Manifestation vs. Surrender: How to Know Which One You Need

 Welcome to Money Manifestation and Business, the podcast that shows you how to use your energy, intention, and consciousness to reprogram your money mindset, unleash a new level of possibility, and create a life in business that lights you up. I’m your host, Jamie Berman, and I invite you to join me each week.

Week for a dose of inspiration, coaching, and teachings to help you rewrite your money story, create abundance on your terms, and grow your business in a way that’s fully aligned for you. This is gonna be so much fun. Let’s dive in.

  📍  📍  📍  📍  📍  📍 Manifestation versus surrender. Let’s dive into this topic because I have often gotten this question from people like, Hey, Jamie. Okay, am I supposed to be like visualizing, doing the mantras, taking the actions, taking courageous and inspired actions, or am I supposed to be like letting go and just trusting the universe and surrendering.

And this is actually a question that I had, um, dove into for quite a while because I remember. So I have learned about manifestation for a while, right? Like I watched Oprah growing up and there were people like Michael Beckwith on there, and Abraham Hicks and amazing thought leaders who were teaching manifestation on there.

And Oprah’s a big manifestation teacher herself. So I learned a lot about the power of thought and how thoughts become things and the. Power of directing your energy and directing your intention to that which you want to create. And I had learned that we create our own reality, right? So that all felt pretty solid to me.

And then. I remember reading this book that shook things up for me and got me questioning like, wait, what? I’m confused. So this was probably back, it was actually, it was a while ago. The first time I’ve read it. I’ve read this book at least four to five times at this point because it is one of my.

Foundational books. In fact, I mentioned it on the episode of the Seven Books that have changed my life and have created a foundation for this work that I do. The book is The Surrender Experiment by Michael Singer. And I remember the first time I was listening, I was living in Venice Beach. Um, I remember I was listening to the Audible and I’d be walking to the beach and listening.

I just have that visual in my head because. I remember because I had such a visceral reaction as I listened. It was like a full body response. It was like a, yes, this resonates, this makes sense. I get it. This feels like what I need to lean into. And what shook me up a little bit is that I had learned that we create our own reality and thoughts become things and we, you know, should put our energy and intention and consciousness and feelings into what we wanna create.

But then here I’m hearing Michael Singer’s approach, which is all about surrender. It’s called the Surrender Experiment. And he lived his life based upon this concept of surrender, and his whole thing was about. Really surrendering your personal preferences and following the flow of life, right? Trusting what was presented in front of you was meant for you and saying yes to things and diving into them, even if it’s not what you desire or what your personal preference is.

Saying yes to life, right? And really surrendering, leaning into surrender, letting go, letting go of the ego, letting go of the. You know, he calls it roommate in your brain. The thoughts that just go on repeat and his whole practice is about coming back every day to source. He meditates every single day.

That’s the foundation of his life is coming back to source, meditating, coming back to stillness and surrendering and what. Really resonated for me around it is I felt like so much of my life I had been trying to control, right? I had been trying to force things into existence. I had desires, and the approach that I was going was kind of trying to force ’em, trying to make ’em happen, trying to use Will to make it happen.

Then consistently feeling disappointed that it wouldn’t. So when I read this surrender experiment, it gave me great relief. That’s why I remember the first time I read it, because I felt relief in my body. So I knew it had to be truth. Um, and. In that season, it meant that surrender what was, was what was meant for me.

And the thing is though, it made me question manifestation and I was like, well, wait a minute. If we’re just supposed to surrender to life, then what is this manifestation stuff? And why do so many incredible teachers and spiritual leaders, and even, I mean, this stuff is in the Bible, right? Jesus taught a lot of this stuff around manifestation.

And you know, incredible thought leaders teaching this work if it’s about surrendering. So I really had to find my own way and I had to come to what is Jamie’s Way? What is Jamie’s version of? Creation. Right. And for me, what I ultimately found for myself is that for me, there’s a time for conscious manifestation in bringing those principles into my life.

And then there’s also seasons of surrender, or there’s maybe certain areas that are meant to surrender and to let go and to trust life and let it unfold. And then there’s other areas where it’s like. The manifestation principles work beautifully. And again, sometimes it’s almost seasons, right, where I’m like, I am in a season of surrender, right?

