Manifesting a new life can be difficult if you feel like asking for more means that you’re being a greedy person. But there’s a difference between being greedy and wanting abundance. Wanting a fulfilling life is natural, and you should be allowed to give it to yourself. 

Some of my clients struggle with this block while manifesting. And the more we talk about it, the more we find out that they have been self-sacrificing for most of their lives. They’ve been playing small when they have the potential and drive to do big things! But instead of using their skills and giving themselves the most amazing life, they’ve been holding themselves back. It’s time we remove that block and manifest everything you’ve ever wanted. 

In this week’s episode, we’re talking about manifesting as a Latina, or a woman of color, and why it’s different for us. We have so many cultural expectations and blocks that we have to work through in order to start receiving our blessings. And in this episode, I’m going to help you work through some of them so that you can start seeing your manifestations come through sooner rather than later. 

Resources Mentioned:
EP. 185: The BFF Method: Manifest Anything by Rewiring Your Mind

Follow Erika on:
Instagram @‌theerikacruz
TikTok @‌theerikacruz
LinkedIn

Website:
http://www.theerikacruz.com

How to work with Erika:

Sign up for the free webinar “The Magnetic CEO Method” here!

Join the waitlist for the Courage Driven Latina program here.

Join the waitlist for the Magnetic Mastermind here.

Podcast production for this episode was provided by CCST, an Afro-Latina-owned boutique podcast production and copywriting studio. 

Episode Transcript:

Erika: Hello, friends. Welcome back to Chingona Revolution podcast. This is your host, Erika Cruz, and today I wanna talk to you about manifestation. If you have seen people around you manifest their dream life, maybe they have pivoted to their dream career, or you’ve kind of witnessed somebody have a glow up or manifest their dream partner, and you’re wondering, okay.

Why is it that this manifestation thing is working for them and not for me? I promise it is not because manifestation works for everybody except you. There is a reason as to why manifestation can feel challenging for individuals that come from underserved communities or for individuals that have maybe faced racial profiling or have not had access to certain [00:02:00] resources that other people have.

So as we. Talk about being a woman of color, being Latina, being a daughter of immigrants, being an immigrant yourself. Maybe we are set with certain. Beautiful traditions, but also some narratives and cultural conditionings that do not serve us when it comes to manifestation. So I briefly talked about this in the webinar that I taught the 90 day Manifestation Path.

So if you did listen to that episode, this is going to be a little familiar, but with all of the. Things going on in Los Angeles with the ice raids and the racial profiling that’s going on a about around Latinos. It is causing the community to want to hide because if you or a family member. Doesn’t have legal status or, um, I don’t know, maybe for some reason right?

[00:03:00] You feel like, oh, if, if I’m caught, I may be deported, the family may be separated. This is causing an immense amount of fear. I mean, I, I have friends and, and acquaintances and clients who have legal status and their whole family has legal status, but it’s still. Causing a fear of going out and doing things.

Um, I actually went out with my friends to a concert in Napa, it’s called La Onda and it’s a bunch of Latin American artists, or Yeah, Latin American artists. So there was like, um, I mean, I won’t even name the people ’cause honestly I probably won’t do it justice, but last year when this event was going on, it sold out within a few days and this year.

It was not sold out. And one of my friends, her name is Joanna, because we were talking about how it was so much busier last year and somebody was like, oh, what do you think it is? And my friend Joanna goes, everybody’s scared and they’re broke. And I was like, wow, you are so right. People do not wanna go out and about.

And this is [00:04:00] before all the raids were happening in Los Angeles. Just think about slavery. Whenever something like this occurs, the community that’s targeted. Isn’t trying to go out and be like, woo-hoo, look at me.

Quite the opposite is happening. It’s really causing a lot of fear, a lot of anxiety, a lot of uncertainty, fear of being separated from your family, fear of um, not being able to like build the life that you had had immigrated for. Again, and these are even people who do have legal status. It’s causing ripple effects in the community.

So just thinking about that specific. Circumstance that, that if that, that specific thing that’s occurring, it is causing people to not want to be seen. And now if we think about this from a manifestation perspective, if this is all about. Wanting to create something that we haven’t created before and allowing ourselves to fully believe in ourselves.

Can you see how different events like this can affect the community? [00:05:00] So this isn’t the first time that the immigrant population, um, specifically the Latin American immigrant population has been targeted. This has happened many times in history and research shows that generation, um, that. That trauma can be passed down through three generations.

