How to manifest the life you want (and how sauna can help!)

Ever wished you could close your eyes, think positive thoughts and manifest your way to a better life? (Love! Money! The starring role in a reality TV show!)

Sauna is a particularly powerful tool to help with your manifestation journey. Many users report feeling focused, clear-headed and energized during their sauna practice. This is most likely because heat therapy signals to our brains to release feel good chemicals including serotonin, endorphins and dopamine - the ultimate positive energy champions!

But how exactly does ‘positive energy’ help you get what you want in life? And how do we send this ‘out into the universe’? (Rocket ship?!) We’re glad you asked…

The truth is the underlying concept of manifestation is perfectly consistent with research from psychologists, particularly within the field of positive psychology.

American Psychologist (and one of the founders of the positive psychology movement) Martin Seligman was one of the first to suggest we focus on mental health instead of mental illness. Seligman believes the route to a happy and fulfilling life is through nurturing our existing strengths (rather than correcting weaknesses) such as optimism, kindness, generosity, originality and humor. He calls these ‘signature strengths’, and we should all identify ours.

North Carolina-based Dr Barbara Fredrickson has also studied positive emotions like love, gratitude and joy. In her 2009 book Positivity she shares how we can create an ‘upward spiral’ to transform our lives and be happier, healthier and more creative. She also offers tools to help calculate your current ‘positivity ratio’, and tips on how to improve it.

Manifestation is also consistent with research into people with a ‘growth mindset’ (check out the findings of Dr Carol Dweck). You have a growth mindset if you believe your talents, intelligence, and abilities are not fixed, but can be developed further. Those with a growth mindset are always on the lookout for opportunities to learn new things and to improve. It’s not at all surprising that research finds people with this mindset are more likely to succeed at pretty much everything!

With this in mind, here are our top tips for manifesting whatever it is that you want:

1. Firstly, be specific about what you want - if you’re not sure, ask yourself some key questions to get to the heart of what’s important to you.
2. Provide daily opportunities to focus on your goal - try journaling, a vision board or use the precious time spent relaxing in your sauna blanket to visualize achieving your goal.
3. Take action and follow through - identify small steps that will lead you to your goal and start doing them. Use your signature strengths and kickstart that upward spiral!
4. Acknowledge your progress - practice gratitude daily (another great happiness tool!) and celebrate progress towards your goal, no matter how small.
5. Let go of limiting beliefs and negative self-talk - you can use affirmations to counteract negative beliefs. Lacy Phillips calls this ‘expanding’ and has a podcast dedicated to it.