Your Year of Miracles

Category: Miracle Moment

  • Calling Your Energy Back Home

    Calling Your Energy Back Home

    Today’s Miracle Moment is about calling your energy back and anchoring your own miraculous power…

    I (Marci) am so delighted to introduce you to my new partner in miracles, Dr. Sue Morter, and today’s Miracle Moment is about what Dr. Sue is a master of—creating the energy circuits for living in the Miracle Zone.

    If you saw our last Miracle Moment, you know that Debra Poneman, who’s been my miracles partner for the last five years, is feeling inspired by some new projects of her own and she’s going to be working on those. So Sue, whom Debra and I have known for the last 20 years, is my new co-leader in Your Year of Miracles. Debra is completely excited about this, and everybody’s thrilled for Sue to be joining us.

    More than 15 years ago, Sue had an awakening experience that put her pretty much full-time in the Miracle Zone. In fact, Debra and I were both there when she had this experience and have witnessed her growth and opening in the years that have followed.

    Since then, Sue has devoted her life to decoding what it takes for us to live our essence, which allows us to live in the Miracle Zone. She’s been teaching and sharing this with her clients, her patients, and her students, and they are having remarkable results.

    So, Sue’s going to share with us regularly how we can build the energy circuits for the miraculous. And, we are so lucky to have her here.

    Here’s a tip from Dr. Sue for building the energy circuits for living in the Miracle Zone…

    I (Sue) am so happy to be sharing these tips with the Miracles community!

    What I recognize is that when people experience stress, it’s because their vibrational frequency is low, and they don’t have the neuro-circuitry in place to perceive a higher vibrational life that’s filled with ease and grace and support from the universe…and flow.

    What I’m interested in sharing with you is how to shift that. Not to just know about it, but to know what to do to raise your vibrational frequency to be able to live where miracles reside; beyond logic, where wonderful things occur that you never expected…and they occur on a regular basis.

    For us to experience life from that place, we have to learn how to build the circuitry, and one of the things that has to happen is that we move out of our head and into our core. When we do that, we start to gather our energy back that has been dispersed by one stressful encounter after another in life.

    Here’s how to just call your energy back to yourself and pull your energy back “home”:

    Put your attention on something else in the room…something away from your body, and notice how it feels. Then just call your energy back home. Just bring it back to your core. Play with this! As you do this, you’ll start to feel a greater sense of yourself in your core that you don’t feel when you live in your head.

    Instead of being dispersed and scattered, giving away your energy and your power, keep claiming your energy back into yourself. This is a foundational first step to cultivating your energy and letting it build inside of you.

    We’d love to hear from you about your experience of calling your energy back and anchoring into your own miraculous power. Please share your comments and experiences with us.

    Miracles are happening all the time. The key to experiencing them is to learn how to open up to them by building your energy circuits and raising your vibration so that you can perceive them flowing in your life.

    A Special Invitation:

    Want to learn what it’s like to live in the Miracle Zone? Join us in 2019 for our year long program, Your Year of Miracles at our special Early Bird rate. Click here to learn more and save $100.

    We look forward to doing that with you and hearing your experiences. For now, we send you many blessings.

    How have you experienced the exercise of calling your energy back? Please share a comment below…

  • Listening to Your Inner Voice

    Listening to Your Inner Voice

    Today’s Miracle Moment is the miracle of listening to your inner voice…

    Have you noticed that the times you had the courage to listen to your inner voice the results were better than you could have even predicted? And not only for you but for everyone else involved?

    What we’ve noticed throughout the years that we’ve been sharing knowledge on how to live a miraculous life is that when people listen to their inner voice and act on the messages they receive, it always leads them to their greatest good. In fact, I don’t think we’ve ever had anyone say to us, “I listened to my inner voice and I really wished I hadn’t. It was a disaster.”

    When we say your “inner voice,” we’re not talking about the critical parent, or the scared child or the addictive impulses that speak to you from inside your head.

    The Inner Voice we’re talking about speaks to you from a place of silence within.

