The Magic of Filling Your Heart

The picture I often get from movies and Fairy Tales is that magic is for desperate times.  There is trouble or danger and out comes the magic wand.  This makes for good story telling but it skews a full understanding of magic.  Remember, magic is well formed.  That means that magic has a place in life when life is not on a desperate plane.  In fact, taking time to take in the good, to notice the wonderful things around us, to see the magical world we live in, will cause there to be less times of desperation.  If you have a hole in your heart from not feeling loved you may act in ways that are not good for you. Perhaps you will become greedy and try to amass things.  Perhaps you will do silly or stupid things to try to buy friends.  Instead you can do as Dr. Rick Hanson, author of "Buddha's Brain", and "Hardwiring Happiness", suggests and take in the good.  He teaches us to find a good fact, feel it, absorb it, maybe enrich it and let it become an inner resource for us.  We can notice that people speak to us in a friendly way and take that in.  When family members or loved ones give us attention we can take that in as a resource for feeling loved.  So I say to all wise magicians, it is a good idea to fill your inner resource bank before it gets empty. You are able.  You are lovable. Just the fact that you are aware of human needs shows that you have a sense of caring so turn that towards yourself.  Fill your heart with joy, comfort, satisfaction, love, or whatever you need.  Then times of desperation will not seem so bad.  May the spark be with you.

The Magic of Allowing

So often we think of magic as that which saves us from a problem.  In the Disney film, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Mickey was tired of carrying all those heavy buckets of water.  That was why he bewitched the brooms to do it for him.  Of course that caused him even more trouble. The moral is that reactive magic can get out of control, or not be right for the job.  I think of magic as whatever we do to make our life better.  So we don't want disruption. We are looking for calmness and healing.  Good is the baseline.  Disease and tension are the anomaly. But we may not always see the good.  We do have things come into our life that cause tension, fear and worry.  If that happens often enough we tend to see the dark, to be anxious, more often than not.  Then the stress tension, cortisol, meant to give us energy to fight or flee, becomes toxic to us.  It is in our body more than we need and doesn't get burned off.  Dr. Rick Hansen has just released a new book, "Hardwiring Happiness".  It is an excellent book and easy to read.  He points out that every moment of calmness and having a feeling of well being allows the body to heal. I say to all wise magicians out there that one of the things that can bring about a feeling of well being is to allow an awareness of goodness to come over you.  Look out the window and see colors, movement, nature.  Allow the experience of goodness.  Let beauty and the fun of others surprise you.  Constantly allow all the wonder of the world to overcome you.  The world that was, is, and will be is full of joy and delight.  It is full of love and safety if you will allow awareness of that to sink in.  Allow magic and good to come to you. May the spark be with you.