Wake Up, Human
Wake Up, Human is an exploration of the native powers of the human being. This podcast examines the ways we humans have become disconnected—from our innate wisdom, from each other, and from the natural world—and explores practical strategies for reconnecting to wholeness. Drop in for information and inspiration to help us reawaken and heal ourselves, our relationships, and our planet.
Wake Up, Human
Ep.26: Intentional Living: Manifestation as a Lifestyle | with Irina Portnova
Manifestation is not just about vision boards and wishful thinking—it's an intentional practice of aligning our energy with our desire, through the power of the mind. In this episode I talk with Irina Portnova about the practical side of manifestation: "We don't attract what we want, we attract who we are."
Some of the topics we cover...
- Everything in our world is energy, including our thoughts, words, and emotions
- We are manifesting all the time, whether we know it or not—often unconsciously attracting what we fear
- A manifesting tool: creating a "to-be list" instead of just a "to-do list"
- How tapping into our emotions can accelerate manifestation
- What vision boards and the material objects we want to manifest really represent in our lives
- A practice for manifesting miracles instead of perpetuating problems.
Join Irina's upcoming summit "Experience Love Again After Divorce" by clicking the registration link in the show notes. You'll get the link to my "Rewilding the Heart" meditation when you register.
Hello everyone and welcome to episode 26 of the Wake Up Human podcast. I'm your host, shannon Wills, and in this episode, my guest and I will be manifesting a fun and informative conversation about manifestation. See you on the inside. Welcome to the Wake Up Human podcast. I'm Shannon Wills, a curious wanderer with a passion for digging into life's mysteries and mining them for wisdom to apply to our modern lives. This podcast explores the ways we humans have become disconnected from our native ways of knowing what we have lost and what we can gain by coming back into wholeness. Each episode will explore this theme of reconnecting with our innate human power in order to heal ourselves, our relationships and our planet. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let's jump into the latest installment of Wake Up Human. Hi everyone, and thank you for joining me for this episode. If you've been listening to the podcast over the past year, you know that my episodes this episode. If you've been listening to the podcast over the past year, you know that my episodes this year have been solo. This is the first interview that I have done in over a year and it feels really good to just be chatting with someone on the podcast, and I hope it will feel good to you too, and fresh. It feels a little bit like a new chapter for Wake Up Human, and I'm glad to have you here with me for this. So, but to say something about this episode, in today's episode I am going to be speaking with Irina Portnova. Irina is a manifestation coach, and if you don't know what a manifestation coach is, well, keep listening and you're going to find out. I met Irina when she invited me to be a speaker on her upcoming summit that she is hosting, entitled Experience Love Again After Divorce. This is a summit. This summit is about experiencing love after divorce, true to its title, and it's also just about experiencing love after separation or loss, and we're hurting and we're wanting to repair and heal our hearts and show up more whole for the next relationship in our future lives, and I'm going to ask Irina to share a little bit about her summit toward the end of the conversation, but in the meantime, I hope you'll join us for a conversation that is. It's really not about the summit, although it's certainly related. We're going to be talking about manifestation what manifestation is, how it works, how it doesn't work and why we should care. Irina is a lot of fun to speak with and to listen to, and I think you're going to enjoy this conversation. So, without further ado, let's manifest some focused attention and jump into the conversation right now. Oh, and I do want to say one thing before jumping.
Shannon W.:As a part of my participation in the summit, irina asked me to offer a free gift to listeners on the summit, and I have done that. So inside the summit, I'm offering a free gift of a meditation. The meditation is called Rewilding the Heart. It's something that I really enjoyed and took time putting together, and I would love to share it with you. So if you're interested in that meditation, please just have a look in the show notes for this episode and there you will find the registration link for the summit. If you register for the summit, you will get access to my meditation, as well as all the other free gifts that were offered by other speakers in the summit. If you do listen to the meditation, I really hope that it is helpful to you in some way. Okay, and now, without further ado, for real, here's the interview. Hello, irina, and welcome to the podcast. I'm happy to have you here.
Irina P.:And thanks so much for inviting. It's such an honor to be here with you, shannon, and thanks so much for inviting. It's such an honor to be here with you, shannon.
