inner self

The Magic Shop

The Magic Shop

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Did you know that you can find your dreams in the magic shop? It is where you can be whatever you want to be. It’s a magical place where you can create the you that you want to become; the reality that you want to live. However, it is not a physical place; there is no address to look up. But it is always accessible to those who believe in its magic.

The Magical Mind

We all know the power of the human mind. It has sparked many inventions that greatly benefited humanity. Most of us however don’t believe in the abilities of our own minds. We are always in awe at the great minds who made great innovations but we seldom look to our own accomplishments. Most of the time, we use our mind to focus on the mistakes of our past instead of imagining what we want for our future.

Sometimes you change your mind… Sometimes your mind changes you.

Binyomin Scheiman

When we control what our mind focuses on, we can change our life. There is a mind-body connection technique that athletes use to practice. They imagine what they would do to win their game through visualization. You too can do that. Imagine yourself achieving your goal. How does success look and feel? What sounds do you hear when you realize your goal? Use all your senses in your visualization so you can teach your mind to focus on this version of reality that you want.

The Mysterious Heart

Emotions are at the core of our life experiences. It is often our emotions that lead us to make certain decisions even if they don’t make sense to our mind. When we follow these sudden urges and impulses, especially if they’re negative emotions, we often regret them afterwards. The good news is, just like our mind, we can learn to control our emotions and become better at how we process them. We can also control how we express our emotions towards other people.

Your intellect maybe confused, but your emotions never lie to you.

Roger Ebert

Our heart is considered to be the place where our emotions come from. Have you ever experienced a conflict between what your mind tells you and what you truly feel? This is because our emotions reflect our truest intentions. It also gives us hints of other people’s intentions towards us. We often refer to this as a “gut feeling” or intuition. In the end, our intuition turns out to be right. The sad fact is, not everyone trusts their own gut feeling or intuition. Learning to trust our feelings is an important step in changing our life. It helps us believe in our self and in our own abilities to reach our goals.

The Power of The Magic Shop

The magic shop is a therapeutic technique used in psychology to help individuals heal their inner wounds. Some people may be in a negative state of mind or are feeling confused and overwhelmed. The magic shop is where they can process such issues safely with the help of a therapist.

The psychological wares of the Shop are created out of real experience and brought about through fantasy, wishes, desire, faith, and hope. The products that people seek are custom-made. It is extremely important that each person get something that fits uniquely, or gets rid of something distasteful or modifies it constructively.

Earl Koile*

The magic shop is a place where you can imagine whatever you want, however you want. Here, you can express your truest intentions without fear of judgment from others. You can always go into the magic shop whenever you want because it is a space that you always carry with you. All you need is to close your eyes, open your heart and focus on creating what you want. It is a place where you can transform things into something better.

There are not many basic rules except that people pay for things they want to get or things they want to get rid of.

Earl Koile*

When you go into the magic shop, you do not only go to create what you want. You also need to give up what you don’t want in exchange. This process helps you to clarify what you truly want and don’t want. Your feelings will guide you in making your choices as you go through your creation or transformation process.

The Magic is Within You

Although this technique is used by therapists; it can also be useful to us in our daily lives. The magic shop is a place we can always go to when we are feeling down and want to cheer up. We can open the shop to take time to process our feelings and set our intentions for the future. We can use it to discover more of our selves. The most important part of this process is to keep an open mind and an open heart.

The magic in the shop is the magic within you. It is only waiting for you to use it. How powerful your magic is depends on how much you can believe and what your true intentions are. Once you go out of the magic shop, remember to use the compassion, kindness and understanding you extended to yourself in the shop towards others. This is one of the most effective ways to help you manifest the magic from the shop into your reality.

If you already have a meditation practice, then going into the magic shop would be easier for you. Before you go in, ask your self: What do I wish to acquire in the magic shop? What would I trade for it? How do I want to transform my life? What would I do to achieve it? Good luck and may the magic of the shop create miracles for your life.