All I can do is really trust. That’s all I need to do right now is lean back, let go of the reigns. Try to stop forcing anything, right? Or just don’t force anything and let it be. And sometimes that’s a whole season. And then sometimes I’m gonna. Season of like real active creation where I know something feels alive within me that I wanna create, and it makes so much sense to use the manifestation principles.

So for you, that’s always what it’s about, is tuning into your. Self and saying what resonates for me what feels like a full body? Yes. Because what you wanna make sure of is you wanna make sure that you aren’t trying to use manifestation techniques and principles to try to control your life. Right. To try to control it in a way, not of co-creating your life, not of like.

Going and leaning into your desires, but trying to control it. Like, I’m not gonna be happy until I have this thing, or trying to force something into existence. It doesn’t tend to work very well when you’re using manifestation in that way. That’s why it’s super important to learn how to lean into surrender.

So I like finding the balance of these two different ways and. It’s like right medicine at the right time. Sometimes the right medicine is, is conscious manifestation. Other times the right medicine is surrender. And so I think if you check in, you’re gonna know what’s best for you. And you can even think for you in this season with what you’ve maybe wanted to co-create or what you’re going through, you can ask yourself what sounds better for you?

And here’s the other thing, like you can always blend the two. That’s what’s beautiful. You can, um, start with manifestation and then surrender that manifestation to something even bigger, better, higher, right? So that’s what I tend to do is blend. So I wanna talk about the two and what the differences are.

That way you can kind of lean in and decide. You know what’s best for you or what’s best for you around a certain area that you are working with or in your life right now. So manifestation, right? Or I also like to call it conscious manifestation because we are all manifesting all the time.

Manifestation is simply creation, right? We’re creating our lives all of the time. But I like to think of it as like conscious manifestation or soulful manifestation is where we’re actually putting intention into it, right? And we’re directing the energy. With our consciousness, right? So that’s how I like to think of manifestation and it really is.

Creation through conscious intention. So it is the active side of co-creation. This is where you know what you want, or you’ve decided what you want, or you’ve had a desire that feels so alive within your being and your soul, and it’s something you know you wanna create or something you wanna step. Into, or someone you wanna become.

It just feels alive within you. And what you do is you do practices to bring your intention and your energy and your thoughts and your feelings and your actions in alignment with the version of you that creates that thing, right? So that’s where we do belief work. That’s where we practice mantras.

That’s where we do practice like. Seeing it done, visualizing the end result, feeling how we’re gonna feel once we’re there. It’s like we’re becoming that person on purpose and we’re actually putting intention and energy into doing that. Right. And that works really, really well when you. Know what you want, right?

Whenever something feels alive within you, it works really, really well. Whenever you are growing and growing into something, it works really well. Whenever you are motivated, right?

It’s really great when you’ve felt scattered and kind of uncertain and you get clarity of intention. You create clarity of intention of what you want, right? With money, I always say, what do you want? What? What do you actually want? How much do you wanna have?

How much do you wanna make? Like getting clear on that and then using manifestation to create it, putting your energy and intention. Thoughts in alignment with the version of you who creates it. It’s also great if you’ve been feeling kind of stuck in waiting and you’ve just been waiting around and you’re getting super sick of being in the same place, waiting, kind of just doing the same old, same old and not stepping into the highest version of you.

Manifestation can be really helpful during those times.

And I wanna share with you some of the thoughts or the beliefs that I hold that really support me with manifesting with co-creating the active side of co-creating with the universe. My favorite thoughts are thoughts become things, right? Thoughts become things. So I can put my intention. Into practicing the thoughts that I want to create in my life.

Practicing thinking of myself on purpose, believing the things about myself that I want to believe, not just what my childhood self right, my younger self believed, or what I’ve been taught about myself. It’s actually directing my energy into thinking on purpose. What do I wanna believe about myself? What do I wanna believe about life?

What do I wanna be believe about my ability to create? What do I wanna believe about my goal or my vision for my life? Deciding on purpose Because those thoughts will become things. They will become my reality. And again, this is the active side of co-creation because you do have to put some energy into it.

It’s not something that’s very passive, right? It’s very active. You have to retrain your brain, reprogram your brain. It actually takes. Effort, but the idea of thoughts become things is so helpful for me, and it’s one of my favorite thoughts around manifestation. Another one that I love is I get to believe anything I want, right?

