How Acting As If is the Ultimate Power Move to Manifesting Now

In this episode of Manifesting Now, Shannon unpacks why “Acting As If” isn’t about faking it, but truly it’s about embodiment. You’ll learn how to spot the difference between pretending and truly stepping into your future self, how to align your nervous system so your manifestations stick, and practical quick wins to start embodying today. 

You’ll discover:

• Why “fake it till you make it” creates imposter syndrome
  
  
• How to embody your future self instead of performing
  
  
• The role your nervous system plays in manifestation
  
  
• Quick wins to start living as her now
  
  
  

Resources:

Act As If Ritual

Harvest Your Desires Event

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Manifesting Inside Out
• 2:45 Collapsing Time to Manifest Now
• 6:06 Faking It vs. Acting As If
• 11:39 True Embodiment: A Manifestation Power Move
• 16:29 A Leader's Authentic Success Story
• 16:29 Why Embodiment Is The Missing Piece

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hello, hello, welcome back. I am so glad you're here this week, if you are new. I'm Shannon and this space is all about manifesting from the inside out. No forcing, no pretending, no skipping the deep stuff, just real conversations to help you live the life that your soul already knows is yours. And today we're going to talk about manifesting now, because I know there are things you desire, so let's bring those into your 3D reality To manifest now. You have to collapse time, because it's not about waiting for some far off moment when the stars align or when you finally feel ready. It's about deciding today that you are already the version of you who has what she wants.

Speaker 1: 0:46

The truth is, manifestation does not start when things show up. It starts when you show up as her, as the version of you who already knows, already owns and already lives that reality. And one of the most powerful and most misunderstood ways to do that is acting as if Now I know you've probably heard that term tossed around a lot act as if you already have it, and it sounds cute on paper, but most people interpret it the wrong way, and it is not your fault. If you have it's because it's so cluttered in the spaces where it's talked about. So a lot of times you may hear act as if and you think that means faking it, pretending, performing, playing some version of success that maybe you saw on Instagram or TikTok and that is going to burn you out faster than the true strategy, than the true tool of acting as if. Because I've said it before and I will say it again, acting as if, to me, is the most potent tool, because it is a tool that we can use in manifestation. So today I want to clear it up because acting as if is not just pretending. It is your manifestation, power, move. It's about embodiment, it's about anchoring into your future timeline now. It's collapsing it, it's bringing it together and you do it with your body and your energy and your presence, not just a vision board. That's why I don't use typical vision boards. I use a vision diary that encompasses act as if energy. It's what I'm going to be teaching at the Harvest your Desires in-person event that I'm having here within the next month. I'll put that in the show notes if you want to check it out, but for today, I want you to grab your favorite drink, cozy up and let's start talking about why faking it is useless and can actually be dangerous to your manifesting practice, and then how to go into acting as if.

Speaker 1: 2:46

So I want to talk about this big elephant in the room. It's something I know in my generation. I heard a lot. I don't know if it's as prevalent in the younger generations, but for mine we were always told just fake it till you make it and you see.

Speaker 1: 3:02

Faking it is one of the most misleading pieces of advice in the manifestation world. I believe it's brought in because, like I said, for my generation, we heard it so much that it's programmed into us. So we think, okay, that's what acting as if is. And that's why I think it's kind of misleading if people don't really talk about the difference between faking it and acting as if. Because faking it till you make it tells you to fake confidence, to fake wealth, to fake success until somehow you trick the universe or yourself into making it real. But the faking is empty. There is no energy behind it, there is no alignment, there's no soul. You go through the motions without emotion. It's like putting on this costume and hoping it changes who you are underneath, but it never does and it always brings about this kind of disconnection from who you are Faking it comes from a place of external orientation.

Speaker 1: 4:08

You are Faking it comes from a place of external orientation. You're trying to look like the person who has the thing, instead of being the person who truly feels, believes and lives that reality from the inside out. When you're faking it, you aren't fooling anyone. And let's just be real. When you're faking it, you're not even fooling yourself, because you feel like an imposter and your nervous system is letting you know it, because your nervous system feels it too. And that's really where imposter syndrome creeps in and comes from, because you know you're not just pretending in front of others. You're disconnecting from your own truth. Your system knows you're not actually aligned. So you may be saying the right things quote-unquote the right things.