Shannon W.:Thank you, irina. I'm excited to see where this conversation goes. So let me start by asking you what I think is a pretty basic question. You are a manifestation coach, and I'm guessing that some of the people listening to this episode are not going to know what a manifestation coach is. So would you start out by just sharing with us what is manifestation in the first place, and then why would we need a coach to do it?
Irina P.:Oh my God, such a great question. Thanks so much, Shannon, for asking and yes, I completely agree. A lot of people do not know what manifestation is and a lot of people are not even aware of why. Do we need the coach, right? So manifestation is actually bringing something with our energy from thinking to our physical reality. If we think about it, everything is energy. We are also made out of energy. If you take our bones, if you take our skin away, then you'll see like all this pure energy that is floating and a lot of people are not even realizing that our thoughts are energy, our words are energy, our emotions are energy. So basically, we are creating with that energy.
Irina P.:And that's exactly where it comes the concept of intentional creation, intentional manifestation, because we are manifesting all the time, meaning whatever thoughts we keep thinking in our head and the more importance we give to these thoughts, sooner or later they show up in our physical reality. And let me just give you the example. For instance, if somebody started to date that amazing person after having so many heartbreaks and they're like, oh my God, I have to pinch myself, I can't believe that I deserve that person. And every time, even though this is everything works great, they are going on the dates. It's very caring person, very loving, and they start entertaining these thoughts because they always go back to their past experience and they are like, okay, one day this is going to be over, one day that person is going to leave me, not even realizing, right, that these thoughts actually are the seeds that might come and just show up in the real life. So the more person is going to be afraid and thinking of, okay, one day that person is going to leave, sooner or later, that really happens. But people are not really making the connections. All they say, okay, that's exactly what I was thinking about, right, not even realizing that they are thinking actually happened to be the reality because they were putting too much attention to that.
Irina P.:And that's exactly what manifestation in a nutshell. So basically, we all are manifesting and what I teach people as a coach let's do it intentionally. Let's consciously manifest something, what we want, rather than just be afraid of something that we do not want to happen. And obviously our monkey brain always goes to all these negative scenarios, whether it's with the health or finances or the relationship or anything in life. We always start thinking negative and it's our job to just pause ourselves and pay attention that our thoughts carry the energy, and our energy is creative energy. Energy and our energy is creative energy.
Irina P.:So let's just flip the script and let's just focus on something, what we want to bring. And that's exactly what I help people to do, because it seems that it's simple, but it's not easy, right? How many times you would have to stop ourselves? And that's where I come as a manifestation coach. That's where we have that roadmap to really understand where exactly you are going, what exactly do you want to create in your life? And I have the tools and the proven system that could take them from point A to point Z in order for them to experience exactly what they want in life.
Shannon W.:Okay, now I understand more why you suggested to title this episode Intentional Living, because it sounds like much of what you are actually doing with your work is helping people to live more intentionally and to understand how to do that.
Shannon W.:And what you just said about having a map to help people to get there.
Shannon W.:This brings to mind something that I've thought often about manifestation, and I think many people have this image of this, which is that if you want to manifest something, then you just go and create yourself a vision board and then you put that vision board up on your wall and then you sit back and you wait for that to manifest.
Shannon W.:And for a lot of people that can sound pretty impractical or people can be very skeptical because they can say how is that going to work? That I just make myself a vision board and then suddenly it's going to magically manifest somehow. That can feel for some people like kind of a joke. But what you're saying here, I think, is answering to that skepticism a little bit, because you're saying it's not just about knowing, deciding what you want, it's about creating a map to get there and then taking action to make it happen, which is very different than I'm going to create something once and I'm going to set it up on my shelf and then I'm going to wait for the universe to bring it to me, right? Am I thinking correctly on?
Irina P.:that I love what you're sharing, shannon, and I'm sure that probably a lot of audience who is listening would be like, well, yeah, that's exactly how I was understanding the manifestation, right, and it's true because it's only one segment of it. Right, it's great to have that vision board, or it's great to know what exactly we want, because that's exactly where manifestation starts, where we want to connect to that end and result. What exactly do we want? We want to be specific and clear, and that's why people are cutting out the beautiful boats, the houses, the love and everything else. Right, but this is just one segment, because, then, what the vision board is good at it? Just that keep reminding you every day you're looking at it. It just reminds you that, okay, this is the life that you wanted to live.
