GAME CHANGER - Mandy Morris

1. You’re being recognized as one of LA Living Magazine’s Game Changers. When you look back at your journey, what moments most shaped the direction of your work and purpose?

Honestly, the moments that shaped me the most aren’t the glamorous ones. They’re the ones that brought me to my knees. There was a time in my life when I was living in a tiny apartment in Florida, fresh out of an abusive relationship, and I literally fell to the floor sobbing. I had been carrying so much. Childhood trauma from an abusive stepfather. Years of shame and self-sabotage. A deep belief that I was broken beyond repair. And in that moment of total surrender, I heard what I can only describe as a divine whisper: “You do your part, and I’ll do mine.” That was the turning point. I stopped trying to white-knuckle my way through life and chose my true self, my divine self, who was committed to serving humanity no matter how messy my story had been.

The other moment that profoundly shaped me was my miscarriage. Oliver and I were expecting a daughter, and at about twelve weeks, we learned she didn’t have a heartbeat. That loss cracked me open in a way I didn’t expect. It pushed me into what I now call expansion, the first pathway of light. It taught me that even in our darkest chapters, light is always present, waiting. I had to sit with the pain instead of running from it, and in doing so, I discovered truths about the divine that I could never have reached if life had stayed comfortable. Every heartbreak I’ve lived through was shaping me into the teacher I was born to be.

2. Your approach to transformation blends mindset, emotional healing, and practical tools. How do you explain your philosophy to someone discovering your work for the first time?

I’d tell them this: you are an infinite, divine being having a finite human experience, and the universe has made you a promise. The energy of light is always something you can tap into, because it IS who you are. My work is about helping people remember that.

On a practical level, I teach what I call the eight secrets to powerful manifesting. Things like creating energetic check-ins so you become aware of your emotional state. Detangling the dense energy from your past programming. Managing your triggers with pattern interrupts. Seeking self-love. Embracing intentional energy. Creating a manifestation blueprint. Rewriting the rules you live by. And learning to embody your future self. Each secret builds on the last, and together they give you a complete system for raising your vibration and co-creating with the universe.

But manifestation is really just one expression of something much deeper. In my more recent work, I teach seven pathways of light: expansion, self-knowledge, empathy, clarity, transmutation, co-creation, and coherence. These pathways help you shift from your human story, which is often saturated with hurt and the need for control, into your divine story, where you recognize that you are a fractal of God and that pain is inevitable but suffering is optional. I blend science, spirituality, and psychology because that’s what actually creates lasting change. Not just a mindset shift, but a complete energetic transformation.

3. Many people talk about change, but fewer truly commit to it. What separates real transformation from temporary motivation?

The difference is this: temporary motivation lives in the mind. Real transformation lives in the energy. Most people try to willpower their way into a new life, and that’s what I call playing the human game. It’s full of linear steps and how-tos that get you to the finish line maybe fifty percent of the time. But when you shift into what I call the energy game, the old rules go out the window. Time becomes non-linear, things can turn on a dime, and you start taking quantum leaps instead of baby steps.

Real transformation requires you to be brave enough to go to the root of your pain. I use a metaphor of a tangled fishing net. There’s always an original knot that was formed the first time you created a disserving belief about yourself. Most people put Band-Aids on the surface tangles, but unless you get to that original knot and detangle the dense energy around it, you’ll keep recreating the same patterns. That’s why people bounce between motivation and stagnation.

The other thing that separates lasting change from a temporary high is self-love. Without it, every breakthrough has an expiration date. When you truly love yourself unconditionally, not because you’ve achieved something but simply because you exist, your vibration naturally rises and stays elevated. From that place, manifesting becomes a way of life, not a technique you occasionally try.

4. You often speak about alignment and authenticity. What does living authentically

actually look like in day to day life, beyond the buzzword?

Living authentically means that on any given Tuesday, you are making decisions from truth rather than fear. It means your choices align with what I call your umbrella statement, your personal declaration about the kind of life you want to live. Mine is “I live a life of love, integrity, growth, and service to others.” So when I’m faced with any decision, big or small, I ask myself whether what I’m about to do is in alignment with that statement. If it’s not, I course-correct.

Authenticity also means being shockingly transparent in your relationships. I’m talking about personal, romantic, business, all of them. It means not wearing personas to make other people feel safe or comfortable at the expense of your own truth. I used to do that constantly, and it created dense, inauthentic energy that blocked everything I was trying to build.

