How To Believe In Miracles, Magic, And Your Own Super Powers Again

Do you have a fertile imagination? Do you believe in miracles? I know I do and as a kid it was especially so (as is the case with most of us). No, not miracles like walking on water or raising people from the dead.

Don’t get me wrong, I do believe in big miracles but I agree with what the Vietnamese monk, Thich Nhat Hanh has to say on the subject: “People say walking on water is a miracle, but to me, walking peacefully on earth is the real miracle.”

But for now, I’m talking about the little wonders of life, like seeing the smile on the face of your two-year-old after she picks herself up from a fall. Or, the hummingbird who stops by at your kitchen window feeder for a fraction of second.

When I was a little kid I remember my sister and I used to wander off to explore what we called Bear Land. This was about an acre of land, populated mostly with old cedars between the dirt road and the house where we spent our summers.

Black or Brown Bears, you may wonder, but my mind conjured up the image of the large teddy bear I called Biggie and who we sometimes used as a toboggan to slide down the stairs (I think that’s teddy bear abuse!).

Bear Land was a huge, magical place in my child’s imagination. I can remember sitting on a giant rock (we had to climb up with the help of the tree beside it) and looking at the surrounding landscape.

The mysterious thing was that the rock had a metal loop like a giant eyelet screw (show picture) in it, the purpose of which was to hold down (via cable) the giant hydro pole nearby. But there was no cable so the loop stood empty.

My sister and I would insert a wooden stick and use an incantation (something like the ones from the Narnia Chronicles) to conjure up an alternate reality.

Seriously.

We were suddenly living in a mythical magical world where bears and squirrels, beavers and horses could talk. A land where we had endless lakes to swim in and where the beer and pepsi cans that littered our little corner of the wood didn’t exist.

In our conjured up, magic world, it was totally possible for the spirits of the deceased to be alive and well, communicating to us that it was a special thing to be alive in our bodies.

I had this incredible, awe-inspired feeling when we sat there on that giant rock in the middle of Bear Land.

Life is Miraculous

Today, I hold a belief that Life is miraculous. Yes, I know it can suck sometimes, and there’s lots of terrible stuff going on in the world. Bad things happen to good people, as Howard Kushner’s book says.

That’s true. But just to be alive is a miracle. To take your next breath, let alone have a body with all its functions (all those cells doing what they’re supposed to, most of the time).

What about the ability to speak, to use words? How cool is that? I can conjure up the image of a tiger and then tell you what I’m thinking.

We can go on and on here and talk about how you and I are communicating over fiber-optic cables, through the ethers, and that actually, we’re stardust!

The trouble is that most of the time, we forget that we’re living a freakin’ miracle every day. We forget the preciousness of just being alive, of all that’s alive around us; and we get caught up in survival mode.

We’re distracted by fear, lots of fear. Where’s my next meal coming from? How am I going to pay my rent? Who might take my job? What if I have an accident or get sick? The list of things we’re worried about getting or losing is endless.

You can’t blame yourself for being this way. It’s wired into your brain and it’s just part of being human.

But the awareness of the miraculous is also part of our human capacity and can be wired into our brains, if we take time to practice.

That sense of magic and miracles comes naturally to most children, and then we learn it away. Now, as an adult — especially as you set out to achieve your dreams — you need to unlearn a lot of what you were taught.

Visioning Exercise to discover what your heart and soul really desires.

When I help my clients, highly sensitive entrepreneurial women bring their work to the world, we almost always start with a Visioning Exercise. The point of the exercise is to help them get clear on what it is they really, truly, deeply want for themselves and for their business.

The visioning process requires a lot of unlearning and uncovering layers of preconditioned thinking and habits, so that you can discover your Authentic Gifts.

You need to release beliefs, fears and habits of thought like:

“I can’t because I’m not good enough.”
“That’s not realistic, not possible.”
“I’m not allowed.”
“I don’t deserve that because…”
“I’ll upset and be rejected by my mother, my spouse, my friends.”

Why do you need to access the miraculous side of life to do this?

First of all, need I say that as an entrepreneur, you need to show up powerfully and brightly, fully embodying your most valuable gifts? None of that hiding your bright light under a bushel stuff.

A lot of your gifts, in particular those special ones that go along with being sensitive, live in the arena of the miraculous. They’re super-powers (think of the animal communicator or the empath’s ability to pick up and communicate at finely tuned frequencies). Your gifts don’t like all those limiting external conditions imposed on them. That just cramps their style and shuts them down!

Sam’s story:

Sam felt that she kept her most powerful gifts buried deep underground. At 35, she was frustrated that her talent for inspiring others had been long forgotten since her rebellious teenage years. Her creative and highly intuitive energy was spent diligently watching over and supervising her own eating habits and over-performing at her job as a clerk. It was exhausting and soul-draining.

Sam was also an empath and so sensitive to how people responded to her. She discovered that the self-controlling habits (around food) and perfectionist tendencies (at work) were her attempt to protect herself from being hurt.

She feared that unleashing her creative side would upset those around her. The fire of her inner passion could lead to a loss of control. Colouring outside the lines was dangerous because people might reject her for being different and not following social norms.

Sam knew that it was time for a change. She hired a coach to help her through a career shift. She had wanted to work as a health coach for many years. Sam gained the courage to move ahead on this dream and decided to enroll in a program that would train and certify her to work with clients in this capacity.

The energy previously used to control her eating patterns was now available to help motivate her clients. She rediscovered her long-lost talent of inspiring others to reach their potential (in this case, with their health). This shift inside of her was miraculous indeed!

And, it produced real change in her life. She began working with clients part-time and is now considering leaving her job.

Showing up Fully as yourself is Magic and Miraculous.

To show up fully as yourself, without hiding back requires not only that you recognize, acknowledge and know your gifts, but that you embody them.

It’s a journey, believe me! It’s not easy to believe in your gifts when culture, family, friends tell you they’re not really valued or real. It’s painful and it takes feedback and support from people who “see” your full potential.

I can sometimes hardly believe that four decades after my sister’s and my escapades into Bear Land, that I’ve gone back to exploring that same magic I knew as a kid. This time, trying to help others bring their miraculous gifts into the world.

What’s your Bear Land?

During the Visioning exercise with my clients it’s as though, I go back to that huge rock and I pull on the magic of that eyelet screw to help you conjure up whatever is there for the taking in possibility land for you.

We also go looking for magic and miracles because that’s where your gifts really start to show up and also get their juice. And, claiming your true gifts is a miraculous process, I assure you. Not to be missed out on. It’s even more fun when you can start to use them fully and build on them to create or thrive in your business.