Irina P.:But now it's more about let's create these action steps, and it's not just action steps. They have to be inspired action steps. What do I mean by inspired? Everybody is familiar with the to-do list. Everybody has this daily to-do list, but I invite people to start having that to-be list. What?
Shannon W.:does it mean?
Irina P.:to be list. Just, you know, like have to have that being like. What kind of being would I love to show up in this world? Do I want to be kind to this world? Do I want to be inspiring person? Do I want to help others? Right, because when we have these elevated emotions, we are actually able to create something powerful from them. Because in that state, when you experience all these elevated feelings, this is the easy way to connect with what we want and come up with that inspired action step. What exactly can I do from where I am with what I have? And all we have to know is just one step. We do not have to have the entire road map figuring out, but step after step after step is going to guide us where exactly we are heading.
Irina P.:This work is not not something that is written in stone. Yes, there are principles that we follow. Yes, there is a structured support, but there is a lot of creativity and um, actually connecting to ourselves and knowing ourselves, following our intuition. And what is my gift as a coach, shannon? What I do with my clients when we are sitting on these classes? I actually download the action steps for them.
Irina P.:They just come to me in the moment, as we are talking about, you know, depends, like I have a couple of people who are discovering their passion and purpose and we are building their businesses now and as we discuss it, just downloads happen and I'm like, okay, these are the steps for the next week, right, because sometimes it could be challenging if this is something you are not used to. But, like I said, we all can be trained. All it takes is our desire to do it and, step by step by step, we are training our brain muscle, the same way as we would train our physical body, and the more we exercise, the more we become skillful at it oh, everything you just said.
Shannon W.:I've got about three things I want to say in response to that, but let me start with what you just said about manifestation being like a muscle that we can exercise. What you said reminds me of something that I've learned from john lockley. He's an african shamanic teacher from south africa and one of the things I've heard him say is that manifestation is the seventh sense.
Shannon W.:He calls manifestation, the seventh sense. And he says you know, we have our regular five senses sight, sound, hearing, smell, taste and then we have our sixth sense, which is more of our sense of intuition and knowing. And then he says on top of that is the seventh sense of manifestation. And that comes when we take the information from all of our five senses and our sixth sense and we act it into the world.
Shannon W.:So, we're not just acting instinctually the way that some other animals do, but we have this additional capacity to incorporate our understanding and manifest it and create something new. And something else that he says is that just what you were saying, that this is a power that every human being has as our birthright. We have the power of the sixth sense and the seventh sense, but what he says is that in this world, we are overwhelmed with so much to do, so much information, a lot of sensory overload and also hurry and rush, and people's lives are so full that, even though we have this power of manifestation within us, that it can be very hard for us to actually feel that it's there and then know how to use it. And so getting back connected to that power requires us to slow down long enough and to reground ourselves and then realize that we have that manifestation power and start to exercise it.
Shannon W.:And just one more idea I wanted to bring to the table and then I'll pass it back over to you is I was really touched by what you said about the to be list.
Shannon W.:Our culture is so imbalanced, I would say, in the direction of doing, rather than being Absolutely so doing efficiency, productivity, completion and all these things that are around doing things and we really don't focus so much on being so.
Shannon W.:I love the idea of the to-be list in the first place, and then what comes to my mind is this using the vision board for an example, a lot of what we may put on vision boards, if we make them, could be around doing Like I want to have this thing that I'm going to do this thing with, I'm going to have this house that I'm going to live in, I'm going to have this car that I'm going to drive, I'm going to have this job that I'm going to go to and succeed in. And what I'm wondering and assuming really is that it's not really about those objects on that vision board, it's really what's behind them. So they might be a symbol of something and we might truly want those things, but they might be symbolic of not something that we really even want to do, but really something more like we want to be. Is there a feeling, a sense of being that underlies each of those objects, which is not so much about the object itself, but about underlying human desires and the things we really want as human beings?
