It bloody well worked.

I found a notebook with a specific manifestation technique I'd tried a year ago and realised I am quite literally SITTING IN MY MANIFESTATION.

I have often said that one of the most blissful times in my life was when I was writing my latest book, Raise your SQ. The book is about how to become more spiritually intelligent by incorporating simple rituals and practices into your daily life.

As I was writing it, I was raising my own SQ by doing daily breathwork to music, walking in nature, doing my version of prayer, writing a gratitude list each evening, engaging my senses (through scent, touch, sound).

I had to research new ways to raise your SQ, so I went for a massage in a yurt in the woods. I joined a singing group. I went on retreat. I walked in an ice-cold river. I learnt to sit in silence. I communed with nature.

And I said: this is me now; this is how I live. Except I then dived into a pretty wild chapter of my life and most of my SQ rituals promptly disappeared from my life. This happens. We create brilliant habits and routines and then life shifts and they slip out.

However, there often comes a time when they decide (yes, ‘they’ not ‘we’) that they would like to be back in your life and in some strange twist of fate, a little sign arrives by way of a conversation, a piece of art work, a note, a butterfly landing nearby.

My message to reconnect with my spirituality arrived, quite by surprise, in a plain paper notebook. I love plain paper notebooks. So does my daughter. We often muse on launching a business selling just plain paper notebooks.

Anyway.

I was sitting at the dining table that is currently in the sitting room, because the conservatory is an ice-box now that it’s cold outside, and one of my kids put down a notebook. I opened it up to see their drawings and discovered my own writing.

There were pages and pages of lines. Like the kind of lines a naughty child was made to write back in the evil times. Repetitive lines. The same thing noted again and again and again.

At first, I had no idea what it was and then I saw the pattern:

3

6

9

And I realised it was from a year and a half ago, when I was practising the 369 manifestation technique that I wrote about here. At the time, I was living in Somerset and ghostwriting a celebrity’s book. Her husband told me about the technique.

The idea is that you think of something you’d like in your life and every morning, you write it out in the present tense, as if it’s already happening, three times. At lunchtime, you write it out six times. In the evening, you write it out nine times.

You do this for 33 days.

At first, I was excited/greedy and tried to use the 369 for three different things that I wanted. But I was writing it out by hand and my hands started to ache, so I dropped two and kept one: I own a house in north London.

This seemed fairly absurd, as I already had a house in Somerset and we had no plans to return to London, although it was something I clearly wanted. But you are allowed to dream about whatever you like and that was my dream.

At first, I was writing: I own a BIG house in north London OUTRIGHT. But in time, I reduced it to:

I own a house in north London.

I own a house in north London.

I own a house in north London.

… messily scribbled across the pages of my notebook. I was committed. I did my 33 days. I stuck with it because this dream wasn’t shifting over time; it was still something I desperately wanted. (I dropped the ‘big’ out of laziness.)

Now, here I was, over a year later, looking at these lines and gasping.

I looked around at our house in north London, my pink piano behind me and books piled up on surfaces, my kids gathered around the table getting ready to make art, and I realised my dream had come true. I own a house in north London.

I MANIFESTED THIS, I said to my husband.

It’s a small house. It’s not a fancy posh property. It’s in an area that some people are snobby about. But I like it. And it’s my house. In the area I wanted to live in. And if I hadn’t been really clear on wanting it, it wouldn’t have happened.

This was the first little prod. Or glimmer. A reminder that if you want something, you have to be really clear on what it is and to take steps towards making it happen. Big things, small things, huge things. A reminder to raise my SQ once again.

Having a raised SQ really does improve your mood.

My gratitude practice ensures that nothing is taken for granted. For instance, on my gratitude list, I always put down my morning coffee, the first breath of morning air, a cuddle with my kids. The small things, and also the bigger things.

Though, there was some interesting debate about what ‘big’ and ‘small’ actually means in the comments under this piece. It was about whether we perhaps don’t need the ‘bigger life’ and should opt for the smaller one, instead.

I also write my SQ wish list and it helps me to work out what else I’d like to bring into my life that would elevate my energy/happiness further. Whatever is top of that list becomes the line I will write up for the 369 manifestation technique.

I’ll be starting a new one today.

I have had thoughts and ideas about things I’d like in my life that haven’t come to fruition but they are always the things I’ve decided I don’t want or need, any more. Or that I’ve pressed pause on (eg. having a novel published.)

There really is power in thinking about:

• What you want.

• Why you want it.

• The steps towards making it happen.

And committing to it.

And yes, manifesting from a place of privilege is always easier. But everyone can dream. And dream big. And make changes. And - crucially - raise their SQ. Spirituality is for everyone.

Annie x

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Want more? Raise your SQ: Transform your life with spiritual intelligence is full of simple tools, rituals and practices that you can incorporate into your everyday life.

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