So let’s say that your grandmother came to the States and she was undocumented, and maybe her husband, um, was deported and she was pregnant with your mom. Well, the trauma that your grandmother experienced, what could be passed down to, and not just. Yes, of course eye color and, and skin color and hair type are all things that could be passed down.

But research also shows us that this type of trauma also can be passed down. So your grandmother can then pass that down to your mother and your mother could then pass that that down to you. So if you have this crazy fear of posting on social media, even though it’s something you desire doing, it could literally not even be your own trauma.

It could [00:06:00] be generational. And when we look at manifestation from this perspective, it makes so much sense why manifesting is different for us as individuals of color coming from underserved communities. Because remember that we do not manifest what we want. We manifest what we believe we are worthy of, and it’s hard to be.

Worthiness and it’s hard to be in the receiving mode when we are in survival mode, when we are under a lot of stress, a lot of fear because, um, this is something that I learned from Joe Dispenza’s work, where if we are in survival and worried about our, our safety and our wellbeing, it’s not a time to go create the life we want.

It’s literally a time to seek and find safety. So if our community is being targeted. And people are not even feeling safe enough to go to work. They’re not even feeling [00:07:00] safe enough to go outside. Of course, it’s going to be difficult for our community to go and manifest an abundance of money or to manifest, um, this, this career that we’ve been wanting or to go pursue our goals.

We can’t be in survival and creation at the same time. And in order to manifest, we have to be in creation. Because the thing is that if we are in survival, guess what?

We’re manifesting, we’re manifesting more survival. So if you’ve ever looked at other people, maybe colleagues or people you went to college with or friends that, that you’ve had that are come from a different background than you. And you see that manifestation is so easy for them. It’s not that there’s something wrong with you and you’re not doing anything wrong, it’s simply that manifestation does work a little bit different when you have had cultural conditioning the way that underserved communities have.

However, I don’t want you to think that [00:08:00] manifestation isn’t possible for us. It is. It just requires us to be aware of what it is that’s blocking these manifestations. So these. Attacks on immigration are, are one, one big aspect that’s present. Right. And that’s why I use that example. But there’s also generational narratives that we hear a lot.

Um, you must work really hard if you wanna be successful. Right. That is a belief that we have been taught. And if you heard my manifestation framework episode, the BFF method, if you remember, the B stands for belief and well, the thing is, we don’t manifest what we want. We manifest what we believe we are worthy of.

We manifest what we believe is possible and we manifest what we believe we can achieve. And if we have the belief that we must work really hard in order to be successful, guess what’s going to happen. You’re going to work really hard to be successful because your brain doesn’t know the difference between reality and what it is that you’re actually telling it.

So [00:09:00] your brain’s job is to confirm the message that you are giving it. So if you’re telling it, oh, we have to work really hard in order to be successful, that’s literally what you’re going to keep reproducing. Also, whenever we hear, you know, oh, just be grateful for what you have, don’t dream bigger. Or, you know, I had so much more than my parents did.

And yes, while we should always be grateful for what we have that many times is keeping us small and it’s not allowing us to grow, and it’s keeping us in our comfort zone, and then we wonder why we feel unfulfilled. But culturally, we hear, you know, only take what you need. Don’t be greedy, don’t take too much.

And, uh, I want you to know that even though this comes from a good place and yes, we should never be, be greedy. The definition of greedis the intense and selfish desire for something, especially wealth, power, or food. And I don’t think any of my listeners are greedy, right? But we’re confusing greed with [00:10:00] abundance and with having enoughness and fulfillment 

 but I think we’ve actually gone so opposite. We don’t wanna be greedy that we almost. End up self-sacrificing.

And I see this with my clients where they, they wanna start a coaching business, but they feel bad for charging for their services. So then they self-sacrifice and they don’t have a problem offering the free service. But then they don’t ever make it into a real. Side hustle or a real job until they start making money from it.

And the thing is, when people pay money, they pay attention, right? So when people are paying for a service, they take it way more serious. So they end up in this cycle of, oh, I don’t wanna, don’t wanna charge until we can really work through this block. And then that’s when they start building the confidence.

They know they’re not taking advantage of people. And the thing is that when, when you wanna manifest. Manifestation works [00:11:00] when it benefits the greater good if you were literally trying to manifest and take advantage of people. The universe is not on your side. God is not on your side source is not on your side.

