Your Year of Miracles

Tag: strength

  • Miracle Moment: Living 10% More in the Miracle Zone.

    Miracle Moment: Living 10% More in the Miracle Zone.

    Today’s Miracle Moment is About Living 10% More in the Miracle Zone.

    A couple months ago, our Your Year of Miracles behind-the-scenes team had a workshop together, which was all about how we could expand in the Miracle Zone individually and together.

    Our friend and consultant Mary Pat led the workshop. Throughout our time together, she gave us some prompts to answer in small groups. One of the questions she gave us was inspired by the book 10% Happier. The question was:

    “What would you do if you lived 10% more in the Miracle Zone in your personal life and business?”

    Some people shared that in their personal lives, they would exercise 3-4 times a week, spend more time outside, sign up for a course they’d been wanting to take, or take some risks in a relationship that they’d been avoiding taking. In business, some people said they’d spend time preparing now for our busy season. Others shared new projects they’d get a head start on.

    Living just 10% more in the Miracle Zone can bring us more happiness, joy and fulfillment in the present moment while helping us move towards our bigger miracle intentions.

    We loved this idea that we can make a 10% change, because it’s totally doable. Often we have our eyes on the prize of the huge miracles we want in our lives. And while big miracles can sometimes happen quickly, they also sometimes come through slow and steady steps forward.

    When you move just 10% forward in the direction of your big miracle dreams, you ignite momentum in your life.

    This idea of “living 10% more in the Miracle Zone” can keep you from self-sabotaging or thinking, “I can’t do that. It’s just too big of a leap for me.”

    The subconscious tends to fear change and is always trying to protect you from it. You can help your subconscious to be comfortable with change by taking small steps forward and then acknowledging what that feels like in your body. By acknowledging what 10% more in the Miracle Zone feels like to you, the subconscious can feel the incremental shift and it will be able to relax, because it’s a small (rather than big) change.

    And in the process, you’ll get to experience more of the Miracle Zone right now!

    This week, we invite you to look for ways to live 10% more in the Miracle Zone. Perhaps it’s in your health, self-care, creative projects, business goals, or relationships. What small step can you take in any of those areas to live 10% more in the Miracle Zone? We encourage you to take that “10% more” step!

    In the comments below, please let us know: What would you do if you lived 10% more in the Miracle Zone? We look forward to hearing from you!

     

  • Miracle Moment: Tapping Into Divine Inspiration

    Miracle Moment: Tapping Into Divine Inspiration

    Have you ever wished that you could tap into your creativity more? Maybe you feel like there’s a book inside you, or a screenplay, or a business idea that’s waiting to be birthed. How can you tap into divine inspiration so creativity can flow?

    We can go all the way to Italy to get insight on this, by looking to one of the most famous pieces of art in the world: Michelangelo’s David. The David is a 17-foot tall statue that weighs 6 tons, which is the weight of around 90 adults! The David was carved from a single slab of marble which had originally been discarded by other sculptors. In fact, before Michelangelo used it to carve the David, it had been sitting untouched for 40 years.

    When Michelangelo was famously asked about his process of carving the David, he said,

    “It’s easy. You just chip away at what’s not the David.”

    Whether it’s a work of art, piece of writing, business idea, or any type of creative project, you can use Michelangelo’s words as inspiration. Rather than trying to force ideas to come through, you can tap into the divine inspiration that’s already inside you and is waiting for you to bring it forward.

    So how do you do this? First, it’s important to realize that you are the universe expressing itself, packed into a body.

    You are made of pure creative energy — you cannot not be creative.

    You can tap into the divine inspiration within you by bringing your attention to the area below your naval, the area above your naval, and your heart space (also known as the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th chakras). This is the area where you can tap into your true creative nature.

    When you want to be more creative, bring your awareness to this part of your body and breathe deeply into this area. Envision these three areas working together as a big oval-shaped space that is constantly alchemizing creative essence from divine inspiration.

    The biggest artists who came before us and will come after us are able to powerfully tap into their creative energy because they’re living inside this space (even if they don’t realize it).

    By bringing your mind’s attention into this deep reservoir of divine inspiration, creative ideas and new projects will come so much more easily than trying to access them from your mind alone.

    This week, practice breathing into your core, and stay open to the inspiration, ideas, and creative nudges that arise when you tap into the beautiful creativity that’s already inside of you.

    We’d love to hear from you! In the comments, let us know your thoughts on tapping into your divine inspiration.