Speaker 1: 4:45

Let me say that what you think are the right things from a societal perspective or a societal program, or you may think you're doing the correct morning routine based on what others say you should do or what it should look like, but your inner self is screaming this isn't real at all. This doesn't feel good. And that disconnect, that internal static, is actually reinforcing the exact thing that you're trying to shift away from, because every time you fake it, your subconscious gets the message oh, I'm not, that I have to pretend to be somebody else to get what I want. I can't be authentically who I am. To get what I want, I just have to continue to masquerade. And that means that you'll never truly become her right. You're just switching costumes, but you're never actually embodying, and so you just keep spinning in this loop of almost and I'm going to give you a perfect example of this in a second, of what this looks like, to hopefully encourage you that you don't have to fake it based on societal conditioning, based on what you should do, what people tell you to do, or the examples of what success means in your area. So I'm going to give you that example here shortly.

Speaker 1: 5:58

But I want to talk about what acting as if really means, and why it's the manifestation power move, because we need to shift into that and why it really will change how you manifest now. Because acting as if is not a performance, it's a portal. It's not about pretending to be somebody else, but being the truest, most aligned version of yourself, the version who already has it already knows it already. Is it whatever it is for you, and that's where the embodiment comes from when you act as if you're training your nervous system, your energy field, your emotional body, to live in the frequency of the thing you desire. You're not acting like someone you saw online or someone you were told to be. You're aligning with your own highest self, the one that already exists in another timeline, the one you're merging with now. And that is about coherence, when your thoughts, when your feelings, when your actions are congruent with your future self, because you create your future today. Whatever's going to happen tomorrow starts with what you do today, because you're creating right now, and that's how we are collapsing the space. So you stop reaching or you stop keeping it in some far away future and you start receiving. That may look like waking up and saying what would she prioritize today? Because she exists today. You move through your day making choices that are energetically aligned with your future self's reality, not from fear but from vision. You speak with confidence, like the person who already trusts herself, even if she's still learning. You walk into the room with the energy of someone who belongs there, not because you're faking it, but because you've decided that you are her. You are no longer waiting to feel legitimate. You are legitimate.

Speaker 1: 7:55

Let me tell you the story of someone who I work with and the reason why we fake it a lot, and she had plenty of opportunities to fake it, but she acted as if instead. And a lot of times we go to faking it because we're trying to fit in the roles that we think other people think we should fit into or to function in the way other people think we should function. That's where we really fall into faking it, trying to manifest what we want. So she wanted to work in leadership and be a leader, but she didn't want to do it in the way others did it, which was mean, cold, you know, just ugly, not caring about the people that are under them, just not the person she wanted to be. And she was told a lot of times well, you're never going to make it, you're never going to move up if you have such a big heart. Basically, if you treat people like people, you're never going to be able to lead in this industry. If you treat people like people, you're never going to be able to lead in this industry. And she said you know that's just not me.

Speaker 1: 8:55

And the people who wanted her to fake it and act a certain way shunned her. They tried to blackball her in some ways. And she said you know, I'm not going to give up on the version of me, because the version that I see in my head, the desire that I have, is a leader who cares about her people, takes care of her people, is in it with her people, has good culture. That's what I want to bring and I truly believe that if I can bring that to fruition, everything else that we're trying to accomplish is going to fall into place. But here you had people on the other side saying no, that's not how it works, right, because that's what people will tell you. Well, that's not how it works. It works like XYZ.

Speaker 1: 9:34

Well, xyz did not align to her, it wasn't an energetic alignment. And they told her well, you're never going to get there If you keep being like this. You're going to stay stuck where you are forever. But she didn't give into that and sometimes it's hard not to give into that. But she says no, I'm going to walk my path of my desire and I'm going to align to the desire I want to see happen, because the world said that it was impossible. And that's the thing. Right, when we go to manifest, we're not trying to manifest what's on this current timeline of possibility. We're trying to make new possibilities. That's what she did.

