Lulus will restock the Glamorous Night Out Gold Satin Cutout Bodycon Mini Dress. Lulus will restock the Glamorous Night Out Gold Satin Cutout Bodycon Mini Dress. Lulus will restock the Glamorous Night Out Gold Satin Cutout Bodycon Mini Dress. Lulus will restock the Glamorous Night Out Gold Satin Cutout Bodycon Mini Dress. Lulus will restock the Glamorous Night Out Gold Satin Cutout Bodycon Mini Dress. Lulus will restock the Glamorous Night Out Gold Satin Cutout Bodycon Mini Dress. Lulus will restock the Glamorous Night Out Gold Satin Cutout Bodycon Mini Dress.

You’ll have to take my word for it since you can’t check the revision history, but I wrote this exactly three weeks ago, during the height of my homecoming dress search. Disillusioned by – as Regina George would say – “the ugliest effing” clothes I’d ever seen, I was past the point of just hoping and praying that the one dress I actually liked would restock in time. I needed a stronger guarantee. So, like any desperate soul, I turned to manifestation.

Before you write me off as a nut case, hear me out. Yes, I did try to manifest this dress being restocked, part serious part joke, but really, I was just curious as to what the hype was all about. Plus, I didn’t really have anything to lose. 

I feel like every fifth person I talk to practices manifestation and at least two-thirds of them claim a success rate over eighty percent. I have friends who will write “______ will text me back” ten, twenty, thirty times in a notebook in the hopes of having the guy they like stop curving them. Last year, one of my teammates legitimately tried to manifest IHSA cancelling all fall sports – a move that fortunately (unfortunately for her) didn’t work out since we still had a regular, albeit abbreviated golf season. And a couple weeks ago, I was talking to a girl who said she manifested her current relationship; she wanted to get with her SO while he was dating someone else and within a week, he broke up with his ex and started talking to her. And get this, he didn’t even know her name before all this! I’ll admit that the evidence isn’t overwhelming, but it is something. There’s no way chance accounted for over half of what people talk about and as a certified skeptic, I knew I had to try it for myself. 

That brings us back to THE Glamorous Night Out Gold Satin Cutout Bodycon Mini Dress. It’s a mouthful, but the first thing I learned from my research was that you have to make your intentions crystal clear, or you can’t guarantee what you’ll end up with. It’s like when Genie warns Aladdin: specificity, specificity, specificity. Did I mention you should be super specific? So unlike an affirmation (next week’s topic?), a manifestation should have a narrow scope and easily measurable definition of success. Struggling? Think of it as a SMART goal. 

Next, determine how you want to manifest it. You can write it down (preferably by hand) or vocalize it. Maybe throw in a candle or crystal or both to increase your chances. I stuck with journaling, saving me from splurging extra on materials AND allowing me to make good use of the notebooks collecting dust on my desk. I’ll be honest, I kinda skimmed this bit ‘cuz as much as I like Halloween, smoking sage kinda gives me the heebie jeebies. Something about spirits and energies that just makes my hair raise. But considering the bandwagon manifesters on Tik Tok make it work with just pen and paper, I figure I did a decent job too. 

Any expert would tell you, though, that the key to successful manifestation is intention. The concept of manifestation is rooted in the law of attraction (yes, the name of that clickbait-y Youtube video that shows up on your feed every few weeks). It is the idea that your experiences mirror your thoughts and anything is possible through channeling the power of the mind. According to followers, by simply and totally believing that you have already attained, accomplished, or acquired something (a dream job, home, partner, etc.), you will go on to fulfill that desire. But it’s not as easy as throwing a coin into a wishing well. You have to envision your desired life down to the mundane details and surrender any doubts you may have about the process to the universe. If you do not 100% believe in the power of manifestation, it will not reward you in kind. Many adherents say this is the hardest part, and that it took them a while to fully believe and see results. Consistency also plays a big role, as the more you think about it, the more you draw upon its energy, bringing what you seek towards you. I frequented Lulu’s website to see if the dress restocked, but a vision board will also do the trick. No matter what, make sure to stick with it. 

And now it’s time for a break down:

With it’s spiritual undertones, manifestation, like any non-scientific practice (cough, cough astrology), is ultimately up to personal discretion. No matter how much I try, I just can’t get behind it. The notion that my thoughts are all that’s necessary to manipulate circumstances outside of my control is frankly, a bit preposterous. Sure, I get how writing down that you’ll become a successful actress in LA might subconsciously make you take on more roles or keep an eye out for upcoming castings. But that effect is explained by psychology. The actual law of attraction stuff though, I’m not yet sold on. If you genuinely believe in it, all power to you … and please don’t take offense with my blog. 

But if you were wondering, the dress never restocked.

Ferla, Ruth La. “Manifesting, for the Rest of Us.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 20 Jan. 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/20/style/self-care/how-to-manifest-2021.html.