Your Year of Miracles

Category: Relationships

  • Miracle Moment: Stopping the Overthinking Cycle

    Miracle Moment: Stopping the Overthinking Cycle

    Today’s Miracle Moment is About Stopping the Overthinking Cycle.

    We all get in the overthinking cycle from time to time. We might overthink small decisions, like what to order for dinner at a restaurant. Or we might overthink important decisions for years on end. Maybe there’s a business you’ve wanted to launch, but you keep overthinking the first steps to take to get started. Maybe you’ve held back on taking a class that really calls to you. Maybe you overthink how ready you need to be to put yourself out there socially.

    Overthinking can block you from taking action that can lead to seeing your miracles come to life.

    We are co-creators with the universe. If we’re not taking action, then we aren’t doing our part.

    To stop the overthinking cycle, first we need to realize that the mind is trying to complete itself. Because the mind is trying to complete the experience it’s happening, it reaches into the future and imagines possible scenarios.

    To stop that process instantly, come back to right here, right now.

    Interrupt the process of thinking about the future and come back onto the self by taking a deep and slow breath into the belly.

    When you breathe into the belly, it draws oxygen into the lower lobes of the lungs where more blood vessels are. That helps oxygenate the blood faster and slows down the thinking mind.

    A deep belly breath also activates the part of the nervous system that calms you down and is where creative thinking lies. 

    When you slow your breath, you slow your mind and have access to deeper wisdom.

    By slowly breathing deeply into the belly, your thinking slows down and wisdom can rise. When wisdom rises, thinking is no longer necessary. The wisdom that rises gives the mind instructions about what to do.

    The mind is designed to serve the Soul. When we begin activating our own Soulful presence, the mind can get in service, and this stops the cycle of overthinking.

    This week, we invite you to try this practice of taking deep slow breaths into the belly to stop the overthinking process. Let us know how it goes as you try this. Does it help to slow down your mind and stop the overthinking cycle? Share in the comments!

    We look forward to hearing from you. Have a wonderful week!

  • Miracle Moment: 3 Signs that Miracles Are On Their Way

    Miracle Moment: 3 Signs that Miracles Are On Their Way

    Today’s Miracle Moment is About 3 Signs that Miracles Are On Their Way.

    In Your Year of Miracles, we share that you can’t create miracles because miracles are a gift from the Divine. But you can create the conditions in your life for miracles to occur. So let’s look at three signs to know that miracles are on their way…

    The first sign is that the desire is there for miracles. The desire is there for miracles because they’re meant for you.

    The soul desires to be here in order to experience life in full spectrum, and miracles are a part of that. We’re made of divinity itself. When we recognize that, we allow miracles to occur.

    The second sign that miracles are on their way is that things are falling apart.

    Now we know that might not seem like a sign of a miracle, but stay with us!

    The Universe is always working for us—not against us. If we’re not living in alignment with our highest good, the things that may not be right for us will tend to fall apart or fall away. It could be a relationship, a job, a living situation, or sometimes even a health issue. If that’s happening, know that things have to break down in order to get rebuilt. There may be a wake-up call happening about an area of life that may need more alignment so that you start to make the changes and get on the path that completely feels right for you. This is that place we call living in the Miracle Zone.

    The third sign that miracles are on their way is that you’re opening to them.

    You’re actively taking a step toward opening to miracles and experiencing life in a whole new way.

    Life is a co-creation with the universe. When you take steps forward, the universe meets you.

    By beginning to take baby steps towards your miracles, you’re creating the pathway for miracles to occur.

    The world that you’re walking around in is a reflection of your own consciousness. When you allow your consciousness to perceive that miracles could happen for you, it allows miracles to reflect back to you what they look like, how they feel, and how they come out of nowhere.

    This week, we invite you to look for the proof in your life that miracles are on their way to you.

    Which of these three signs resonated with you most? Share with us in the comments. 

  • Miracle Moment: How to Get Your Groove Back

    Miracle Moment: How to Get Your Groove Back

    Today’s Miracle Moment is About How to Get Your Groove Back.

    Do you ever feel like you’ve lost your groove — that juiciness for life? When was the last time you felt that inspired, creative, tapped-in and turned-on feeling? Maybe it’s been a while!

    With the intensity of our world these days and all that we’ve been through collectively over the past few years, it’s totally normal to feel like you’ve lost your groove. When you add to it the stress of worldwide events, climate change, or inflation, it’s enough to make you go: What groove?! 