Here’s what I’ve learned: the greatest act of love is to unflinchingly stand in the clear light of truth. When you do that, the people around you actually start to heal too, because you’ve stopped reinforcing their unhealthy patterns. Choosing truth never causes pain in the long run. It’s choosing fear that compounds and creates storms in our lives. Living authentically isn’t a destination. It’s a moment-by-moment practice of checking in with yourself and asking, “Am I operating from my highest self right now, or am I defaulting to old programming?”

5. Was there a personal turning point where your own methods deeply changed your life in a measurable way?

Absolutely. One of my favorite stories to tell is about manifesting our dream home. When Oliver and I moved to Colorado from California, we were temporarily living in our retreat center, which was not ideal, especially with clients doing deep energetic healing and purging nearby. I wanted my kids to have a magical place to call home.

A house kept popping in and out of my awareness, but the price was more than I wanted to spend. I’d met the owner briefly at a charity event, and I loved the property, but I kept blowing it off. Still, I couldn’t shake the intuitive feeling that it was meant to be ours. So I grabbed my journal, wrote the intention “I am in the process of moving,” drew a picture of the home as I wanted it to look, and listed specifics like the cost and other details that would make it perfect. I restated my intention every morning during what’s called the hypnopompic state, that twilight between sleep and waking, and visualized my kids playing in the yard, Oliver reading in the library, our family gathered for movie nights, me cooking dinner while looking at snowcapped mountains. I used every sense I could. How the sun felt on my face. The smell of adobo on the stovetop.

Within one week, the homeowner knocked on our door and offered us the house at the exact price I’d manifested, with zero input from me. It was practically served on a gilded plate. We moved in five weeks later. That experience was measurable proof that when your intentional energy is pure, your vibration is high, and you’re genuinely partnering with the universe, the results can be breathtaking.

6. A large part of your message centers on self-love. Why do you think that remains one of the hardest practices for high achievers?

Because high achievers have built their identity around doing, not being. They’ve been rewarded their whole lives for performance, output, and results, so they unconsciously create a rule that says “I am worthy because I achieve.” When you strip that away and ask them to simply love themselves for existing, with no accomplishments attached, it feels terrifying. It triggers every belief they have about not being enough.

Here’s what I’ve discovered in clinical and coaching settings: love is actually the most powerful healing force there is. When I worked with scientists in a health clinic in Norway, we found that one of the biggest contributors to accelerated healing wasn’t just methodology. It was love. Before working with a client, I’d get myself into an energetic state grounded in intuition and unconditional affection. I’d treat them as if they were already whole and well. That energy alone shifted outcomes dramatically.

Self-love is hard for high achievers because it requires them to stop making every problem mean something about themselves, which is the second pathway of light I teach, self-knowledge. We have this tendency to internalize failure and build an entire identity around our perceived inadequacy. It’s only when we stop doing that and recognize we are infinite, divine beings that we produce the emotional frequency of empowerment. Self-love isn’t selfish. It’s the foundation that everything else is built on. Without it, your manifestations are sitting on sand.

7. You’ve built a global community around personal growth. What have you learned about people that surprised you most through this work?

What surprised me most is how universal our pain is. I’ve worked with over 800,000 students in more than sixty countries, and whether someone is a CEO in Manhattan or a single mother in rural Australia, the core wounds are strikingly similar. We all carry some version of “I’m not enough,” “I’m broken,” or “I don’t deserve love.” The specifics change, but the energetic signature of those beliefs is nearly identical.

The other thing that continually surprises me is how close people are to their breakthrough when they feel the most stuck. I’ve watched people who were convinced they were beyond repair completely transform within weeks, not years, weeks, when they finally committed to doing the inner work. The eight secrets I teach can compress what takes most people twenty-five years into a fraction of that time, because you’re partnering with both your mind and the universe.

And honestly, what moves me most is the ripple effect. When one person heals, it changes the energetic dynamic of their entire family, their workplace, their community. Hurt people hurt people. We all know that saying. But healed people heal people, and watching that chain reaction unfold across my community is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever witnessed.

8. When someone feels stuck emotionally, financially, or creatively, what is the first internal shift you guide them to make?

The very first thing I teach is the energetic check-in. It’s Secret #1 for a reason. Before you can change anything, you need to become radically aware of your emotional and energetic state. Most people are walking around completely unconscious of the beliefs that are informing their thoughts, which are driving their vibration, which is creating their reality. They’re on autopilot, replaying the same subconscious programming from their past, and then wondering why nothing changes.