Speaker 1: 10:12

Not only did she continue to move up in the ranks of leadership, she had the best outcomes for what she was in charge of. She had the best culture for what she is in charge of, and somebody came to her, opened up another opportunity for more money. She actually gets to work closer to home because she did such an amazing job that they wanted her to come replicate it somewhere else. Had she been faking it till she made it, none of those things would happen. But she was acting as if, and acting as if means walking the walk, talking the talk and embodying it fully. Even if you can't see that it'll make a difference, even if you can't see it unfolding, because after three years of her doing and aligning to the desire, it all just bang, blew up overnight in the best way.

Speaker 1: 11:09

There were wins along the way and she's like okay, there's some wins along the way and it kept her motivated. She never betrayed herself. She never betrayed her alignment. She never betrayed the inner voice. She didn't listen to the programs, to the others, what others said she should do. That would have been super duper fake. And, yeah, her desire was to move up, and that's when you have to be so sure within yourself, and acting as if is that assurance. She got these little quick wins along the way, but then it was like bam complete. She got these little quick wins along the way, but then it was like bam complete. All of it came together at once and she's like I'm just in tears. She created a new reality, one where they said, no, that's not possible, but she did it. See. That is really why I want you to be encouraged when you're going on the journey, because when you're acting as if it doesn't look that way, it looks your way, not someone else's way.

Speaker 1: 12:07

I feel like that's where the confusion comes in and why the confusion is so common. It's because we've been conditioned in a world that praises appearance over alignment. You know, you're taught from early on to look a certain way. Look the part, say the right things, follow the rules, just do it the way it's always been done. Look the part, say the right things, follow the rules, just do it the way it's always been done. Keep up the image, whether you feel it inside or not.

Speaker 1: 12:31

So when someone hears act as if their mind immediately translates it, to pretend until you're convincing enough that someone gives you permission to have what you want. When we do that and when we're trying to convince other people to give it to us by doing what we're conditioned to do or what they say, that isn't manifesting, that is performing. Manifestation doesn't work on performance, it works on vibration, it works on embodiment. And that doesn't come from pretending, it comes from deciding. Person I told you about, she decided. She decided that I'm not coming out of alignment with who I am and what I know and my path. I know they say you can't do it and it won't happen, but I'm going to believe it's going to happen and I'm going to believe it's going to happen in a way that feels good to me and for what I truly desire. And I'm going to forge that new path and I'm going to stay the course, because she made a decision. She made a decision not to abandon herself.

Speaker 1: 13:32

So when you're acting as if and doing it in true alignment, it isn't about lying to yourself or others. It is about stepping into the version of you that already exists within your field. And when I say within your field, I'm not talking about your career field, but within your energy field Because she is already available and she is already real. It's just letting that version take the lead and it can feel unfamiliar at first and it may stretch you and it may test you, especially when the 3D world is closing in around you because they're like, oh no, 3d world is closing in around you because they're like, oh no, that's unfamiliar to us too Because truly, in her field it's just unfamiliar. And they're like that's not tried, true and proven and all these other things, even though they don't even have the best results. But they're scared that woo. We don't even have the best results with what we're doing now. What if we get even worse results? So not only are you forging a path, but yeah, other people are gonna get uncomfortable too because they don't like the unfamiliar. They wanna stay in the familiar. It's that boldness to say you can stay there, but I'm not. And that's the embodiment and that's the integration and that's the transformation. So you are not putting on a show, because you are not here to put on a show for other people. You're here to calibrate to your truth.

Speaker 1: 14:45

When I talk about embodiment and why it is the missing piece, it's because your nervous system is your gatekeeper between who you are and who you are becoming. You can be journaling your intentions every single day or visualizing like a pro, or saying all the right affirmations, but if your body feels unsafe, if your system doesn't trust that it's okay to hold what you want, it's going to reject it. And so when you purposefully deny yourself, in an attempt to fake it till you make it that's very apparent to your nervous system, the frequency of your desire and the frequency of your nervous system must match, and that's when reality starts to shift fast. Embodiment is what tells your nervous system we are safe to hold more, we are safe to expand, we are safe to receive. It is guiding it to more without having some internal fight with yourself, because you're faking it and not following truly your desire. You have to teach yourself it's safe to listen to the inner me, it is safe to follow that voice. And we can bridge that right. We can bridge that nervous system feeling. But then when you start to embody it and it starts to feel so real to your nervous system, then you're manifesting shifts. And this doesn't mean just aligning your mind, it's aligning everything, your biology. And when that happens, that's when you become magnetic and you stop chasing and you start creating the things that match your frequency and seeing them in the 3D world, because you're being the version of you who already holds them. You're not in survival anymore, you're in expansion. You're no longer reacting to your circumstances, you are creating them. Now let's get a little bit tangible, because embodiment isn't just energetic, it is real, it is practical and it lives in your daily choices.