*Quotes from The Magic Shop: The Therapist Masquerades as A Shopkeeper
Featured Image: Original Photo by Almos Bechtold on Unsplash.

Posted by H.J. Rangas in Spiritual, 0 comments
How To Embrace Your Shadow Self

How To Embrace Your Shadow Self

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Have you heard of the dark side? Each person has a dark side. In psychology, it is called the shadow self. Every society has norms or certain regulations that people follow. These rules define what behaviors are considered good or bad. Because of this, humans learn to act in accordance with these morally accepted behaviors. In consequence, this created a world of personas wherein people project an image of their better selves. Social masks became predominant to the point that it is getting harder to know if a person is being sincere or not. Norms are good because they keep society in order. However, because of this, people hide or suppress a part of themselves that they think will not be accepted by society. If repressed for so long, sooner or later, it can create havoc or even violence. Thus, it is important to learn how to embrace your shadow self.

Your shadow self grows each time you repress it. Once it sets itself free, it may lead to broken relationships. Sometimes, it even leads to physical illnesses. Rather than hide, the dark side is meant to be acknowledged. It is important for humans to be aware of their dark side because it is part of who they are as persons.

So how to embrace your shadow? To embrace your shadow, you need to practice shadow work. Shadow work is a spiritual journey. Your shadow is a part of your wounded self. Thus, practicing shadow work will make you whole again. Here are the steps on how to embrace your shadow self:

1.Begin with Self-Love

Begin your shadow work with self-love. It will be difficult to explore your negative side without belief in yourself. Believe that you can do it and that you are worthy of receiving love and blessing in our life.

2. Get to Know Your Shadow Self

The next thing to do is learn to identify what your shadows are and how they are manifesting themselves. You see, when we deny an aspect of ourselves, it does not disappear. Instead, it stays within us. Sooner or later, our dark side is going to push its way out. So, how to spot them? Well, your shadow self is literally your dark side, the negative aspects of your personality such as:

  • anger
  • jealousy
  • fear / phobia
  • pride
  • greed
  • addiction
  • victim mentality
  • insecurity
  • people pleaser
  • imposter
  • selfishness
  • prejudice

How did you feel while reading the list above? If there is any word that makes you feel uncomfortable, then that is your shadow. Unfortunately, you cannot ignore it.

Projection Of Shadow Self

Now, let’s dig deeper. Ask yourself, what qualities of other people annoy you the most? Whatever negative qualities that we have yet hide deep within ourselves, we see in others. You will not be bothered at all unless you yourself is like that. In psychology, you call this projection.

Unless we do conscious work on it, the shadow is almost always projected: that is, it is neatly laid on someone or something else so we do not have to take responsibility for it.

– Robert Johnson

So the next time you get irritated by someone, ask yourself why are you bothered? Then know that it is your shadow talking to you.

Patterns

Do you feel that you are a stuck in an aspect in your life? It is like the same problems kept on repeating over and over again. That is what you call patterns in life. Patterns happen because you have not yet learned the lesson associated with it.

Now ask yourself, what are the patterns in your life? They give clues to your shadow.

3. Face Your Emotions

Once you have identified your shadow, the next thing to do is pay attention to your feelings. Ask yourself what are you feeling and why are you feeling that way? There are always reasons why you feel a certain way.

Facing your emotions can be tough especially if you have learned to mute them or disassociate yourselves from them but it is something that you must do in order to heal yourself. For example, if a person hurt you in the past, it is time to forgive that person. You can never be truly happy if you continue to hold grudges. Face your emotions and own them.

4. Express Your Shadow

Instead of suppressing them, you can actually use certain therapeutic ways to express them. Psychologists normally refer to them as art therapy. These activities include:

  • Composing Music
  • Journaling
  • Meditating
  • Painting
  • Writing / Blogging

Are you up to the challenge?


Feature Image by Pexels

Posted by A.L. Jonas in Emotional, 0 comments