So you want more joy and happiness in your life? This book shows one process for raising your happiness thermometer so that you experience more moments of joy. Sherrie and Priya take you on their journey of spreading magical moments boxes around the globe. Sprinkle your life with loving magic by sharing with your family, your friends, and your spiritual extended family. Create Magical Moments inspires others with a sense of hope and optimism that there are people who care deeply about them. This book reflects upon loving others as they are. Some chapter titles include: Chapter 1 Joy for My Heart and Soul Chapter 2 Fun Process ~ Sharing Your Abundance Chapter 4 Family Fun Involvement Chapter 5 Creative Passion and Play Chapter 11 Friendship Fun Dive into the magical happiness tidal wave by sharing with the people you love! www.wisewomaninwoods.com www.randombloggz.com

CREATE MAGICAL MOMENTS

sharing your love with othersBy Sherrie Hay Priya Tuli

BALBOA PRESS

Copyright © 2011 Sherrie Hay
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4525-4677-3

Contents

Introduction and Definitions.......................................ixChapter 1 Joy for My Heart and Soul................................1Chapter 2 Fun Process ~ Sharing your abundance.....................12Chapter 3 Communicating Purpose ~..................................22Chapter 4 Family Fun Involvement...................................31Chapter 5 Creative Passion and Playing.............................39Chapter 6 Healthy Fun..............................................46Chapter 7 Partnership Playfulness..................................55Chapter 8 Transformation of Life's Treats..........................65Chapter 9 Growth in Your Garden....................................74Chapter 10 Career and Community Fun................................82Chapter 11 Friendship Fun..........................................92Chapter 12 Themes for Your Soul Song...............................101Appendix A Your Road Map to Your Life..............................111About the Authors Why We Write this!...............................115Selected Bibliography..............................................119

Chapter One

Joy for My Heart and Soul

Capturing the Magic ... is this a rock, or a precious fossil?

Your joy factor will remain constant as you are continually refining your ideas of what you want, and that's why it is so important for you to get everybody else out of the equation. (Abraham)

Capturing the magical moments of pure joy! Do you use a butterfly net? Do you track down a unicorn? Do you chase rainbows? Do you go deliberately treasure hunting? Do you see angels around others? Did you notice the tiny fairies dancing among the flowers? Do you stop to see the clouds drawing pictures in the brilliant blue sky? All the above are magical moments that bring us Moments of Joy.

Understand that we deliberately can increase our Moments of Joy in life. It's been called the Pleasure Principle. It's also called the Happiness IQ quotient by psychologists. By re-capturing those magical moments we had as children, we increase our own joy or pleasure in our life. When we do that we improve our general overall health by simply feeling better!

One way to do that is recapture the feeling of joy with your own butterfly net. Or perhaps you prefer to use a lasso and throw it around the feeling of happiness. Return yourself to those feelings of happiness, joy and bliss by creating a Magic Moments box for someone special in your life.

You see, a huge heart part of all this is all about ME. I'm having such fun with the planning of what can go into the Magic Moments box. In astrology, the first house is all about who I AM as a person. The twelve chapters of this book represent the themes found in astrology. Astrological houses tend to accurately reflect life psychological themes we all encounter as we cycle through the patterns in our lives.

Consequently, the first chapter is all about your feelings when you start collecting something for a Magic Moments box. I must be kind to myself. When I am kind to me, I am having fun with the ME-ness of life. Then, I want to share that happy fun feeling with you, my friend. Understand this point clearly. We have to fulfill our own emotional well before we possibly can share much with anyone else.

Many people tend not to very good at refilling their emotional wells. Women especially keep on taking out water from their emotional wells and giving it away. They give it to their children, to their grandchildren, to their husbands, to their friends. However they seldom give it to themselves. The consequence of this behavior is rampant depression and a feeling of unwell-ness. Why? They have neglected themselves. They have given it all away and their emotional wells are empty. While their best intention was to help out those whom they love, they neglected the "I AM important too"! In other words, they forgot to pamper themselves as well.

For some women this lack of self pampering can bring about years of depression or feelings of emptiness. One woman I have been counseling recently has been on anti-depressants and sleeping pills for over ten years. She didn't understand why her life felt so empty. She has raised successfully four children to adulthood. She has a successful back ground of working as an office manager for a fairly large company. Prior to that, she had her own thriving business as a hairdresser. Two marriages later and she still feels empty. So having children or a husband or partner didn't fix life for her either. Instead she has to fix it for herself.

In essence, this particular lady was the poster pal of the multi-tasking woman who can do it all. She was the master of feminine efficiency. After all, isn't that what we ladies are lead to believe? We can have it all. Yes we can; if we keep our own emotional well full first! Yet this lady has a feeling of emptiness that has nothing to do with the empty nest syndrome. She has recently manifested dis-ease in her life. Why? There is one simple reason. She is not at ease within her own self. Nor is she at ease with her true soul or spirit. In other words, she is out of synchronization with her mind, body, spirit and emotions.

