On October 31, 2010, I took all of my packed belongings and left Massachusetts for the start of a new life in North Carolina. My parents had retired and moved outside of Charlotte, and every time I visited, I found the area pleasant and the weather more desirable, especially in the winter.
The deal was sealed when I saw the lower cost of living. I wanted my own house, and the rising cost of rent and real estate and my not so rising salary in MA were incongruent. My jaw literally dropped when I saw you could buy a house in some towns for under $50,000.
True, we were making our way through the housing crisis of 2008 and house values had dropped dramatically, but I never even imagined what I was seeing on my computer from the bedroom I rented in a friend's condo.
North Carolina here I come!
My brother took this awesome picture of my 1 year old nephew waving goodbye to me from his mother's arms as my father and I started off on the long drive to NC from MA.
Saying goodbye to my brother, sister in law, 1 year old nephew and the rest of my family and friends was painful, but I was struggling financially in MA and could see no path to home ownership for a long, long time.
I moved in with my parents, and a few short months later into my very first nearly 700 sq foot one bedroom apartment. A year later a two bedroom apartment opened up in the same apartment complex for not much more in rent, and I and a couple of my friends shuttled my belongings across the parking lot to my dream apartment.
The almost 1100 square foot, two bedroom, two bath, full size kitchen with patio gave me more room to breathe. The space was all mine.
However I wasn’t as satisfied as I had imagined I would be upon attaining this much desired space. In my first apartment, I had played with painting the walls, hanging pictures and arranging and rearranging furniture and decor.
The second apartment barely had anything on the walls. I was unexpectedly uninspired in my "dream" apartment. I half heartedly tried, but nothing seemed to land in terms of ambiance.
One day I came home to a flyer on my door knob for a real estate company. “Why rent when you can own? Let us put you in your dream home for less than the cost of rent.” I scoffed, false advertising I’m sure. But the flyer never made it to the trash and at some point l picked it up, then got on my computer, went on their website and saw what I saw.
Holy shit! I CAN own a house for less than the cost of rent!
I crunched the numbers, I had “x” amount of debt, and I had “x” amount of money left over after paying monthly for said debt, rent, utilities, car payment, food, gas ect. The projected mortgage payments were doable, but I had debt and no money saved for a down payment.
If I cut down most expenses, paid off my credit cards and saved my money, I could actually buy a house, by myself. The fastest way to do this however was to eliminate the biggest expense: rent.
I am unbelievably blessed to have such amazing parents that welcomed me back into their home yet again for a projected 2 year stint of saving for a down payment on a house.
As myself and my father, the gracious man who had helped me move 5 times in 5 years, closed the door on my latest rented climate controlled storage unit, I mentally prepared myself for again living under my parents roof.
Once back home I went into my room, closed the door and immediately started crying. What if this doesn’t actually happen for me? What if home prices skyrocket in two years and I have to keep living with my parents and saving more and more, trying to keep up with the inflation. It was 2013 and the market was moving again after the crisis of 2008. House values were rising and there was talk of interest rates going up. Could I really do this?
I already knew the house I wanted, I had planned to have it built. A penchant of mine was to drive around to model homes and marvel at the architecture and interior design, even before I decided to really go for my own.
I had walked into this one model home with it’s open floor plan, high ceilings and arched openings and I literally heard angels singing.
Well, maybe it was my heart singing ;)
THIS was my house. I just knew it. The size was perfect, the size of the bedrooms were perfect. The variety of options were perfect. I visited it several times while still living in my apartment just because I loved it so much and wanted to be under its roof. When the real estate agent for the builder would greet me at the door yet again, I would let them know I was having this model built eventually, just not yet. I took pictures and videos of the model home. I wasn’t too keen on the interior design but it was the bones of the house I fell in love with. I was online several times a week touring the model on the builder’s website while pouring over my own photos and videos.
I decorated my house, over and over again in my mind. I picked out paint colors, decor and furniture online and I made a Pinterest board of what I planned on executing when I moved in.
Despite knowing exactly what model house I wanted, I hadn’t found a neighborhood to build it in yet. The neighborhood I did want wasn’t offering this model there at all. This was a little challenging, but I knew I had plenty of time to explore. 2 years minimum, according to my calculations. I still had debt to pay off and a paltry amount of savings.
I settled in for two years of living with my parents and saving every penny I could.
What happened next was nothing short of a miracle.
It took less than two months for me to buy my house. By the end of the next month after moving in with my parents I was handing over a check to my real estate agent to hold a plot of land, in the neighborhood I wanted, to build the house I wanted to build.
I didn’t win the lottery. Neither my parents nor anybody else gifted or lent me any money. I didn’t come into an inheritance, or sell anything off, or cash in my 401k. Truth be told, handing that meager $200 check over to the real estate agent was one of the scariest things I had ever done, but I did it. I was getting my house. And now!
Knowing what I know now and about manifestation, I saw how I did it. Have you ever seen the movie or read the book The Secret?Well I had unknowingly used The Secret to obtain my house.
The Secret is about manifestation, and truth be told we are always manifesting, every minute of every day. The way to deliberate manifestation is simple: combine a heightened emotion, and elevated emotional state with a clear vision of a desired outcome, step out of the way and let the universe do it’s thang.
Easy peasy.
Ok, not so much because as human beings, we tend to interfere with the universe delivering us our desires with our well meaning logic.
But here’s what I discovered: I mentally lived in that house before it even existed. I saw the model and had experienced a heightened emotion that was present in some form every time I revisited pictures or my videos of it online. I had fallen in love with four walls, a roof, and a style that was all my own. I entertained thoughts of my house weekly, if not daily, allowing my mind to play and enjoy it’s comforts and amenities. I had a clear vision of what I wanted and despite having a few doubts here and there, I indulged in my imagination. I did so with little resistance, after all, I had 2 years to save so even though I wanted it now, I wasn’t doing that thing we do when we desire something very much but can’t see how we can possibly get it. I figured I would figure out the details of actually obtaining the house after a year and a half of saving. For now, my mind could play.
The art of manifestation requires imagination. Imagination in which we are unencumbered by finding evidence on how we can actually obtain said item, outcome or desire. We just need to have the emotion associated with it, the feeling it’s already ours, and not need to know how it’s going to come to us. My favorite teacher of deliberate manifestation, Abraham Hicks, uses this analogy: set a GPS to obtain your desires. You know where you want to go, have a desire to travel there, set the coordinates in the GPS and follow the path. You don’t have to know how to get there, the GPS will show you the way.
Deliberate manifestation is just like that. You want something because you have a heightened emotion about it. See yourself having what you want, set your GPS and then listen for the universe to give you directions on how to get there. Don’t worry about how it’s going to come to you, or how long it’s going to take, consider it done with a knowingness, and then continue to live your life.
Along the way if you see actionable steps, take them!
I tell this story to let you know there are no coincidences in life, and our powers of manifestation are strong as we’re using them every day with success, but most of the time not deliberately. Manifestation isn’t some new age, lazy person's way to the top. It is based on the law of attraction, which is a law, and not a suggestion or theory.
Quantum physics proves it.
It’s even in the Bible: Mark 11:22-24
“22 And Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. 23 Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,” and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted to him. 24 Therefore, I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe you have received them, and they will be granted to you.”
I am not unique in this, you too have manifested everything in your life, big and small. You may not have known you were doing it but you did it.
Where we get stuck is not allowing ourselves to dream it into our existence, or believe that it’s possible, or that we are worthy of obtaining our dreams. I had doubts, yes, but what was stronger was my belief.
And that, is everything.
My house in 2013, one month before it was finished.