Your Year of Miracles

Month: July 2022

  • Miracle Moment: Relationships As a Spiritual Path

    Miracle Moment: Relationships As a Spiritual Path

    Today’s Miracle Moment is About Relationships As a Spiritual Path.

    As humans, we’re wired to be social creatures. We all share the core need for connecting and bonding with each other — whether that’s in friendships, romantic partnerships, family relationships, or community connections. Loving relationships add more fulfillment and happiness to our lives. 

    Relationships can also be our biggest teachers! The people we love the most are usually also the people who can push our buttons the most.

    The people we’re in closest relationships with are our “mirrors,” showing us the places we may need some healing.

    We’ve all experienced a moment in a relationship when someone says or does something that creates a painful emotional reaction within us. It can seem as though the other person is out to criticize or upset us.

    However, if you feel triggered by what someone else has said or done, it’s most likely your reaction is not just about that specific situation or incident. It may be bringing up wounding that happened at a younger age, and that you didn’t fully process at that time.

    While emotional upsets within relationships don’t feel great, ultimately they’re an invitation for healing.

    In that moment, rather than projecting onto the other person or getting defensive, the first thing you can do is to simply recognize that you’re experiencing an emotional upset. Notice what you feel in your body – you may have tightness in your chest, tension in your shoulders, or a stomach that’s tied up in knots.

    Then, turn your attention to loving the part of yourself that’s upset. Breathe with it and be with it, acknowledging the inner child within who didn’t get what he or she needed earlier in life.

    At that point, you can choose to be the person who leads with love in your relationships — even if you really want to just yell out all the reasons that the other person is wrong. Instead you can practice being present, share vulnerably, and listen deeply.

    When you look at relationships as opportunities to grow and evolve, then everything that arises can be an opportunity for that.

    This week, we invite you to explore what your relationships could be teaching you. How are your relationships giving you opportunities to grow and evolve?

    In the comments below, share with us how you’re growing and learning from your relationships.

  • Miracle Moment: The Power of the Beginner’s Mind

    Miracle Moment: The Power of the Beginner’s Mind

    Today’s Miracle Moment is About the Power of the Beginner’s Mind.

    There’s a story from Japanese Zen Master Shunryu Suzuki about a professor who went to a Zen Master. The professor asked the Master to explain the meaning of Zen. The Master quietly poured a cup of tea. The cup was full but he continued to pour. The professor couldn’t stand it any longer, so he questioned the Master impatiently, “Why do you keep pouring when the cup is full?” The Master said, “I want to point out to you that you are similarly attempting to understand Zen while your mind is full. So first, empty your mind of preconceptions before you try to understand Zen. If your mind is empty, it’s always ready for anything — it is open to everything.” The Master went on to say:

    “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities; in the expert’s mind there are few.”

    Our culture often shies away from any notion of being a beginner. We feel embarrassed about not having the answer and think we should know everything. The power of the beginner’s mind lies in this paradox: the more you know about something, the less likely you are to keep your mind open to more learning

    Your next breakthrough isn’t in what you already know — it’s in something you don’t know. 

    If we were already completely enlightened and had all the answers, we wouldn’t need to learn. It takes the willingness to be vulnerable to have a beginner’s mind and to embrace the unknown. 

    Our friend and mentor Jack Canfield, creator of The Chicken Soup for the Soul series, is a great example of this. He’s taught seminars for 50 years, and at every workshop he attends, he still sits in the front row with a notebook taking notes. He always shows up with a beginner’s mind open to what he doesn’t know — and that’s one of his secrets to success.

    The beginner’s mind is about having a childlike mind that’s open, eager to learn, and sees new possibilities in the world.

    The toddler doesn’t beat himself up for not “toddling” the first time. He just gets up again and again and again. When we aren’t burdened with the responsibility of needing to know everything we think we’re supposed to know, there’s room for a youthful energy to rise up within us. We become more flexible, more adventurous, and more ingenious. From this place, we can see new solutions in any situation.

    This week, we invite you to embrace the unknown so that you can stay open to your next breakthrough, inspiration or creative solution.

    Let us know in the comments section what ways you’ll embrace the beginner’s mind this week.