The internet would like you to believe that if you chant the right affirmations, sleep next to a rose quartz tower, and keep your aura ‘cleansed’, your soulmate will appear by next week. It is a tempting thought. After all, swiping through dating apps feels less like romance and more like conducting campus placements for your own personal life. But can you actually manifest love, or is this just astrology’s more Instagrammable cousin?
Manifestation has become the new green tea (have we shifted to matcha now?) of self-help culture. Everyone is suddenly doing it. Instagram is full of “scripting” reels (where people write diary entries as if they are already married), YouTube is overflowing with “369 manifestation” hacks, and Amazon sells manifestation journals complete with pastel pens and “positive vibes only” stickers. Bollywood hasn’t helped either. Half our films still sell the fantasy that if you just “believe” hard enough, Shah Rukh Khan will turn up in a mustard field.
And honestly, the appeal is obvious. It is much nicer to think the universe is working overtime to deliver someone who loves old Hindi songs and gets your food orders right than to accept that dating is mostly luck, timing, and bad Wi-Fi.
Here is the twist. Manifestation sort of works, but not because the cosmos has a call center dedicated to your love life. It works because intention changes behaviour. When you decide you are ready for love, you behave differently. You start saying yes to plans. You reply to messages on time. You stop entertaining people who use “I’m bad at communication” as their go-to excuse for ghosting.
Visualisation also helps. If you picture a respectful, supportive partner, you become less tolerant of nonsense. Your fantasy essentially becomes a filter, sparing you reruns of situationships with people who only text after 11 p.m.
Of course, even with perfect intention, timing is the one element no manifestation ritual can control. You can have your vision board laminated, your chakras aligned, and your mother already bragging to relatives, and still… nothing. Meanwhile, your friend’s cousin “wasn’t even looking” and somehow got engaged in six months. The universe has a wicked sense of humour.
This is where experts enter. Matchmakers, therapists, and coaches may not shuffle the planets, but they do make things easier. Think of them as your personal shortcut in the maze of modern dating. Less romantic than destiny perhaps, but also far less likely to end with you wondering if you accidentally manifested another commitment-phobe.
Yes, if by manifesting you mean setting clear intentions, behaving with purpose, and staying open to possibility. No, if you believe chanting “I attract my soulmate” three times in the mirror will summon Ranveer Singh like some romantic genie.
Love usually shows up at the crossroads of timing and intention. Call that fate, manifestation, or simply a well-timed coincidence. The name matters less than the clarity you bring. And if you still want to light that ₹1,500 “abundance” candle, go ahead. At the very least, your room will smell lovely while you wait for the universe to get back to you.