Shamanic Secret: Don't Get Sick... Celebrate Instead!

One shamanic secret of magic that works is to celebrate. We tend to get so busy with our everyday lives that we don't take the time to do as the tribal people of ancient times and celebrate the change of each season. Instead we rush through our obligations, responsibilities and to do lists and end up getting sick. The body, mind and spirit demand down time and if we don't make time for it we are forced into it through illness. In our Everyday Magic Email course, this is one of the topics we cover along with how utilizing the ancient shamanic secret of celebration works to clear out the old and make way for the new.

Celebrating
Ancient celebrations of the changing seasons often incorporated singing, dancing, and ritual. These celebrations often lasted for days clearing the old out of body, mind and spirit to make way for the new. The elders knew new creation could not occur otherwise. We find taking the time to use magic that works, invites magic into our lives and we don't have less time to get the things done that we feel we need to. Instead we find that there is magically enough time to get everything done and manifesting what we want comes easier. In today's times we understand it is hard to find days to have these types of celebrations. The good news is that we don't have to take days of ritual to honor the changing seasons, although if you have that kind of time it is very rewarding. Here are a few ways you might employ this shamanic secret of celebration and get some downtime to nourish your body, mind and spirit:

• Go camping to spend several days out in nature or at least spend several days going to take a long walk in the peace and quiet of the woods or a quiet park.

• Commit to turning off your phone, email and social media for a few days or at least one day.
   
• Perform a small ceremony for yourself or go all out and perform a more formal ritual in a full cast circle.
   
• Take some quiet time alone to write a gratitude list of things that have been in this phase of your life. Take time to read each one and individually express appreciation for each one while focusing on it.
   
• Make a list of those things you wish to let go of or release from your life. Focus your attention on each one as you visualize it moving away from you and then burn the list.
   
• Commit to doing a daily ritual such as the Day Greetings and Day Endings of the Navajo Beauty Way and do it every day for a few weeks. After seeing the results, you may decide to keep this one up all year.
   
• Learn a short yoga routine to do each morning in a quiet space or take that time each morning to doing a 10 minute meditation for a week or two.

These are just a few ideas to get you started thinking about taking some time off at the change of each season. You will become much healthier in body, mind and spirit by doing this and find that by inviting magic into your life in this way, your life will become more magical.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader. Or, visit our website for more great resources.

How to Learn Magic by Asking for a Sign

While discovering how to learn magic, many people find asking for a sign helps get them through the wait time. For example if you are attempting to manifest something and hit an obstacle or unexpected roadblock it can be difficult to keep a positive attitude and really know that what you are creating is coming to you. We talk about this in our Daily Rituals for Attracting What You Want in Life ebook and cover various techniques for getting answers and guidance from higher powers. The Universe is always willing to help us and sometimes a positive sign from the Universe helps keep us upbeat and cheerful and give us the reassurance we need while waiting for our manifestation to appear.

Here is one of the simple techniques covered in the ebook you can do to ask the Universe for a sign.

• First thing in the morning, sit quietly in meditation for a few moments to clear your mind and connect with your spirit.

• Sit and breathe for 3 minutes if you are not comfortable with meditation.
   
• Then ask the Universe to show you a positive sign today that what you desire is coming to you.
   
• State that you'd like the sign to be something you can easily recognize.
   
• Thank the Universe in advance for its help (it is good spiritual practice to give thanks before receiving).

Now go about your day. Be watching for anything that might be the sign, stay alert. The sign might come as a piece of conversation, a gorgeous rainbow, an unexpected source of money, lyrics in a song, an unexpected pleasurable phone call or in thousands of other ways. The sign doesn't have to be big, it just has to mean something positive to you. Once you see something that you recognize as a positive sign, be sure to immediately thank the Universe again for its help.

If at the end of the day you have not recognized a sign, take some time to sit quietly and review the day. Think about events that happened and become very curious about the sign. The Universe never fails to send a sign, but we may fail to consciously recognize it. Since your mind records everything, you may be able to find the sign by going back through your memories of the day.

If you still don't find the sign after going back and reviewing your day, thank the Universe for sending a sign and ask for another sign tomorrow. Ask this time that the Universe make it even clearer. Keep this process going until you receive your sign. We've never seen it take longer than 3 days for someone to get a sign that they are able to recognize.

This simple ritual is often full of surprises and a great one to add to your exercises for how to learn magic. It starts you communicating with the Universe and higher powers, helps you establish a relationship with higher powers, gives you insight on your awareness and perceptions, is a great way to make decisions or give indications of directions to take in your life, and many other skills that are useful to a magical practitioner. This ritual is definitely one that can show you how magic not only has a practical application in life and can give you greater insight into yourself, but also is lots of fun.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader. Or, visit our website for more great resources.

How To Choose Even When You Have No Choice

When we look at our lives many of us often feel like we have very little choice. We have to work, meet family obligations, and attend to the daily chores of "making a living." This lack of choice often makes us feel helpless and disempowered. We feel that we are not in control of our own lives.

The good news is that there's a simple way to regain our personal power. It's called "choosing even when you have no choice." Consider going to work, for instance. Most of us have to work to earn an income for basic needs, and while we might have the freedom to change jobs, we don't really have the choice to not work. So how can we choose in this situation where we have no choice?

Pick a segment of your day at work (could be as little as 15 minutes and no more than one hour) during which you will experiment with choices and personal power. Now make a choice about something for that segment. If you have some freedom in your work, choose what you will do during that segment. Decide precisely when you will start, exactly what you will achieve, and when you will stop. When the time comes, start your chosen work and end whenever you've chosen. It's important to end at the chosen time--the ending is just as important as the starting point.