    It speaks quietly and gently although sometimes firmly from the part of you that can see the bigger picture, the reality that resides in the arena of all possibilities, not in the arena of fears and “but what if…”

    Your Inner Voice knows the perfection of creation and that we live in a benevolent universe. The Inner Voice is patiently waiting knowing that if you’d only listen your life would be so much more miraculous.

    This voice is always trying to get you to listen but many choose to listen to the other voice instead – the one that responds to doubt and fear because it’s louder and often more logical OR to the advice and opinions of others who are seeing the world from their perspective, not yours.

    Debra recently had an experience of listening to her inner voice and I (Marci) was the one who tried to say, “Don’t do it,” until I realized what I was doing and I turned it around and gave her my full support and more miracles than we could have imagined have resulted…. 

    I (Debra) am happy to share this story…

    Several months ago, my inner voice started saying to me that it was time to move on from Your Year of Miracles and pursue some of my other dreams. I have to say that I didn’t listen at first because it made no logical sense. I love YOM. I love our community. I’ve seen all of the amazing miracles that occur in people’s lives who are in our program and the quality and quantity of these miracles just keeps growing every year from soul mates found to book deals signed, from long standing health problems disappearing to money appearing from seemingly nowhere…And not only finding love but people sharing that their self love has blossomed and so much more. Why would I want to move on from this?

    But that gentle voice was very persistent and I realized I had to live what we taught and I had to listen to that voice for my own happiness and personal truth and because I knew that when you do what’s best for yourself it will always be what’s best for everyone else. So I told Marci I have to follow that voice and at first she resisted, because, as we said, Your Year of Miracles was only getting better and better and it made no logical sense for me to move on—but listening to your inner voice is seldom logical….

    So we both took a deep breath and did what we teach others to do, we listened to our inner voices and trusted in the Universe and the magic in my life has been beyond what I could imagine and what is happening in Your Year of Miracles is well, miraculous. Actually, beyond miraculous. Proving to us both, once again, that when you follow you inner voice it will not only be good for you but good for everyone else.

    I (Marci) will certainly miss working this closely with you, as it has been a blast these past 5 years, but you are deeply embedded in the fiber of the Year of Miracles program, so you’re always with us.

    And the universe is always supporting expansion and evolution, so we have invited two extraordinary women to join us in the 2019 Your Year of Miracles program. The amazing Dr. Sue Morter, and the amazing Lisa Garr.

    Dr. Sue Morter is a Master of Bio-energetic Medicine and founder of the Morter Institute for Bio-Energetics. She is true visionary in the field of energy medicine and natural healing.

    Lisa Garr is the founder of the Aware Show, Inspirations on GIAM TV and Becoming Aware on Hay House radio as well as being a beloved talk show host on KPFK-FM in LA and WBAI-FM in New York.

    We have all known each other for many years, we are soul sisters and we are looking forward to the next evolution in the Miracle Zone.

    Debra, you and I are always family, you are an exceptional woman and we all completely support you on your next adventure that will certainly be a great contribution to bettering people’s lives.

    So as Marci and I continue to be each other’s biggest cheerleaders and are more committed than ever to follow our inner voices to our greatest good, let’s all commit that in the coming weeks we’ll listen to that inner voice even if it seems to be leading us in a different direction than our logical minds would have us go, and please share with us the miracles that we know will unfold for you.

    So since this is my last miracle moment (although I’ll be back as a guest once in awhile), next time along with Marci you will enjoy the amazing Dr. Sue Morter.

    I send my love and look forward to us meeting each other again someday soon, in the Miracle Zone.

    How has your inner voice guided you? Please share a comment below…

  • Staying in a Place of Peace

    Staying in a Place of Peace

    Today’s Miracle Moment is about staying in a place of peace…

    The #1 question we receive from people all over the world is….”Is it possible to remain in a happy and peaceful state when you’re surrounded by negative people?”

    Our answer is YES, but staying positive around negative people is definitely an art!

