Get in Front of Your Magic
Last weekend I lead my annual yoga retreat. Everything, and I mean everything, about the retreat felt magical this year. The combination of open-hearted people, beautiful weather, delicious food, and support from my producer, Susan, created the perfect setting for me to step in and offer from my heart. It felt completely natural, like I was living and breathing my personal Magic.
Stuck Magic
Retreats didn’t always go this way for me. This was my tenth retreat. For years and years I really struggled. I was always worried about doing it wrong. I was always worried about how the students’ would receive what I was doing. I always wanted things to be different from how they were, better than how they were. All of that pressure on myself meant that I was very tight. My Magic got stuck.
In the first few years my Magic was almost completely stuck. It snuck through a few cracks but mostly I taught like a robot. (Luckily I had a lovely co-leader for those years who definitely carried the retreat with me). In the middle years I slowly started to trust myself a little more. Magic started showing up a little bit. In the past few years as I trust and open to it, it’s like my Magic is coming in a steady reliable stream. It seems natural and easeful.
You & Your Magic
We all have innate magic: unique gifts and abilities that come so naturally to us that they feel like breathing. Your Magic is that inner spark that makes you… you. One of the pathways to deep contentment in this life is being able to embody and express our Magic regularly.
But for many folks that can be a challenge. Many folks believe that because Magic is innate to us it should also appear on command and be easy to express. I’ve learned that it doesn’t work that way. More likely, it appears when absolutely needed and in rare unexpected moments. Oftentimes Magic is elusive.
Find Your Magic
That elusiveness can feel frustrating when you want to share your Magic with others. That’s why I recommend taking the time to develop your connection to your Magic and the ways you wield it. It’s kind of like Luke Skywalker and the force. He had a natural ability with the force, but he still needed to practice using it before he could master it well enough to face the emperor.
Developing your relationship with your Magic can happen in many many ways. Journalling, talking about it with others who are also developing their gifts, working with a coach to clear any mental clutter that’s keeping you out of it, even energy work to clear psychic blocks can help… and there are as many other ways to access your Magic as you can think of.
Raise the Stakes
But you know what really works the best? Putting yourself on the hook for something where your Magic will show up. That means, assigning yourself a real time to show up with other people and share your Magic. For me, that’s teaching yoga workshops and retreats. For you that could be inviting others over to share a meal you cooked. It could be going to a food bank and volunteering your time. It could be offering to babysit the neighborhood children because being with kids lights you up. It could be about playing an informal recital for friends.
It could be ANYTHING because your Magic expresses itself through you in its own unique way. The point isn’t what you choose, but that you do something that’s a little bit of a stretch. The stretch is important. When you stretch yourself, your Magic arrives to help. Without nerves you can just continue in your comfort zone, living off habits, and your Magic doesn’t feel needed. That’s why the more I lead retreats, even though they’re sometimes scary and stressful, the more my Magic shows up. That’s how it’ll work for you.
Living Your Magic
The more your Magic shows up the more sensitive you’ll become to what it feels like to be “in your Magic” — meaning embodying the energetic frequency of your natural Magic. The more you get into that frequency the easier it is for you Magic to show up regularly. The more your Magic shows up, the more you learn to trust it and open to it.
Eventually you can align with your Magic in times when you’re not really on the hook for anything - you’re just going through a normal day. That’s when an ordinary day starts to take on the feeling of an extraordinary day. Not because there’s anything special to it, but because you feel so very much like YOU.
So there’s my pep talk for you. If you’re feeling like you have some untapped potential living inside - you’ve got more in there ready to be expressed - then it’s time to put yourself on the hook to do it. You probably won’t feel ready. You’ll probably feel scared or stressed. That’s perfect because that’s exactly the invitation your Magic needs to start pouring through. Do it over and over. Pretty soon your life will stop feeling so ordinary — it’ll feel extraordinary.