It’s like there’s no thought police, there’s no one in my head like that is free will. Right? There is my ability to think. Thoughts that I want to think that I get to choose what I want to believe. That okay, my primitive brain might have thoughts that pop up, but I get to choose which ones I grab onto, which ones I’m gonna believe.

So I have the power, right? I get to choose what I wanna believe. Another thought that I love is what I focus on expands, right? So when I focus on the outcome that I want, that expands. When I focus on goodness, that expands. When I focus on generosity, that expands. When I focus on abundance, that expands right.

When I focus on gratitude, that expands what I focus on expands. Another one is everything is energy. Including money, including clients, including opportunities. What I like about that is it’s just like, ah, my job is to match the energy. It’s not about going out there and grinding or trying to force things into existence.

Everything is energy and when I match my energy, my focus, my thoughts, my intention, my actions in alignment. With that thing that I desire, that I wanna become, that I’m stepping into. That is how it comes to life. That’s how it manifests. Another one is, I create my reality and I actually really like that thought sometimes, right?

I’m actually not someone who uses manifestation against myself. So I don’t think that thought when circumstances happen in my life that are truly and genuinely outta my control. Like for example, if I get a flat tire or if like I were to get in a car accident or something were to happen or someone were to pass away in my life, I don’t think I created that, right?

I’m like. That’s not the time that I focus on that thought. When I do focus on it is when I am thinking on purpose about what I wanna create, I think I can create my reality, right? So that one I’m discerning about, but I really like the thought it’s. Just about when I practice it and I practice it, whenever I’m thinking about that I have the ability to create the life that I want, I have the ability to create the reality that I want.

I have the ability to create the day that I want and the energy of the day that I want. It makes me feel really empowered. Just be careful you’re not using that at a time where you’re gonna use it against yourself. ’cause I’ve also heard that, so I wanted to say that one with a little caveat. I never use that when you know circumstances arise that truly are.

Genuinely out of my control and just life happens, right? The human experience happens.

Another one of my favorite thoughts, uh, that helps me with manifestation is intention is everything. And I truly and wholeheartedly believe that. I mean, Oprah taught me, Gary Zoff taught this, and Wayne Dyer taught this, and I have lived it where I really love to put intention into things before I do it because that is the energy something is going to ride.

On, right? So whenever I record a podcast, I think ahead of time, what’s the intention of this? What do I want people to get out of this episode? And that is manifestation right there. It’s like I’m co-creating with the universe and I have a place of focus, right? What you focus on, growth. So I love to set an intention and I believe intention is everything.

And one of my other favorite thoughts that helps me with manifestation is what I want, wants me. What I want, wants me, right. I also like to think of it like this. In some ways it’s written in the stars, right? So like my desires, these things that I feel so called to do or go for, and it’s like, it’s amazing, right?

’cause it’s unique to everyone how we all feel called to these different things. Like a location that lights us up that we wanna live in or this career path, or. Something that we’re just so into a hobby that we love, right? It’s like, why are those things uniquely ours? It’s because you are meant to fulfill those things, right?

And I think of it like it’s written in the stars, and it’s almost like any desire that feels really lit up within me that’s very alive. It’s like my future self showing me where we’re headed, what’s possible, right? So I like to think of it like that. What I want wants me. And those are some of my favorite thoughts about manifestation that really help me whenever I’m in that phase of actively manifesting.

I also believe that you can reprogram your brain. I also believe you can reprogram your subconscious. Those kind of thoughts have been so helpful for me, and it’s like thoughts become things when you believe that is possible for you. You will do it. You can become a different person than you were 10 years ago.

Or you can uplevel or change or shift or create new habits or, you know, succeed in new ways and overcome things that maybe. You never thought you could in the past? ’cause we can reprogram our brain. So those are some of my favorite thoughts about manifestation, right? And that was just diving into what actually is manifestation and kind of how I see it.

Now let’s talk about surrender now, because surrender is the receptive side, it’s the passive side of co-creation, and oftentimes this one is a lot harder for people. Then active manifestation. Okay. Hello, high achievers. I know y’all because it’s me. I, I have a much harder time. Surrendering than I do actively co-creating, right?

