Facing fear to manifest change:

An intervew with Tom Wilson-Leonard

After meeting Tom Wilson-Leonard during our Dream It Do It workshop, we asked him to share his techniques for overcoming fear to manifest your dreams.

Tom Wilson-Leonard grew up competing as a gymnast and spent several years working as a stunt double on Harry Potter films. Not only an internationally acclaimed yoga teacher and personal trainer, he’s possibly the nicest man you’ll ever meet. Here he shares strategies for facing down fear as part of the manifestation process.

Can you tell us an example of a time you successfully manifested a dream into reality? 
Buying a flat in London was something I’d been manifesting for years and years. The steps that I took were quite practical, but overall it was about discipline, consistency, willpower and endurance. 

What mantra did you choose to have engraved during Wanderlust Life’s manifestation workshop?
Everything happens for a reason. I really am a firm believer in that. There have been hardships in my life, but everything has always been okay, everything always works out. So when thinking about what I wanted to put on my necklace for a mantra, I knew it needed to be about trust. But then there was an extension to that, and it was to flow. So my engraving is “trust and flow”.

What were some insights you took away from the workshop?
There’s just a little bit of unrest in my life right now, which is why the manifestation exercises were quite thought-provoking. I was journalling just this morning to get really clear on how I want to live my life versus what I want to be doing. I’ve been focusing so much on “what do I want to do, what is purposeful?” But actually I need to focus on “how do I want to live?” I’m incorporating the mantra into my day-to-day life, reminding myself to trust and to flow, and I guess surrender to the process – the big waves and the small ripples.

As a specialist in hybrid and integrative movement, what advice do you have for people who want to surrender to the process?
Practices like yoga, somatics and meditation make those waves a little bit smaller. Also it’s important to be super-compassionate, patient and ultimately kind to yourself. And then I would say honour your feelings, honour the fear, be with the fear. Everything can be really scary, but it’s when you resist the fear that we develop coping mechanisms to avoid our feelings. I mean, feelings are big and we’re generally quite scared of them! But actually, our feelings are never going to kill us. They’re generally going to last about 90 seconds. So it’s important to really get into the body, rather than getting stuck in the thoughts of your mind. That’s the heart of my teaching: come back into your body. It’s always waiting for you and it’s the safest place in this world! 

What was the highlight for you from the Dream It Do it day?
The sauna really got me thinking about how I want to be living my life. That was a special moment – so connected to the ocean but so quiet. Going from the cold of the sea into the hot sauna is everything I want to integrate into a daily ritual for myself. Being in cold water is chaos, a highly stressful environment. But then you actually find you can endure the chaos and find some peace. That combination of ice and heat is so healing because it really gets you into your body.

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