    Even with all the stresses of our world today, you can absolutely get your groove back, and it can be better than ever.

    We’re not just talking about going to an exotic island and having an adventure or having an exciting love affair like Stella did in the movie Stella Got Her Groove Back…

    We’re talking about experiencing a lasting change in how you feel — and that starts as an inside job. 

    We’re on the planet at a magnificent time. Your soul came here to feel contraction and expansion and to discover who you truly are.

    High vibrational energies are available to each of us anytime, and all we have to do is open up to them.

    When you feel energies that make you feel low, stuck, lethargic, or uninspired, that’s because you’re drawing your energy from your head and the outside world. What you can do instead is to bring all of your energy back onto yourself.

    Here is a breathing technique that will help you to reconnect and find your center.

    1. Drop all of your energy into your belly and start breathing from there, feeling your connection with the earth.
    2. Take a deep breath into your belly and keep inhaling until you breathe the energy up into the upper lobes of your lungs.
    3. Keep inhaling and imagining that you’re bigger than your body.
    4. Then exhale your energy out in every direction: in front of you, behind you, above you, and below you.
    5. Take a breath into your belly from every direction. Then, exhale in every direction.

    Repeat this exercise a few times and then exhale, breathing deep into the earth.

    When you do this exercise, you’ll begin to experience yourself as a bigger energy than your physical body. When you do that, you can get in touch with a version of yourself that’s inspired, illuminated, and a higher vibrational frequency than the version of yourself that’s living in your head.

    To get your groove back, you need to be grounded in your body and remember how amazing and beautiful this life is.

    What a beautiful opportunity we have to live fully in any way we choose!

    This week, return to this breathing exercise any time you need to “get your groove back” and notice any shifts in how you feel. As we say in Your Year of Miracles, what you put your attention on grows stronger in your life. Focus on one shift at a time, and you’re on your way to more miracles.

    We’d love to hear from you! In the comments below, share with us how you feel after doing this exercise to get your groove back.

  • The Thanksgiving Miracle Feast

    The Thanksgiving Miracle Feast

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    Welcome to today’s Miracle Moment.

    In the United States, Thanksgiving will be here very soon; in Canada, you celebrated last month. But wherever you are in the world, every day is a great day for Thanksgiving. And, it’s really great that we actually have one day of the year where we turn our primary focus to thankfulness and gratitude.

    Thanksgiving is a vibrational frequency as well. Vibrationally speaking, the Universe operates in a complete celebration, and when we’re in a state of gratitude and praise, we’re resonating at the frequency of the universe. This is a beautiful time of the year when we’re in a collective state of gratitude. A large group of people zero in on that specific vibrational frequency.

    Here’s a wonderful appreciation process that we want to share with you called The Appreciation Feast.

    I (Marci) have been doing this with my family at Thanksgiving for 20 years. On Thanksgiving, we feast on a lot of food, but it’s this feast that has made my recent Thanksgivings awesome.

    We go around the table and appreciate one thing about each person at the table. The first year we did this, we started with my Mom. I said, “Mom, something I appreciate about you is how generous you are.” Then the next person said they appreciated how funny she was. By the end of the appreciations, she was in tears. Then we moved to the next person.

    To do this, you go around the entire table one person at a time until each person is appreciated by everyone. This is such a feast!

    This year, if you’re not able to get together in person, you can do an Appreciation Feast via Skype or a free Zoom account.

    If you want to capture this, remember to record it via video. I promise when those people are gone, you’re going to treasure that video!

    One little tip…the first year we did our appreciation feast before the meal, while the meal was getting cold. So, we suggest you do your appreciation feast after the meal and before dessert instead.

    This is a sure way to have a most heart-opening experience of Thanksgiving.

    I (Marci) want to start the Appreciation Feast early this year by expressing my appreciation for Sue and Lisa — my dear friends and co-teachers in Your Year of Miracles:

    “Sue, something I love and appreciate about you is that you are one of the most extraordinary light beings on the planet. You are truly living in the Miracle Zone. You are the embodiment of what it is we teach in Your Year of Miracles. Being around you, I catch it. I love and honor how you are committed to living your life in the Miracle Zone.

    “Lisa, you are a living and breathing miracle yourself. I’m so grateful for the energy, brightness, and vitality you radiate. You’re an absolute gift in my life and in the lives of each and every person in Your Year of Miracles. Thank you for the incredible impact you make in the world by being who you are and sharing the wisdom from your soul.”

