Tag Archives: magic

17 ways I make magic happen: writing edition

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Writing will set you free

I’ve been obses­sively writ­ing any­thing & every­thing since I was a lit­tle kid. Car­ry­ing an end­less amount of note­books with me every­where, jot­ting down notes & sto­ries. I love writ­ing, with my heart and soul. But some­times the resis­tance sets in, some­times writ­ing is the tough­est thing I can do. Some­times I just need an extra lit­tle some­thing, some­thing real & soul­ful to get myself going.

These are my 17 sure fire ways to add the sub­lime spark to writing. 

1. This will end up being my 1st tip for most every 17 ways post, but it’s ultra impor­tant, so do it! State your inten­tion before begin­ning your writ­ing ses­sion. This cre­ates a clear sense of pur­pose & gives your sub­con­scious a work­ing prob­lem to solve which will make every­thing you do start to become infused with self magic. So state an intention!

2. Don’t let lack of rit­ual ever stop you from doing any­thing, but with that said, feel free to develop a writ­ing rit­ual for an added oomph of sacred! Light a can­dle or some incense, choose writ­ing music (jazz or clas­si­cal maybe? hip hop? elec­tro funk? disco?). Pick out a per­fect pen & note­book. Write at the same time every­day at the same place (again, don’t let that limit you!). Make a spe­cial writ­ing potion (like tea or cof­fee or absinthe or what­ever speaks to you..)

3. Keep your writ­ing space clear of every­thing but the essen­tials: pen, paper, related project mate­ri­als, & maybe a crys­tal or that can­dle for good vibes.

4. Writ­ing can be a form of active med­i­ta­tion. Try stream of con­scious­ness writ­ing, dance while writ­ing, smoke a lit­tle before­hand, just be present in the moment & no mat­ter what is writ­ten, it’ll be per­fect & exactly what’s meant to be written.

5. Add some art & pho­tographs to your writ­ing! The brain thinks dif­fer­ently when it’s think­ing in images– but images aren’t only good for stir­ring up your brain, they can also inspire ideas for top­ics to write & think about, & add extra flour­ish to your work.

go back & edit

6. I’ve always hated edit­ing because I feared it took away from the cre­ative orig­i­nal­ity of writ­ing. Now I under­stand the value of edit­ing. It’s all apart of the cre­ative process. Edit­ing is about pol­ish­ing & refin­ing, play­ing with your words & thoughts until they glow per­fect with inten­tion. So don’t fear edit­ing! (Bonus tip: Have a solid edit­ing work­flow. I like to print my writ­ing & cross out & high­light by hand. Read­ing it out loud is good too. I also use Scrivener to orga­nize & edit all my writing).

7. Who are your writ­ing idols? Mod­ern blog­gers like Gala Dar­ling or Danielle LaPorte? Nov­el­ists & philoso­phers like Ker­ouac, Salinger, Mon­taigne, Tom Rob­bins, Von­negut? Ana­lyze what it is you like about them, the style of their writ­ing? Their work ethic or how they live their lives? How can you emu­late those qual­i­ties into your writing/workflow/lifestyle? How can you blend char­ac­ter­is­tics of all your favorite writ­ers to become uniquely you?

8. Steal Like an Artist! 

9. Shake it up! What style do you nor­mally write in? Blog posts? Sci­ence fic­tion? Romance? Well shake up your brain by try­ing a com­pletely unfa­mil­iar genre. (& who knows, maybe you’ll become a really bril­liant sci fi poet).

10. Writ­ing is a sacred act! Write as if every word that flows out is a cos­mic prayer or uni­ver­sal sacra­ment. Write because it’s LIFE.

11. Par­tic­i­pate in Nanow­rimo (dur­ing any month!). Even though crank­ing a novel out in a month is tough & most likely wont pro­duce the best work, it’s a really fun exer­cise that chal­lenges the mind, stretches the imag­i­na­tion, & will give you a really sat­is­fy­ing sense of accomplishment.

writing in nature

12. Write in nature. Work­ing in a dif­fer­ent envi­ron­ment can be men­tally stim­u­lat­ing & work­ing out­side can feel really good. The fresh air, flow­ers bloom­ing or leaves chang­ing color, notic­ing the pat­terns in nature, will all help the process. Try writ­ing under a full moon, next to the vast­ness of the ocean or sit­ting on the for­est floor. Don’t under­es­ti­mate the power of the earth when it comes to cre­ative genius

13. Scent your paper with essen­tial oils or per­fume to tan­ta­lize your senses. Scent is the sense most linked to mem­ory, so let’s say this par­tic­u­lar per­fume reminds you of your best friend & that makes you feel really happy– spray your paper (lightly) with that per­fume & breathe in that happy feel­ing every time you write.