I gave her a simple phrase to remember and sing as her moment by moment mantra in her head. "It's all about me". Actually I went one step further recently and found a fridge magnet with those words on it for her. You can paint the words on a gratitude rock for yourself if it will help you to remember to pamper yourself. Two months later, she has thrown away the depression and sleeping pills. There are other tools she has been given on this journey towards her total health. The most important tool is she has begun slowly to refill her emotional well that she spent years emptying.

The first strategy or tool in this woman's toolbox, is her willingness to work on herself. No one could do that for her. She is a naturally caring and compassionate giver. However, once she became aware of what she was doing to herself, she began to shift slowly. First she established clear boundaries for the people around her by telling herself exactly what she wanted to feel in her world.

Her second strategy was learning to say no. No she was not going to babysit every time her sons called. Then she had to establish boundaries with her sister. No she was not going to drop everything when her sister called. She has to establish boundaries with her friends. No she was not going to always listen to them when they needed a shoulder to cry on or complain to. She had to be willing to put herself first before her kids, before her sister, and before her closest friends. Hence establishing clear boundaries for everyone in her world became her second most important tool in her toolbox. She could never have done it if she did not understand the first strategy or tool "It's all about me". She first had to understand that she shared this habitual trait with all water sign people.

Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces sun water sign people have a habit of doing this. However, moon in Cancer, Scorpio or Pisces give their emotions away to others drop by emotional drop. These people often feel in order for others to love them, they just simply drain away all their time and energy to anyone who comes expressing an emotional want of any kind. They frequently become enslaved to this leaky faucet dripping emotional habit. However, raising their consciousness or awareness is the first step for these people to take back their own power.

I'm on a mission of helping women to learn to refill their emotional wells. We Yaya Sisterhood have to encourage each other to empower ourselves. This Magic Moments book is one tool that I know will help women. Here's why. When you choose to focus on feelings of joy, happiness and looking for miracle magic to show up in your life every day, it will happen. You have chosen therefore to daily focus on the intention of those feelings. Energy flows where attention goes.

In other words, you are the writer of your own story. You are the artist for your own life painting. You do have control over designing your perfect life. You can have it all. Yes you can! But first you must be willing to ...

Capture the magic! It provides us with a diversion from everyday living. It helps change the sameness of life by providing a magical feeling when you think about the Magic Moments box. Go with the glow flow of energy. And just feel the pleasure when you are treasure hunting for your Magic Moments box gift. That truly is half the fun of this adventure.

When you choose to transform yourself by breathing new life into your spirit, you are bringing prana or the breath of life into your sacred being. Understand clearly when you begin with your feelings, you are not being selfish. Instead you are birthing a new you. You are like the springtime with new beginnings stirring. That's what beginning to think about a new Magic Moments box does for your soul. It literally changes and charges the energy around you into uplifting positive energy! Life becomes more meaningful with the promise of new birth.

So consider the beginning of creating your Magic Moments box as a new birth. It's a new day for your spirit. You have a clean slate. So what are you going to write on that slate? You have a new canvas. What are you as artist of your life going to paint on it? You are telling a totally new story about who you are. You are transforming yourself. Name the feeling you want to have. Then intensify your feeling by anticipating how the other person is also going to feel when you share your gift. You are empowering yourself to be a new birthed magically conscious being! You are intending that you will increase your joy quotient by choosing to include magic into your life.

The beautiful thing about this is we can do it many times over. Each time we choose to create a Magic Moments box, we are having a different type of experience ourselves. We become more self aware or conscious of what brings us happiness, joy and magic into our lives. When we become more conscious of this process, we increase our opportunities of having these awesome feelings show up in our lives time and time again. We are conscious co-creators of the magical moments in our lives.

Quantum physics and psychologists now are studying how the power of intentions can increase the quality of life in our everyday living experience. In Power versus Force, Dr. David Hawkins clearly points out that when we live our lives through thought consciousness, we increase the opportunity to have those feelings manifest in our lives. When you consciously choose to bring about more happiness and joy, you have helped yourself capture the magic of childhood feelings. You bring it back to your soul.

As I am writing this book, I'm also creating a Magic Moments box for a special friend. He is a bachelor in his 60's and has no family who keeps in touch with him. He seldom receives gifts of any kind from anyone. I told him one day I was creating a "Just Because I like you" Magic Moments box for him. No response. As I began to pick up little things for his Magic Moments box, I would email him telling him I found something to add to his Magic Moments box. No response. Finally, after my fifth email, he told me he no longer dared to allow himself to anticipate something like a gift as he had been so disappointed in the past. Ah, then I knew I had chosen just the right recipient of a special magical box.