Irina P.:underlying human desires and the things we really want as human beings. Oh my God, I just love what you said, shannon, because that's true and you know, sometimes people come to me, the clients come to me, and when they want to manifest, the more we start asking the right questions and journaling, the more they are like okay, wait a second, this is not exactly what is my desire, right? Because, again, the more we dig deeper, the more we realize sometimes we see things on the surface and we have to actually start getting something out of ourselves. Like I said, we all have already the answers inside of us, but it always takes another person to ask the right questions, to pull these answers right. Why is that happening? And you can relate, because we are both coaches, but coaches need coaches. We always have somebody who is going to show our blind spots because when we are the ones in the frames, we cannot see the picture right. So it happens. For any person who is listening to that, realizing that you know what, I can do it myself. Yes, of course you can, and sometimes it's easy to just you know, stop doing, just feel defeated, start doubting yourself and the result is nothing is happening, right? So it's so important to have like that accountability partner, somebody who is going to have like that accountability partner, somebody who is going to take your hand and say, listen, I've got you. I know you can do it, because if it happens for one, it could happen for everyone.
Irina P.:And to answer on what people have like beyond these houses and beyond these boats. Maybe somebody loves to travel, right, so that's why I want this boat, because I just love to be on the water. I just love to look at this beautiful sky, maybe have my dearest friends or family with me and just have that intimate time with everybody who near and dear to me. Or it could be more like okay, I want to have my financial freedom right when we are talking about finances, right, why do we want to have money?
Irina P.:We do not want to have money just to have the money, because money doesn't make us happy. But what lies beneath that surface? What does it mean for us to have money, to have that freedom, the freedom to go and do everything, what you enjoy doing maybe you know, opening up some kind of foundation raising, you know, like something for charity, maybe travel around the world and meet this amazing people who are connecting right. Everybody has their reasons, because money is just the means for us to have exactly what makes our heart sing. So, yes, totally, there is more like beneath it, right? So we have to discover, and it's all about what exactly makes us alive.
Shannon W.:And I love what you just said about some people saying like, oh, I thought that was what I wanted, but that's not what I really want at all.
Shannon W.:It's like we can peel off, start peeling off the layers of the onion and we think we knew what we wanted. And as those layers come off and we get to the core of what we want, yeah, maybe that is actually what I wanted, but maybe it's not what I wanted at all and we don't know unless we're pulling away those layers. Yes, and I had this vision when you were talking. It was a vision that came to me, a picture that came to my mind of you being a manifestation midwife, and it's because you were talking about people having something inside of them and they may know it's there, but they need someone to help them to sort of birth that into the world, not clouded by. You know all the things that have been put upon us, all those layers that have been put upon us over the years and the decades, but really tapping back into who we naturally came here to be, I love that.
Irina P.:I love that, yes, and you know what I just wanted to add to that note that you know what people just because they do not know something, it's just for us to raise our awareness, Because if we raise our awareness we see that the universe is abundant and it's very resourceful and we can tap into any kind of wish that we have right. But again, if somebody doesn't know something, it does not mean it's not existing, but it's our job to become curious and become open-minded, to actually attract that opportunity to ourselves.
Shannon W.:Sure, and I can see how that could be something that's really important to manifestation, because if we think that, if we can't see it or imagine it yet, that it's impossible, we're not even going to try for it. Like manifesting something into the future that is unknown inherently requires us to be willing to move towards something that we can't see yet requires us to be willing to move towards something that we can't see yet.
Irina P.:Oh, that's so beautiful, shannon, and I just wanted to say that. You know, sometimes it feels like overwhelming the process because when, when, when there are many unknowns, people kind of just frozen and they do not want to go ahead. But I say when, you make it fun, because the point is that we do not have to wait until something shows up in our life, what we desire, in order to feel happy. Right, our job is to bring that feeling right now. Our job to be happy in the moment. And the more of these amazing feelings we are going to experience, the more we are sending the signals to the universe. Hello, universe.
Irina P.:I'm already in that state of the feelings that I feel that nothing else is needed, meaning that we already have it all. And the universe starts delivering more of what we want, and that's exactly what we want to do, starts delivering more of what we want, and that's exactly what we want to do, because a lot of times people are focusing okay, when I have that partner, then I'm going to be happy. When I have that house, then I'm going to be happy. But we actually can tap into that happiness that we already have inside of us. So another thing we do not need all of that in order to feel the way we want to feel.
