Life is magical! Do you agree? Perhaps you feel despondent at the moment, under a cloud that doesn’t seem to go away. I know that feeling. Or maybe you feel great and you’d like to enforce that good feeling. Either way, please read on for very practical ways to get and keep the magic flowing.

Because let’s face it, trying to change your mind, without actually doing something that changes your mind, is a frustrating exercise in futility. It’s like trying to lift the chair you’re sitting on.

Walk

I’ve written before about the way walking your body, even for a short time, makes a difference in your mind (your outlook) as well as your body.

This YouTube video featuring Dr. Wendy A. Suzuki, a professor of neural science and psychology at the Center for Neural Science at New York University, caught my attention with the statement: “The #1 way to strengthen your mind is to use your body.” This is totally in sync with Buddhism, which teaches the oneness of body and mind.

The video is worth six minutes of your time.

Smile

Usually we wait for something good to happen to give us a reason to smile. But I bet I’m not the only one to notice that when I consciously make my face smile, I perk up inside and feel better. And when we feel better, we open up our inner channels that allow good energy – magic – to run through us. And in case you need more reasons to smile, according to the Psychology of Smiling page on the Dental Associates of Florida website,

“smiling is more effective in stimulating the reward mechanism of the brain than chocolate is, meaning that smiling makes people feel happy.”

More powerful than chocolate??? WOW!!! That got me smiling!

Hug

I LOVE hugging. It’s truly one of my favourite things in life. I’ve known for years that a long hug releases the feel-good hormone oxytocin in both the hugger and the huggee. (I just made that word up. 🙂 ) And even more so in women than in men.

Taking things a bit further, a Penn Medicine blog on affection says that: “kissing, hugging, snuggling, and holding hands produce more than just magical moments. They can actually boost overall health, helping you lose weight, lower blood pressure, fight off sickness, and more.” The post adds: “Snuggling with pets has been shown to produce similar results as snuggling with the people you love.”

I’d add to this that perhaps you don’t love the people you work with, but you can still give them a hug when appropriate. And you might well find that a beautiful platonic love grows from this beautifully open act.

Good Food

Let’s hear it for good food! What a pleasure it is to eat delicious and nutritious meals! I’ve come very far in this regard. I recall a time in my life, an unhappy and unhealthy time, when I deplored the fact that I had to stop whatever I was doing to eat. I thought it was such a nuisance! Happily I no longer feel that way.

At work I often eat lunch while working, simply because the pressure is always on. At home, even though I’m by myself, I tend now to set the table nicely and savour my food. Since I’ve recently broken the bad habit of watching something while eating I appreciate my food far more than before. I can listen to music or a podcast and still remain present, which is necessary if you want to experience life’s magic. And eating with other people of course adds greatly to the pleasure.

Coincidence

Please don’t dismiss coincidence as a random accident that has no meaning. Everything in the Universe functions on the basis of cause and effect. Everything. Even if the cause is unknown to our awareness when the effect appears. A coincidence is a co-incident – one incident fusing with another or more incidents. Synchronicity. Some call it serendipity.

James Redfield, the author of the wonderful bestseller spiritual adventure novel, The Celestine Prophecy, puts it so well in the experiential guide to the novel:

The combination of inner searching (“There must be more to life”) and an occasional cosmic jostle (“Wow! What a strange coincidence. I wonder what that meant?”) is a powerful process. Mysterious and exciting, coincidences are purposeful in moving us forward in our destiny. They make us feel more alive, as if there is some greater plan at work.”

Yes! And I’ll put it this way. Sometimes the urge or hunch to do something comes from within you, from your inner Universe. And sometimes, it’s the outer Universe that gives you the nudge.

And before I leave this topic, when I took down my copy of the Experiential Guide to The Celestine Prophecy from the bookshelf, I found a dog-eared bookmark in it. For some reason I looked on the back of it, where I found words I must have written years ago. “When chanting, smother the problem to death with gratitude.” Brilliant! Nudge well received; thank you, Universe. 🙂

Music

I love that the word “musician” is so similar to the word “magician.” Music is definitely a form of magic. It can change your mood.

I witnessed this firsthand, long ago when I worked as a disc jockey in a Montreal Club called Night Magic. Although it was just before Christmas I enjoyed myself playing various punk tracks. I was the first dj in Montreal to play British punk because my sister visited me from the UK and brought some albums over to give me. Anyway, the level of aggression in the club grew and grew until it looked like a fight was looming, right inside my dj room. Quickly, I picked John Lennon’s Happy Xmas (War Is Over) as the next track. The same two guys who were about to punch each other’s lights out now had their arms around each other’s shoulders and a smile on their faces. Magic!

Water

Yes, simple, plain water. Tired? Have a headache? Try drinking some water. If you’re even a tiny 2% dehydrated your brain physically shrinks in your skull. And please, make it clean water. No plastic bottles, because plastic is made with petrochemicals and they off-gas into the water. Besides the appalling amount of plastic waste burdening our poor Mother Earth. I’m a water snob, and I only drink Reverse Osmosis water. But even good carbon filtration is better than tap water. And yes, make it fizzy if that’s what you like. (Shout out to Strathmore for their sparkling Scottish spring water. Best sparkling water I ever tasted!)

Prayer

Everyone has access to the power of prayer. I practise Buddhism, so I chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo while I pray. It’s extremely transformative. My mentor, Daisaku Ikeda, says in the Happiness section of his book, The Wisdom for Creating Happiness and Peace:

The path up the hill of life doesn’t follow a straight line. There are successes and mistakes. Sometimes we win and sometimes we lose. With each step on our way, with every curve and corner we navigate, we grow a little bit more. In this process, prayer functions as a powerful force preventing us from becoming arrogant in victory or devastated by defeat. That’s why none are stronger than those who base themselves on prayer.

That’s some pretty strong “magic” right there!

Photo by Rhett Wesley on Unsplash