Practical Magic 101 Thanks for requesting Practical Magic 101! This is a primer designed to teach you the basic magical and universal principles. This primer will also enable you to begin using magic in daily life with simple exercises for developing purposeful use of intention. Note Before we dive in, please note that I use words such as Universe in this book. Feel free to substitute the words that appropriate for you. Many of my clients use words like Higher Power, God, My Heavenly Father and Higher Self. Magic is an experiential art so find the words that work best for you according to your history, beliefs and experience. The Definition of Magic First thingıs first. Before I can show you how to use magic in your daily life, youıll need to know the definition of magic. Unlike the normal pre-conceptions of magic, which sometimes involve white rabbits and black hats, magic in this context is the study of intention. Thus, when we use magic, we are deliberately shaping our intention to create and attract the desired outcomes and conditions. The important thing to understand about intention is that the force of our intention is always at work, whether we are deliberate about shaping it to attract the things we want or unconsciously allowing it create at will. Thus, if we donıt purposely shape our intention, the reality we create is usually uncertain and inconsistent. If you think that magic is something foreign or new, consider how you already use magic, or your intention, in everything you say or do. Do you ever say something like, ³Iım going to wash to car today² or ³I intend to finish this project on time²? If so, you are stating your intention, and those statements will begin the attract the object of those intentions to you. More importantly, if you follow through on a statement of intention, such as washing the car, you have just done magic! Magic is really an everyday affair that can produce some extraordinary results with just a little daily attention. Do We Need Magic? I get asked this question quite a bit. The answer, odd as it may see for a Practical Magic Coach, is ³No.² We donıt actually need magic. Our lives will continue to function normally without any use of magic. Could we attract everything we needed into our lives without the use of magic? Certainly. The ascended masters on the planet do it all the time. But magic does make it easier for us to attract what we want. Magic, not unlike meditation or any other spiritual exercise, is simply a diversion of the mind. The mind is at the seat of all illness, dis-ease and discomfort in our lives. Did you know that the mind actually has no direct contact with the world? Only the body, with the five senses, and the spirit have direct contact with the world. The mind takes the inputs from these two sources, applies some rules, and produces output. The problem is that the output of the mind is often untrue and misleading. Did you know that most of us form the majority of our beliefs by the time we are five? More importantly, once we form these beliefs, we tend to hold them for life ­ even though many of these beliefs are false or no longer serve us. These false beliefs, coupled with the often misleading output it produces, wreaks a fair amount of havoc in our lives. Thus magic is a way to divert the mind from these misleading beliefs and focus it on attracting the things we desire. There is more on this topic in later books, and as you begin to do the magical exercises proposed in this book you will come to understand this topic with more clarity. The Universe is Friendly This is a basic assumption to underlies all magical and universal principles. If we could get beyond mind, we would find that the universe is completely friendly and benign. A premise that follows from that is that our natural state is one of prosperity, health and abundance. There is nothing that we cannot be, do or have. We are limited only by our minds and our beliefs. An additional corollary to the above statements is that when we can simply let go of our beliefs and burdens, we will return to our natural state of prosperity, health and abundance. Ultimately, we need not work so hard to receive or deserve these things. Basic Laws of the Universe As we move into the millennium, we will come to discover that all of the old rules are breaking down. There are no rules except that what we focus on will manifest. This is the only rule. However, I use the universal laws as stated by Abraham-Hicks (www.abraham- hicks.com) because I like their clarity and simplicity. I recommend that you check out their website. I have found their tapes to be useful, daily reminders to focus on the things I want rather than the things I donıt want. _ Law of Attraction: This law states that like attracts like. Wherever you place your focus and attention, you will attract more of the same. Your focus includes the words you speak and the thoughts you think. For instance, if you focus on your company's cash flow problem, your will attract more shortage of cash. If, on the other hand, you put your attention on a recent successful product launch, you attract more innovative products and successful launches for your company. _ Law of Deliberate Creation: This law states that the law of attraction is in effect whether we use it deliberately or not. We have the ability to create and define everything in our reality, including the people we interact with, the type of work we do, and the level of income we attract. This law asks you to make more decisions everyday about what you do want, and to focus there. _ Law of Allowing: