Julissa Calderon is making her dreams come true and wants to inspire you to do the same. On Nov. 8, the “Gentefied” star released the second edition of The Dream & Manifest Journal collection entitled, “Are You Ready to Manifest?” ($36). The 220-page journal was designed to allow users to dig deeper into their current selves, and their childhood selves, and reflect on what they’re really made of.
“This one is dedicated to introspection work,” Calderon tells POPSUGAR about her most recent release. “Both have been a reflection of where I’m at in life. Now, I feel like I have to be more intentional with where I want my career to go and I feel the one way to do that is to really do the inside work, and get the things you really need and not just the things you want.”
The first edition “Manifest That Sh*t” is a 184-page journal that is focused more on career. Calderon released it in 2021 after seeing so many of her own career goals, which she journaled about, come to fruition.
“So many things were taking off in my career and it was really beautiful to see all of the things I had written down personally manifest.”
“The first one was a reflection of my career and my goals, and things were popping off,” she recalls. “So many things were taking off in my career and it was really beautiful to see all of the things I had written down personally manifest.”
Seeing the magic she created inspired her to want to share it with others so they too could tap into manifesting their best lives. The Dominican actress, writer, and producer continued opening up this journey with the second edition.
“Its title is ‘Are You Ready to Manifest’ and it doesn’t have an emphasis on YOU but that’s what it is really saying,” she explains. “Because in order to get that, you gotta do the work.”
The journal is a testament to Calderon’s personal journey and the power of writing things down, being as specific as possible, believing in what you wrote, and trusting that it will come to fruition. After seeing this work in her own life, she knew it was time to bring others in on this amazing work.
“In 2016 was the first time I saw it happen, but it wasn’t even intentional,” she says. “I had written down my goals for the year and I wrote in April of 2016 that I wanted out of the hospitality industry because I was a waitress. In April of 2016, I got fired from my job, which was crazy.”
At the time, it didn’t even dawn on her that she had already written something specific about that year and month and the desire to end her hospitality work. When she came across the page in her journal where she wrote about needing the change by April 2016, it surprised her in the best way.
“When I saw that, everything changed in my mind,” she says. “I wasn’t mad anymore. I wasn’t sad anymore. I wasn’t like ‘Oh my god, I got fired.’ I was like ‘Girl, you wrote this down! It clearly wasn’t how you wanted it to happen, but it happened.'”
Still, Calderon admits, she didn’t stick to journaling. It wasn’t until two years later that she really put her magic to work.
“In 2018 was when I really started journaling with intention,” she recalls. “I was so specific on the things I was writing. That year I journaled so much and in 2019, so many of the things I journaled in 2018 came to fruition.” Trusting it is one of the biggest things the actress says helps the magic spark. When she wrote that journey entry, she specifically wanted to be on a Netflix show and the following year she was on “Gentefied.” Calderon knew it was confirmation that journaling and manifesting really works.
“You have to match the energy,” she says. “So that’s what I do. I match the energy of my written words.”
In addition to the energetic match, Calderon says that you have to put in the work to see your manifestations come to fruition. Sitting around and waiting for your words on the page to come to life won’t cut it. It’s the energy and the action that follows and creates a recipe for success.
The true success came when Calderon saw how her manifestation work was being received by her family. She didn’t grow up watching them journal and manifest things in their lives. But the fact that she was a living testament that this work does in fact work, inspired her own mother to follow suit.
“My mom journals, which is insanity. We know that, that generation is very different,” she says. “They were raised differently and they didn’t have the tools.”
Now, Calderon’s mother is not only using the journals personally, but she is telling others in the family to do the same. That is also magic. And like her mother, Calderon wants others to find themselves in the pages of her manifestation journal because she knows this work is much greater than herself. Now, she must become a teacher, and she wears that badge with the highest honor.
“If you can find self-discovery through my journals that is the biggest win.”
“If you can find self-discovery through my journals that is the biggest win,” she says. “Maybe that makes your shoulders lean back a little more and you stand a little taller. That is the win. That is the goal.”