    And we, Sue and Lisa, want to express our appreciation for you:

    “Marci, we so appreciate that you are always looking to the light, to the bright, and you’re seeing that in people and pulling it out. You’re always opening doors and being a wayshower. You show up to people in such a beautiful and amazing way. You see what people can do and become and you inspire them towards their best life.  It is  beautiful when brilliance meets such an uplifting disposition. We so appreciate being in your sphere of engagement—it has changed our lives.”

    How did that expression of appreciation feel for you? Just being in an energy of gratitude and appreciation and the energy of Thanksgiving generally feels really good for everybody.

    AND, we want you to know that we truly appreciate you! We appreciate you for connecting with us and with our miraculous community—the more the merrier! The more that we can appreciate life together and have a commitment to goodness together, the better life becomes.

    Our invitation to you is to spend not just Thanksgiving day, but spend the entire week in a feeling of gratitude and appreciation for life.

    We end this Thanksgiving Miracle Moment with a quote by Meister Eckhart, a 13th century mystic who said…

    “If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is ‘thank you,’ it will be enough.”

    Thank you for your beautiful heart and soul!

    Please share your experience of the Appreciation Feast in the comments section below and on our Facebook page. We love hearing from you!

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  • 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.

  • Miracles We Receive Through Giving

    Miracles We Receive Through Giving

    Today’s Miracle Moment Is About the Miracles We Receive Through Giving.

    Great miracles can come into our lives through the power of giving.

    Many spiritual traditions have shared the power of giving in order to free ourselves from suffering and to experience greater happiness.

    In Sanskrit, there’s a tradition of selfless service called “seva,” which means giving as an act of devotion to the Divine. You can give seva through “Karma Yoga,” which is giving through acts of service, like cooking for others or cleaning a common space. Another way that you can give selfless service is through your attention — you can listen to someone else’s needs or offer them your support.

    The Buddhist teacher, Thich Nhat Han, has told a story about a vegetable in Vietnam called “he” (pronounced “hey”). It looks like a scallion and it is part of the onion family. In order for these vegetables to grow, you need to cut them at the base of the stalk. The more you cut them, the bigger they grow — and the less you cut them, the less they grow. Thich Nhat Han says that it’s the same for the practice of giving:

    The more you give, the more you grow, and the richer you become in happiness and well-being.

    It’s also been scientifically proven that giving creates more happiness. Researchers with the Science of Generosity Initiative did a study on a group of US adults to find out what changes they experienced in life after giving.

    The study showed that acts of generosity resulted in more happiness, good health, a sense of purpose and personal growth.

    And it’s not just about the act of giving — it’s about our intention and energy, too. If we give with an expectation of receiving, or with any resentment, it’s dropping the vibrational frequency of our gift. When we do this, we won’t experience the joy and abundance that comes with true giving from the heart.

    When we give from a place of love and generosity, that’s what comes back to us.

    It shifts us out of feeling scarcity into connecting with the abundance of the Universe and infinite possibilities — all of which we’re meant to be experiencing in this life.

    This week, we invite you to find ways to give to those around you. Maybe it’s giving your presence to someone and listening to them in a deep way. Maybe it’s giving a compliment or encouragement. Maybe it’s giving to your community. All that matters is that your giving comes from your heart.

    Miracles We Receive Through Giving

    Please leave a comment below and let us know how you’ll give to others this week.

  • Miraculous Power of Do-Overs

    Miraculous Power of Do-Overs

    Today’s Miracle Moment is About the Miraculous Power of Do-Overs…

    We’ve all had those days where maybe we didn’t get enough sleep, work is stressful, or we’re exhausted from trying to get a huge to-do list done. We might feel crabby and aggravated at everything (and everyone) and find ourselves snapping at a partner, roommate or close family member.

    In those moments, wouldn’t it be great if you could just have a “do-over”?

    The great news is that you can!

    This is something that Marci and her husband Sergio have practiced many times over the years and they credit with saving them from getting into pointless squabbles or arguments. If they find themselves being crabby with each other, they’ll stop mid-conversation and say, “Let’s have a do-over.” They’ll rewind and start the conversation over, choosing a different way to respond. It’s a practical and yet powerful way to pattern interrupt and get back on the right foot.

