The Magic (19 page)

Today, think about a mistake you have made in your life. It doesn’t matter whether it was a big or small mistake, but choose one that still hurts when you think about it. Maybe you lost your temper with a person close to you and the relationship hasn’t been the same since. Maybe you put blind faith in another person and got burned. Maybe you told a white lie to protect someone, and because of it you ended up in a difficult situation. You might have chosen the cheaper option on something, and it all went wrong and ended up costing you a whole lot more. You might have thought you were making the right decision about something, but it completely backfired on you.

Once you’ve chosen a mistake to magically transform into blessings, look for the things to be grateful for. To help you, there are two questions you can ask yourself:

What did I learn from the mistake?

What are the good things that came out of the mistake?

The most important things to be grateful for about every mistake are the things you learned from it. And no matter what the mistake, there are always many good things that came out of it and altered your future for the better. Think this through very carefully, and see if you can find a total of ten blessings to be grateful for. Every blessing you find has magical power. Write out your list in a gratitude journal or type them on a computer.

Let’s take the example of being caught speeding by a police car and receiving a fine:

1. I’m grateful to the police for wanting to protect me from harming myself, because after all, that was all they were trying to do.
   
2. I’m grateful to the police because if I am honest with myself, I was thinking about other things, and I wasn’t concentrating on the road.
   
3. I’m grateful to the police because it was foolish to put myself at risk speeding with a tire that needed to be replaced.
   
4. I’m grateful to the police for the wake-up call. Being pulled over did affect me and it will make me watch my speed and drive more carefully in the future.
   
5. I’m grateful to the police because somehow I had a wild idea that I could speed without getting caught, and without putting myself in danger. The seriousness of the police made me face up to the fact that I was putting both myself and others in serious danger.
   
6. I’m grateful to the police because if I think about my own family being put in danger by other speeding drivers, then I definitely want the police to stop speeding drivers.
   
7. I’m really grateful to the police for the work they do in trying to ensure the safety of every person and family on the roads.
   
8. I’m grateful to the police. They must see heartbreaking situations every day, and all they’re trying to do is protect my life and my family’s life.
   
9. I am grateful to the police for making sure that I arrived home safely, and walked through the door to my family as I usually do.
   
10. I am grateful to the police because of all the possible consequences that could have stopped me from my speeding, the police pulling me over was the least harmful consequence, and it could have been the biggest blessing of my life.
    

I would strongly urge you to take any mistakes you’ve made in your life that you still feel bad about, and in your own time, follow this magnificent and magical practice. Think about it; through one mistake you have the power to bring many blessings! What else guarantees dividends like that?

Magic Practice Number 26

Magically Transform Mistakes Into Blessings

1. Count Your Blessings: Make a list of ten blessings. Write
   why
   you’re grateful. Reread your list, and at the end of each blessing say
   thank you, thank you, thank you,
   and feel as grateful for that blessing as you can.
   
2. Choose
   one
   mistake you made in your life.
   
3. Find a total of
   ten
   blessings you’re grateful for as a result of making that mistake, and write them down.
   
4. To help you find blessings, you can ask yourself the questions:
   What did I learn from the mistake?
   And:
   What are the good things that came out of the mistake?
   
5. Just before you go to sleep tonight, hold your Magic Rock in one hand, and say the magic words,
   thank you,
   for the
   best
   thing that happened during the day.
   

Day 27

The Magic Mirror

“The appearance of things changes according to the emotions, and thus we see magic and beauty in them, while the magic and beauty are really in ourselves.”

Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931)
POET AND ARTIST

You can spend the rest of your life running around trying to beat the outside world into the shape you want, chasing one problem after another trying to fix them, complaining about situations or other people, and never succeed in living your life to the fullest and realizing all of your dreams. But when you make the magic of gratitude your way of life, everything in the world around you magically changes – just like that. Your world magically changes because
you
changed, so what you are attracting changed too.

In the inspirational words of Gandhi and in the lyrics of Michael Jackson’s song, “
Man In The Mirror,
” which impacted hundreds of millions, one of the most powerful messages of all time was delivered:

Change the person in the mirror, and your world will change.

If you have followed the 26 magical practices to this point, you have changed! And even though it is sometimes hard to see the changes in yourself, you will have felt the change in your happiness, and you will have seen the change of improved circumstances in your life, and the magical changes in the world around you.

You have practiced the magical power of gratitude for your family and friends, for your work, money, and health, for your dreams, and even for the people you come across each day. But the person who deserves your gratitude more than anyone else is you.

