Magical Thinking / Thinking Magically
Weekly Reading Topic for October 5, 2019: Magical Thinking / Thinking Magically
Well, good morning, love!
I just opened a Reading for you, my newsletter subscribers and here’s what I heard in answer to the following:
What do my readers most need to hear this weekend? What is the most important message to send to my beloved readers?
The answer was: “Magical Thinking / Thinking Magically”
It’s a mind-bender and somehow Heisenberg showed up. I hope it makes sense!
What follows is your Weekly Reading.
Weekly Reading │ Magical Thinking / Thinking Magically
Q: What does that mean, “Magical Thinking / Thinking Magically”
A: There are two types of people: those who think magically and those who live in fear of being accused of magical thinking.
TLDR: Be in the first group: think magically. It’s a LOT more fun.
Now let’s look at these two styles of thought and get a deeper understanding.
First, it’s important to know that magical thinking happens in all walks of life, at all education levels, in every religious affiliation, and at every age. There are people who consider themselves hard-nosed rational materialists who absolutely engage in magical thinking, and there are wispy new age goddess wannabes who embrace it as a lifestyle.
Second, you must understand that thinking magically is a way of engaging with the world that wise people of all faiths, backgrounds, and income levels utilize. It’s found in the engineers and astrophysicists and medical doctors, and it’s found in children, teachers, and small dogs.
So what follows is in no way a judgment or illustration of any personality type, career choice, or culture.
So, what IS magical thinking, and what IS thinking magically?
They are sooooo different!
Magical thinking is believing that because you’ve thought a thought you have a special power, magnetism, or entitlement.
Magical thinking is staring at your vision board every day and then getting upset when that powerboat or diamond ring isn’t showing up in your life, toot suite (tout de suite if you’re not an ex-flautist, ha ha!).
Magical thinking is repeating your desire like a mantra and expecting that your words and thoughts alone are going to bring that desire to life, right now. This is true whether you are “bringing in abundance” or whether you are chasing your kids around telling them to clean up their socks.
Magical thinking is assuming that what you want is what you will get, no matter what.
Magical thinking is a childlike assumption that the world will always (or should always) conform to your needs.
Examples of magical thinking include those unfortunate souls who refuse to acknowledge that the world has changed around them, and demand others “do things the right way” instead of the new way (which is sometimes … the better way).
It’s thinking that if you just say the right words, avoid negative phrases, and smile, you will “attract positivity.”
Or thinking that if you go to that new place where those people live who consume a different kind of media and believe different things than you do will result in your own world falling apart, either because they will destroy your mind with infected thoughts or you will feel lonely and scared and despondent.
Magical thinking is a desperate power grab. It is a BELIEF system that indoctrinates the magical thinker with dogmatic adherence to a set of ritualistic thoughts.
If I say the right prayer/mantra at the right time of day/week/month/year, God will give me what I want.
If I say “God’s Will Be Done” then God will really take care of ME.
If I do what they/my parents/my boss wants of me, even if it insults my soul, I will get the goodies.
If I refuse to use negative words, I will erase all negativity from my experience. If I can just twist my tongue into a pretzel to avoid complaining, I will experience relief from the situation that bothers me.
The problem with convincing yourself that if you are perfect and right and in control, good things will come to you is twofold.
One: being perfect and right is impossible in the human body. Perfection and rightness are something we all experience in our spiritual selves. But it’s just not something we can do in the limitations of the body. Not all the way, not in totality. The closest creatures to be “perfect” on the planet are dolphins and dogs, and even they find it difficult to keep their temper at all times, especially when it comes to dealing with us humans. We are spiritual beings having a physical experience: by nature, it is NOT perfect. If we wanted perfection and rightness, we wouldn’t have become human.
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So the first problem with magical thinking is that it requires perfection, which is impossible.
Two: Bad things happen to good people. All the time. And it’s not because they were somehow not good enough. None of us are good enough to avoid painful experiences. That’s not what we’re here for. We’re here to have things happen to us, to experience Life as a Human … which sometimes, yes, includes painful experiences. So even if you WERE able to be perfect and always always good, guess what? You would still have bad things happen to you. The rich aren’t “deserving” of their money more than the poor are deserving of their lack. Poverty doesn’t breed morality, either. Good things happen to bad people AND to good people. Bad things happen to bad people AND to good people.
So the second problem with magical thinking is that it defies reality.
You cannot ever be sure that being good at any given moment: right speech, right thoughts do not inexorably lead to material good.
Sweating yourself into an anxious stew because you do not yet have what you think you want does no good in the moment, and also no good in the getting you where you want to go.
Here’s another way to understand this: by looking at the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. Basically, this is the understanding that it is impossible to measure a particle’s location in space AND how fast it’s traveling.