Mother nature is not on your side whenever you’re looking to be. Malicious or be, you know, mean or take advantage of people. Typically, the universe is on your side whenever you are doing something for the greater good. And all of my clients have a purpose-driven goal. Usually they wanna start a business because they wanna give back.

Usually they want a more purposeful career because they want. To have meaning in their career. They want financial freedom, not because they want money, but because they wanna spend time with their kids. Right there. It, it’s always about the greater good. It’s always, there’s always a good purpose and meaning behind it.

So this idea of, oh, you’re going to be greedy, that is definitely a block that everybody in our community needs to work through because the advice of. [00:12:00] Just like say affirmations or make a vision board, while it could work for other people who didn’t grow up with these blocks, it can be difficult for us because you can wake up every morning and say the affirmations you want, but if you don’t believe those affirmations or if you have a competing belief, let’s say that the affirmation you say every morning is wealth flows freely to me, but yet you feel.

Like you can’t even buy a cup of coffee because you don’t actually believe that wealth flows easily to you. Or perhaps you’re too scared to ask for a raise at work because you don’t feel like you’re worthy enough. That affirmation is not going to work for you until you begin to believe it. And in order for us to start to believe, we have to be aware of what our blocks are.

And that is what sets us apart from other groups who maybe have a little bit more privilege or maybe grew up, um, already believing that, oh yeah, like your money can work for you. Money’s [00:13:00] easy to come. Money’s not evil. Money comes and it goes and it’s part of life and money’s what we do to what we use to exchange services.

People literally grew up like that, right? People grew up with literally a, a savings account in their name and a college fund for them and stocks. Under their name. Even though a lot of the people who listen to this are probably first time wealth builders, right, are probably first time entrepreneurs and we’ve had to learn a lot of these things on our own.

So it’s not that manifestation doesn’t work for you, it’s not that affirmations don’t work for you, it’s just that there’s an extra step for us to check our beliefs. Another kind of common thought or, narrative that our community. Hears is that, you know, oh, I can’t get too successful or I might leave people behind.

Right? This, this idea of not almost like success, guilt and feeling guilty for having success, and if I have too much success, what are, what’s my community going to think about me? Another thing is [00:14:00] that we definitely lack representation, right? How many women of color have we seen? Living the life that we want.

I mean, before I got into this space, I mean there was Oprah who I admired, and then there was Jay Shetty who I admired. But tell me which Latina was doing something similar to this and now there’s a lot more of us. Right. A lot of ’em have been on this podcast, A lot of of money coaches, a lot of educators, a lot of therapists that now, you know, I’ve connected with.

But it was really hard for me to find. People to look up to besides the the Supreme Court judge. Or you know, Shakira or J-Lo or the these artists. But because a lot of times we lack res representation, we can’t be what we can’t see. It’s hard for us to envision it. So that’s also another reason that manifestation.

For us can feel really difficult. 

As a woman of color, we’re often taught that the only path to [00:15:00] success is through hard work.

And that’s exactly what I did for seven years when I worked in the tech industry. When something wasn’t working, I worked harder, and then I burned out. I pushed and I hustled. But when I started my business, I tried something different. Yes, I still put in the work, but this time opportunities were coming to me.

I was magnetic, and while I didn’t know it at the time because I didn’t have a name for it, I now know that I was using the magnetic method, which is a blend of neuroscience backed manifestation and aligned business strategy that helps you become a magnet for opportunities.At the time, I didn’t have a name for it, but now I know that I was using what I call the magnetic method. It’s a blend of neuroscience backed manifestation tools as well as an aligned business strategy that helps you become a magnet for opportunities. 

 It’s how I went from having zero clients to landing on [00:16:00] the front page of the New York Times, being named a Latina 40 under 40, interviewing Luis Fonsi on TikTok and having 300 clients to date,

It’s what my clients are using to manifest speaking engagements, collaborations, media features, securing $70,000 in contracts in a single week, as well as landing a ton of opportunities in just a few months without pitching themselves. 24 7. So if you are a mission-driven creator or entrepreneur who wants to grow authentically and without the burnout,Then join me for my free webinar happening on Monday, September 15th at five o’clock Pacific time. It is called the magnetic CEO method. It’s all about how to use manifestation and neuroscience to three times your opportunities without three times the effort. Spots are limited. Ensure that you secure your spot now by going to the link down below in the show notes. I can’t wait to see you there.