    You can probably relate to this scenario:

    You’re having a great day, feeling in the flow, loving the energy in the Miracle Zone, when all of a sudden – wham! You bump into someone who’s in a foul mood, who wants to gossip about others, who has an endless list of what’s going wrong or just has a negative vibe. The next thing you know, you’re brought down and feeling negative and upset yourself.

    Why does this happen? Why does your wave of positivity seem to crash when it bumps up against a wall of negativity?

    Well, there’s a law of physics that says when two objects are vibrating near each other, the one vibrating with the greatest intensity will dominate. In relationships, this means that the person with the strongest emotional state sets the tone of any interaction – and like a tuning fork, you start vibrating at their frequency.

    So the next time you’re in a positive, happy, miraculous state of mind and you happen upon someone who decidedly isn’t, you have a choice to make: You can either consciously attempt to have the person synchronize with your emotional state or by default, you will synchronize with theirs.

    It’s probably easier to make choice #1 when you don’t know the person well so you’re not as reactive. It takes a lot more resolve when you’re invested in the relationship. Just know that you’re giving your friend or loved one a great gift by not indulging their negativity. Misery may love company but the result is…you’re both miserable.

    The more you practice all the techniques to stay in the Miracle Zone that we share in our Miracle Moments, the more you’ll build up a strong “emotional immune system” that prevents you from catching another’s negativity, and your peace and well-being will not be effected.

    Until then, here are a few more tips for staying in the Miracle Zone even in the face of someone who’s firmly entrenched in the Negativity Zone:

    1. Keep your emotional balance by tuning in to your body when confronted with negativity. Notice any sensations arising in your physiology. Just the act of presencing those sensations will bring you into the present moment and prevent you from having a knee-jerk reaction. Your powerful attention will facilitate the dissolution of the uncomfortable sensation and restore you to a state of peace.

    2. Most people who are upset are not deliberately trying to bring you down. They just want their feelings to be acknowledged, so you might say something like, “I can see why you might feel that way,” or, “I see that this situation is really upsetting to you.” Then gently without making them wrong and without judgement (and definitely without blame) offer something positive about the situation. Be light-hearted and they might see the situation from a new perspective.

    3. If you can’t think of anything positive to say, know that simply staying neutral in the face of negativity is a gift in itself.

    Most importantly, you want to have your positive, miraculous vibration be the dominant vibration – so just like a tuning fork, you’ll bring your friends, without them even knowing it, into the Zone where peace flows and life can be filled with miracles.

    How do you stay calm in the presence of negativity or how are you challenged by this? Please share a comment below…

  • Trust Life’s Unfolding

    Trust Life’s Unfolding

    Today’s Miracle Moment is about the miraculous power of trust.

    Wouldn’t it be nice to live in a place of complete surrender, a place where you profoundly trust that you’re being taken care of by a Universal power at every moment? To live with certainty that the Universe is really out to support you…That it’s on your side and has your back…

    We know that that seems like a big stretch to believe 24/7/365…but let’s lean into it just for the moment.

    We often try so hard to control everything in our lives that we forget the power of putting our faith in the universe, and in letting go. But once you get into the habit of doing all that you can from your humanness, and trusting when you get that intuitive message “it’s time to let go and surrender to a Higher Power” and you you actually do it, you’ll begin experiencing a deep sense of peace and of well-being.

    Throughout history, the wisest men and women have known that their highest good came from surrender.

    Not the kind of surrender as in losing a battle surrender, but as in letting go of their personal limitations and aligning totally with an intelligence and an energy that’s greater than themselves. The energy of: “Let Thy Will Be Done.”

    If you can do this, it creates something that we call a “yes mind.”

    Now what’s a “yes mind?” Basically, instead of saying no and resisting everything that’s happening, simply say “yes.”