It’s one or the other. When you “take a snapshot” of a particle on the quantum level, you either see a fairly precise location and sort of a guess at how fast it’s traveling … or you can get a pretty good idea of how fast it’s traveling, but only a guess as to where it actually is.
This is true EVEN IN THEORY. Even on paper!
The bottom line in quantum physics is this: We Know Nothing for Sure. We can get a pretty good idea of where we are, or we can get an idea of how fast we’re traveling … just not both at the same time.
So, we live in constant uncertainty. And since you cannot know where you are going UNLESS you know where you are … we’re really helpless. Right?
Well, let’s see. Maybe we can use the uncertainty principle that is the bedrock of our physical existence to our advantage.
Thinking Magically is a great way to do it. Thinking Magically is quite the Opposite of Magical Thinking.
When we indulge in magical thinking we obsess over our velocity (how fast we’re getting what we think we want) and lose our understanding of where we are, right now. We lose our balance and get spaced out or overwhelmed.
OR we obsess over where we are now, and how much we don’t like it … and lose our bearings around momentum. We feel totally stuck, in a rut, and like nothing will ever, ever change.
And we indulge in these Magical Thoughts that somehow, something external to us will change our perception or our reality, and all will be well. The check will come in the mail, the guy will call, the child will be born.
And until those things happen (which they might not, because: Bad Things Happen to Good People) we stay ungrounded and spaced out or stuck and moaning.
We clutch to our Magical Thoughts of “If I only had enough time, money, energy” and “I just need that person to do that thing, and then it will all work” and “If I just keep thinking positive thoughts and smile, this will all pay off.”
But there’s something better than Magical Thought Belief System.
It’s Thinking Magically.
When you Think Magically, you stop asking the questions that drive you crazy, and instead just enjoy/experience what’s going on, while daydreaming about what else you would like to do, while doing something (big or small) that will help that to come about.
Instead of desperately hoping/believing that my thoughts will change my physical/external reality, when I engage in Thinking Magically I USE my thoughts to change my reality.
I don’t bother to engage the uncertainty principle at all.
I don’t bother taking a snapshot. I don’t try to figure out the velocity of the particle, or the location of the particle. I certainly don’t try to calculate both at the same time.
I allow there to be some mystery in the world.
I don’t ask questions that cannot be answered. This is a skill we highly recommend you hone.
Asking questions with no answers, like “what is the location AND velocity of that particle” only get you/us all in trouble. (Unless of course, you have to build a particle locator!)
But for most of us, asking questions with no answers is distracting and a real waste of time. Due respect, of course, to Heisenberg et. al., but when it comes to living your life, asking ineffable questions can really get in the way of a good time.
The fact is, the human brain and body are designed to KNOW these things innately, without a need to PROVE or BELIEVE them. When you experience something, you don’t believe it: you know it.
So Thinking Magically is a way to experience magic, which means you KNOW it. No need for dogma, beliefs, rituals, words, or anything else.
There’s plenty of magic in the world.
Simply experience what you can pick up with your senses, right now. Velocity and location information is always available when you sit in the center of your body and open up your senses to the world. When you listen deeply to self and everyone else. When you open your joints with stretches and internal melting feelings. Let yourself Just Be.
This is not denying reality. In fact, in order for Thinking Magically to work its … magic … we have to embrace reality, all of it.
If you do not know where you are, you cannot know where you want to go, let alone the velocity in which you are traveling. You cannot make plans or choose.
Thinking Magically is a style of thinking that assesses the physical reality we’re in, right now, notices what we would change if we could, and then makes moves toward that change in a relaxed, purposeful way. Sometimes we can only do this in our mind …
The “magic” happens when we realize that we have a new desire AND that we deserve to have it EVEN IF we never get it. Feeling a deep sense of self worth and tenderness for our own newborn desire IS magical. It’s almost like we give ourselves what we want, on a quantum level, which makes it possible for our desires to increase their velocity and hurtle into our location. (See, I’m not denying the uncertainty principle. I’m just letting it work FOR me.)
Think of the last time you interacted with a three year old. I had a little friend many years ago who very earnestly told me that she was going to be a unicorn when she grew up. And I looked in her eyes and could see that she KNEW she would be a unicorn someday. When she was grown up. I asked her what being a unicorn would be like.
“I’d be very clean, and brave, and be able to fly, and it would be fun.”
And so I nodded, and said “That’s really exciting!”
What she was reaching for in that moment was NOT actually changing into a magical creature. What she was reaching for was BEING the magical creature she already is, IN THE FUTURE. The word for that, in her mind, was “unicorn.”
And if someone argues with her about that, and dismisses her unicorn idea as a flight of fancy, they’re missing the point entirely, and they are interfering with her magic making.