When you are grateful to be the person in the mirror, feelings of dissatisfaction, discontentment, disappointment, or I’m-not-good-enough completely disappear. And with them, every dissatisfying, discontenting, and disappointing circumstance in your life magically disappears too.

Negative feelings about yourself cause the greatest damage to your life, because they are more powerful than any feelings you have about anything or anyone else. Wherever you go and whatever you do you take those negative feelings with you in every moment, and those feelings taint everything you touch, and they act as a magnet, attracting more dissatisfaction, discontentment, and disappointment with everything you do.

When you are grateful to be
you,
you will only attract circumstances that make you feel even better about yourself. You have to be rich with good feelings about yourself to bring the riches of life to you. Gratitude for yourself enriches you!

“Whoever has
gratitude
(for themselves) will be given more, and he or she will have an abundance. Whoever does not have
gratitude
(for themselves), even what he or she has will be taken from him or her.”

To do the Magic Mirror practice, go to a mirror right now. Look directly at the person in the mirror, and out loud say the magic words,
thank you,
with all your heart. Mean it more than you ever have before. Say
thank you
for being you! Say
thank you
for everything that you are! Say
thank you
with at least the same amount of feeling you’ve used for everything and everyone else! Be grateful for
you
just as you are!

Continue with the Magic Mirror practice by being grateful to that beautiful person in the mirror for the rest of the day today, and say the magic words,
thank you,
every time you look at yourself in a mirror. If you’re not in a position to say the magic words out loud at any particular time, then you can say them in your mind. And if you’re
really
brave, you can look in the Magic Mirror and say three things about yourself that you’re grateful for.

If for any reason in the future you are not being kind to yourself, you will know to give to the one person who deserves your gratitude more than anyone else – the person in the mirror!

When you’re grateful, you don’t blame yourself when you make a mistake. When you’re grateful, you don’t criticize yourself when you’re not perfect. When you’re grateful for being you, you are happy, and you will become a magnet to happy people, happy situations, and magical circumstances, which will surround you wherever you go and in whatever you do. When you can see the magic in that person in the mirror, your whole world will change!

Magic Practice Number 27

The Magic Mirror

1. Count Your Blessings: Make a list of ten blessings. Write
   why
   you’re grateful. Reread your list, and at the end of each blessing say
   thank you, thank you, thank you,
   and feel as grateful for that blessing as you can.
   
2. Each time you look at yourself in a mirror today, say
   thank you,
   and mean it more than you ever have before.
   
3. If you’re really brave, while looking in the mirror say
   three
   things you’re grateful for about yourself.
   
4. Just before you go to sleep tonight, hold your Magic Rock in one hand, and say the magic words,
   thank you,
   for the
   best
   thing that happened during the day.
   

Day 28

Remember The Magic

“That’s the thing with magic. You’ve got to know it’s still here, all around us, or it just stays invisible for you.”

Charles de Lint (B. 1951)
WRITER AND CELTIC FOLK MUSICIAN

Every day is unique; there is no day like any other day. The good things that happen each day are forever different and forever changing, and so when you Remember The Magic by counting yesterday’s blessings, no matter how many times you do it, it will be different every time. It’s just one of the reasons why Remember The Magic is the most powerful ongoing practice to maintain the magic of gratitude in your life. No matter what your desires are now, or what desires you will have in the future, this magical practice will remain the most powerful practice for your entire life.

The easiest way to remember the blessings of yesterday is to start by remembering the beginning of the day when you woke up, and go back over the day in your mind, recollecting the major events of the morning, afternoon, and evening, until you reach the time when you went to bed. When you recall yesterday’s blessings it should be effortless; you are just scanning the surface of yesterday, and as you scan, the blessings will bubble to the surface of your mind.

You can start this magical practice by asking the question:

What are the good things that happened yesterday?

Whenever you ask a question, your mind will immediately look for the answer. Did you receive any great news? Did you magically receive or accomplish one of your desires? Did you magically receive unexpected money? Did you feel especially happy? Did you hear from a friend who you haven’t heard from in a long time? Did something go magnificently well for you? Did you receive a great phone call or email? Did you receive a compliment, or did someone express his or her appreciation for you? Did someone help you to solve a problem? Did you help somebody? Did you finish a project or start something new you’re excited about? Did you eat your favorite food, or watch a great movie? Did you receive a gift, resolve a situation, have a stimulating meeting, quality time with someone, a great conversation, or make plans for something you really want to do?