    I (Marci) had my first experience of a “yes mind” when I took an improvisational acting class many many years ago, and they had this practice that at first was really hard for me…

    One of the rules of improv is to respond instantly and enthusiastically with a yes to whatever another actor throws at you. So during my first class, my improv partner told me that I was an elderly rock star. Instead of saying, “No no no, I can’t do that,” I immediately started playing the part. I started strumming an air guitar, and clutching my lower back, and belting out lyrics as I gyrated like a ninety five-year old. When suddenly the scene switched. And I was an alien coming to earth to rob a bank, I just had to go with it.

    This exercise broke my boundaries and freed up my energy, and I found that it was a great practice for living life. When you say yes, it’s like being a trapeze artist – you’re able to let go of the trapeze you’re holding on to, and sail through the air towards the next one. Without letting go and trusting the next one is there, forward motion just isn’t impossible. So it’s surrender and trust that creates a feeling of flow in every moment.

    Now, we acknowledge that sometimes things happen that are not the way we want them, like we let go a bit before the hands of the other trapeze artist are there to catch us, but we also know that there’s an intelligence in the universe that’s bigger than us…an intelligence that can see things in ways that we can’t…an intelligence that just wants you to hear it when it’s telling you, “Don’t worry, I’ve got this one.”

    Here’s an exercise that we invite you to try.

    It’s an exercise of acting from from saying yes to what the universe brings you and being led by your soul surrendering throughout the day. This is an exercise that was adapted from A Course in Miracles, and here’s what you do…

    At the beginning of your day, close your eyes for just a moment, and take a few deep breaths, and offer these three questions to the Universe: What would spirit have me do today? Where would spirit have me go today? What would spirit have me say and to whom? And then, as you move through your day, use the answers that come to you as your inspiration from spirit, and simply say yes to whatever those answers are, trusting life’s unfolding. And if you get stuck, ask the questions again.

    When you act on the intuitive answers that show up and follow them trusting that spirit is guiding you and has your back, you’ll find yourself living more and more in the miracle zone.

    Debra and I wish you many moments of trusting, surrendering, and living in in the Miracle Zone until we’re together again.

    How has trust been a challenge AND a champion for you? Please share a comment below…

  • Strengthening Your Miraculous Character

    Strengthening Your Miraculous Character

    Today’s Miracle Moment is about character. Think about the people you’ve known throughout your life whom you admire. My guess is, that you’d say they each have character.

    When we think of our parents, a few of our teachers through life, some dear friends (including each other!), we think of people whose character we admire. Character is something we value and respect, and unfortunately we don’t see a whole lot of it these days.

    When we develop our own character, our lives become more and more miraculous.

    You know how there are days of the year honoring almost everything – there’s Mother’s Day and Father’s Day and Grandparent’s Day and Labor Day…and did you know that there is actually a day called Character Day?

    Well, there is. It was on September 18th and more than 6,100 schools and organizations in 41 countries from Kenya and England, to China and Argentina celebrated it with character building activities.

    Character Day was founded by Tiffany Shlain, an Emmy nominated filmmaker, who founded the Webby Awards. She is also the creator of the short film, “The Science of Character,” which explores the idea that character isn’t something static but something you can develop over time.

    In her film she cites scientific research about how people either have a fixed mindset and they believe they’re born with certain abilities and talents and are stuck with those and cannot develop any more, or a growth mindset and believe that they can change anything they set their mind to.

    When someone with a fixed mindset fails, he or she thinks it means,”I’m a failure.” When someone with a growth mindset fails, he or she thinks, “Failure happens and I’ll learn from it and improve myself and move on knowing what not to do next time.”

    The good news, according to Tiffany, is that we can all develop a growth mindset because of the part of the brain called the prefrontal cortex, better known as our brain’s control panel – and we are in charge of the controls.

    One of the ways we can strengthen our character and become more of who we want to be (including developing a growth mindset) is to simply stop before we act and ask ourselves, “Is what I’m about to do really a reflection of who I am and who I want to be?” If the answer is no, do something else.

    Another way to develop your character is to choose a character quality you’d like to work on and commit to being aware of and practicing that one quality for an entire week. For example, if you want to be more generous, you might want to give your change to a homeless person, or give a tithe to your favorite charity, or offer to babysit the children of your friend who is a single mom. You can do this practice with your children. You might encourage them to share their potato chips with a classmate or let their brother watch his favorite show even if it means missing theirs.