14. Lifestream! Lifestream­ing is basi­cally writ­ing dig­i­tal spells of abun­dance & grat­i­tude & pos­i­tiv­ity & any other joy­ous vibes. Check out Jes­sica Mullen, the guru of lifestream­ing, for more information.

15. If you KNOW you are the uni­verse, then rest easy, the uni­verse will be writ­ing through you. It’s a cre­ative act & all cre­ative acts stem from the pri­mor­dial cre­ative energy of the life. So it’s all good, relax & write with the power of the uni­verse on your side.

16. This is my favorite magic tip! Make it be easy! Write because it’s fun & feels good & because you want to! Beyond that, set your­self up for suc­cess. I’m more likely to pub­lish my writ­ing if I have it all typed up, as opposed to let­ting all my hand­writ­ten notes & arti­cles pile up. Develop sys­tems to make the process eas­ier! Have a col­lec­tion of posts writ­ten & edited so on days when you just can’t get any­thing done, you’ll still have some­thing to share. What­ever you can do to make the whole process eas­ier, then do it!

17. Fol­low what­ever inter­ests you. End­lessly seek what inspires you. Take notes on any­thing that sparks your curios­ity. Never stop learn­ing– the more you know, the more you have to write about, the more detail you have to enrich your writ­ing, the more you know, the more con­nec­tions you can make between ideas.

Writ­ing can set you free, but often what sets us free takes the most out of us. These are my go-to ideas on how to infuse my writ­ing life with cre­ative zest, sus­tain my spark & make magic happen! 

What ways of adding magic have you come up with? Writ­ing spe­cific or gen­eral cre­ative magic, I’d love to hear them all! 

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17 ways I make magic happen: winter edition

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I per­son­ally love winter.

Its cold & elec­tric, filled with hol­i­day par­ties, friends in town, lights in trees, my birth­day! But my love of win­ter isn’t uni­ver­sally rec­i­p­ro­cated, so I thought I’d share how I infuse this dark time of year with as much light & magic as possible.

1. Add lights to every­thing! This time of year means cheap Christ­mas lights & I’m all for that! I’m a big advo­cate of year long tree illu­mi­na­tion (the lights & sil­hou­ettes are so mys­te­ri­ously beau­ti­ful!) Get indoor LED lights in glass bowls for diy lamps or string them across book­shelves, your work­space, the coun­ters, your headboard.

2. Set an inten­tion to have an amaz­ing win­ter or write down all the things you intend to do this sea­son (I intend to dress bravely or I intend to dance at hol­i­day par­ties, etc).

3. Win­ter is one of the most inter­est­ing times of year, as it is a sea­son pri­mar­ily deal­ing with death. The death before the big spring renewal, the reminder of the cycle of destruction/creation, death/rebirth, the ulti­mate dual­ity. Win­ter then, is nat­u­rally an excel­lent time for con­tem­plat­ing end­ings & begin­nings. I spend the whole month of Decem­ber reverb­ing. I have 31 ques­tions (How did the year go? What went wrong? How did I spend my money? How did my work improve/stagnate?) that I answer every day, mak­ing for a com­plete end of the year eval­u­a­tion. This helps me refo­cus & cre­ate pri­or­i­ties for the year ahead, as opposed to just run of the mill res­o­lu­tions that are likely to fail.

4. Go out! I think I have a ten­dency to glam­or­ize win­ter nights, maybe because the night starts at 5pm or maybe the said lights in said trees. Win­ter coats & boots & New Years Eve dresses really aren’t help­ing either. It may be cold, but it’s still a glit­tery thrilling time! There’s an influx of old friends & fam­ily to catch up with, so throw on your favorite clothes & socialize!

5. If at all pos­si­ble, sun bathe as much as you absolutely can. We are all in some way, affected by SAD. So get sun­light when you can, even for just 10 min­utes at lunch, go outside!

6. Jump on the Novem­ber grat­i­tude band­wagon (See if you can sus­tain it all year, really!) In honor of Thanks­giv­ing there’s a zil­lion peo­ple post­ing a thing they’re grate­ful for every day on Face­book, but you can write it in a jour­nal, lifestream, keep a things I love Thurs­day list, or join the SOL­Diers 99 things posts. Keep­ing in mind feel­ings of abun­dance & bless­ings is a known mood improver & cat­a­lyst for sus­tain­ing hap­pi­ness. This is, of course, vital no mat­ter the sea­son, but espe­cially so con­sid­er­ing the dark­ness, cold & chaos of winter.