This law states that our negative beliefs, thoughts and statements are the only barriers to the compete fulfillment of every one of our desires. The moment we express a desire for something, the universe is already delivering it to us. Our ability to receive is limited by the negative thoughts we think and statements we make. The next exercise will help you begin practicing some of these laws in daily life. The Place Mat Exercise This exercise is also adapted from Abraham-Hicks and I use it because it doesnıt take a lot of time, and itıs very effective. Itıs called the Place Mat exercise because Jerry and Esther Hicks, the originator of this exercise, used to draw these out on place mats in restaurants. This exercise helps us to shape our intention on a daily basis. The goals is to take time daily to create sacred space and clear intention through this or any number of additional exercises. This exercise helps to diver the mind for short periods of time each day. 1. Daily take a fresh sheet of paper and draw a line down the middle. On the left side of the page, write ³Things I Want to Do Today.² On the right side of the page, write ³Things I Want the Universe to Do For Me Today.² Alternatively, if you have a charge on the word Œwant,ı meaning that you feel the lack of the things you desire when you use the word Œwant,ı use something like ³Things I am Appreciative of the Universe Delivering Today.² Appreciation is often the strongest attractor of the things we desire. 2. On the left side of the page, write only the things you really want to do today. Do not include things you have to do, should do or donıt want to do. This is not your to do list for the day. This is an exercise to settle your mind on items that please you, that you are looking forward to, that inspire you. 3. On the right side of the page, write the things you want the universe to do for you today. This includes things over which you have no control, things you donıt want to do but have to, or things you just donıt want to think about. Ask for inspiration or willingness to do the things you have to do but donıt want to. Ask the universe to take care of things you donıt want to do. Ask the universe to make your travels timely and without delay (you have no control over this). Whatever you would like the universe to do, including bringing you certain states of being like joy, ask and it is given. 4. Once you have completed your list, spend at least 17 seconds feeling pure positive emotion while focusing on each item. In other words, contemplate each item on your list and just feel good for 17 seconds. Our positive emotion is the key to bringing manifestation into our lives quickly and easily. The goal is the string together 17 whole seconds of pure positive feeling for each item on your list. This takes a little focus, and itıs worth it. Each 17 seconds of pure positive emotion is worth 2000 hours of physical work on the world plane. A Few Tips: _ Keep your list short, limited to 3 or 4 items for each side of the page. _ Start with small, more general items and build up to larger, more specific items. Like learning any new skill, it takes a while for you to build your belief, which is what allows you to receive the gifts of the universe. _ If you feel stuck either in this exercise or in a certain area of your life, ask the Universe to show you the limiting beliefs you hold which no longer serve you. You might also want to ask the Universe to help you release those beliefs, and to show you the next right step. _ Keep your sheets together in a notebook so you can go back and review the progress youıve made. _ Keep it simple. Donıt make big work of this. Keep this simple, short and fun. _ Check out www.abraham-hicks.com for more info on this topic. They are the originators of this exercise. A Note on Daily Work Your magical work should be done daily and consistently. At first this may seem a bit difficult, since we are all quite busy and it takes 21 to 30 days to form a solid habit. However, the more consistent you get, the better results you will get. We are everyday people, which means we need to settle our minds and clarify our intent everyday or we get off track. When you do a singular, specific, deliberate intention everyday, you build up a vast reservoir of energy with which to manifest. When you stop your exercises for a single day, you release it all and have to start all over. Keep your exercises short, but stay consistent. Healers say that it takes the body 1 month to heal for every year a condition has existed. The same is true of our mind. It takes time, perhaps 1 month for every year we have held a negative or faulty belief, to heal our minds. Stay quiet about your work for a while. When you speak to too many people about it, it tends to dissipate your focus and reduce the strength of your creations. Keep your focus on the inner world, not the outer. Practical Magic 102 I suggest that you do the Place Mat exercise for at least 1 week before going on the Practical Magic 102. Thanks for playing with us and have a most magical experience with all of this. Remember, donıt make big work of this. Have fun, relax and just see what happens. You will be surprised before you are halfway through! Stephanie Yeh is a Practical Magic Coach dedicated to teaching people how to create the desired conditions and outcomes in business and life with the daily use of magical principles. For more information on Practical Magic Coaching or for a free initial coaching session, visit the website at www.practicalmagiccoach.com or call 1-888-44-MAGIC (1-888-446-2442).