Because I think I like motion. I like feeling like I’m in control. I like wanting to control. My ego does not me, but my ego does, right? So the surrender piece is most of the time for me harder, and I think that’s why whenever I listen to the Surrender Experiment by Michael Singer, it just lit up every cell in my being because I knew that’s what was meant for me in that.

Season, and I knew I needed to lean into more of that and I needed to practice surrendering along with manifesting. So let’s talk about surrender, right? So it is releasing control. Of the how and when things show up, it’s releasing control of the neediness of it. Even having to show up. Honestly, the way that I see it is it’s trusting life, right?

It’s letting go of timelines. It’s letting go of attachment. It’s letting go of forcing. It’s trusting divine timing. It’s not giving up, right? A lot of people think of surrender as giving up. It’s not at all. It’s not giving up. It’s releasing the grip, it’s probably releasing the forceful energy that you have on it.

It’s letting go of you needing to have it to feel okay, or you trying to force it into existence. I was just actually talking to a friend about it, um, because she’s been in a sticky place in her business and she was like, I’m not gonna give up on this thing. I’m not gonna give up. And I said, Hey, listen.

This is not about giving up. There’s no way you’re giving up because you’re meant to do this. Right. And she has such a soulful calling to do it, but it’s like the way was just getting sticky. So I said, no, you’re not gonna give up. But I said, you’re gonna give up the way in which you’ve been approaching it ’cause it’s not working, of trying to force it being hard on yourself.

Right. So I said. That’s the difference. You’re definitely not giving up on the outcome. You’re not giving up on the vision. But I said, girl, you gotta give up on this energy that you’re holding it so tightly. That’s the surrender, right? That can be just releasing the grip, releasing the need for it.

Honestly, because sometimes whenever we just release the need for it, it allows it to come into our lives and arise. Right. Nothing likes to be chased. Think about it. If you’re chasing a dog, it’s gonna run away. If you’re chasing a person, they’re gonna run. Nothing likes being chased. So surrendering is no longer chasing.

It’s like, okay, let’s sit in stillness and allow it to come to me. But my hands out, there’s a much better chance the dog’s gonna come back and greet you if you’re just. Still, and if you’re calm and if you have open arms, then if you’re trying to run around and grab that dog, I know for Millie, she says, oh my God, it’s play time.

It’s time to run from you, so I have to calm myself, sit down, release, let go and let her come to me. Right? Same with your desires, that it’s exactly the same. Right? So this is really powerful when you’re spiraling out. When you are in fear, when you’re in urgency, when you’re in doubt, or when things just are not flowing, when you feel like you’re going upstream, when you’re fighting the current, right?

This is when it is absolutely time to surrender. It feels like you’re in a fight with it. It does not feel like. Anything is kinda, I don’t wanna say going your way, but it feels like the universe is not conspiring upon your behalf. That is a sure sign. That is time to kind of let go and surrender and kind of allow your energy to reorganize.

You’ve gotta let go of the energy. It’s not that you’re giving up the goal. It’s not that you’re giving up the dream or the vision. You’re letting go of the energy that you’ve been in and letting yourself kind of come back to. Stillness and get into more receptive mode. It is passive. So again, can feel very scary because you can feel like, well, what am I even doing?

Am I even doing anything? Like, how is this gonna happen if I’m not putting in the effort or I’m not forcing it, or I’m not trying to do it? But the truth is, oftentimes we need those pauses so that the universe can reorganize things and do things on our behalf. Right, and that’s where receiving comes in and believing, in receiving, believing you’re not doing this alone, right?

You have the universe, you have God or angels or guides or whatever it is that are also supporting you. That’s one of my favorite thoughts is I’m not doing this alone and sometimes I need to stop. Thinking that I have to do this alone because when I think I need to do it alone and I need to force it to happen, it doesn’t happen.

And I go upstream and I’m basically fighting with reality. And that’s always a sign to surrender, right? It’s also a time to surrender when. Like, it just, there’s nothing more to do when you’ve literally given something your all, and it just hasn’t happened. ? You’re like, I have done my part right? And I’ve been there, like, I’ve done everything that I can possibly do to make this thing happen.