So I’ll ask them: “Right now, in this moment, what are you feeling? And what thought is creating that feeling?” That simple question interrupts the pattern. From there, I guide them to ask a deeper question, one that comes from the empathy pathway: “What else could this mean?” Because usually, the story we’ve attached to our stuckness isn’t even true. It’s a distorted lens created by old trauma and unexamined beliefs.

Once awareness is established, the next shift is recognizing that you’re playing the human game when you could be playing the energy game. The human game says, “I need to figure out every step logically.” The energy game says, “Let me get into a high vibrational state first, and then watch solutions come to me.” When Oliver and I feel stuck on a problem, we literally shift gears. We talk about something completely unrelated that makes us feel positive and inspired, and inevitably, the answer shows up.

9. There is a lot of manifestation advice online right now. What do most people misunderstand about how manifestation really works?

The biggest misunderstanding is that manifesting is about getting stuff. People think it’s about the mansion, the car, the dream partner, the 3D things. But when you drill down, what you really want is the emotional state those things create. You might think you want a mansion, but what you actually crave is a feeling of accomplishment or safety. When you shift your focus from things to feelings, your energy moves from desperate and dense to radically authentic, and that’s when manifestations actually come to fruition quickly.

The second misunderstanding is that positive thinking is enough. It’s not. You can affirm until you’re blue in the face, but if your subconscious is running a program that says “I’m unworthy,” your energy field is broadcasting that signal, and the universe is responding to the signal, not your words. That’s why I developed the eight secrets. They address the root-level programming that most manifestation teachers skip entirely. You have to detangle the dense energy, manage your triggers, rewrite your rules, and get your intentional energy pure and high before manifestation becomes effortless.

The third thing people get wrong is detachment. They set a goal and then obsess over it, which creates resistance. Intentional energy should be deeply invested in yet simultaneously detached from the outcome. I often say “let go and let God.” The energy is nonchalant, trusting, not desperate. When you can hold that paradox, miracles happen.

10. How do you balance spiritual concepts with grounded, actionable steps that people can actually apply in real life?

This is something I’m really passionate about because I think the spiritual world and the practical world need each other desperately. I’ve partnered with renowned scientists, worked in clinical settings in Norway, and studied how the brain’s neural pathways change through these practices. The science validates the spirituality, and the spirituality gives the science its soul.

In practice, every concept I teach comes with specific exercises. When I teach energetic check-ins, I give people exact questions to ask themselves and sample situations for when it’s an absolute must to check in. When I teach about rewriting your rules, I walk them through identifying the old rule, tracing it back to its origin, and then consciously creating a new one, step by step. Each of my seven pathways of light comes with reflection questions and what I call a “Divine Light Practice” that you can do immediately.

I also teach a very concrete manifestation process: identify one goal, check that your intentional energy behind it is pure, write a manifestation statement, visualize during the hypnopompic state using all five senses, then release it to the highest good and detach. From there, you follow action steps because we live in a 3D world and you can’t expect the universe to handle every detail. Manifestation isn’t just mental and energetic. It involves doing. The universe sends the breadcrumbs, but you’ve still got to walk the path.

11. What daily practices or rituals keep you centered and clear, especially during high demand seasons?

Energetic check-ins are non-negotiable for me. They’re woven into my day like breathing. I check in with my emotional and energetic state multiple times a day, and after years of practice, it’s completely instinctual. If I notice my vibration dipping, I use a pattern interrupt, which can be as simple as moving my body, singing a tune, taking a hot bath, or even visualizing a snap of my fingers to shift my mood.

Every morning, I use the hypnopompic state, that beautiful twilight between sleep and waking, to visualize and set intentions. This is when the subconscious is most receptive, and it’s where I do my most powerful manifesting work. I also journal regularly. It’s one of the things my future self does, so I adopted it as part of embodying that version of me.

Self-love practices are huge for me as well. When demand is high and I’m pouring into hundreds of thousands of students, I have to fill my own cup first. That might look like taking better care of my skin, spending intentional time with Oliver and the kids, or simply doing something outside my comfort zone that connects me to my highest self. And underneath all of it, I carry an unwavering belief that God is always working for me. That whatever shows up, even the hard stuff, is a lesson for the highest good. That belief alone keeps my vibration from plummeting when life gets intense.

12. You work with people at many different stages of growth. Do you see common emotional patterns that show up across all backgrounds?

Absolutely. There are a few patterns I see across the board, regardless of background, culture, or socioeconomic status. The first is the tendency to make every problem mean something about yourself. Someone gets cheated on, and instead of recognizing the other person’s dysfunction, they create a story that says “I’m not enough.” Someone loses a job, and instead of seeing it as a redirection, they internalize it as proof they’re a failure. This self-referencing pattern is one of the biggest things that keeps people imprisoned in their human story.

