Why You Can't Manifest

How quickly one thought turns into a full story about why you’re behind in life, unchosen, still single, divorced at fifty (like it’s a bad thing, by the way—it’s not), or doing everything wrong.

There’s a famous line from the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali that basically says this:

Yoga is when the mind stops spiraling - Yogaś citta vṛtti nirodhaḥ.

Not disappears.
Not becomes empty.
Just… stops running the show.

Most people hear this and think yoga is about being a perfectly healed version of yourself who never gets upset and always “trusts the universe.”

That’s not it.

The sutra is pointing to something way more practical and applicable, even in this day and age. That’s why yoga is more popular thousands of years later, because it works! The problem isn’t that thoughts happen. The problem is how fast we believe them.

Your thoughts aren’t the problem.
Your loyalty to them is.

Here’s where this gets interesting.

Mantras have gone mainstream. In fact, during my Yogi Maha Method teacher training, one of my trainees once asked, “What’s the difference between mantra and affirmation?” I said,“Mantra is Sanskrit. Affirmation is its translation in English.” The room went silent. Everyone looked genuinely shocked. They honestly thought the word mantra was English… because that’s how mainstream it’s become.

We live in a culture obsessed with affirmations and manifesting. “Say it until it’s true.” “Claim it.” “I am this, I am that.”

Baby Tate even turned it into a national anthem.

I’m healthy.
I’m wealthy.
I’m rich.
I’m that bitch.

Catchy. Empowering. And also… not how mantra works in yoga.

I taught that once too, in my classes and teacher trainings. Then I learned better, and my teaching evolved with me.

In Sanskrit, I AM (usually capitalized) is and sounds like AUM, but often spelled OM. It is used as a mantra to remind you who you truly are: the One beyond the physical body, beyond the self, beyond your identity, your gender, your age, your job. In other words, to remind you that you are the creator made manifest in physical form.

From a neuroscience perspective, repeating affirmations steadies circuits in the brain. It reinforces the sense of self, preference, desire, and comparison. That can feel good in the short term, especially if you’ve been undervaluing yourself. But it also keeps the nervous system activated. Evaluating your self base on outcome, status and perceived achievements.

From a yogic perspective, Mantra was never designed to inflate the ego. It was designed to soften identification with it.

The nervous system doesn’t relax when it’s trying to become someone.
It relaxes when it feels safe being no one in particular. “But Maha, what do you mean by becoming no one? I want to be someone in this world. Isn’t that what it’s all about? You want me to be a doormat?”

Great question. And no, I’m not telling you to disappear, give up your dreams, or become a doormat. “Becoming no one” doesn’t mean you stop being ambitious, visible, successful, or desired. It means you stop clinging to an identity in your nervous system.

You still become someone in the world.
You still build a career.
You still want love, sex, money, fun, recognition.

But you’re no longer bracing your body around who you think you have to be to earn those things, to love and accept your self. When the nervous system feels safe being “no one,” it stops performing, proving, and over-efforting. And ironically, that’s when you become more compelling, more confident, more grounded, and more magnetic.

You don’t lose your personality.
You lose the panic underneath it.

That’s the difference.

You don’t notice a yogi in a crowd because they are so calm and subtle, but you notice a yogi in a crisis because they are so calm and subtle.

Mantra in yoga quiets the ego.
Pop culture mantra inflates it.

During one of my Yogi Maha Method training weekends, a student stayed behind after class. She said, “I do manifestation meditation. I repeat affirmations every morning.” Then she sighed and said, “And my dating life is still a disaster.” She laughed, but it wasn’t funny-funny. It was tired-funny.

“I’ve been on Raya. I’ve been on Bumble. I’ve been on Hinge. I’m so sick of first dates. I don’t want another drink with a stranger. I want the relationship.”

I asked her what happens when she sits down to practice. She said, “I keep telling myself I am confident, I am worthy, I am magnetic…

That moment was everything.

She wasn’t doing anything wrong. She was just using willpower in a place that requires regulation. She was trying to manifest from a nervous system that didn’t feel settled yet. What she is really saying to her nervous system on an unconscious level is, “I’m anxious that it’s not working.”

You can’t manifest peace
from a body that’s bracing.

In dating, it’s when you stop performing confidence and actually feel grounded. That’s when attraction shifts. In work, it’s when you stop forcing outcomes and suddenly think more clearly, negotiate better, lead better. In friendships, it’s when you stop curating yourself and people feel safe around you.

The misunderstanding is that saying “I am” louder will override insecurity. The deeper truth is that safety changes behavior faster than belief ever will.

The body leads.
The mind follows.

Daily Sadhana
Something You Can Actually Do
Interrupt the “I Am” Loop

Once a day, pause for one minute.
Notice your body. Is it tensing? Shoulders shrugged, belly hollow, legs fidgeting?
This is your automatic, hard-wired response based on past experiences.
Then bring attention to your breath and your body.

No mantra.
No breath count.
Just interrupting the fear thought loop.

When to use it
Before opening a dating app.
Before spiraling about money or career.
Before trying to manifest harder.

What to notice
Less urgency.
More steadiness.

When you bring the unconscious to the conscious, it loses its power over you.

It’s easier than you think. It’s so simple that you can miss it. The human mind likes to complicate things, but simply being present and sitting with your body’s reaction, instead of trying to fix it, heals.

Yoga isn’t anti-confidence.
It’s anti-false control.

You don’t need to become “that bitch.”
You need to feel safe enough to stop trying to be anything at all.

That’s when things actually move.

If you feel curious about learning yoga beyond poses and manifestation trends, this is the kind of work we explore inside Yogi Maha Method.

In the next post, I’ll talk about what to do when you’ve done all the inner work, all the affirmations, and you’re still waiting for that thing to come and fix your life.