Channeling Overthinking into Creative Neurodivergent Manifestation

Manifestation is often presented as a simple process: set your intention and let it go. But what if your mind is wired differently? What if overthinking is your default mode, not a flaw but a feature of your neurodivergent brain? 

Join me, Carissa Andrews, as I unravel the unique world of manifestation through a neurodivergent lens. Sharing my personal journey as an indie author, I reveal how hyper-focusing on the wrong aspects, like the lack of progress, led to burnout and anxiety. This episode holds a promise: you'll learn how to transform overthinking from a hindrance into a manifestation superpower by training your mind to recognize positive shifts and maintain nervous system regulation.

Shifting perspectives is our focus, as we explore the power of self-talk and its role in manifesting the world we want to see. You don't need to change who you are to achieve your dreams; instead, learn how to harness your gifts through positive inner dialogue. We'll explore the importance of channeling our attention toward constructive changes, such as equality and inclusion, amidst global challenges. By recognizing the unique pattern-recognizing capabilities of neurodivergent minds, we can redirect our energy to create a better world. 

Tune in to discover how you can embrace your neurodivergent strengths to manifest the life you desire.

What if manifestation wasn’t about hustle or high vibes only — but about working with your neurodivergent brain, not against it? Enter Write Your Reality — a quantum, nervous-system-friendly guide (written for authors but 🔥 for ND creators and entrepreneurs, too). We’re launching it through Kickstarter April 14–May 11.
👑 Back it (or bookmark it): https://authorrevolution.org/kickstarter

Traditional manifestation advice wasn’t made for neurodivergent minds. Inside Manifest Differently on Substack, I share exclusive insights, nonlinear success strategies, and deep-dive content designed for ND thinkers. Plus, get access to Manifest Differently: The Deep End, my private podcast for paid subscribers. Follow now: 👉 manifestdifferently.com/substack

Thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of the Manifest Differently Podcast. I hope today’s story inspired you to trust the process and manifest in a way that feels aligned with your unique energy.

If you’re ready to dive deeper into neurodivergent-friendly manifestation techniques, head over to ManifestDifferently.com for resources, tools, and more. Want even more insights? Subscribe to my Substack at manifestdifferently.substack.com/subscribe for weekly inspiration straight to your inbox.

And let’s connect on TikTok! Follow me at @ManifestDifferently for behind-the-scenes tips, quick mindset shifts, and so much more.

Until next time, remember: you have the power to manifest differently—and the universe is waiting to conspire in your favor. See you next week!

Chapters

• 1:01 Mastering Overthinking in Manifestation
• 16:06 Shifting Perspectives for Manifestation

Transcript

Carissa Andrews: 1:02

Welcome to Manifest Differently, the podcast for neurodivergent thinkers and anyone looking to approach manifestation in a way that truly works for them. I'm your host, carissa Andrews, here to explore the science, energy and strategies that will help you create the life you love. Let's dive in and Manifest Differently.

Carissa Andrews: 1:29

Hey guys, welcome back to Manifest Differently, if you're new here. I'm Carissa Andrews and I help neurodivergent individuals harness their unique brains to manifest the life they actually want. Now, today we're talking about something that affects almost every neurodivergent manifester I know, including myself. What is that, you ask? Oh, my friends, overthinking.

Carissa Andrews: 1:55

If you've ever found yourself stuck in analysis, paralysis, spiraling through every possible outcome, or hyper-focusing so hard that it actually drains you instead of helps you, then trust me, you're not alone. For many years, I thought my overthinking was a problem I needed to fix. I tried to force myself into the let go and trust mindset, especially with manifestation. But the truth is, neurodivergent minds don't work that way. So in today's episode, I'm going to explain why your neurodivergent brain works differently when it comes to manifestation. We're also going to talk about the science behind why we overthink and how it actually helps us. Also, how I've discovered my hyperfocus was sabotaging me and what I did instead. And finally, three powerful techniques you can use today to turn overthinking into a manifestation superpower. But before we dive in, if you've been around for a while, if you've heard the other episodes, you know what's coming next. Let's take a moment to pause and reset together. Wherever you are, I want you to take a deep breath in through your nose, hold for a count of four and exhale slowly through your mouth, letting your exhale be longer than your inhale Again. Inhale deeply, feel your body relax as you hold and exhale, releasing any tension. Body relax as you hold and exhale, releasing any tension. Let's do that one more time Inhale clarity, hold and exhale resistance. When we breathe out longer than our inhale, it signals our nervous system to chill out, and that's part of the reason why I love that breath work so much. So now that we're centered, let's dive in.