    You can even help shape other people’s character by appreciating the character strengths in them.

    So what character qualities would you like to develop? Enthusiasm? Perseverance? Kindness? Honesty? Humility? Fairness? Self-control? Gratefulness?

    Today, let’s commit to focusing on one quality each week and see what miracles unfold in our lives.

    Let us know what happens!

    What Character Quality will you focus on strengthening? Share a comment below…

  • Believe in Your Dreams (Tererai Trent)

    Believe in Your Dreams (Tererai Trent)

    Watch the video above or get the full story below…

    In Oprah Winfrey’s 25 years interviewing extraordinary people, she says that there was one woman who inspired her more than all the celebrities and famous men and women who sat on her couch.

    That woman was Tererai Trent.

    Tererai was born in a remote village in Zimbabwe and was raised in a mud hut with no electricity or running water at a time when education for girls was virtually unheard of.

    Tererai lived her young life surrounded by poverty, raging war and hopelessness, but yet, she was determined to learn. She took her brother’s school books and taught herself to read and write out in the fields where she tended cattle. In fact, she became so proficient that she started doing her brother’s homework for him and when the teacher discovered this he asked her father to send her to school but instead her father married her off in exchange for a cow!! And although she was still a child herself and by the time she was 18 she was already a mother of three, she wouldn’t let her dream of learning die.

    One day her own mother told her to write her dreams on a piece of paper and bury them in the ground where they could grow like a seed. So Tererai wrote on a scrap of paper that she would travel to America, earn three degrees and bring her gifts back to her village. She buried the paper in a piece of tin in the field where she watched the cattle graze. And through a “chance” meeting with a woman named Jo Luck who was president and CEO of Heifer International who recognized Tererai’s potential and paved the way for her come to America to get her education, Tererai did go on to receive three degrees: a bachelor’s, master’s and PhD.

    Tererai achieved all her dreams and has now become a hero to the women of her country. In fact, on one of her most inspiring shows ever, Oprah awarded Tererai $1.5 million dollars to go back and build schools in her area of Zimbabwe and change the course of destiny for thousands of African girls.

    If you have a dream, know that it is “tinogona” which in Tererai’s native language means achievable. Along with the dream, you were given everything you need to make it come true. Whether you bury your dreams in a piece of tin like Tererai or simply in your heart, those dreams are quietly germinating and with your love and belief, they will sprout at the perfect time.

    Wishing you overflowing miracles and dreams coming true.

    Inspired by Tererai’s story? Please share a comment below…

  • The Key to Reducing Overwhelm In Your Life

    The Key to Reducing Overwhelm In Your Life

    [et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section” _builder_version=”3.0.47″ custom_padding=”0|0px|54px|0px|false|false”][et_pb_row custom_padding=”0|0px|27px|0px|false|false” admin_label=”row” _builder_version=”3.0.47″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″ parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.11.1″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”]There is nothing that can take you out of the flow of the Miracle Zone more than that feeling of everything imploding and you don’t know what end is up—when everyone needs a piece of you and you’re trying to crawl out from under the tsunami at work only to be hit with a family tsunami when you get home.

    And more often than not what happens when you’re overwhelmed is that the ever kind and gentle you, turns into, as Debra’s kids used to call her, Monster Mommy!

    Watch the video below to get the full story or keep reading…

    What to do?

    Well, today we want to share a technique that we’ve used for years and that is, when you feel overwhelmed or you’re about to put yourself in a situation that will inevitably lead to more overwhelm, stop and ask yourself the question, “Why am I doing this?” and once you have the answer, follow that with, “Is that really why?”

    Asking ourselves those questions can lead to some powerful self understanding and free you from doing some things that you don’t really need to be doing.