7. Some sug­ges­tions will make their way in var­i­ous incar­na­tions onto all of the 17 Ways I add Magic posts, because they’re the ones I really love. This is one of those. Dance! Any amount of exer­cise boosts endor­phins in the brain, keeps your body fluid in frigid times, & warms you up on cold days. Take a dose of danc­ing when­ever you feel blue or cold.

8. Per­son­ally, this is my sum­mer tip as Houston’s heat is renowned & HORRIBLE, but for those with oppo­site sen­si­bil­i­ties I’ll include it here. If it’s too cold to ven­ture out­side, NOW is the per­fect time to lock your­self up in self imposed exile & get to work! Write or paint or make music, set up a web­site, delve into major projects, what­ever your work is. Rel­ish in how mis­er­able it is out­side by har­ness­ing that power into action.

9. Win­ter is also the per­fect sea­son for magic baths. Think Himalayan bath salts, essen­tial oils, lush bath bombs, bub­bles, can­dles lit & lights out, the sooth­ing sounds of water or music.

10. Engage in bonfire/fireplace action. In my cir­cle of friends, win­ter marks trips to fire­wood lots, sit­ting around firepits lis­ten­ing to music, feel­ing enchanted by the flames, it’s really so much bet­ter than watch­ing tv.

11. Take your­self on an artists date

Artists dates are assigned play. The Artist Date is a once-weekly, fes­tive, solo expe­di­tion to explore some­thing that inter­ests you. The Artist Date need not be overtly “artis­tic” — think mis­chief more than mas­tery. Artist Dates fire up the imag­i­na­tion. They spark whimsy. They encour­age play. Since art is about the play of ideas, they feed our cre­ative work by replen­ish­ing our inner well of images and inspi­ra­tion. When choos­ing an Artist Date, it is good to ask your­self, “what sounds fun?” — and then allow your­self to try it. — Julia cameron

There’s so much beauty in the win­ter, sil­hou­ettes of bare­boned trees against the sun­set, ici­cles, candy apple col­ored leaves sprin­kled on the ground, take a cam­era on a win­ter photo shoot. Go to a museum or see the peren­nial hol­i­day clas­sic, the Nut­cracker. Buy some really good foun­tain pens or oil paints as a hol­i­day present to your­self, or get your nails done in a win­tery theme (if that’s yo thang’). Treat your­self this winter.

12. Tackle a big project. There’s a rea­son so many peo­ple par­tic­i­pate in Nanow­rimo- it forces you to get over ideas of per­fec­tion & get to work, it feels good to accom­plish some­thing large, helps develop develop new habits & last­ing will power. Not to men­tion the thou­sands of oth­ers par­tic­i­pat­ing, mak­ing for a net­work of sup­port online. You don’t nec­es­sar­ily have to par­take in Nanow­rimo to enjoy the effects & ben­e­fits though. Feel free to decide on your own project. It just has to be BIG & maybe even crazy. Set para­me­ters, goals & dead­lines, tell peo­ple, cre­ate a sup­port sys­tem & maybe even find a buddy to join you. Self dis­ci­pline, willpower, & con­fi­dence are built on suc­cesses & accom­plish­ments. Make it work!

13. What’s bet­ter in win­ter than curl­ing up with a book? These are some of the best books I’ve read this year: Incog­nito: The Secret Lives of the Brain, Willpower: Redis­cov­er­ing the Great­est Human Strength, The Hap­pi­ness Project, The Tao of Physics, Imag­ine: How Cre­ativ­ity Works (yes even amidst  the con­tro­versy I still find this to be an excel­lent book!),  & Steal Like an Artist. All really excel­lent non­fic­tion reads to get yo win­ter learnin’ on.

14. The hol­i­days are inher­ently mag­i­cal, seeped in tra­di­tion & rit­ual. You can har­ness that magic: read about Sat­ur­na­lia/Yule, the win­ter Fes­ti­vals of Lights & ori­gins of Christ­mas. Learn about other cul­tures Christ­mas tra­di­tions, or Hanukkah, or Kwanza, or maybe your more of a New Years/Lunar New Years per­son (I am!). Learn about one hol­i­day or many hol­i­days & actively cre­ate your own per­sonal tra­di­tion to infuse the sea­son with depth, pur­pose & spirit. Use what­ever res­onates on a per­sonal level, even if it’s a lit­tle bit o’ everything.

15. Find a new inspi­ra­tion. Dis­cover some­one you admire, learn about them (read their work, study biogra­phies, learn about their art) & see if you can emu­late the behav­iors you admire. I think this win­ter I’ll be look­ing into the life & essays of Michel de Montaigne.