Erika: So again, it’s not that manifestation does not [00:17:00] work for us, it’s simply that manifestation requires us to check our beliefs and to check what stories we’re telling ourselves. And it wasn’t until I really started to work through these things that things began to happen in my life.

Before I was working hard, kept my head down. I was working at a tech job. I was in a relationship that felt unaligned and I, I almost went through this, I guess I, I’m gonna call it a spiritual awakening, where I walked away from the engagement and then I stayed at the job for a little bit. That’s when I really started to get into self-development more. I started meditating. I started journaling. I started to just be more aware of myself, and that’s when I started to be aware of the beliefs that I had. And I don’t want you to think that I didn’t have these beliefs because just recently I found a worksheet from 2019, and let me read to you some of the blocks that 

 So the first one I had was, I’m not an expert. The second [00:18:00] block I had is I can’t make money helping people.

The third block I had is You should not follow your passion. The fourth block I had is, why would people come to you if there are already experts talking about this? I feel like that is such a common thing in our community as well. There’s almost this lack mindset, like there’s not enough to go around like, oh, of course I can’t go start a makeup brand because there’s already so many makeup brands.

Oh, of course. I can’t go start a podcast when there’s already so many podcasts. But none of those makeup brands or none of, none of those podcasts, are you with your unique perspective? Can you imagine if I would’ve not created Chin Our Revolution because I would’ve never worked through that belief? We all wouldn’t be here right now on episode, I don’t know, almost like 200 or something like that.

I have no idea what episode this is, or I don’t know when we’re actually releasing it. I’m recording ahead of time because in just a few days I will be on my way to go see Bad Bunny and. Puerto [00:19:00] Rico, which I’m so excited about, and this is just evidence to the life that I’ve created, right? That I have the flexibility and the ability to, to say, yes, let’s go see bad money and book the tickets right away.

Um, but it really required me to go work through these different blocks because guess what? You know how I just said I can’t make money helping people? Not only have I been able to make money helping people, I’ve been able to grow my investments. I have been able to travel a bunch. I’ve been able to make a complete living.

I’ve been able to employ people. So my block was not correct because I proved it wrong. But in 2019 this felt like reality, just like your beliefs right now feel like reality. So,The other block I had is you should value money and status with your career rather than trying to do it on your own.

And then the last one was, you don’t even know what your business is going to be yet. So I mean, these are, I’m sure you can relate to some of these blocks, right? That, that I had. And I mean, I even had [00:20:00] the, I should just be grateful. I have so much more than my parents did. I have this flexible tech job that lets me work from home and I should just stay.

I mean, I literally had all the thoughts, but it was not until 

I began to work through these blocks that I started actually manifesting my dream life and I, it all really kicked off in 2020. I had taken all these.

Courses to help me find my purpose. And then I started to create content. I mean, I’m sure you’ve all heard my story many times, but when I really started to work through these beliefs and these blocks, that is when I manifested my business. My business was literally a manifestation. I remember visualizing my business every morning, and I imagined what it would feel like and kind of the things I would do, even though I didn’t clearly know what the business was yet.

But I started to believe that it was possible for me. And from there I ended up interviewing [00:21:00] Luis Fci on TikTok Live for Hispanic Heritage Month, just because I was creating content. And then I ended up working with Bert Bees and Chevy the the car company and all, and as well as Acura. I mean, I’ve worked with some amazing brands and it was all because.

I started to believe it was possible for me. I stopped believing that I should just be grateful for what I had. I started to realize that whenever I lived a fuller life, I was going to help other people as well, because my business was all about giving back and helping people, and then I ended up on the front page of the New York Times.

That was completely wild. I did not expect that. While I knew I had been interviewed for the article and I knew we took pictures, I did not expect a massive. Photo on the front page of the Sunday Business Edition with myself and one of my business besties, Kat de Garman. And this didn’t happen just because I was like saying affirmations that I didn’t believe it happened because I did the work to [00:22:00] face my fears and I did the work to face my beliefs and I got support, and I moved with courage.