    For example, you’re at a meeting and you find yourself about to volunteer. Before you do, ask yourself, “Why am I volunteering again to organize the soccer banquet?” Your answer might be, “Because I’m so great at organizing parties.” Then you follow it with, “Is that really why?” To which the answer might be, “Well, really it’s because I don’t trust anyone else to do it as well as me.” Then ask, is this really worth putting myself voluntarily into overwhelm? The answer will almost always be no. Then you can make a different choice.

    Here’s another example…

    After working on perfecting a report, stop and ask yourself, “Why am I continuing to rewrite this report over and over for the last 4 hours?” Your answer might be because you want it to be excellent. Then ask yourself, “Is that really why?” To which the answer might be, “Well, really, I want my bosses approval. I want him to see how valuable I am.” Great insight. Is it really worth sacrificing your health and your sleep? The answer is usually no because the truth is that sleep and good health will put you in the miracle zone where the energy of miracles will support you in creating a brilliant report in a much shorter time – and really, your boss is not even going to notice all those fine tunings you’re robbing yourself of sleep in order to do.

    I (Debra) used to use this technique when my children were little. I know that I’ve shared before that I took a 21 year break from my speaking and seminar career to be home with my kids but I also had a home based business and did a lot of non-profit work. I remember many times that I would be, working on the minutes from a board meeting of one of the non-profits and I’d be spending hours putting them in the perfect format with impeccable sentence structure and then I would remember to stop and ask myself, “Why are you doing this?” and my answer would be, “Because these are important legal documents,” and then I’d go to the next question, “Is that really why?” and inevitably the answer would be something like, “I don’t want the chairman of the board to think I’m incompetent or that I wasn’t paying attention.” And when I’d ask myself, “Is it really worth taking the time away from being with my kids?” the answer was always no, and only 100% of the time.

    And not once did anyone, least of all the chairman of the board ever once think the minutes were deficient in anyway. But my kids sure noticed when they were wanting me to read them a bedtime story and they fell asleep while I was perfecting the indentation.

    So not only does this technique of asking, “Why?” save you from voluntarily going into overwhelm but it gives you great insights about your motivations and an opportunity to question them and change them.

    How does overwhelm affect your life? Leave a comment below…
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  • The Miracle of a Summer Day

    The Miracle of a Summer Day

    Do you have a favorite season? We do…it’s summer!

    Just last week we were hiking up a mountain trail and feeling that special miraculous feeling we experience in the warm summer months. Perhaps the sense of freedom, fun, and relaxation are throwbacks to being a kid. Do you remember how excited you felt when school let out for summer? Going to the beach, camping under the stars, and playing outside with our friends are some of our favorite childhood memories.

    But we know that that feeling of magical happiness isn’t dependent on balmy weather. In fact, research shows people living in warm, summery spots are not necessarily happier than those living in colder climates. According to one study, the four happiest places on earth are Denmark, Switzerland, Austria, and Iceland – not exactly tropical paradises.

    So what does create that lasting feeling of happiness you experience when living in the Miracle Zone?

    The secret lies in internalizing the well-being and freedom you feel during summer (or whatever your favorite season is) and bringing it into everything you do.

    Here are three ways you can create an “endless summer” within yourself year-round:

    1) Sunshine: One building block to greater happiness and a miraculous life is getting plenty of Vitamin D, which has been found to combat seasonal affective disorder (SAD). SAD is that sense of “the blues” that is most often associated with the dark months of winter. Sunlight triggers our body to make Vitamin D – one of the reasons sunshine brightens our mood. So take a walk before or after work to soak up some rays when the sun is not as intense. Make sure as much of your body is exposed as possible (and legal!). During the winter months, ask your health professional about getting more Vitamin D in supplement form.

    2) The Great Outdoors: Mother Nature is another source of well-being readily available in summer. Our modern lives are inundated by the thoughts, fears, and demands that press in on us every day. A walk in the woods restores wholeness. A backyard picnic creates delight. An afternoon splash in a lake, river or ocean refreshes our spirits. The more time you spend immersed in the nourishing, simple joys of nature, the more miraculous your life will become. And as much as we would like to store the warmth like a squirrel stores nuts for the winter, it might not really be possible but there is nothing as enlivening as a walk in the crisp winter air and the joy of playing in the snow and sledding down a hill.