  • Miracle Moment: Your Power to Shift Right Now

    Miracle Moment: Your Power to Shift Right Now

    Today’s Miracle Moment is About Your Power to Shift Right Now.

    What does it mean to shift right now? It means that in this very moment, you can experience a miracle of letting go of old pain, anger, regret, guilt, and sadness and opening up to love, joy, gratitude, and compassion.

    To illustrate this, here’s an experience that Sadhvi Bhagavati Saraswati, a dear friend of ours, had in India more than two decades ago. At the time, she’d traveled to India to take a break from her grueling work of getting a PhD at Stanford. When she was there, she met her spiritual teacher. At that very first meeting, she told him about her very painful past including a childhood that was filled with emotional and physical abuse. She told him this expecting him to feel sorry for her, but instead he said to her, “So when are you going to let go of that anger and resentment for all that you’ve been through? When are you going to forgive? Are you going to do it before you die?” She was in her twenties thent. She said, “Well yes of course, I’m going to forgive before I die.”

    Then he said, “Well, are you going to do it an hour before you die?” She said, “No no, of course not, I’m going to do it well before then.” And then he said, “Well, a day before you die?” “No, much before that!” He said, “A week? A month? Then why not now? What’s going to make you any more ready a year from now, or 10 years from now — why are you putting it off?”

    And she thought, “Well yes — why am I going to be any more ready then than I am now?”

    He suggested that she go down to the sacred Ganges river and sincerely let it all go into the river.

    He told her to offer her anger, resentment, worry, and fear into the river and to ask the river to take it away. She thought to herself, “Well, this is crazy. How could it possibly happen that easily?” But she sincerely wanted to be able to let go, so she decided to give it a try. So she walked down to the river, took off her shoes, put her feet into the pure cool waters, and felt her feet sinking into the sand. With the utmost sincerity of intention from her heart, from deep inside, she pulled up all that she could remember about her abuse and all that she had been through in her childhood and since then. She stood in that river sobbing. She cried for a very long time as she offered her pain into the river.

    After a while, there were no more tears, and she felt a feeling of lightness, release, and peace come over her.

    She was shocked, because she really did feel cleansed of the pain, worry, anger, and fear. Over the next few days, she tried to find the anger again because she was so amazed that it was gone. She tested it from every direction and she couldn’t bring it back. The river, along with her sincere heart and intention, had cleansed her. She felt so released from her old pain and resentment that what flowed in to fill that empty space was a joy, freedom, and love beyond what she thought possible.

    Today, she continues to live with that love and that forgiveness in her heart. Let her story be an inspiration for you!

    It is 100% possible to let go of any heavy feelings or past pain right here in this moment.

     Here’s an exercise to experience a shift right now:

    Think of a situation in your life that you’d like to let go of. It may be something that you feel angst, irritation, or resentment around that you know no longer serves you.

    Focus on this situation and take a deep breath in. Breathe into your heart space and into your belly, and then exhale down into the earth. Open up your chest, heart, and belly, and breathe in Mother Earth’s nurturing, loving support. Allow this situation that you’d like to let go of (and the angst, frustration, sadness, or irritation about it) to come into the space where you’re sitting.

    Take a deep breath from the heart of Mother Earth, and then exhale down through your body, and breathe into the heart of Mother Earth again. Breathe in the fiery, molten lava of Mother Earth into your belly and allow her to help you transform this as you exhale. Embrace the feeling you have about this situation. Don’t try to change it — just accept that it is here. If you feel resistance, accept that.

    Breathe in this entire situation and your feeling of it up through your throat, to the center of your head, as if you’re giving it to the Divine. Allow all that you’re feeling to be in your heart and be transmuted in ways your mind can understand.

    Allow all of it to come into the bonfire of your heart and be transmuted into love and light in ways you can’t understand. Feel the ashes of it gracefully flowing away as if a river was taking it all away

    This week, we invite you to remember your power to shift right now.

    Please let us know in the comments how you’re feeling from this. What are you letting go of and what are you opening up to? We’d love to hear from you!

  • Miracle Moment: Moving from Scarcity to Abundance

    Miracle Moment: Moving from Scarcity to Abundance

    Today’s Miracle Moment is about moving from scarcity to abundance.

    You’re probably familiar with the ideas of scarcity and abundance but what do they both really mean? And how do these mindsets really affect us?

