What is the difference between magical thinking and believing in magic? Let me begin this by making it really clear what I mean when I say “magic”. I’m not talking about pulling rabbits out of hats or Harry Potter. I want to talk about the energy of magic and the 2 ways I notice people embrace it. One of these mindsets can be beneficial and the other is disempowering… so let me explain:
Believing in magic resonates with the vibration of expansion and possibility. When we can embrace possibility, all kinds of manifesting magic starts to happen.
We get into a state of wonderment and faith. We try things out, follow our intuition and meet life with curiosity. We notice synchronicities, we have our eyes open to beauty and we’re able to delight in these things when we find them.
I’m a big advocate of believing in magic… because it brings fun, whimsy and open-heartedness to our experiences. You hold the door open for good things to happen… and very often good things walk right on in.
But there’s a big difference between believing in magic and magical thinking.
Here are a few phrases that illustrate magical thinking:
“It was meant to be. The Universe will save me. The Universe will make things happen. If it’s meant to be, the Universe will deliver it. The Universe must have had different plans for me…” You get the gist.
Now I realize that there are a lot of romantic, faith-promoting themes found in this mindset, and it’s often part of the soul purpose journey to start seeking the signs, looking for the synchronicities and having faith that the Universe, God, the Divine (however you like to think of it) has your back. The Universe does have your back, but it’s a co-creative force that works with you… it doesn’t grant wishes like a fairy godmother and it’s not the boss of you.. it responds to your will.
Magical Thinking can be quite disempowering mainly because we end up waiting. (cue Disney’s Snow White singing: “One day my prince will come… “.)
We don’t set intentions, we don’t take the actions we need to take, and we often miss opportunities.
We also don’t give ourselves credit for the amazing things we do create. I’ve watched people work their butts off to meet an amazing goal only to say when it all came together…”(sigh) it was just meant to be.”
We can miss the real magic that’s happening because we’re distracted by trying to figure out what that random meeting with a person we knew in college was all about. (Sometimes it really is just a random meeting- maybe the real gift was that it was a nice surprise) We misinterpret the impulses of our intuition and end up undermining our security or creating a lot of drama with an ungrounded leap of blindfaith because we expected the Universe to catch us.
You are the creator of your experiences and believing in magic helps you get into a dance with the Universe and collaborate. Magical Thinking often leads to abdicating responsibility and hoping that some magical force of good will come in and rescue you.
As an empowered creative soul, embrace the magic… but remember that the Universe responds to your will and you’re in the driver’s seat of your life. You can go anywhere you choose, but you have to take the wheel.