Carissa Andrews: 4:24

All right, let's talk about some brain science, because understanding this is key to why traditional manifestation advice doesn't always work for us Neurodivergent brains. Whether you're ADHD, autistic or somewhere in between, we're all wired for deeper pattern recognition. We process more data at once, which is why we're prone to overthinking. But here's the key we don't just overthink randomly. We overthink because our brains are naturally scanning for connections and solutions. So here's two ways neurodivergent brains handle manifestation differently. Number one we hyper focus instead of letting go. Neurotypical manifestation advice often says set your intention and release it to the universe Like surrender it all. But for us that's like telling a dog not to chase a squirrel. It's just not how we're built. Our brains want to keep thinking, analyzing and adjusting, and that's actually an advantage if we learn to direct that focus correctly.

Carissa Andrews: 5:26

Part of the problem that we end up in is that our past kind of dictates how we focus, how we hyper-focus and what we're looking for, and typically that looks like trying to keep ourselves safe, right? If we had a dysfunctional childhood or if we had issues at school, we're literally scanning the world to try to keep ourselves from ending up in a position that we don't want to end up in. So that's part of the problem with our mentality, and something that we're going to talk about in a second. But number two, we're also wired for that pattern recognition, right? Have you ever noticed that you can connect dots that other people just don't Like? Maybe you have a wide spectrum of interests, like I do, and they sometimes seem completely unconnected, uncorrelated, but then you find these overlaps, that piece. There. That's your superpower. Your mind naturally looks for patterns, which means you can train it to notice evidence of manifestation working, instead of that whole scanning for what's not working and how you gotta keep yourself safe, right? So if you're constantly noticing why something isn't happening, your brain will hyper-focus on that and then your reticular activating system will kick in and it will continue to look for all the reasons why it's not working. But if you train it to find the proof that things are shifting, that you are building momentum, you're going to see momentum way faster than most people.

Carissa Andrews: 6:54

So let me take you back to when I was deep in the trenches of overthinking. I had one goal in mind when I first became an indie author and that was to become a millionaire indie author. I visualized it, I obsessed over it, I worked tirelessly toward it, but instead of success or at least the success I was thinking about I felt frantic, stuck and completely exhausted. It was really kind of wild because I wanted so much to have this thing and I know and implement all the manifestation techniques. But I also couldn't stop myself. There was like this component to it where I felt almost addicted to the thoughts I was hyper-focusing on, and I later realized that this hyper focus was like literally the wrong end of the stick, as Abraham Hicks talks about right, I was focusing on the lack, the why it wasn't working. I was measuring my progress by what was not happening instead of what was. And, worst of all, what ended up happening was my nervous system was completely dysregulated because of it all. So every time I checked my book sales I'd get this spike of anxiety and frustration. And what I didn't know then, but I know now is that manifestation can't flow when your nervous system is in fight or flight, and we've talked about nervous system regulation and why it's such a crucial thing. Go back and listen to episode three if you are interested in that.

Carissa Andrews: 8:27

So when I realized that, I realized that I needed to get curious and not be so critical of every little thing. Right, I'm a double Virgo. It's very easy for me to get critical of myself, but I knew that wasn't doing me any favors. I understood that I was pushing myself into a dysregulated state even further. Right, I mean, I couldn't even see At this point, as I was in the trenches, literally, I was an international bestselling indie author, I was earning 5k months and yet I just I still didn't feel accomplished.

Carissa Andrews: 8:56

And, on top of it, I was even an award-winning author. I mean, I'm still an award-winning author, but you get the point right. It's like all these little things. I have 30 plus books and I was not feeling like a success. I was feeling like a failure. So what I did was stop trying to let go in the neurotypical way. Instead, I asked myself what if I just redirected this energy instead of resisting it? And that's when everything started to change for me, which was really, really wild. So now for the good stuff. How do you actually turn that overthinking into a manifestation tool? Here are my three favorite strategies that I implemented that helped shift everything. That helped me get on the track of not only manifesting more by doing less, but feeling better and feeling more aligned to everything that I was calling in.

Carissa Andrews: 9:45

Number one the future self circuit breaker. When you find yourself spiraling into overthinking, ask yourself what would my future self do right now? Because your future self isn't overthinking, the one that has everything, the one that is in that place of calling everything in. They're already moving on to the next thing. They already have what you want. So, looking at everything that you're calling in, they're not going to be feeling like you are. They're going to be like, of course it's inevitable, like what it's already happening for you. The idea here is to pattern, interrupt, shift your thoughts from what if this isn't working or doesn't work to what if it's already happening? What if it's already happened? What if everything that I'm doing is leading me to my inevitable, like awesome life, you know? And when we can do that, it really helps us to kind of look at our life and what we're calling in, how we're viewing it, entirely differently. Okay. So number two this is the second tool the 90 second nervous system reset.