Irina P.:And the more we feel on a daily basis that we are fulfilled, that we are joyful, that we are just ready to hug this world and just give a lot of gratitude and all our expression into this world and be helpful to everybody else, the more we experience this beautiful state of being, the more we start attracting opportunities, and that's exactly how manifestation comes into play. How does it happen? Right, people come out of the blue and you start to talk to the people and they already have the answers for you to move. What is my next step? Oh, this is the answer that I receive. Right, the opportunities come, the people come, and that's exactly how manifestation comes to fruition, because, step by step by step, you are actually unfolding that magic, for yourself and I'm glad you just brought this back in, because it struck me at the time that you said it which is that we don't need to.
Shannon W.:We may think that we need to wait for the perfect time to manifest something, but we don't. What we need is to actually make that time be now, like be living that thing now instead of waiting for something else to happen. And that's where the manifestation comes in right. It's not in the waiting, it's in the actual being and doing absolutely.
Shannon W.:I have one more question I would love to ask you, irina, before we jump in and chat a minute about the summit.
Shannon W.:Sure, I have heard it said that manifestation, learning how to manifest, is actually a responsibility of the human being. Because if we know how to manifest not just our true desires but our desires for what we want to see the world become or be, then we know how to live according to our purpose and what our innermost self is actually guiding us toward. And possibly the Buddhists have this idea of our dharma, what we came into the world to be and to do. And then the flip side of that is that if we're not in tune with that inner guidance and that inner voice, then we're not able to manifest what's really being asked of us. Then we do run the risk of just sort of falling in line with what is what other people choose for us and what is told for us to do. And so then manifestation becomes a responsibility, because it's through our aligned, attuned action that we can actually contribute to healing and bettering the world. And so I'm so curious if you've heard of this concept around manifestation and just what you think of it.
Irina P.:You know what comes to me as you're sharing it, and it's beautiful concept to have that boat, to have that financial freedom, to have that partner. We have to become a different person first, because that person, who we are today, is not a match, it's not an energetic match, to what we want to have. Right? Because, remember, we do not attract what we want, we attract who. We are. Meaning that you know whatever and it's, you know the concept of vibration, right Again, as we are all energetic being, we are all vibrational, you know beings, and it means that we are all vibrating on a different frequency, whatever frequency, each one of us vibrating. That's the reality that we are experiencing. Just think about it as you are just tuning in to the favorite radio channel, if you are on the channel for the news, you're not going to listen to your favorite song because it's, let's say, on Z100 channel, so you would have to turn the knob and right just to get to that channel. That's exactly what frequency is. So, if we want to tune into the frequency where we already have everything happening for us in terms of manifestation, already have everything happening for us in terms of manifestation, we got to be that energetic match and that means to put that work in. That means to become that person of increase. That means to be forgiven, know how to forgive the past, know how to forgive the people, know how to be grateful for every experience that we have right Regulating our emotions. Better experience that we have right Regulating our emotions better, not be reactive but more responding right To any situation.
Irina P.:We have to learn so much things, and that's what I always tell my clients it's not about to receive what you want, but the journey of itself and who you become in the process becomes even more valuable because you gotta be growing into the other version of yourself, which is much better than the version that we are here now. Right, that's the whole point, because we are all here the same way. As you know, our universe is spiral, our DNA is spiral. It means we are always moving upwards and it's us as the nature of the human nature, as in our spirit, we always want to grow, we always want to evolve, we always want to expand and it's up to us to really do this work right. And if you want more out of life, then you're going to put this work because, like I said, that next version of us is the version that is matching the life that we desire. So objects are just there to be a motivational place for us, but it's more about our inner growth.
Irina P.:Because once we go through all this inner work which is the most rigorous work right, because we have to do a lot of repetition, we have to notice a lot of things right, we have to watch what we are saying, what we are thinking, what we are doing. But once we do this work, whatever our inner world, it's going to reflect and project into our outer world Because, remember, we are all living in the same world, but everybody is experiencing their own reality based on their perception, and that's exactly where the manifestation magic happens. So we have to be that match to what we want and that's where comes that responsibility, responsibility, be a better human being and every day wake up with that sense. How can I add more value to the people today? Right, how can I show up better than I was yesterday? And that's exactly what it is.