    In a book called Scarcity, The New Science of Having Less and How It Defines Our Lives, the authors Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir share how scarcity brings our focus toward unfulfilled needs. If we don’t feel we have enough of something, our minds become absorbed with focusing on that lack. This affects our mental “bandwidth” and weakens our ability to pay attention, make good decisions, stick with our plans, or be forward thinking. So when our minds are absorbed in scarcity thinking, we’re limited in our ability to create new inspired ideas, pay attention to synchronicities, or have the energy to take steps in the direction of our dreams.

    We also know that what we focus on expands. If we’re focusing intently on not having enough of what we need, we’ll continue creating that experience in our lives of “not having enough.”

    The true state of the universe is abundance.

    There’s more than enough to go around and the universe wants to shower its infinite abundance on each of us. If we’re not experiencing that, we’re blocking the flow in some way with our scarcity thinking. So, how do we make this shift from scarcity to abundance?

    It starts within us.

    Everything that we experience is based upon the amount of circuitry that we have in our system to perceive the abundance of life.

    If we can’t perceive life as abundant and miraculous, it’s because we don’t have the circuitry to do so. The good news is — you can start building the circuitry for abundance right now with this exercise:

    Take a deep breath into your belly. When you breathe into your belly, you’re automatically activating the nervous system to move out of scarcity and fight or flight mode and to perceive abundance. Inhale into your belly and the upper lobes of your lungs. Then, exhale out in every direction around you. Imagine that your conscious awareness is reaching out in every direction and pulling in the abundance of the Divine and of infinite possibilities into your belly. Inhale the idea of “There’s more than enough” and imagine that energy being bigger than your physical body.

    Then, exhale out in every direction. As you exhale out in every direction, you’re carving a pathway for your ability to flow in abundance.

    Keep inhaling the abundance around you from every direction. Imagine yourself breathing in all of the resources that you need and all of the infinite capacity that is needed to activate your dreams and desires. Keep breathing into your belly and your upper lobes, and exhale out in every direction as if you’re filling the space around you with the vibration of abundance.

    Now, exhale down into the earth and feel the Earth receiving you right now. As you breathe up into your belly and exhale back into the earth, feel her support and grounding. Imagine that you’re breathing in the feeling of fulfillment and of abundance realized in your life.

    This week, try out this breathing exercise before making an important decision or taking an important step forward.

    When the feeling of abundance in your body matches the intention in your mind, abundance flows naturally in your life.

    We’d love to hear from you! Please leave a comment and share some of the ways that you are abundant right now.

  • Miracle Moment: Strengthening Your Receiving Muscle

    Miracle Moment: Strengthening Your Receiving Muscle

    Today’s Miracle Moment is About Strengthening Your Receiving Muscle.

     Do you struggle with receiving? Especially if you’re very empathic and sensitive to the needs of others, you might tend to focus on everyone else’s needs. Maybe you even feel guilty about receiving. So how can you strengthen your receiving muscle?

    Here’s an important shift in perspective around receiving:

    When you receive with gratitude and joy, you’re allowing the giver to experience the full pleasure of giving.

    For example, when you put a lot of thought and care into a birthday gift for someone in your life, you get to experience the joy of seeing their happiness and appreciation. It’s the same for the Universe.

    The Universe wants to shower its abundance on you, and when you receive what you’re given with gratitude and joy, you create a feedback loop of joyful giving and receiving.

    You can practice receiving from a place of joyful gratitude by recognizing all the little and big things you’re receiving all day long. When you wake up in the morning, you can be grateful to the universe for the fresh air you breathe or the rest you got the night before. You can be grateful for your morning coffee, your favorite breakfast, or a hot shower. At the grocery store check-out line or at a restaurant, you can also practice receiving with gratitude and joy.

    The more joyful gratitude you feel and express for everything you have in life, the more you strengthen your receiving muscle.

    Your body is literally built to receive. There are little antennas on the surface of every cell inside your body that are constantly receiving energies from the material manifest world, the divine, your ability to process life, and all that you’re experiencing.

    When you reject or resist something you’re experiencing, you shut yourself off from the abundance of life. By opening your heart to whatever it is that you’re authentically feeling, even if that’s a “negative” feeling like anxiety or worry, the feeling will begin to dissolve. It will then transmute into the energies of light and love and support you to live a more authentic life.

    So receive, accept, and embrace every part of life with great appreciation.

    This week, we invite you to go through each day noticing the little and big things you’re receiving. Practice accepting and embracing each of them with gratitude.

    We’d love to hear from you! Leave a comment to share what you’re grateful for right now.