    3) Friends and Fun: People tend to be more social in the summer, gathering for outings, meals, and fun. Our sense of community is heightened when we join others enjoying long summer evenings together. There’s more of a feeling of play in our daily routine during the summer. If you want to make summer last longer, keep that sense of fun, play and social engagement alive throughout the year. It’s pretty yummy to sit around a fireplace with friends on a cold winter night!

    And here’s a bonus tip from Ayurvedic medicine that you can do in the winter: to purify, ground and energize your body – walk barefoot on the grass in the morning dew.

    Now there’s a miraculous way to start any summer day!

    We wish you the love, connection and the sunshine of a summer’s day all year long.

    Post your answer to this question below…

  • Healthy Living and Having Fun (Even at 93)

    Healthy Living and Having Fun (Even at 93)

    Last year we spent a glorious five days at Rancho La Puerta, an oasis of wellness for the mind, body and spirit in northern Mexico. We were there for a meeting of the Transformational Leadership Council, an organization founded by Jack Canfield and committed to supporting those whose careers are dedicated to the transformation of the planet.

    Although we loved spending time with our friends and colleagues, we both agreed that perhaps the highlight of our trip was meeting Deborah Szekely, the iconic founder of Rancho La Puerta as well as the famous Golden Door Spa.

    Watch the video below to get the full story or keep reading…

    At 93 years young, Deborah exercises seven days a week, just bought a FitBit to make sure she got her steps in every day, and has been a vegetarian her entire life. In fact, her mother was the vice president of the New York Vegetarian Society in 1926, and, Deborah explains, she was so committed to healthy, simple, vegetarian food that during the Great Depression when fresh food was not available, she moved the family to Tahiti!

    During Deborah’s nine decades of life, she’s run for Congress; served as a delegate for UNESCO; represented the United States as co-president of the U.S.-Mexico Commission for Educational and Cultural Exchange; and founded Wellness Warrior, a non-profit organization that lobbies members of Congress to support wellness initiatives.

    And she shows no signs of slowing down.

    She said that she started Rancho La Puerta with her husband Edmond, who was also a proponent of simple, natural living, because they were “sort of refugees from World War II.”

    She explained, “We were at the University in Romania, and all the men had to be part of the military reserves. When the reserves were called up to fight on the side of Hitler, my husband was ordered to return to Germany, which made no sense as he was a Jew. We ignored it, and his passport was cancelled. We also got a letter from U.S. Immigration saying that if he was found in the United States after June 1, 1940, he would be deported. So we went to Mexico and started a small health camp that was originally called the Essene School of Life. It cost $17.50 a week to stay there but you had to bring your own tent. Now it’s 3,000 acres – but the program was almost the same as it is today except back then, all the guests were required to work in the vegetable garden two hours a day. In some ways it was more like a commune.”

    Although it’s definitely not like a commune today and is considered one of the top five health spas in the world (and we didn’t have to work in the garden), just like in 1940, there is only fresh organic food they grow on their own farm.

    When we asked Deborah what advice she would give to anyone who would like to live healthfully until 93…

    Here’s what she said:

    1) Eat from the garden: Grow your own if you can but always eat fresh, eat organic, and eat as little meat as possible. Eat slowly and mindfully.

    2) Enjoy getting physical: Deborah does pilates 3 times a week and has a Navy Seal trainer who comes to lead her in a regimen of strength training. And on three days. Sundays she hikes for several hours. Exercise, according to Deborah, has nothing to do with struggle and going for the burn – it’s about finding the joy of movement. Just do whatever makes you feel an appreciation for your body.

    3) Avoid stress: “One of the good things about growing older is gaining more self knowledge,” Deborah shared. “By the time you turn 60, you’re old enough to feel comfortable making choices.” Part of this process of choice, she says, is to make health a priority. There will always be other demands on your time, but if you want to be hiking mountains at 93, you have to start making the right choices about your health now.