Speaker 1: 16:32

We're just going to look at a couple little examples here, like if you're trying to manifest love, faking it may be looking like posting curated selfies or mimicking behaviors you think your ideal partner would like, even if that's not authentically you. But acting as if is showing up in your life with an open heart for somebody who is already loved and supported and cherished. You choose self-respect, you set boundaries, you receive compliments without deflecting them, you love you and you show up authentically and unapologetically as who you are. You don't have to change who you are to be loved. If you're trying to manifest financial abundance, faking it may mean doing things and buying things you can't afford, that put you in debt just so that you look successful to the outside world. But acting as if means managing your money with love and with confidence and making decisions like somebody who trusts the money to flow. So when you're checking your bank account, you're doing it with gratitude, regardless of the amount that's in there. You embody that vibration of overflow, not just optics. Maybe you're trying to manifest a business or a career breakthrough.

Speaker 1: 17:39

Faking it may be copying somebody else or pretending to have it all together, like in the example I said. People wanted her to fake it and act like everybody else was acting, but she didn't do that. Instead, she showed up consistently as the leader she was, and so you do that. You show up consistently as the leader you are and you speak with conviction and you trust your voice and you create from alignment, not comparison or peer pressure. Ask yourself what would she do, and when you're unsure or you're spiraling, just pause and ask what would the version of me who already has this do right now? And then you do the smallest version of that, just so you can make your nervous system feel safe. The second thing you can do is move your body like her. Maybe you're straightening your spine, maybe you're taking a slower breath. Maybe you walk into the room like the most confident, grounded version of you is already here, because she is.

Speaker 1: 18:35

Maybe you speak, number three, from the energy of done so, instead of I hope I am becoming, instead of I'm trying, I'm aligning. Your words matter, so speak for where you want to be, not from what you're fearing or where you are. Number four feel into the frequency. Y'all I'm all about the feels, because the emotions are that missing piece that I feel like nobody ever really wants to talk about. I mean, they want to talk about it from a toxic positivity standpoint, but not a true standpoint.

Speaker 1: 19:07

Take 60 seconds each morning just to feel into the energy of what you're manifesting Not just thinking about it, but truly feeling it and letting your body get familiar with those feelings. And if you want to stay consistent, that's really where the act as if tracker comes in. I created it to help you build this muscle into your real life. It doesn't take you very long because I know a lot of y'all are busy. You're like I want to. I want to have manifestation all up in my life all the time, but I'm so busy. The act as if tracker will help bridge that over, because when I first started my manifesting practices, I literally had like seven minutes a day, like that's all I had. I have way more time now, but that built when I started manifesting the life that I wanted.

Speaker 1: 19:47

The act as if tracker can help you be consistent without taking a whole bunch of time. It helps you to embody, it is a practice. It helps you to rewire your default setting and to live in that next level energy every single day. So I'm going to put a link to that in the show notes as well, so that you can pick that up and get started, so that you can see real change in your life in the next 30 days. This is what I want you to take away. I want you to take away that acting as if it's not about pretending, it's about aligning, it's about reclaiming your power now.

Speaker 1: 20:20

I don't know if I said now enough in this episode, but right now, not when the thing arrives, not when you think you're ready, but today and that you don't have to perform and you don't have to earn it. You just decide who you're becoming and then you be her. One breath, one choice, one energy shift at a time. What's one thing you can just ask yourself? What's one thing you can do today? Let that be your portal, let that be your power. Move, because you're manifesting now and you're doing it from your full embodied, authentic self. I truly believe that I want you to keep choosing you. Keep choosing her. She's already within you. I will chat with you.