Carissa Andrews: 10:51

Neurodivergence often gets stuck in fight or flight, which blocks our manifestations. It truly does, and if I would have learned about nervous system regulation and how this all works sooner, I would have been talking about it sooner. I really wish I did. I don't know why I didn't, but I guess I was probably so focused on mindset that it didn't occur to me to even be thinking about the nervous system until, I guess, the past two years. But here's a quick trick. I want you to try it. I want you to set a timer for 90 seconds, then stand up, shake out your body like shake it like Taylor Swift style. Okay, maybe you didn't listen to the song, I don't care and then take three deep breaths Then ask what's the next aligned action I can take toward? Whatever that manifestation goal that you've been hyper fixating on is like, what is the next aligned action I can take? Then listen for the answer Okay, this, actually, this process actually resets your nervous system, getting you out of stuck energy and into movement, which is so powerful when it comes to us, and the way that we can tap into larger ways of thinking.

Carissa Andrews: 12:01

I mean, when you look at kids who are autistic now and they are able to shake out their energy, like when my son was younger and they were talking about autism they often talked about, like, the handshaking thing, right, the hand flapping as a sign that your kid could be autistic. And it was probably one of the first things that I noticed about my son, because he did do that. He did release energy. When he got super excited Typically when he's playing a video game, right, he would be like completely shaking out his hands and trying to get rid of all this extra energy. He was just so full of energy and it had to go somewhere. This is the same kind of concept. Right, you have to release some of this energy that's blocking your manifestation, this fight or flight energy, because it's got nowhere else to go. It's either going to get trapped in your body or you got to release it. So shake it off.

Carissa Andrews: 12:54

Okay, seriously, use the song if you need to. I think it's just, it would be a fabulous way to do it and get out of your head. Okay, number three think it's just, it would be a fabulous way to do it and get out of your head. Okay, number three hyper focus mind movies. If your brain wants to hyper focus, feed it something worth fixating on and we talked about my movies in episode five. So if you need a refresher on that, make sure you go back to episode five.

Carissa Andrews: 13:16

But every morning I want you to spend two to five minutes either visualizing or watching your detailed, immersive mind movie, where manifestation is already happening, it's already real, it's already yours. So if you want to learn more about those mind movies, how you can create it yourself, go over to episode five. You're going to love it. And I also go into detail with all of that in the future self blueprint, which is my five day challenge. Head over to manifestdifferentlycom forward slash future self if you want to check that out.

Carissa Andrews: 13:50

But the more sensory details you add to your mind movie, the stronger the signal is to your subconscious mind and your subconscious then starts to create, look for and operate from the basis that all of this is yours. It's all happening in favor of you and tapping into your subconscious mind is the root of everything. It's where you want to get to. It's like it is the ultimate, the ultimate archaeological dig. Get in there and find where your beliefs are lying, because when you can start to identify your current core beliefs and whether or not they oppose what you're looking for. So much can unlock right. You can recreate your core beliefs to match your true desires and start working in the direction of manifesting everything that you want. True desires and start working in the direction of manifesting everything that you want.

Carissa Andrews: 14:50

All right, my friend, here's your challenge. I want you to try one of these three techniques today. Just one, just one. And then I want you to screenshot this episode, share it in your stories and tag me with your biggest takeaway. I will definitely be excited to check it all out If you can do it on TikTok, because that is where I am hanging out the most. I am trying to steer clear of anything meta, but you can still tag me anyway if you want. I just might not be able to interact, but if you do it on TikTok, I'll be sharing it, reposting it, doing whatever I can to give you a shout out to say thank you for that.

Carissa Andrews: 15:24

And, of course, if you're ready to go deeper into rewiring your brain for manifestation, I would love for you to join the Future Self Blueprint Challenge. This challenge is now open with its official pricing, and I'd love to help you turn your neurodivergent mind into your greatest asset. While you may have missed our founder's price, you can still join and start transforming your manifestation process today. So, to learn more about the future self blueprint, head over to either manifestdifferentlycom forward slash six, which is today's podcast episodes, transcript and show notes and all the things, or, if you want to just go straight to the challenge and get signed up, you can head over to manifestdifferentlycom forward slash future self, and you can get signed up right there.

Carissa Andrews: 16:07

Now, guys, remember you don't have to change who you are to manifest. You really don't. You just have to change how you use your gifts, how you focus on them and how you treat yourself, how you talk to yourself in your own mind. That's the power that we have. The more that we can talk good to ourselves, the more that we can start seeing what we want to see in the world versus what we're not enjoying, the better off we're going to be.

Carissa Andrews: 16:34

And I'll tell you this goes to everything, like how the world is looking right now, the craziness that's happening outside. We can observe it, we can check it out, but we can shift it by deciding and choosing to call in something completely different, like if the politics and the world as it is right now isn't calling to you. Observe it, see what is going on and go. Oh no, I want this instead, and then be vibing with whatever that difference is right Equality, you know, more money for everybody, universal health care, whatever it might be, inclusion for everyone, like quality, like all the things. Just think about those and put your energy where that is right, because where attention flows, energy goes, and we want as much energy being flowed into the things that are going to elevate and change the world for the better. All right, until next time, I want you to keep dreaming, keep aligning and keep manifesting differently.