A fellow by the name of Wayne Dyer once wrote a book called “Real Magic.”
Actually Wayne Dyer has written many books, his most famous probably an earlier one called “Your Erroneous Zones” (see below), that deals with cognitive behavior techniques for addressing maladaptive behavior, habits, and thoughts that do not serve you. “Pulling Your Own Strings” was another early favorite.
Over time, Dyer’s writings evolved in a more spiritual, almost Zen direction. I love the titles of some of his later writings: “Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life” and “You will See It When you Believe It.”
I believe that our thoughts drive many of our emotions and actions, and the ability to control your thoughts and focus is an incredibly powerful skill. Truly, if you change your thoughts, you will change your life.
The traditional saying is, “I will believe it when I see it.” “You will See It When You Believe It” turns that saying on its head and deals with the truth that our beliefs powerfully impact the way we experience the world. No one tries what they do not believe to be possible. So your beliefs about what is possible form the limits of what you try, and you never accomplish what you never try.
In “Real Magic,” Dyer postulates a very practical definition of magic. Magic is when we are able to get ourselves to do anything we previously thought ourselves incapable of doing.
Under that definition, we all are capable of becoming magicians. We all can look back and say, “Wow! I did that? Pretty impressive! I didn’t know I could.” Or remember when under pressure or in a spurt of energy (or desperation) we did surge performance and created astounding results in our lives. Or when under stress or strain we buckled down and got through a dark period through sheer effort of hope, will, and persistence.
Treasure those memories!
Those recollections are all instances of you creating real magic in your life, times when you went beyond your supposed limits, sometimes far beyond. Use those memories to inspire yourself, to support and reinforce your belief system about what you are capable.
Dyer can have a very New Age tone to his writings and at times I find some of his stuff a bit far out. I simply skip over passages (or chapters) and look for the gems that speak to me. One does not have to agree with a writer’s entire thesis to find useful nuggets of inspiration, motivation, or wisdom.
When I finish a book, I reflect on it and trying to come up with at least one positive belief-changing, life-impacting thought to take away.
Thus, I am eternally grateful to Wayne Dyer for the concept of Real Magic. Every day I look forward to finding an opportunity to be a real magician in my own life, to cast my own personal magic spell, to get myself to push my limits, expand the edges of my abilities, to create new realities, to forge new empowering habits, and to break the bounds of old habits that no longer serve me.
Knowing it can be done, knowing I have the ability to create real magic in my life, puts me half way to the stars already.
An example from “Your Erroneous Zones”:
Dr. Dyer speaks to someone very upset and emotional: “Look at yourself, you’re going to give yourself a heart attack by the time you’re fifty.” The gentleman replies “I am fifty-two and I had a heart attack two years ago.” Dr. Dyer: “Then why do you do this to yourself?” Gentleman: “What do you want from me…I’m Italian!”, as if (argue for your weakness and it is yours) that were sufficient explanation for habitually losing his temper. Dyer talks about how we do not have to “buy into” being helpless victims of our cultural backgrounds, family dynamics, genetic tendencies, etc.
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