Like I wasn’t sure of every step. I was scared a lot of the different times. So. I hope you have enjoyed this podcast episode on what, why it is that Manifestation works different for us as women of color as Latinas. If you have not listened to the BFF Method podcast episode, I highly suggest, I’m gonna ask my podcast editor and producer if she could please put that episode down below in the show notes.

 because that is a great episode to, to go back to. I am gonna leave you with some action items. Let’s just do a quick little recap.So why is it that affirmations or vision boards or just, you know, speaking to the universe isn’t enough for us as women of color? It’s because we have these generational narratives that have told us to just be grateful for what we have and to not be greedy, and that it requires a lot of [00:23:00] hard work for us to be successful.

And a lot of these beliefs that although they had good intention, they haven’t served us in living fuller lives. And honestly, when we stay small, the community stays small, so we do a disservice to everybody around us when we stay small. So in order for us to begin to manifest the life that we want, it requires us to face our beliefs and face these blocks that we have about what’s possible for us and pretty much work on our worthiness. That is the key to manifesting what we want, because again, I’ve said this so many times, we don’t manifest what we want.

We manifest what we believe we are worthy of. And as women of color, as Latinas. Society has told us that we aren’t worthy of a law. Even our, our own culture has told us. Just be grateful for what you have. Don’t ask for too much. All of these narratives are manifestation blocks, and while we have beautiful cultures.[00:24:00] 

And you know, we, we love our family. We are allowed to say no thank you to the narratives that no longer serve us to the narratives that keep us small. Because again, when we stay small, we are forcing everyone around us to also stay small. We’re doing everybody around us a disservice. In order for us to manifest, we can manifest.

We’re actually really good at manifesting because look at historically, everything that you’ve done. You’ve gone through some really hard stuff. I mean, you have been the only one who looks like you. You’ve maybe been the only person in the room who had no guidance at all from your family members with how to navigate the educational system.

Maybe you’re the first one to be in corporate. Maybe you. First wanna be an entrepreneur. When you are this trailblazer, it is. You’ve gone through very difficult things. You are capable of manifesting. And in order for us to manifest even more intentionally, it just requires us to identify these belief blocks and these narratives that no longer serve us, and then we [00:25:00] become unstoppable.

Again, I highly recommend that you check out the BFF Method podcast episode, but just to give you a few action items, I will have you reflect on the following journal prompts. So I’d like you to ask yourself. What is it that I would like to manifest?

And then ask yourself, what are the beliefs I have around this? Do I believe it’s possible? Do I believe it’s difficult? Really get curious about if you actually think it’s possible for you. And then I want you to ask yourself, where did I learn this belief? I guarantee you that belief didn’t come from you.

It came from maybe hearing it when you were growing up, or it came from some type of cultural conditioning. So where did the belief come from? And then now ask yourself, who would I be without this [00:26:00] belief? What is possible for me without this belief? So you can answer that one however you’d like. Who would I be without this belief or what’s possible for me without this belief?

All right y’all. If you enjoyed this podcast episode, let me know. Let me know if you are liking this focus on manifestation. I am definitely enjoying it. This is the type of stuff that I do on a daily. This is the kind of content I consume. This is the type of books I read. I’m actually. Very geeky when it comes to neuroscience, the quantum field manifestation, especially when we think about it from our perspective, from our community.

So if you enjoyed this podcast episode, do let me know so that I can make more of these. And I think that’s all. Do I have any of the announcements? I’m just so excited to see Bad Bunny and I’m so excited to be creating content about, about manifestation, but. Please take a screenshot of this podcast, share it with your followers.

I actually, yes, I do have a quick, a [00:27:00] quick update. So. One of the things that I’d really like to do is focus more on growing the podcast because the people who listen, y’all listen and you, you tell me and you’re repeated listeners, and I appreciate you so much, but we have definitely done, a mediocre job of promoting the podcast because there’s just a lot going on, right?

It’s a lot to, to, to run a business. As an individual, and I do have an amazing team of people, but they don’t work with me full-time and we aren’t at a place where I can have people as full-time employees yet. But one of the focuses that I do have around this podcast is to. Really do a better job of marketing it and promoting it.

 so if any of you have any ideas, send them my way. share this with a friend. If you could support us with that, that would be great. A review would also be amazing. If you’ve taken anything away from this podcast, if you can leave us an Apple Podcast review, that would be amazing. I know a lot of you listen on Spotify.

If you’ve listened to enough podcast episodes, it’ll let you rate the show as [00:28:00] well. That would be amazing. And yeah. That would be awesome. Thank you so much for your help, and I will see you all on the next podcast episode.