This month, as part of my Arhatic Yoga practice, I’ve been focused on the virtue of honesty and non-lying, specifically around dishonesty to self.  I’m also perpetually exploring the philosophies of abundance-focused living and positive thinking.  I’ll loosely define this as speaking what you want into existence and living as though you already are whatever it is you most desire to become.

For example, if you desire peace in your life, you must begin creating peace instead of seeing it as something that only arrives once certain conditions are met.  Or if you desire greater financial abundance, you must begin living as though you already have enough, rather than constantly reinforcing scarcity through your thoughts, words, and actions.

This is a wild concept that I’ve studied for years, and I would be lying if I said I completely had it figured out.  But I’m getting closer.  While talking with a friend recently about these concepts, he verbalized something I myself have often thought: “But if I do this, it feels like I’m lying to myself...and to the world.”

So while I’m not entirely sure where this article is going yet, I thought it would be worth exploring the question: am I manifesting what I want, or am I just living a big lie?

Here’s what I currently believe.  I believe the universe is reciprocal and deeply rooted in karma.  No matter your tradition, there’s usually some reference to this.  I remember my dad explaining the Golden Rule to me as a kid: treat others the way you want to be treated. Such a simple statement, yet one with massive implications.

As I’ve become more immersed in the world of energy, I’ve started seeing this less as a moral teaching and more as an energetic law. As Master Choa Kok Sui teaches, thoughts, emotions, and words are forms of energy. What we give energetically is eventually what we receive.  Harmful thoughts generate harmful energy.  Loving thoughts generate loving energy. This is the energetic basis of karma.

So when it comes to manifestation, or simply deciding how I want to show up in my own life, I’ve become increasingly convinced that when I intentionally think, speak, and feel the way I desire to live, I begin creating that reality.  Like attracts like.

​So, am I lying to myself?

Maybe at first.  If I decide I want something and begin visualizing it, speaking it, and acting as though it’s already possible, it can initially feel unnatural.  But then something starts to shift.  I begin believing it.  My mind starts looking for opportunities instead of limitations.  I begin behaving differently.  And eventually, the “lie” begins feeling more true than the old story ever did.

Maybe that’s because the real lie was believing I was limited in the first place.

Whatever we consistently think, feel, and speak eventually shapes our experience of reality.  Your thoughts are energy.  Your words are energy.  The way you treat yourself matters just as much as the way you treat others.

​It’s the Golden Rule turned inward.