When it comes down to it, a digital nomad's deepest fear is that they'll end up without a roof over their head at some point. It's one of our most basic needs, shelter, and the fear of not having it becomes a little more real when you're living day-to-day, month-to-month accommodation-wise, having to magic up a new place to live all the time. It takes trust in the idea that we're always supported and becoming very comfortable with your fears.

I had a lot of fear coming to Paris around finding a place to live, but lots of little things have been dropped in my path in the last few months to make me feel better, I like to think it's the universe giving me hints to keep going, showing me how supported I am if I can just believe in this. A cat sitting job in the most beautiful Eiffel Tower-adjacent apartment, a chance meeting through Airbnb with a now-close local friend means I always have a place to sleep, a group of girls I met in Bali moving to Paris around the same time as me to maybe find an apartment together.

I've come to have an understanding about the effect of different living situations and environments on your mind, body, spirit, work quality, even social life. I've come to respect the importance of living somewhere that supports you and gives you energy. To be grounded in routine, to feel safe and loved in a nest, it pays for itself and gives you energy to go out into the world. Money is just energy anyway, so I figure investing in a supportive place to live means you boost your energy and tend to attract more of it in as a result. I believe this and I've seen it in action.

At the same time, I'm very conscious of creating and clutching onto this belief that finding a permanent place to live in Paris, the dream apartment, will make me happy or is somehow 'the big answer' for me that will fix everything. I'm trying to stay open to the possibility that the highest good actually involves me staying here only 6 or 12 months and that if I feel inspired to travel and 'nomad' again, I will follow this intuition once again.

But for now I am moving into major apartment manifesting mode, this article is kind of a way of getting myselfvinto the head space, diving in. Because I know it always starts with looking inwards, with inner-focus, work and intention, to manifest things in the physical world.




I chatted to my sister, Louise, recently (she's five years younger than me but gives me the advice of a much older sister quite regularly) and we came up with some ideas to manifest an ideal place to live together (and to manifest anything really).

In particular, these tips are based on the processes described in 'Letting Go' by David R. Hawkins and Busting Loose From the Money Game by Robert Scheinfeld. I really recommend reading both books if you want to get the full understanding of the ideas described below.

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VISION THE PLACE + THE FEELINGS

Get really clear on what you want. Write about this place, write lists of what it will be like, create a mood board on Pinterest or with cut-out pictures, scissors and glue, draw it, draw the rooms and all the details and immerse yourself in this place. Imagine it like it's already yours. Be as detailed as possible.

Feel the feeling of how it will feel to live in this place and realise you can choose to access this feeling right now. After all, you are powerful and you already have the feeling this new place will give you within you. You don't need anything external to give you this feeling you seek.

It may be useful too to figure out what those feelings are that you seek through this new place to live, identify and name them. Is it nurturing in a warm, loving nest? Is it community in a lively neighbourhood? Is it solitude in a studio apartment?


Paris apartment images from my 2015 manifesting mood board on Pinterest


SHIFT YOUR INNER WORLD FIRST

Look at the feelings you identified as what you were seeking through this new place. How can you give yourself more of these feelings in situations you can create right now in your current living arrangement? Can you find ways to feel nurtured, community, solitude, peace or grounding now?

Like goes to like. If we are seeking things in our external environment, we must find that state within first and then if it's for the highest good, it will manifest in the physical world. It starts from creating the feelings and the state within.

We need to shift our focus from always wanting to change the outer world to making changes in our inner world first. On a practical level this can be frustrating. We think we know what we want. We think things outside of us will quickly fix everything and fill the hole of what we think we are lacking. But it all starts with inner feelings, giving ourselves what we lack within first.


FEEL ALL YOUR RESISTANCE

Choose to feel fully all the obstacles you have to having this feeling. Feel your fear, grief, resistance, frustration of any kind rise in you as to why you can't have this place, have this feeling it will give you – 'I don't deserve this', 'I'm not ready', 'I'll miss x', 'I can't afford this'.

Bring them all up, feel the 'negative' feelings fully but without attaching yourself to them. In this space of non-attachment you become a witness to the feelings. Cry if you need to cry, watch a sad movie, run, punch a pillow, scream if you feel anger or frustration. The more you feel the feelings of resistance, the more you can surrender them. Dive right into the middle of them all, surrender these feelings, surrender the entire situation to a higher power.


SURRENDER YOUR ATTACHMENTS, GRIEVE THEM

The most powerful manifesting move if you ask me, actually comes the moment after you've visioned it all, and then find a way to completely let go of needing any of it to happen. You may need to do some grieving around your attachments, it might take time to accept that these things may not happen.

Believe and fully know that whilst you'd like all this to happen, you're okay if you get it, you're okay if you don't. Sometimes we may manifest and manifest, we may focus and focus but if it's not for the highest good it somehow won't work out. And we have to be ok with this. There is a higher force guiding everything after all, and it's not always our place to see the grand plan of it all. Manifestation works when we truly are not attached to the outcome.

So surrender your attachments and your vision to a higher power, trusting that everything will unfold for the good of all, however that actually looks. What we really want is to follow the truth and align with the highest good. This is where true power stems from, I believe.

For me, my sister suggested letting go of the need to live in Paris, letting go of thinking I needed this to be happy. Letting go of the frustration and feelings of unworthiness at not having a place to live in Paris. Letting go of all the travel I would miss as a result of spending all this time in Paris, letting go of all the experiences I would miss at home in Australia or in Bali.


PRACTICE FEELING INTO YOUR POWER

Close your eyes and feel how powerful you really are. Imagine all the times in the past you've drawn incredible things into your life – places to live, people, experiences, even things or money – if you need help recalling the feeling of power. This is a practice to help you own this feeling of power, to help you really believe and remember how powerful you are. Feel grateful for your power, in awe of your power, believe in your ability to draw all the things into your life that serve you and the higher good. Feel your power surging through you.

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The conclusion to this article is that I've now manifested a place to live in Paris, with the lovely girls I met in Bali, mentioned above. And our future living room looks scarily like the living room I added to my Pinterest mood board (also above) two years ago.

I've imagined myself living here in Paris since as long as I can remember. I always struggled to understand how I could do it though, if I deserved it or if it was even a unique intuition of my own, a deep pull I should follow or just an inherited dream society fed me (it's not an uncommon dream, to live in Paris, after all).

Funnily enough, the thing that's led me closer and closer to living here in Paris, and even to finding this apartment, has been simultaneously cultivating a stronger and stronger belief that this city could be a reality for me and reminding myself often that no matter where I find myself at each stage of my life, Paris or no Paris, apartment or no apartment, I'll be just fine and I'll always be supported by something bigger than me.

p.s. Some of the Facebook groups and websites I used in my apartment search in Paris:

+ Housing in Paris (Facebook group)
+ Paris Location Appartement (Facebook group)
+ Ommi
+ Le Bon Coin