This post is a bit more personal – rather than teaching one of the many manifestation topics I’ve been studying, I decided to share an incredible event that happened last week: I manifested $750 on the first day I decided to take a step back from my strict to-do list and do less.

No hustle. No lists. No long hours making sure I got through as much as I possibly could so I could feel I “justified” another day working for myself.

And suddenly, out of seemingly nowhere, $750 appeared.

The day before this happened, I had reached a new low point in my entrepreneur journey – my body stepped in and told me I physically couldn’t keep going at the pace I had been going.

I had stomach aches, felt dizzy, and knew I wasn’t myself. Despite these physical signs, I couldn’t stop refreshing LinkedIn looking at jobs, working through my to-do lists, and moving each of my multiple businesses forward.

My idea of taking it easy was to take a quick break to scroll through potential apartments for my upcoming move in the fall. (As you can guess, this didn’t help with the dizziness.) 

I woke up the next morning and knew something needed to change. I didn’t know exactly what, but I knew the first step was to take a step back and truly slow down.

I’d heard that in order to attract what you want to you, you must release the tight grip you’ve been holding on getting what you want, and just allow it to come to you.

I had been so caught up in working towards my goals to bring in money through my businesses that without realizing it I was holding on way too tight and not allowing any room to allow money to actually come to me.

The first thing I did on my first true day off was to decide that I wasn’t going to do any of my typical tasks for that day.

This meant I’d skip my weekly blog post for my web design business, stay off of Pinterest for my meal prep business, and take the day off from anything that remotely resembled looking for job ideas as I tried to figure out what my next move was.

I wasn’t going to do any of the tasks that were on my normal to-do list. I was just going to follow my heart and do whatever I felt like doing for the day.

As a quick side note, let me say that the idea of not following a strict to-do list for the day had my type A mind reeling.

What if I don’t move my businesses forward? What if there’s something I forget to do that’s critical? What if I spiral out of control after today and never want to follow a to-do list again and ultimately become a complete and total failure? (Feels dramatic now, but my mind definitely went there.)

Despite these fears, I moved ahead with following my heart anyways.

The first thing I decided to do was meditate. I meditate every morning, but it’s usually included as part of my to-do list style morning routine, where I’m meditating because it’s something I can check off my list.

That morning, I approached it as something I chose to do, rather than a typical task.

At the end of my 10-minute meditation, I took a few extra moments to visualize stacks of money piling up in the room all around me and what that would feel like.

I didn’t rush out of my meditation when the 10 minutes was over, I just let myself sit and be present.

After meditating, I went on a walk with my boyfriend. It wasn’t our typical “how fast can we walk a mile so we can move on to the next thing” – we walked slower and appreciated everything around us like we were seeing it for the first time.

It felt so good to move slowly and see new trees and hidden backyards in the neighborhood we walk through every morning.

We decided to get matcha lattes during our walk, since we rarely ever get morning beverages.

We sat with our lattes at a small table outside the coffee shop, sipping them and looking at the NYC skyline (another thing we usually take for granted as we barely glance up on our rushed morning walks).

I felt into how incredible it felt to be there in that moment, sipping our warm beverages on an unusually cool August morning, not needing to rush anywhere.  

After coming home, I made a smoothie and journaled for a bit. In my journal I wrote about how grateful I was to be able to slow down and have such a lovely morning, how money was flowing to me, and grateful I was to be a part of such a wonderful universe.

I ended by writing a paragraph of money affirmations that left me feeling so excited about the money headed my way.

On a typical day after I finish my morning routine, I’ll grab my laptop and immediately jump into working on a task on my to-do list. Instead of doing that, I decided to make oatmeal bars that I had been wanting to add as a recipe to my meal prep website.

I know this technically counts as work, but it felt so right to flow into it that it didn’t really feel like I was working – it felt therapeutic to test the recipe a few times and then photograph it once I had gotten it perfect.

Next, I decided to take a class from Kimberly Wenya about self-love. Something about taking this class felt so right in that moment.

Self-love is something I’ve always struggled with, but I decided I wanted to actively work on channeling the same love to myself as I do to those around me and the universe.

As I watched the class, I was filled with such positive energy. I felt so inspired to continue to practice self-love that I decided in that moment to buy myself a ring with a bit of rose quartz in it to symbolize my commitment to loving myself.  

A bit later that afternoon, I checked my email and couldn’t believe what I saw – I had an email from my property manager telling me she credited $750 to my account since I had referred new residents to my building.

I couldn’t believe it. It had been months since I talked to any prospective residents, and I had asked about the credit over a month ago and hadn’t heard anything back.

On top of it, I had only been expecting $50 per referral, instead of the $250 that was given to me!

I was overwhelmed with a feeling I could only describe as a combination of gratitude, happiness, excitement, and love.  

I wanted to share this story because I hope it will inspire you to take a step back too.

Sometimes inaction can be even more powerful than action, and listening to what our heart is telling us may lead to outcomes far beyond what we could have expected.

PIN IT FOR LATER!