And it’s still not here. It’s not, I, I don’t see signs of it yet. That’s the time to surrender because there’s nothing more to do and there’s no reason to keep trying to put all this effort and force into it. Sometimes we just have to get into receptive mode and allow life to bring it to us or bring us the next.

Step or just reorganize things, reorganize our energy, right? So surrendering is not giving up, but it’s letting go of forcing. And sometimes it’s just sitting in stillness. And for so many people, this one takes so much courage to do. But you’ll know when you need to, right? You will know. So if you’ve been in kind of a fight and things like feel real, real, real hard, it’s time to surrender.

So I wanna talk about some of the beliefs that help me to surrender, right? So what are some of the thoughts that allow me to lean into surrender and to feel safe doing it, even though sometimes it feels uncomfortable? So some of those beliefs are, follow the energy. Now, this isn’t just a belief, this is just an intention for me, is to follow the energy, trust the energy.

So I really, I mean, this is something I live by, uh, even whenever I’m actively manifesting, it’s follow the energy. What feels right. I tune into my body and it’s like, does this feel like the time to say yes? Does this feel like the right thing to do? Does this feel like the natural flow? Does this feel like what my soul wants to do?

Right? These kinds of things. And the more you actually tune in and ask that question like, what is the natural energy? Where is it leading me? Does the energy say to say yes right now? Does the energy say to say no? And you have to trust it and follow it because it. Will. Take you to beautiful places. It doesn’t work out.

And sometimes it’s frustrating and annoying. I’m not gonna lie, because sometimes it’s not what your ego wants, but you can really feel into the energy and it feels like, God, if I did this thing right now or if I force. It would be out of force. It doesn’t actually feel like I’m going downstream. I feel like I’m going upstream against the current if I were to do this.

So following the energy is also like following the current what feels natural. What feels like a yes. What feels like. Right in this time, sometimes it’s what feels like ease. Um, even right now, it’s so wild, right? Because I had envisioned that I would be moved at this point. Like our goal was to move June 1st.

We were gonna move to Maui. We were gonna actually move before we sold our house, but I kept tuning into the energy and weirdly enough, me and Josh, we do this together. And we’re always just checking in. We don’t say like, what’s the energy? But like, this is how I’m thinking about it, is following the energy.

And so for some reason it didn’t feel right to move over there before we sold our house in la and there was something inside of me that said like, let’s just live on it while we’re selling it, because it felt like too much too soon to be getting this on the market, selling our condo, moving over there.

I was like, that’s just too much. Like for some reason my energy wants to take my time with this. And so we trusted it. Right. And even now it’s funny ’cause we went over there and we’ve still been wanting to move. Um, yeah, that’s been a huge goal. And so we’re trying to find a home and nothing has felt right.

It’s like my energy is not a yes, even though logically some of the things would’ve worked and logically like, oh, it checks a lot of the boxes that we have, but our energy did not feel right with that house. So we even just trusting the energy with it. And what’s. Been challenging about it is it’s not what my ego has wanted.

My ego wants to be there. My ego is like, oh my God, I thought we’d be living there by now. I didn’t be, I didn’t think we’d be living in this house. I thought this house would sell faster. Right? So, but like it’s about following the energy each day, each week, and that is what is leading us to where I know we’re meant to be.

Now you can go against the energy and we could have just said, Hey, let’s just get this house. Let’s get this rental. It would work for us. We can get everything in the books. We can move. It’s gonna all feel very solid, right? We could have done that, but that would’ve felt like we were going against the current.

It didn’t. Feel, right. So this is a big part of surrender piece, and I’ll tell you what, this season of my life, I am a hundred percent in surrender. I have done all the manifesting around this thing, around some stuff in my business also with Josh’s career, like we’ve done the active part, we’ve put the time in, we’ve put all the manifestation in, we’ve made the vision boards, we have done the thought work, we have done the reprogramming, we’ve done all the things.

Everything in terms of manifesting it. Like everything we could do, we have done also, in terms of taking action, we have done all the action to make something happen, right. But when it is not happening, it’s time to surrender, or when it’s not happening as fast as you want. That’s the, we just have to believe in divine timing, right?

And I know that that is always the way. So we’re following the energy. So that’s my first and favorite belief that helps me to surrender. Another one is, I trust life. This is big, and this is a choice, right? I know life might have been challenging. In the first part of your life, right? Or up until now, you may have had some huge obstacles and challenges, but I think if you can get into trust with life and also maybe look in hindsight of like why maybe your soul had those had gone through those, is there something you were meant to learn or evolve into or grow into?