Irina P.:And when we follow these universal principles and I always say that there are universal principles that once we know how to apply them to our daily life, they work the same way as the laws of mathematics If you apply the laws of mathematics correctly, you are going to receive the results. The same thing with the universal law or the law of electricity. You know that if you go into the dark room and when you turn the switch on, the lights is going to come up if the wiring is correct, right, and if something is wrong, you're not going just to stand on your feet, on your knees and pray and say you know, please, light come out. You know that something is wrong and has to be fixed. So the same thing with this work of manifestation we tweak, we see what doesn't work and see how we can change it and do something different in order to generate different results.
Irina P.:And it's fun and, like I said, it's you. You can create fun out of it, because our life has to be more like the way I look at life, it's just like game. Let's play a game, let's become playful, let's become light and let's just see and experiment, just have this childlike energy and create something. And every day you wake up, it's like for me, I created my own affirmation, which is miracle. Come to me every day, in every way, and every day when I wake up, I'm already looking for these miracles, right, because, remember, what we are going to look for, that's exactly what we are going to have the evidence for. That's why, rather than looking for the problems or I can't do this, or I don't have enough money in my bank account, or I do not deserve that love let's just go and search for the miracles. I know that I'm abundant, I know that I'm resourceful and I know that I create anything what I want.
Shannon W.:I feel the joy, irina, that you have around all of this, and I love your metaphors. I'm smiling thinking about this light bulb, like we're sitting there going please, light, come back to me. No, you actually have to turn the light bulb. Change the light bulb Right. Actually, do something to make this happen. Yes, and then the radio station metaphor as well, like, hey, why don't I just tune myself to another station?
Shannon W.:And I just really appreciate you bringing in some fun metaphors to help ground us into an understanding of this topic that in some ways we could consider it to be sort of a spiritual or disembodied practice. But the way that you've presented it is very embodied, it's very practical and it can also be joyful. So I'm actually curious now to dig into manifestation in some new ways in my own life. So thank you for that. It's my pleasure. And now, please, let's take a minute and let's talk about this summit that you have coming up For people who might be interested to jump on and listen. What is the summit? When is it? How do people participate? Anything else you want to say?
Irina P.:Oh, my God, that's another. Thank you so much for this opportunity and, first of all, I just wanted to say that Shannon is also part of my speakers on this beautiful summit, and the title of the summit is Experience Love Again After Divorce. This is something that I've been going through and this is like near and dear to me. That's why the title showed up Again, talking about the manifestation, and if you all want to know about it, I definitely recommend you to join the summit and every speaker is bringing the clarity and to see how.
Irina P.:How is it possible? Right? Because a lot of times, people feel beat up after the divorce. They sometimes they don't even want to go into new relationship anymore. We share a lot of great tips and tools to say that, yes, you can have it, but you have to be ready. Right, you have to heal first, you have to reflect first and then, when you are ready, you can do it, but don't forget to give yourself some self love before that. Right, and Shannon is having a beautiful, beautiful talk as well, and we are not going to reveal all the details because we want people to click and register for the event.
Shannon W.:Yes, we do so. Yeah, for anyone who's listening and would like to register, I will place my own personal registration link into the show notes and I hope to see you inside the summit. Irina, it has been a real pleasure to have you on. I've learned some new things, I've enjoyed talking with you and I wish you all the best with your work.
Irina P.:Thank you so much. It's such a pleasure to be here and just for everybody believe in magic because it's real. Try manifestation and see how it works for you and come to the summit and learn more. Maybe you were not even divorced, but you're still looking for love. It's also a good time to tune in because the topics are very universal and you learn more how you can actually attract that love of your life.
Shannon W.:What is more universal than love?
Irina P.:Absolutely. Love is everything Right, love is everything.
Shannon W.:Thank you so much, irina. Thanks, take care. That's it for this episode of the Wake Up Human podcast. Thank you so much for joining me. If you'd like to learn more about Irina Portnova's upcoming summit, you can click the link in my bio for more information, and if you'd like to learn more about me or wake up human, you can find me on my website, at shannonwillscom, or on instagram at wakehuman. If you like this episode, if you like what I'm doing on this podcast, please consider jumping in and giving me a review on your favorite podcast platform and, as always, if you know someone who could benefit from this podcast, please forward this to them. The podcast is a labor of love for me and I'm thrilled if it could be a benefit to someone else. So, signing off for now, I'm going to wish you happy manifesting. See you on the next episode.