Are you missing the magic?

I’ve just recovered from a bout of psycho-amnesia. It’s a common affliction (forgetting who you really are) and there’s no pill you can take to fix it. The main symptom is an absence of magic in the living of your life, but it’s hard to detect, since many people don’t miss what they never had, and this kind of magic often stays buried under an avalanche of activity. With so much going on in social media, and so many ways to grow your business, it’s easy to get caught up in strategies and trying to make things happen. Yet none of the magical things that have happened in my life happened because I enhanced my SEO, built up a huge mailing list, or got lots of likes on Facebook. They happened because I acted on a gut instinct, did things spontaneously and intuitively, trusted that I’d attract what I needed, and then allowed myself to be guided by the opportunities that presented themselves.

Magic happens when I focus on me working properly, rather than trying to make things work on the outside. I ended up living in Vancouver because of a ‘chance’ meeting in the Peruvian jungle with a woman who inspired me to make changes that urgently needed to be made. I met my husband as the result of a sudden urge to return to Switzerland, where I used to live, even though I never intended going back there. And I built my business by doing what I love doing—writing, questioning everything, pondering the deeper truth of who we are, and engaging with others looking for a more meaningful life.

What exactly is it?

Given its ethereal nature, magic is hard to define. You can’t logically explain or engineer it, and it’s best described in terms of its effects: an easy flow, a natural unfolding of things, effortless abundance, serendipitous encounters, spontaneous solutions, ‘happy accidents’, an unexpected big win, being in the right place at the right time, and generally feeling supported by the universe and life itself. It’s your natural state, when all the distractions, stress and insecurities are stripped away, and when you’re relaxed, present, focused, grounded and connected to the power of you.

Missing in action

You are the system through which your life works. Unless that system is working properly, it’s hard for anything on the outside to work, no matter how successful it might be for someone else. We’re designed to thrive, and we have all the faculties, intuition, creativity and self-expression we need to be who we’re meant to be. Our computers, ipads and iphones may have taken over our schedules, social networks, business interactions, entertainment and everything else that seems important, but we are still the ultimate operating system. No computer or technology can match our brains, bodies, minds or hearts. If life’s not working, it’s usually because of some dodgy software—some limiting belief or fear—that’s corrupted our system, interfering with our sense of who we really are, clouding our perception of what’s possible, and diminishing our vast potential to create magic in our own lives.

Use the MAGIC formula

Cultivating magic in your life means finding that delicate balance between doing and being, which can be hard to do. The following guidelines have helped me to get the balance right.

1. Make some moves. Take action so that people know you exist—reach out, talk to those you feel drawn to, share your knowledge or expertise, and show up in some meaningful way in your friendships or local community. But don’t over-do it. Magic is not about covering all the bases or hedging your bets. It’s about making some spontaneous, feel-good moves and trusting that the universe will make all the right connections for you.
2. Assess the way you’re operating. Are you pushing, struggling or striving to make something happen? Magic doesn’t happen when you push, since pushing is usually driven by fear, and fear implies that you don’t believe you can easily get what you want. Magic happens when you trust in the power of you and act accordingly, following your intuition and leaving time and space to just be so that you’re receptive and open to new things. It’s hard for things to reach you if you’re a constantly moving target.
3. Give your system what it needs. Take care of you, first, since you’re the most important system in your life. Make sure your system is getting the rest, support, love, good food, time out and healthy activity that you need. Taking care of you—in healthy, everyday ways—is the best way to boost your performance, magnetism and success.
4. Install regular updates and upgrades. Regularly upgrade your emotional software, and make sure your system is fully optimized for living. Your PC might need to be optimized for Windows, but you-the-system should ideally be optimized for ‘doorways’, so you can keep moving forward and evolving. If you were still running the old programs installed when computers were first developed, you’d be in serious trouble. Upgrading your mental programming is even more important. Dumping the negative programs that no longer serve you and re-programming yourself with the good stuff takes you where you want to go.
5. Concentrate on being you and expressing your creative self. Focus on what you love, what matters to you, what feels right, what fits with your values and what fires up your creative juices. Trying to be something you’re not always backfires—and it’s hard work. Be true to you, and dare to express and demonstrate that truth in all that you do.

Life isn’t meant to be a struggle, and things only get complicated when we’re confused about how life really works. But if we focus on how we really work and nourish our own, all-powerful operating system, everything else works—like magic.