The second universal pattern is what I call the original knot, a foundational disserving belief that was created in childhood and has been reinforced and tightened by every subsequent experience. Maybe it’s “the world isn’t safe,” or “love is conditional,” or “I have to perform to be worthy.” That knot creates a dense, overwhelming energy field that feels impossible to undo, but it’s absolutely achievable when you’re willing to trace the tangles back to the source.

The third pattern is the fear of letting the divine take the lead. So many people, especially high achievers and type-A personalities, are terrified of surrender. They’ve been taught that maintaining control is the path to safety. But what I’ve found is that when you let your soul lead, opportunities you couldn’t possibly have dreamed of start to emerge. The irony is that the thing people are most afraid of, letting go, is the very thing that sets them free.

13. How has your work evolved as you’ve grown personally? What do you teach differently today than you did a few years ago?

When I first started, I was very focused on the mechanics of manifestation. The eight secrets, the step-by-step process, the science behind vibration and neural pathways. And those are still absolutely foundational. But as I’ve grown, my work has evolved into something much bigger. I’ve moved from teaching people how to get what they want into teaching them how to become who they truly are.

My newer work centers on what I call the seven pathways of light: expansion, self-knowledge, empathy, clarity, transmutation, co-creation, and coherence. These pathways aren’t just about manifesting a dream house or a soul mate. They’re about accessing your fundamental essence as a being of light and living from that place. I teach something called Gift Shift Theory now, which is the idea that the very things that wounded you most deeply can become your greatest gifts. Your trauma, transmuted through light, becomes your purpose. That’s a message I couldn’t have taught a few years ago because I was still in the process of living it.

I’ve also become much more nuanced about the human experience. I’m less interested in spiritual bypassing and more interested in sitting with the full complexity of what it means to be human. Darkness isn’t something to fight or suppress. It’s light that has forgotten itself. Coherence, which is the highest pathway I teach, is about holding both the light and the dark with awe and wonder, and integrating all of it into a unified whole. That’s the evolution. From manifesting things to embodying truth.

14. Impact can be measured in many ways. Which kind of success stories from your community mean the most to you personally?

The stories that hit me the hardest are the ones where someone was truly in the dark. And I mean in a place where they couldn’t see any light at all. And they found their way back. I had a woman named Amy who came to me after having held a gun to her own head. She chose to live, and through this work, she went on to heal not just herself but all five of her children. That’s the kind of story that makes me weep with gratitude.

I also deeply cherish the stories of people who break generational patterns. When someone who was abused as a child consciously decides to end that cycle and not pass those patterns on to their kids, that’s not just personal transformation. That’s changing the trajectory of an entire family line. That’s the ripple effect in action, and it’s sacred.

The truth is, I’m less moved by someone manifesting a luxury car than I am by someone who finally learned to love themselves. Truly, unconditionally, without conditions attached. Because when that happens, everything else follows. The relationship heals. The career takes off. The abundance flows. But it all starts with that internal shift, that moment when someone stops believing they’re broken and remembers they are light. Those are the stories that fuel me and remind me why I chose this path.

15. Looking ahead, what kind of legacy do you hope your work leaves, and what are you most excited to build next?

My mission has always been the healing of the planet at a root level, and I do that by living inside the frequency of love. That’s the legacy I want. Not that people remember my name, but that the energy I put into the world creates a permanent shift in how humanity relates to itself. I believe we are all part of a larger existence, connected in an unbreakable chain of love and possibility, and when enough of us step into our light, the collective vibration rises in a way that makes certain kinds of darkness simply unable to exist.

What excites me most right now is the evolution of this work into something even more expansive. My certified coaches are practicing globally, Authentic Living has students in over sixty countries, and I’m watching this community become a living, breathing organism of people who are committed to playing the energy game instead of the human game. I’m excited about going deeper into the pathways of light, particularly coherence, which I believe is the key to creating heaven on earth.

Ultimately, I want people to walk away from my work knowing one thing in their bones: light is always accessible to you because it IS who you are. That’s the promise. It doesn’t matter how far you’ve strayed or how dark things have gotten. The light is always waiting. And in an instant, like Dorothy tapping her ruby slippers together, it can bring you back home. If my legacy is that even one person truly believed that, and lived from that place, I’d consider my life well spent.

•  •  •

www.authenticliving.com