-ness.” But, in case that sounds too abstract or too complicated for you, here are some other suggestions:

• • Tap into what being loved and accepted means for you – imagine it,

• • Connect to your spiritual self, the very essence of your being, in any way that is suitable for you

• • Separate your inner worth from external things (your circumstances, possessions, looks, and all the assumptions you have about yourself)

• • Appreciate who you are, 

• • Forgive yourself when you aren’t being true or nice to yourself, 

• • Be compassionate to yourself,

• • Do all the things that help you connect with yourself as often as possible, 

• • Prioritize yourself,

• • Let go of perfectionism,

• • Let go of the need for approval,

• • Stop comparing yourself,

• • Ask for help when you’re overwhelmed. 

• • Surround yourself with people you like to be with.

Self-love ritual

It might also be useful for you to create your own self-love ritual and schedule a time to meditate, journal, practice gratitude, do mirror work, or do anything you love. Some other methods that I will mention later might also help in this process. 

Now, Neville’s teachings do not directly mention accepting and loving yourself. Nevertheless, I still believe that skipping it would be a mistake, especially if you tend to be hard on yourself and if embodying the state of the wish fulfilled is something you are usually having challenges with. It represents the doorway to that higher version of you. 

Let me explain: 

Since changing your mental diet requires a lot of mental effort, especially at the beginning, I see this step as a balancing act. It is the “yin” to its “yang,” if you will. “Yin and yang” are terms in Chinese philosophy that describe opposite but interconnected forces. 

“Yang” is the active principle – a mental diet demands action: mental vigilance, willpower, and self-control. 

It requires doing. 

“Yin,” on the other hand, is the receptive principle. It’s exactly what accepting and loving yourself and residing in the present moment is all about. It’s about being. 

Working with clients, I’ve seen a lot of people struggling with accepting themselves and emotionally beating themselves up over mistakes when manifesting their goals. And usually, it’s precisely why they fail to manifest what they want. 

So trust me – unless you are entirely certain that you unconditionally love and accept yourself, you don’t want to skip this step.

Truly accepting and loving yourself is about recognizing your true nature here and now and realizing that you are already complete and perfect as you are.

That is the essence of who you are or your Godself, as some call it. When you are in tune with it, you are completely whole and can automatically let go of all the attachments. 

You no longer need anything outside of you to complete you. You are already complete. 

Your desired outcomes will then start to unfold automatically – it’s the law.  

The main takeaway is:

By accepting and loving yourself, you are shifting your mind to be more open to change. 

The more you are accepting and loving toward yourself, the faster and easier you’ll integrate the new identity and open yourself to the manifestations you want.

Methods to Change Your Self-Concept 

The purpose of a method is to retrain your subconscious to believe your wish is already fulfilled. In this case, believe your new self-concept is already integrated. 

It is important to note that no method can’t replace your mental diet. You still need to watch your inner dialogue 24/7. 

Here are some most common manifestation methods that you can try out: 

• •  Visualization – visualize yourself as if you already are the person you want to be and are now living your awesome new life. 

• • Affirming – affirm in the present tense how you think and feel daily from the new identity, as if you already are the person you want to be.

• • Scripting – write a story about you and your life as this new person.

• • Inner conversations – in your mind, whether you are talking to yourself or with someone else, assume you already are that person. 

You can also listen to subliminals, do self-hypnosis, do mirror work, etc. Basically, you can use any technique that implies that you have already integrated the new concept about yourself. Just choose something you’ll enjoy doing.

Affirmations 

Affirmations can be a helpful tool when you want to manifest a new identity. They can boost your self-esteem and speed up your transformation. Here are a few general examples that you can adjust to your liking: 

• • I am my first priority. 

• • I am deserving of my manifestations.

• • I am worthy of love, success, wealth and happiness.

• • I am loved. 

• • I love and accept myself just the way I am.

• • I have the confidence to embrace growth.

• • I am abundant in every area of my life.

• • I am wealthy. 

• • I am transforming into the best version of myself every day.

• • I have the ability to achieve anything I set my mind to.

• • I am a conscious creator of my reality.

• • I choose to create a life of love, wealth, abundance, and joy.

• • I have a deep conviction in my abilities. 

• • My life experiences have shaped me into a strong, resilient person.

• • I can overcome all challenges with ease.

• • My consciousness is powerful, and I use it to create the life I want.

The most important thing is to make your affirmations about you. Even if you want to attract a specific person – it’s still about you, not them! 

Commit and Persist Until Your Desire Hardens Into Fact

We covered three steps designed to guide you toward your new self-concept so you can start manifesting anything you desire. Unfortunately, I can’t share everything I know in this one blog post. 

Still, it will be enough to get you started on your journey to your desired self-concept – the version of you that has all of your desires fulfilled. 

Keep in mind that this will require persistence, focus, and discipline on a daily basis. You need to commit to it. There’s no way around it. 

I suggest creating your daily routine based on what you have just read. 

For example:

• • Dedicate those first 15 to 20 minutes in the morning to do affirmations or visualize.  

• • Same goes for the last 20 minutes before you fall asleep – use that time for meditation or practice being in the state of the wish fulfilled.  

• • During the day, strive to keep your mental diet in check

• • Remind yourself that you are already whole and perfect

Commit to your daily routine for at least the next 2 weeks. Then you can revise it – keep what’s working, change what’s not working, and commit to it again for another 2 weeks. Repeat that process every 2 weeks until your new self-concept becomes your dominant state.

If you follow through, you will notice a significant shift and start to see the results you want very soon.

You are now ready to create the new self-concept that will enable you to finally experience the life you want. I wish you good luck! 

You can find the whole lecture “No one to change but self” from Neville Goddard on this link.

If you need further assistance from the manifestation coach, contact me here.