The Magic of Every Day
“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Life is not meant to be experienced as mundane, boring, tiresome, or monotonous. For small children, life is certainly not any of those things. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in his famous children’s book, “The Little Prince”, makes the point that adults cannot see what is invisible – but small children can. Small children live in a magical way, taking full enjoyment from what is in front of them, being very present, and using their imagination to imbue their experiences with magic. As children become older and more aware of the difficulties of life, and as children turn into adults – this magic disappears. Adults forget. And yet, many of us would say that we can recall some moments of magic. They are usually moments of great clarity, of insights, of heightened awareness. We understand something in those moments that we had not realised before, and we are changed. The beauty of synchronicity, of serendipity, of seeing ‘beyond’. These kinds of experiences, from the point of view of spirituality, show us that everything we experience externally is a trigger for the amazing resources and qualities that we have inside. We do not have to wait for those moments of alignment, we can create ‘magic’ moments in our everyday life, with a little practice.
Magic has the power to transform the routine and mundane. Why is it difficult for us to experience daily magic? It is because we have become ‘adult’ and have become slaves to our habits; we have started to operate on autopilot. Research has shown that 90 per cent of our thoughts today are exactly the same as the ones we had the day before, and the day before that. We are going through the motions, while simply not being present. We get consumed by the demands and responsibilities we have in life, and we turn to distractions of all kind rather than deal with our inner world. We have to learn to look much deeper than
what we perceive on a physical level.
Magical experiences have certain ingredients, and we can learn to manifest those moments by experimenting with those ingredients.
Ingredients:
1. Being aware of who I truly am: I am a spiritual being of light energy, filled with love, peace, joy, and wisdom. I have unlimited power to transform myself and my circumstances. I am eternal and everyone else is also eternal.
2. Love: When we love, we connect with whoever or whatever it is that we love. It is the most important ingredient in our world today. So many feel disconnected and alone. This is an illusion because when we understand who we really are, we see that we are all connected. If we only look at bodies, there’s a disconnect because we are all so different to look at. We can bring more love into our lives by:
a. Expressing appreciation: Be present and appreciate what is around us; people and nature. Those who live off the land always appreciate the power and wonder of the natural world. They see the magic and signs of another dimension, within the amazing systems that are operating.
b. Expressing gratitude: This is very close to appreciation. Studies show that those who keep a journal of gratitude every day have improved mental health. Gratitude and appreciation when expressed in words create an energy of a positive feeling of connection.
3. Joy: A great deal of research has been done into the benefits of laughter. Laughing and singing greatly help in feeling joy and in recovery from deep sadness or illness. Singing, especially with others, creates harmony and connection. Learning to laugh, even in extreme circumstances, has great benefit.
4. Meditation: Combines two of the ingredients for magical experiences. One of them is the realisation that we are all subtle beings taking part in a huge game, a huge play, and so we can step outside it and laugh at it all. This leads to the other ingredient – transcendence. We can trust there is a bigger picture and it is full of meaning. Meditation allows us to experience what lies ‘beyond’. It is a way to experience all our original qualities and the Divine source of them, the Supreme Soul, God. He is remembered as being The Magician because when we tune into this Being, we gain the power to transform.
When we understand the ingredients, when we tune in and ignite them with conscious awareness, we can see life from a completely different perspective and have the power to transform ourselves and our world. Now, that is magic!
Joanna Kitto is the Brahma Kumaris Environment Initiative Coordinator for the UK and Coordinator of BK activities on the Isle of Man in the British Isles.
