The Magical Function of Considering Alternatives

There are habits that you can develop which will bring a much higher quality of life to you.  I consider these habits of mind and action as having magical function, as the benefits they bring can seem like magic.  I have blogged about magical function before.  Recently I realized that the habit of looking at your options, or considering alternatives can have magical function.  When you are up against the wall or in a sticky situation it can be very stressful.  The tendency is to feel despair and give up.  But if you are in the habit of considering your alternatives you are likely to find a way to solve your problem.  Sometimes it is as simple as redefining the problem. Sometimes it is much more.  But if you have a mind set of being a resourceful person you will probably get through your tough time.  Don't bother to stress yourself out or waste time by saying "It should be this way or that".  It is as it is.  Or it is what it seems to be at first glance.  Now get busy and see what options, resources, or alternatives you have.  Weigh your choices and go for something better.  Adopt an attitude that you are a learner and you can learn from this situation.  Maybe you will learn to avoid situations like this in the future.  What ever the lesson you choose to learn, whatever choice you make, know that it is your magic that you bring to yourself.  May the spark be with you.

Magical Daydreaming

Sometimes a person looks like they are in a trance and the observer can not determine what on earth is going on in the "thinker's" head.  When I am the "thinker" I may be in three different states. I call them 1) Magical Daydreaming. 2) Blocked. 3) Dwelling or Neurotic Dwelling.  My favorite is Magical Daydreaming.  But I want to touch briefly on the other two to get them out of the way.  First I will explore what is going on when you are in a 'blocked' state.  Actually not much is going on but you want it to be.  You just feel "blocked".  You may want an idea for a creative project and it won't come to you or you may have more than one idea that is trying to come to you and they are fighting to see who gets through the door first.  It may be a normal sized door but three fat butt (or maybe three rich and full) ideas can't get through at the same time.  When you feel blocked it isn't a good idea to stay there,  It could turn negative.  You need to break the trance by a shake of the head, asking some questions or something.  Unblocking is not that hard to do unless you dig yourself into a rut.  Writer's block may be there about one project but you can go to another project.  When you come back to the previously blocked one you can probably produce again.
Now as to #3, the dreaded 'Dwelling'.  If you have healed from a trauma and then you revert to talking about it and dwell on it you may re-traumatize yourself.  If you can't stop talking about your "evil ex" maybe you can at least start making jokes about the person that should only be in your past now.  I have heard it said that a neurotic person is incapable of free-association. Just don't dwell.  It bores your listeners and I hope that a wise magician will be bored their own 'lip out' poor me stories as well. Actually I don't believe wise magicians go to 'pity parties'.  Don't sucker into other people inviting you to theirs.
Now we are up to play time or #1 Magical Daydreaming. Sometimes it is good to actually schedule some healthy daydreaming.  Not necessarily to solve a creative problem, but just to lower stress and to add some zing or magic to you life.  You can do it any way you want.  After all it is your gifted mind and your happy place.  But just in case you haven't done it that much I invite you to walk along with me as I do a bit of magical daydreaming.  I look up at the dragon picture that a friend drew for me for my birthday last January.  The dragon is emerging from a grove of trees.  That makes me think of times I have enjoyed being in different forests.  One time, as a child, I was with my family for a picnic and  I got my flute out of the car and sat down near a wild rose bush in bloom.  I could play Edward MacDowell's 'To a Wild Rose' from memory so I did.  I don't know if I had an audience or not.  I again have that feeling of being immersed in a wild natural world.  This memory leads to ideas about the way I enjoy music.  Now I think about my plans to get a music studio going.  I have been teaching a blind man to play piano by ear for a couple of days.  Now I find myself singing 'This Land Is Your Land", one of the songs my student can play with one hand and will soon be able to play chords for in the bottom hand. Now I am floating around with different pictures of places in the US I have lived or visited and loved. Now I am through with my play and decide I need to get my digital camera out and take a picture, soon, of this blind man at the piano and share it with the near-by music store that offered to give me referrals for students.  I didn't plan on getting a usable idea but I am glad to have it.  I am also glad to have had the relaxing experience I did. Thank you for walking along with me.   I suggest to all wise magicians that you do some magical daydreaming from time to time.  May the spark be with you.

A Smile Can Be a Magic Wand

A smile is, like music as mentioned in my last post, something that can be magical but we tend to take it for granted. I would suggest to all wise magicians that you take a moment and think of times when a smile has made your life better. Perhaps you smiled at a stranger who ended up being a dear friend. Perhaps you smiled through tears and managed to more fully experience how much you cherished that which you had lost. Going to that place of love helped ease the pain. Perhaps your smile was a recognition that what you saw as funny was also relief that you had not suffered the pratfall you were watching. As you remember the times a smile has brought goodness to your life I hope you will resolve to engage in this act of creating magic often and long. I also want to suggest that a smile can bring magic to your life when no one else in around. Often it is when we are alone that we feel that bit of angst that makes us want to call up magic. Try this simple exercise to see what I mean. Let your mind take on a slightly blah mood. Now do a slight shake of your head, smile and open your eyes a bit as you look up to the right. I find it hard to continue feeling blah when I do that. Studies in pupillometry have shown that the pupil widens to let in more light when we are paying more attention to something. By widening our eyes in the gesture I just suggested you are letting "light" into your life. Do this a few times and you may find yourself making up all kinds of puns and jokes about what you are doing. I just gave a big "smile" to the neighbor's irritating yappy dogs and thought of ways to laugh instead of snarl when they just won't shut up. A smile can be a tool of courage when you contemplate taking on a big task. A smile has many magical uses. Wield your smile wand well and wisely (meaning any way you so choose). May the spark be with you.