16. Get into Game of Thrones. It’s a per­fect cold weather show (“Win­ter is com­ing!”), incred­i­bly well done & absolutely enter­tain­ing!  Now is the per­fect time to get into it & catch up before sea­son 3 airs next spring. You can also use this win­ter to read the books, I per­son­ally, will be start­ing book 2 just as soon as I fin­ish my cur­rent reads. (If you’re already a fan…um..let’s talk!)

17. Prac­tice per­spec­tive change. When­ever you start feel­ing gloomy or anx­ious, focus on the pos­i­tive: all the things in your life that you’re grate­ful for, all the abun­dance, any­thing at all in your life that’s going right. Even if you’re stuck in traf­fic, feel grate­ful for the time you have to your­self, the music you have, know­ing how sweet it will feel to be home, or any­thing that works for you.

What are the magic things you do to get your jol­lies on in the cold months? 

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A definition of Magic

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I use the term magic

…well prob­a­bly to an obses­sive degree. So I’d like to take a moment to clar­ify what I feel magic is.

Magic is more of a feel­ing than a con­crete defin­able con­cept. It is the true mean­ing of the word awe-some, inspir­ing awe, a thing which cre­ates a feel­ing of beauty, mys­tery, won­der & intrigue.

Magic is a para­dox, so here are con­crete exam­ples of what I find to be of a magic qual­ity: the uni­verse & the whole damn mys­tery from quan­tum the­ory to Bud­dhism. The aurora Bore­alis, sto­ries, words because they frame our real­ity, lights in trees, star light & can­dle light & fire light. Learn­ing, cre­at­ing art, the sky & trees & places, meditation/prayer/ritual/the typ­i­cal sacred sacra­ments, self aware­ness. Nat­ural fra­grances, Rumi, sea salt, love, decid­ing how to live & how to act & how to believe on your own. Doing what you love. Dawn & dusk.

Magic is a way of life, a way of trans­form­ing our exis­tence, a fiery spark of inner aware­ness. Acknowl­edg­ing the uni­ver­sal– inter­nal & exter­nal pow­ers of cre­ation & destruc­tion. Magic is like the prover­bial force, an all per­va­sive way of being, with it’s light & dark aspects in con­stant tur­moil, churn­ing our cre­ative struggle.

Magic & sci­ence are the same thing. Some say sci­ence is magic explained, but I find even the expla­na­tions can impart a sense of magic.

Magic has always been & will always be.

Magic is an elec­tri­fy­ing f o r c e.

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17 ways I make magic happen: cleaning edition

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My room, in the process of cleaning.

I spent the last week doing a thor­ough inten­sive clean. It was stren­u­ous, sticky, & at times even hor­ren­dously smelly. But it was 100% worth it in the end.

Most of my life I hated to do any kind of house­work (& was often grounded & goaded by par­ents as a result) but now I under­stand a fun­da­men­tal truth that prac­ti­tion­ers of feng shui & min­i­mal­ism have been pro­claim­ing: a clean space is equated to a clean mind. Artists & cre­atives are also inher­ent mess mak­ers, so the clean space rep­re­sents the pos­si­bil­ity of cre­ative mess. Keep it clean between work for max­i­mum men­tal clar­ity & pos­i­tive men­tal energy, & then go crazy in cre­ative chaos, genius!>

So here are 17 tips for infus­ing magic into some­thing most con­sider rather mundane.

1. Set a inten­tion for your clean­ing ses­sion. “I intend to clean out stag­nate energy.” “I intend to use this clean­ing as a chance for active med­i­ta­tion.” “I intend to not stop till I’ve orga­nized this cab­i­net.” etc.

2. Choose days that are astro­log­i­cally sound for clean­ing, detox & renewal. Even if you don’t believe that plan­e­tary vibes effect you, you can trick your brain into believ­ing it, so you lit­er­ally start to feel like you’re clean­ing into the flow.

3. Try some feng shui.

4. Really thor­oughly go through every­thing, spend a day (or how­ever long it might take) to elim­i­nate any­thing that doesn’t vibe mag­i­cal in your life. Donate old clothes, burn old love notes, dust under the bed, try & elim­i­nate junk drawers.

5. I learned this tip from The Hap­pi­ness Project. Have one shelf in your room/house that’s com­pletely empty, always. The empti­ness rep­re­sents pos­si­bil­ity, open­ness, neg­a­tive space (& the point of neg­a­tive space is that it can hold the positive).

6. Use as many nat­ural clean­ers as pos­si­ble (recipes!)

7. Reor­ga­nize, cre­ate new sys­tems if nec­es­sary, add beauty.

The box of beer where I store my most sacred art supplies.

