Estelle Bingham wants you to know that manifesting isn't about wishing for outcomes – it's about healing

Independent

4 days ago

Estelle Bingham calls herself a heart-led healer. And though this job title will likely sound 'woo' to some, Bingham seems to commonly show up as the most practical person in the room, whatever the topic of conversation. She's calm yet direct, and discusses the harms we humans inflict on ourselves through self-doubt and negative self-talk as though they're obvious mistakes we've simply forgotten how to correct or avoid.
After speaking with her, it does all feel a little more obvious. The idea that self love, self awareness, and gentle mindset shifts could change your life for the better seems like a no-brainer. But could it all be that easy?
In recent years, these sorts of ideas have become wildly popular, particularly on social media. We have practitioners like Bingham to thank for the widespread adoption of techniques like 'positive self talk', journaling and manifestation mantras.
But Bingham is careful to ascribe credit where it's due. She tells me that her family has used these techniques for generations and when we speak about her new book, Manifest Your True Essence, we discuss the cultural origins of practices like meditation and mindfulness. In a world full of TikTok mindset coaches offering questionable money manifestation courses, Bingham is the real deal.
Her approach, which blends modern therapy and mindfulness with spirituality and mysticism, isn't about wishful thinking. It's about feeling your feelings, doing the work and transforming the parts of yourself you've been avoiding for too long.
A framework for self love and success
'What I help people do is get out of their heads and into their hearts,' Bingham says. 'The heart has a wisdom of its own. Science has finally caught up with what wisdom keepers or shamans or mystical people have known for centuries.'
Her book Manifesting Your True Essence: Clear Your Blocks, Find Your Joy, Live Your Truth is a toolkit for self acceptance. Each chapter aims to help readers understand what's holding them back in life and learn how to love themselves, offering useful exercises and meditations that encourage us to find confidence and compassion where it might be lacking. The homework isn't always easy, as I found when I started reading the book. At times, the things you're encouraged to think about will make you feel uncomfortable, but for Bingham, 'feel' is the operative word.
'Instead of thinking about healing, we are feeling healing,' she explains. 'When we feel our healing, then it's no longer intellectualised. It's happening in real time, and that's why it's so successful.'
Before her career as a Goop favourite and mindset expert to the stars, Bingham worked in TV and radio – something she enjoyed but never truly felt aligned with. She tells me that she's always been able to see where people's strengths lie and that some of her friends and clients today were people she saw a spark in decades ago.
' Charlotte Tilbury and I have been friends for years, since we were teenagers, and one of the things I knew intuitively about Charlotte was that she would succeed. She really embraced that idea completely and utterly, with every cell of her body. And I saw it in her.' she says. That self-belief – and the blocks that often stand in its way – is a central part of Estelle's one-to-one work.
'A lot of us have a voice in our heads that says, 'You can't do that. I don't believe in you.' It pulls us down. It's there when we're waking up, in our quietest moments, or when we're about to start something new. I realised I needed to help people shift their mindset – to help them move into the unconscious and pick apart that negative voice,' she explains.
The phone call from Gwyneth Paltrow came before Estelle even had a website. 'She was coming to do an In Goop Health summit in London. They'd heard about me, and she said she'd been looking for me,' Estelle recalls. 'I always say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. If you're doing something well, word gets out.'
Beyond the TikTok manifestation coaches
But with mindset work and manifestation now booming on TikTok and Instagram, the nuance of these practices is often diluted and exploited – sometimes to the detriment of people in vulnerable positions. There's a danger, Estelle says, in turning ancient practices into 'life hacks'.
'Ultimately, it's great that people are waking up to the idea that they're powerful – I really love that. Because I completely, wholeheartedly believe that we all have that power,' she says.
'But it gets tricky when we're manifesting from the head, based on things we think we want, instead of the heart. I'm not saying you shouldn't want to manifest a relationship or a better job. But you might not be able to love, or feel safe in that job, because of something stuck deep in your unconscious. That needs to be understood and alchemised. It needs to be transformed in order for you to actually receive, and not sabotage it.'
The real work, she says, isn't about wishing for outcomes, but getting to know yourself deeply enough that joy, connection and self-worth aren't dependent on external circumstances.
'When we manifest from our hearts rather than our heads, it's a little bit deeper – it's sort of a master manifestation. The more you know about yourself, the more powerful you are in your own life. Happiness isn't outside of us. It's something inside of us. And when you manifest with understanding, openness or curiosity, life brings you everything you need.'
So how does someone begin? The social media version of manifestation often looks deceptively easy – a vision board, a candle, a single thought repeated enough times to become reality.
'I wrote the book so people could start the process of healing and self-discovery and empowerment. To go on that journey of deep, proper self love. Because that's what manifestation really is – it's what radical self-love looks like,' Estelle says.
'When we meet the parts of us that have been hurt – with love, curiosity and compassion – it can feel overwhelming. But it's the greatest gift. You'll be amazed when you gather together the parts you've pushed away. The ones you didn't want to look at. When you bring them in from the cold, you'll be so excited and wowed by how beautiful they are. Because that's your true essence.'
Self belief in a time of crisis
Bingham's philosophy is gaining traction at a time where mental health services are stretched, and loneliness is widespread. 'The loneliness epidemic is worldwide,' she says. 'The way we are online all the time, always on our devices – it's doing us damage.'
She's been working with the charity Body & Soul for over a decade in an attempt to share her philosophies with those who need it most. This is refreshing at a time where so many esoteric practices are whitewashed and repackaged as money-making schemes.
'I've been doing one-to-ones, workshops, working with the team. We just need more spaces where people can talk, connect, and allow feelings to flow,' she explains.
But for those who are sceptical of too much talk of feelings, or of concepts like the power of positive thoughts, Estelle is keen to open up a dialogue.
'For millennia, there's been this push-pull with people who can't quite get their heads around these ideas. And that's okay. But some of these things are basic. My work intersects with neurology and the study of the heart's connection to the brain – how our beliefs, feelings and reactions shape who we are and who we want to be.'
Her book makes reference to several fascinating pieces of modern research that point to the tangible benefits of practices like mindfulness and meditation.
Estelle Bingham's wellbeing rituals
I'm keen to discuss the benefits of transcendental meditation with Estelle, having learned that she began practicing aged six. So she tells me about her routine.
'I start my days with some organic matcha and I set an intention every morning. I meditate. I learned transcendental meditation when I was very young – but it's basically just mantra-based meditation. And I move. I go to the gym or take the dog for a walk. I spend a lot of time inside, so I try to get out, even if it's just to walk around the park with some music.'
You don't need to be still, she adds, to shift your state. 'Walking can take your brain waves from beta to alpha and theta. You don't need silence – you just need awareness.'
A mindset shift can feel a long way off for most people. But, she explains, it's all about habit formation. She tells me there are three things you can do every day that are simple and accessible to everyone.
'Just take a couple of minutes a day to meditate. Breathe into your heart. Listen to what your heart is telling you – it will guide you.
'Hold both hands on your heart, breathe in through the nose, out through the mouth, and ask, 'How are you today?' The heart will tell you.
And then write it down. Journaling is still such an amazing tool. Just breathing, heart connection and journaling – it's a great place to start.'
Her book is designed to be used intuitively. 'You can dip into chapters, flip to the right meditation or journal prompt when you feel triggered, and use it as a tool. I wrote it with the ups and downs of life in mind,' she says.
Because life, like healing, is a process. As Bingham explains, 'there's a beginning, a middle and an end to every piece of healing. It's like a bridge, to get to the other side, you have to start.'