    Here’s a recent example: Sergio and Marci are working with contractors on remodeling their house. One day, Sergio asked Marci to send the contractors photographs of some electrical wires that needed to be fixed. This day happened to be one of those stressful, exhausting days, and when Sergio asked Marci later if she’d sent the photographs yet, she snapped and got defensive. In that moment, Marci realized she needed a do-over. So, she asked Sergio for a do-over and then literally stepped out of the room and walked back in. Sergio asked her the question again and this time, she replied, “I’m so sorry — I haven’t sent them yet. Here, let me do that right now.” The situation was resolved and no squabble was needed.

    This present moment is always an opportunity for a do-over and to begin again.

    Every day and in every moment we all have the opportunity for do-overs — whether that’s in relationships or in our own daily life.

    We’re often carrying emotions, thoughts, and feelings from the past into the present moment. Sometimes we’re even carrying baggage around from previous days, weeks, or months. We can end up making assumptions or getting upset, and then we give responses to circumstances that aren’t really appropriate.

    If you find yourself playing out a pattern that isn’t serving you, you can always pause, reset, and choose to have a do-over.

    There’s always a creative solution available and all you have to do is open up to it.

    This week, we invite you to practice doing some do-overs in your life. You might want to do over a way of being, a habit that’s not serving you, or a conversation with a loved one that starts to go in an unnecessary direction.

    This practice can help you bring more awareness into your daily life, knowing you always have the option to choose something even better.

    Do Overs

    Let us know in the comments how it goes practicing the miraculous power of do-overs.

  • How to Escape the Approval Seeking Trap

    How to Escape the Approval Seeking Trap

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    Today’s Miracle Moment is about how to escape the approval-seeking trap…

    We’ve all experienced wanting to be accepted by other people and to get their approval. While this is a normal feeling, trying to get this kind of external validation can leave us feeling disempowered–that’s the price of being caught in the approval-seeking trap!

    To free yourself from the approval-seeking trap, start by becoming aware of any of your approval-seeking patterns. Ask yourself the following questions: 

    • Do you follow your heart, or do you follow the voices of others instead?
    • Are you able to say no and set healthy boundaries in your relationships? Or do you overstep your preferences to please others?
    • Do you view rejection as “God’s protection” (i.e., the universe guiding you to something better suited for you)? Or do you take rejection personally? 

    To escape the approval-seeking trap, we need to build new patterns of self-love and self-celebration. 

    Maintaining healthy self-esteem requires learning to fill ourselves up from the inside out. We can do this through validating, acknowledging, and loving ourselves completely and unconditionally. Most people don’t do this, and it just needs a little practice.

    Here’s an exercise you can do to start building the circuitry of self-validation and celebration: 

    1. When you act or speak in a way that makes you feel good about yourself, stop and acknowledge it.
    2. Reward yourself with praise and joy.
    3. You can tap your heart or do a little internal victory dance. The important thing is that you acknowledge yourself. 

    You can also do this any time you experience a “win” in your life. For example: getting a new job, doing an act of self-care, or working towards a creative goal. Take a moment to celebrate your win!

    Self-acknowledgement helps us to shift from looking outside of ourselves for approval to validating ourselves instead. 

    When we’re celebrating ourselves, we’re supporting our brain chemistry to experience happiness, joy, and fulfillment in life. The more that we build these circuits, the more that we can stay in an ongoing state of self-love. You can start simply by celebrating yourself in small baby steps each day.

    “Stop looking outside for scraps of pleasure or fulfillment for validation or security or love. You have a treasure within that is infinitely greater than anything the world can offer.” – Eckhart Tolle

    Please leave us a comment below and share the ways you can celebrate yourself.

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  • How to Fast Track Your Miracles Through Forgiveness

    How to Fast Track Your Miracles Through Forgiveness

    We’ve all encountered painful situations in life. They could be events that happened in our personal lives, close relationships, work, family, or within a larger collective culture. 

    The situation could be something as extreme as atrocious acts committed against you or people you love. Or it could be words someone said that left a lasting painful impact on you. 

    The process of forgiving someone for hurting you can feel downright impossible, especially if the experience impacted your life for years to come.

    However, lack of forgiveness doesn’t make the situation go away–in fact, it only keeps it with you longer. There’s a saying that “Unforgiveness is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.” 

    Forgiveness isn’t something we do for the other person–it’s something we do for ourselves. 

    Forgiveness doesn’t mean condoning a person’s behavior. It means freeing yourself so that you’re no longer controlled or limited by what happened in your past. By letting events be what they are, and opening to forgiveness when we need to, we’re creating more space within ourselves for miracles. 