8. Treat your sacred tools as sacred. Clean your paint­brushes & choose a magic home (a silk bag? a gor­geous jar? an awe­some beer box?), throw away crappy pens (invest in really life chang­ing pens!), what­ever is sacred to you, treat it as if you’re a priest/ess & this is your tem­ple, so treat them with respect!

9. Think about renewal & fresh starts while you clean. Really pour pos­i­tive vibes out as you dust out old neg­a­tive, stale energy.

10. If you start to feel tired or slug­gish or sore, take a break, drink some water, put some music on, & dance as you clean. It’ll loosen up tense mus­cles, help pre­vent back pain, & put you in rhythm while cleaning.

11. Make or buy essen­tial oil room spray. As you spray it, think of puri­fy­ing the room of all neg­a­tiv­ity. I use a laven­der lemon one that smells like a refresh­ing blast of cit­rus heaven. It’s my secret magic clean­ing potion. (Burn­ing sage or other herbs around the house really amplify this!)

12. Sprin­kle sea salt around the doors & win­dows (& walls if pos­si­ble, but unless you’re just mov­ing in, sans fur­ni­ture, this prob­a­bly isn’t all that doable). This acts as a pro­tec­tive bar­rier around your house (& helps keep anx­ious minds at ease).

13. I love to hang up Tibetan prayer flags, man­dalas, dream catch­ers, inspi­ra­tion boards, etc all around my room, to remind me to stay positive/ vibe happy (plus they’re all really col­or­ful & beautiful!).

14. Set up a space for a per­sonal altar. Or if you already have one, clean, pol­ish, & purify it.

15. Wash & shine your shoes!!

16. Get some crys­tals, clean & charge them & put them around your liv­ing space. You can read up on crys­tal sym­bol­ism, or go by your gut!

17. Bless your space, feel grate­ful for hav­ing a place to live (even if it’s not per­fect, you have a home, which makes you very very lucky).

Do you have any good juju clean­ing tips to share?

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Why

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I show up to my note­books, to my paint­brushes, I show up to the dig­i­tal realm. I show up in my dreams. I show up to my bath­tub and my bed at night. All for the same reason.

I show up to trans­form worlds. I show up to tran­scend worlds. To tran­scend time and space. To break bar­ri­ers within myself and e-v-o-l-v-e!

Some­times, I’ll be star­ing out at the trees at dusk. I’ll feel infi­nite and beau­ti­ful and ALIVE. I’ll feel the waves rise and fall. Star­ing out into the stars, the vast expanse sur­round­ing us, elud­ing us. I show up so I can cul­ti­vate this feel­ing. Ethe­real and yet con­tained. All or noth­ing. Here and there/ Here nor there.

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Ways to Spark Magic

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Nep­tune has moved in Pisces which is pretty mag­i­cal if you ask me. It’s got me think­ing about all sorts of mag­i­cal things. Incor­po­rat­ing more magic into our lives is essen­tial in devel­op­ing Sub­li­ma­tion.

I’ve been play­ing with my new phone-the abil­ity to make art, draw, and take ethe­real pho­tos all from my fin­ger tips seems pretty darned mag­i­cal. I actu­ally feel like I’m in Harry Pot­ter, my pic­tures are mov­ing! In Awe­some Your LIfe, Car­olyn Elliot invites us to exper­i­ment with writ­ing and deci­pher­ing a let­ter from the heart. I did so over a series of days and felt an excited trig­ger­ing, dare I say mag­i­cal, burst of emo­tion. My heart also sug­gested I carry a tal­is­man, which I’ve been doing.

For Christ­mas I got a wand (awe­some!) and my phone has voice mem­ory for fast dream recall (writ­ing in that groggy state often slows down the spon­ta­neous dream recall). All synchronocities-which also feels, you guessed it, magic. My jour­nals are all sacred for their capac­ity to hold my writ­ing and art. Lamps, street lights, trees. Magic is loom­ing everywhere!

But what about things that aren’t tra­di­tion­ally of the magic aura? Busi­ness and money and com­merce, shop­ping, and house­work? I’m won­der­ing about how to incor­po­rate magic into these areas of myself too. I’ve been read­ing Rich Dad Poor Dad, I started using MINT, while at the same time I’m fin­ish­ing books like Awe­some Your Life and Tantra. I’m begin­ning to notice con­nec­tions. The mun­dane holds it’s own magic, ya know?

So this is what I’m sit­ting with. How to add more magic. In tra­di­tional magic-y ways, and in the more typ­i­cally west­ern soci­ety ways I’m engaged in. It’s pretty fun! Adding more magic in any form is always beau­ti­fully delicious!

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