If you don't have the freedom to choose what you'll do, then choose something internal to focus on. For instance, you might choose to focus only on thoughts that put a smile on your face or work with a smile on your face. You might choose to be aware of the sensations in your right hand while you work. You might choose to see how much work you can complete in 15 minutes. You might choose to take off one earring or one sock during that segment. It doesn't matter what you choose or how trivial it might seem. The key is that YOU'VE chosen it.

Why does choosing in a situation where you have no choice make a difference? Because any intentional choice is an act of personal power, and will increase your personal power. The more acts of power you do, the more personal power you will gain. The more personal power you have, the less you'll feel trapped by daily life. Just remember that you can do acts of power in any situation, no matter how little freedom you appear to have.

Enjoy!

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader. Or, visit our website for more great resources.

How to Meditate with Animals

Meditating with Animals

We all know that watching fish swim, chickens peck, or cats stretch can be very relaxing, but did you know that you can actually extend the art of animal watching to a meditation that can offer you deep insights into the wisdom of animals?

One of our favorite teachers, Abraham-Hicks, likes to say that whenever you want to attract something into your life, feel the desire for that thing and then pet the cat. Why should you pet the cat? Because almost by osmosis you get that relaxed, go-with-the-flow, allowing feeling that cats automatically exude, and Abraham teaches that allowing is the key to manifestation.

Animals, by their very nature, are more in touch with Spirit than we are, and tend to be connected to all that is higher. If you want to relax, get back in touch with Spirit, and connect with the higher, try this simple animal meditation.

1) Get into a comfortable position where you can see the animal you want to meditate with. Make sure the animal you've chosen is in a relaxed state of being. You can choose a cat, dog, horse, cow… any animal that seems to have the spiritual energy you're looking for.

2) Observe the animal closely. Notice the color of their coat or skin, the way the light catches different parts of their body. Notice anything that comes to you about the animal's appearance. Keep this level of observation for a minute or two.

3) Next, begin to mimic the animal's breathing. Match the animal breath for breath. Now extend that mimicry to include the animal's expression and focus of attention. Are the eyes open or closed? Where is the animal's attention? What is he or she looking at? Is the animal's attention inwardly or outwardly focused? Stay focused on this aspect of the meditation for a few minutes, until you really begin to feel that you are being "breathed" by the animal's rhythm.

4) Finally, if you want, mimic the animal's action. If a cat is twitching its tail, imagine you have a tail, then twitch it in the same rhythm. If the horse you are watching is chewing grass, move your jaw in the same motion. How does that feel? Stay with the meditation as long as you wish, or until you get the connection you're looking for.

If you've chosen an animal that is truly in a connected state of being, and you mimic that animal's actions, expressions, breathing and attention, you will begin to feel the same sort of spiritual connection that most animals feel all the time. Plus, it will give you a lot of insight into how your animal perceives the world.

This exercise works because of the law of "as above, so below." When you physically mimic your chosen animal, your mind and spirit will also mimic the animal's mental and spiritual state. In fact, some horseback riding trainers encourage their (human) students to follow their horses around for an entire day, mimicking everything they do. This gives the students an opportunity to really understand the world from the horse's point of view.

Animals have so much wisdom and connection to share with us, and we often miss their special gifts because we don't take the time to really "be" with them. To learn more about how to communicate directly with animals, check out Leta Worthington's beginning animal communication ebook.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader. Or, visit our website for more great resources.

Making Graceful Life Transitions

I recently was gifted with the experience of observing a friend go through a fairly major life transition that affected every member of her family. While this process is happening all the time to at least a certain population of the planet, what made this experience so special was experiencing the grace, intention, and determination with which she walked through this transition.
Because of the beauty of this experience I began reflecting that many of us face transitions and change with resistance (if not downright horror!), which causes the transitions to be choppy and filled with stops and starts rather than smooth and graceful. I then reflected on the many steps my friend took to ease the way for her transition, and how those steps were rituals that kept her path straight and narrow.
I’d like to share some of the rituals and remedies that she used to make her life transition a joyful one filled with gifts, along with a few of my own.
Flower Essences
Flower essences are generally taken 4 drops, 4 times as day. Rescue Remedy can be taken as often as needed.

• Walnut: Excellent for all kinds of life transitions, clears old habit patterns, helps you find your direction free from the influence of others.
• Cherry Plum: Trust in the intuitive guidance of life, also called the “letting go and letting God” essence
• Rescue Remedy: A five flower essence created by Bach that helps in all traumatic and trying situations.

Colors

• Sun Yellow: Burning a sun yellow candle for 30 minutes or more will nourish your spirit vitality and help you make clear, birth-vision oriented choices.
• Sky Blue: Surrounding yourself with sky blue or wearing sky blue will connect you with spirit and free you from mind’s chatter.

Angels

• Hire an Angel: There is an angel for everything you need. To hire an angel, just say, “I’d like to hire an angel specializing in [state your desire].” Wait a few seconds, then make your request, which might go something like this: “Angel of [your desire], I request your help in walking with me through this life transition so that I see all the gifts and beauty that are part of this process. Thank you in advance.” Then, at the end of the day or throughout the experience, thank your angel again. Appreciation is necessary in working with angels!

Rituals

• Pendulum: If a particular life transition seems to be dragging on too long, you can spin a pendulum clockwise until it stops, with the intention that the pendulum is clearing any stagnant energies associated with the situations.
• Walk in the Rain: Walking in the rain, especially by running water, helps to clear out old energies and bring fresh insights into a life transition. The running water carries away the old and the rain brings in the new!

There are hundreds of different steps you can take to smooth any life transition – these are just a few of my favorites. To learn more about these steps, get copies of these two ebooks:
Energy Healing for Self and Others

Daily Rituals for Attracting What You Want in Life


If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader. Or, visit our website for more great resources.