That is a reason for those challenges, right? Not a. Like, oh, poor me type of mentality. But like, oh, I think this is why I was supposed to go through all of that, even though I would never pick it again. I would never pick it for someone else. There may be a higher purpose or reason for it. Right. And then choosing from here on out to start trusting life and developing a relationship with life.

And you can call it life, you can call it God, you can call it universe. You can call it. Whatever the heck you want to, I like to call it life. Okay. The another one is, the universe has got my back. Even when things don’t look like, uh, my ego thought or what I want, I, you know, the universe has got my back in some way or another, and I’m gonna figure out how that is later sometimes.

But that’s one of my favorite thoughts that lets me surrender. Another one is, it’s all being organized on my behalf. That one’s big, right? Because we don’t have to do this all alone. That’s another thought. I don’t have to do this all alone. Things can be organized on my behalf. Another one is I no longer argue with life.

I don’t fight with reality because I love what Byron Katie says. She says, when you fight with reality, you lose, but only 100% of the time, like what’s the point? What is the point of fighting with life and fighting with reality? So I no longer Argo argue with life. Um. Another one is this will all come together in some way.

I believe that, right? This will all come together in some way. Another one, my deepest desires are a glimpse from my future self. It’s already done. I just have to follow the energy. So that goes back to what I was talking about. My beliefs about manifestation is what I want, wants me. I also believe my deepest desire are a glimpse from my future self.

It’s already done. I just have to follow the energy and trust the divine timing. And that comes to my last thought about surrender is I trust the timing of the universe. I trust the timing of life. When you can get into trust with that, you will let yourself surrender and let. Go. So with that, that was a deep episode.

I’ve loved it. This is actually one I’ve wanted to record for a while and I trust the energy and I know the energy finally came in to record this one. So, um, I’m excited about that. I’m excited it’s getting out there.

So let’s wrap some things up, but I wanna give you a little summary of what I shared today. So first thing is manifestation and surrender are not opposites. They’re partners. I want you to think of them as partners, and it’s something that you have. F it’s basically two different amazing tools and you just gotta ask yourself what’s the right tool, right?

You’re, if you wanna get a nail into the wall, the right tool is a hammer. You’re not gonna take a saw and try to get a nail into the wall, right? So you have to ask yourself, based upon my situation or where I’m at, or my circumstance, what’s the right tool? Is manifestation my tool right now? And some of the tools with manifestation.

Or is it surrender right now? And how do I balance those two? Right? They’re partners. Also, true co-creation is equal parts, vision and trust. So with everything that you are manifesting and creating and becoming, you are going to lean into equal amounts of vision and trust. Right, and so just know that that is something you’re always gonna be balancing out, is leaning into the vision, doing the reprogramming, doing your thought work, and then leaning into trust, and that is huge.

It’s everything. Okay. Lastly, you are not meant to force or checkout. You are meant to collaborate with life. So think of this as a collaboration with life and that balance of manifesting and surrendering vision and trust. One foot in vision, one foot in trust, right when you’re walking one foot in vision, one foot in trust.

And balancing the two out. So as you’re reflecting on this episode, you can ask yourself, right, where have I been maybe leaning a little bit too much and how can I balance it out with the other? ’cause these two do have to stay in balance, and that is how the. Things will come to life, ? Is by balancing these things out.

That is how you are going to step into the vision is by balancing surrender and manifestation, active and passive, getting into the yin and the yang. So that is your homework for this week. I’m gonna give you some homework, is to lean into the one that you need a little bit more of, and. I’m so excited for you.

I’m glad that I was able to record this episode and I am sending you so much love. Talk soon.

 Hey, thanks for listening. I hope this episode is something that you’ll be able to add to your manifestation toolbox to come back to when you need a little extra motivation. If you like what you’ve heard today and wanna to it deeper, you’ve gotta come check out my signature coaching program, the Money Manifestation Movement.

It’s the place where you’ll not only learn manifestation, but you’ll begin to live it alongside me and an amazing. Community of like-minded entrepreneurs doing this work together. Head on over to jamie berman.com to learn more.