Being clean and brave and able to fly sounds like … a fighter pilot, for one. Maybe she WILL be a unicorn: one of the very few female fighter pilots! Let’s let her feel that now, in her body, and remember that feeling. Later, when she takes her first flight, in her perfectly pressed clothing and her perfectly cut hair, scared out of her mind but doing it anyway, she might even remember her childhood wish to be a unicorn and exalt in her success. Now that she’s all grown up.
Thinking magically requires that we understand that things take both time and effort in the physical plane. Is it possible for everyone to be a billionaire? Possibly, given enough time and therapy and opportunity. But most people won’t get enough of any of those.
But all of us are capable of having more, much more, than we used to have.
And the thing that all of us want, underneath every desire, is something like “freedom.”
Think about it: why do you want more money, more love, more fun?
At heart, we all want to be free, loved, happy, and safe. Simple.
And when we Think Magically, we allow that to be our internal experience, NOW, while we work with our physical lives to get what we SAY we want in the future.
We SAY we want to get a promotion, but what we REALLY want is acknowledgement, respect, and to be free, happy, and loved.
When we Think Magically, we make our own mind a place of acknowledgment, respect, freedom, happiness, and love. And then, sure we take actions that will lead us to getting the promotion.
We SAY we want to have a child, but what we REALLY want is a deeply loving, connected family experience filled with the freedom and safety to be happy.
When we Think Magically, we focus our mind on forging a deeply loving family with our current loved ones, so that when the child arrives, we’re simply welcoming them into the fold. (And if they don’t arrive, as they don’t for some of us, because Bad Things Happen to Good People all the time, we realize that we have this amazing family already and that so many of our friend/families have children, who love us and call us Aunty. And that, it turns out, can satisfy the original desire!)
So when you Think Magically, you start out by acknowledging that you feel something is Not Quite Right for you. And that it’s OK that it’s not right, because wow, this velocity you’re feeling in your emotions and body tells you that things are changing!
Whatever it is, you really pay attention to your own feelings and thoughts. You let yourself say the things you want to say and feel the feels you feel. Paper and pen is a good way to experience this — often speaking about it with others is less than helpful. (Unless they are very, very good at listening and not telling you to stop thinking about being a unicorn.)
And once you know what you would like to create, you look for a concrete action you can take, from this fully integrated, deeply acknowledged place of power. And you take it, whatever it is.
Sometimes it’s calling a friend and asking a favor.
Sometimes it’s signing up for a course.
Sometimes it’s asking your spouse to go into counseling or stop drinking.
Sometimes it’s asking yourself to stop drinking or to start exercising.
And sometimes there is nothing that you can do, right now, to work toward what you want. And in those cases, you might draw a doodling little something on a post-it and put it on your bathroom mirror to remind you of what you want.
And as you brush your teeth every day, you look at that little reminder and daydream about it.
And keep asking: is there something to do about this, right now?
And when you get the answer, DO IT. And if you don’t, DON’T WORRY. This is just the way things are right now.
Magical Thinking takes a lot of effort. It’s efforting your life. It’s planting a big field of corn and spraying to keep the weeds and bugs away and getting sick from the chemicals.
Thinking Magically takes a more holistic approach. It’s planting the corn with beans and squash and letting them all support each other. The corn serves as a scaffold for the beans, while the beans support the corn from being pushed over by winds. The squash covers the ground and prevents weeds while giving mulch to the others.
Magical Thinking requires you to obsess over your lonely rows of corn, constantly examining it for signs of weakness and decay, unsure of whether all your efforts have had an effect.
Thinking Magically renders obsession unnecessary. There’s too much going on! You have to admire the corn, and help the beans find their nearest stalk, and enjoy the squash when it flowers.
Magical Thinking requires you to weed if the chemicals don’t work.
Thinking Magically knows that the squash is doing the weeding for you. You can just sit there and watch the beauty and say “thank you!”
So. This weekend, try to Think Magically. Experiment with finding safety, peace, freedom, and contentment in the current reality. If there is something you would like to change, notice that and contemplate how much you deserve to get what you want.
Stay away from wishing for a different location.
Avoid assessing your velocity. Those questions are only relevant to the quantum physicists.
Because we all deserve to get what we want. Even if we never, ever do get that specific thing.
And that, my friends, is at the heart of Thinking Magically:
You are deserving. And when you really know that, it’s more possible to both take the actions required in the real world AND accept the good changes when they do come. Or recognizing other good things as they come — even if they are unexpected and unplanned.
Step outside the uncertainty principle. Don’t ask the questions that have no answers. Open up and relax the corners of your mind. They can be round, and soft, and slightly porous. That way the particles have more running room, more locations to explore.
I am always here to serve in any way I can.
Much Love to You,
Molly
PS: Thank you for sharing this with anyone who could use it!
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