    Perhaps you’ve heard about Nelson Mandela’s story of forgiveness. He was in jail for 27 years and part-way through that time, he made a conscious decision to forgive his jailers and to love them in spite of the fact that they were beating and abusing him. He knew that otherwise, a life in jail was going to kill his spirit. So he ended up forgiving and loving these jailers. 

    Over time, they could no longer beat him up. They had so much care and regard for him. In fact, when he was president of South Africa, some of his jailers ended up becoming his bodyguards and sitting in the front row during his inauguration. Forgiveness can create miracles. 

    As you see from Nelson Mandela’s story, a wonderful byproduct of forgiveness can also be freeing the other person. Now that’s living in the Miracle Zone. 

    A powerful forgiveness technique is the Ho’oponopono prayer, an ancient Hawaiian Kahuna practice of reconciliation and forgiveness. 

    When heavy feelings like anger or resentment come up about a person or a situation, you can sit quietly with your hand on your heart and say the prayer silently (“I’m sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you. I love you.”). 

    By practicing the Ho’oponopono prayer, you’re healing your part of the wrong that was done. This creates a shift in your energy, which ultimately shifts the energy of the relationship.

    We invite you to try out this Ho’oponopono prayer–you may need to practice for weeks or months until you feel a shift–and discover what miracles can come through the practice of forgiveness.

    “Forgiveness says you are given another chance to make a new beginning.” ~ Bishop Desmond Tutu

    We’d love to hear your experience of practicing forgiveness and how it opened up your heart for more miracles to occur.

  • How to Help the World Through Getting in the Miracle Zone

    How to Help the World Through Getting in the Miracle Zone

    Today’s Miracle Moment is about how getting in the Miracle Zone is the best thing you can do for the world…

    During these incredibly unpredictable times, we’ve all experienced the effects of what’s going on in the world. As someone who cares deeply about humanity and wants to make a positive impact on the planet, you might be asking yourself, “What can I do to help the world?” 

    Here at Your Year of Miracles, we believe that the best thing you can do for the world is to first get into the Miracle Zone yourself.  

    Ultimately, we can only take care of others through helping ourselves first. Here’s a Buddhist teaching story that illustrates that. 

    There once were two acrobats. One acrobat was the teacher, a poor widower named Akil, and the other was the student, a young girl by the name of Meda. They performed every day on the streets in order to earn enough to eat.

    Their act consisted of Akil balancing a tall bamboo pole on his head while Meda climbed slowly to the top. Once at the top, she balanced there while Akil walked down the street. They both had to maintain complete focus and balance in order to prevent any injury from occurring and to complete the performance. 

    One day, Akil said to the young girl: “Listen, Meda, I will watch you and you watch me, so that we can help each other maintain concentration and balance and prevent an accident. Then, we’ll surely earn enough to eat.”

    But the wise little girl answered, “Dear master, I think it would be better for each of us to watch ourselves. To look after oneself means to look after both of us. That way, I’m sure we’ll avoid any accidents and earn enough to eat.” Sure enough, the little girl was correct, and that’s how they successfully did their act together.

    In this example, the young girl puts her focus on herself first, because she knew that it was up to her to maintain the concentration needed to successfully do their act. It was up to the teacher to maintain his own concentration as well. 

    This is true in our lives. Sometimes we get overly focused on how we can help everyone else around us, and our energy ends up being dispersed, distracted and diluted outside of ourselves. 

    By taking care of ourselves first, we can get grounded, centered, and available to contribute to the greater good.

    Scientific experiments are showing us that we can have an effect on our own DNA. Even more amazingly, experiments are also showing that our own DNA can affect the people around us, too. 

    The people and the environment around us respond to the vibrational frequency that we are emitting energetically–and that means our positive vibration positively impacts the world around us.  

    By dropping into ourselves and taking great care of our body, minds, and souls, we actually set up the vibrational environment that supports other people to do the same thing for themselves. And so, the more we get into the Miracle Zone, the more we support the whole world to do the same!

    We can support one another by responsibly being stewards of our own vibrational power to impact the world through the way we care for ourselves. 

    As you live your life more and more in the Miracle Zone, you’re creating an incredible impact on the people around you and around the world. 

    This week, we ask you to explore what you can do to take care of yourself so you can also be of best service to the world.

    “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” –Howard Thurman

    In the comments below, please share your experiences of positively impacting the environment around you by getting more and more in the Miracle Zone.