    4) Have a reason to live longer: “You have to have a reason to live or you won’t have a long life. Me, I can’t stop making plans. And I’m so curious; I want to see what happens in the next five – ten years. We haven’t done very well with our world, but I’m optimistic and hopeful that these young people today will do better, and I want to be here to see it.”

    5) And finally, if you want to be happy, alive, vibrant, and, may we add, Living in the Miracle Zone, take one of Deborah’s favorite quotes to heart. Having out-lived two husbands and a son, she didn’t have a life without its challenges, but she told us that she’s always lived by this adage: “Life isn’t about hiding from the storm, but about learning to dance in the rain.”

    And then she added “It’s so fun to be 93. You should try it.” We’re planning on trying it. We hope you are too.

    So, we’ll see you dancing in the rain – in the Miracle Zone.

    Inspired by Deborah’s story? Please share a comment below…

  • The Power of Intuition

    The Power of Intuition

    Today’s miracle moment is about the power of intuition.

    A few years ago, Marci went on a trip with the amazing Lynne Twist to the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador and lived for a week with the indigenous Achuar people there. Traditionally warriors with a fierce devotion to their land, the Archuar have kept their culture and worldview remarkably intact. In the Achuar world, dreams are shared each morning before sunrise, and interpreted by either their community leader or their shaman.

    One of the things Marci most noticed when she was in Ecuador was that the Achuar depended primarily on their intuitive sense to navigate through life. They had rituals that honored their intuition and it was working really well for them. In fact, being guided by intuition is what’s allowed all indigenous people to survive. In cultures like the Achuar, intuition is acknowledged, respected, and honored as an important aspect of life. The Achuar children are taught at a very young age to allow themselves to notice and follow their sense of connection to the universal creative force. As people age in these cultures, their intuition doesn’t diminish but becomes even stronger.

    Watch the video below to get the full story or keep reading…

    We can all access our intuition…

    …This inner knowing, which is a universal, intelligent life force that everyone has. Some people describe intuition as a “gut feeling.” And even though we’re all born with it, unfortunately, in our modern world, we’re rarely encouraged to develop it. Instead, we’re taught to defer to the wisdom of our parents, teachers, clergy, bosses, friends and even the media.

    And just like a physical muscle that can atrophy if we don’t use it, the muscle of our intuition degenerates if we ignore it.

    There’s another reason why we in our modern society lose touch with our intuition and that is, we rarely get quiet enough.

    Intuition speaks to us in moments of silence, and when we’re moving too quickly or doing too much multi-tasking, we can’t experience silence. In fact, when we’re watching TV, eating, talking to someone and texting at the same time, there’s so much noise in our brains that there’s no space for our intuition to speak to us. On top of that, we’re bombarded with so much energetic “noise” emitted from the EMF’s swirling non-stop through our homes and workplaces that our intuition really doesn’t stand a chance.

    Maybe people in the rain forest are in touch with the inner voice because there is so much silence. The “noise” they most often hear are the sounds of the river running, animals calling, and insects singing – the sounds of silence.

    So what can you do?

    Slow down. If you need an insight about a situation in your life, stop what you’re doing, take a few breaths and ask your intuition. If you get a gut feeling, listen to it and act before your rational mind starts giving you all the reasons why you’re wrong. You can recognize your intuition (as opposed to some thought based on fear or past hurts) because it comes to you in a flash and gives you information neutrally and unemotionally.

    When you’re hearing that intuitive voice, although it will ultimately lead you to your greatest good, it might not be linear, and it may ask you to do things that are inconvenient. It may lead you into unfamiliar territory, or even require that you take a leap of faith…but it always takes you by the quickest and surest route to a more expanded and fulfilling state of life – a state that we call Living in the Miracle Zone.

    We’ll leave you today with a great quote from the actor Alan Alda: You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you discover there will be yourself.

    May your intuition lead you to the Miracle Zone!

    Please share a comment below about how your intuition has guided you…