He had left behind the joy of childlike anticipation. It was too painful for him. He now is becoming excited about what the Magic Moments box might contain. He is now guessing what the clues and hints might really be. Remember your quivery feelings when your parents dropped hints for your birthday or Christmas? Remember those feelings of anticipation just before your childhood birthday? When someone can anticipate an unexpected just because gift, we have increased their consciousness and awareness of what being joyful might be. That's half the Magic Moments box fabulous fun!

It's that feedback loop that he had begun to respond to. As children, we learn our basic feedback loop from our primary caregivers, usually our primary parent. In most cases this is our mothers. That feedback loop also helps us to establish our own personal boundaries throughout our life.

According to Goleman's book on Social Intelligence, the latest brain research shows the feedback we get from our parents as young children, affects how we respond to joy and happiness for our entire lives. The great news is once we are aware of our early learned behavior, we as adults can choose to change it. We end up rewiring our brains to allow ourselves to feel joy and happiness. I believe we also rewire our hearts to permit positive heart feelings to flow. In other words, we have to retrain our brain and our heart to allow for a different feedback loop.

So choose to create goodies in your life. I choose to look at them like M & M candies because one of my alternative names is the Chocolate Goddess. So these are Miracles and Magic = M & M Moments. As an adult, you get to choose the tastiest of colours first, just like you did as a child. How? Think of each colour as a delicious feeling. What feeling do you want to focus on? I choose to focus on the joy and happiness I get from being the co-creator of M & M moments ~Yum!

It's as simple as that. I know I feel terrific when I'm thinking of putting something special in a Magic Moments box for someone. So I take moments of my day when I just think about what else would this person enjoy. By doing that, I give the gift of that joyous feeling to myself. 5 minutes of joy just got added to my day!

For example, while in Sedona on a spiritual retreat recently, I coincidently stopped by an outdoor art fair. I don't believe in coincidences. I felt I was led there. While looking at a Navaho artist's lovely sand paintings and silver jewelry, I noticed one particular turquoise ring. The ring literally glistened in the light of the white tent. As I looked at it, a little voice in my head said "that ring is meant to be Ed's". Ed is a friend living in England who has a fascination with traditional Navaho stories. I paid attention to my inner voice and picked up the ring for Ed.

So a new M&M Moment was born. Now I truly have not thought about sending Ed a Magic Moments Box. However, I listened to my inner self. Now I have a new joy in my life as I contemplate what else might go in that box. I'm getting great pleasure out of that daily contemplation. It's a surprise for him at this point in time. I know he will gain such delightful pleasure at having a turquoise Navaho ring. In return, I have given the gift to myself of happiness and joy as I create this lovely Magic Moments box for Ed. In other words, I have opened myself up to allowing M&M moments to enter my life. That's what life should be all about! Miracles and Magic Moments!

Priya's Point of View: more Story Telling!

When I read what Sherrie had written in her story telling piece above, about her friend who seldom receives gifts and who didn't dare allow himself to anticipate any more for fear of disappointment, of course my heart went out to him. I suddenly felt I would like to send her special friend something, too. I have no idea yet what it will be because I don't know him at all, other than his comments on Sherrie's blog. I'm not even sure if it will get there in time to be included in Sherrie's box. Somehow, sometime, I would like to send the man something special. My hope is it will help him remember there really are unicorns out there ... only we can't see them!

Capturing the Magic ... hey, look! Can you see that Unicorn?!

So, what is magic, really? Spells, potions, eye-of-newt, lizard's tail type stuff?

Or unicorns and leprechauns and a really sick pup who magically recovered?

To me, magic is a great big warm fuzzy. It's those wonderful, totally unexpected moments of sheer zinging joy that appear out of nowhere, for no reason. It leaves you feeling euphoric, elated, positive. These zinger joy moments make you deep belly laugh. They put a special smile in your heart. If they involve chocolate, a smile in your stomach!

I discovered Sherrie has a 'thing' about rocks and shells, like I do. I saw pictures of her spiral labyrinth in her blog, where she places rocks and pebbles collected from wherever she goes. I know that rocks from volcanic places are super-charged with earth energy. Indonesia, where I currently live, is situated in the Pacific Ring of Fire, and is considered one of the world's primal energy centers, like Stonehenge, Hawaii, Sedona to name a few.

In Hawaii, Sherrie's other Soul Home, you're not supposed to carry rocks out of the islands. Here, there is no such stricture yet. So I decided to send Sherrie some lovely 'lava froth' and assorted shells and pebbles collected from the beaches of Bali and the South Seas. I added a precious bit of fossil I found, which broke in half. So now, half of it is with Sherrie, while the other half is here with me! I also sent her a half-formed pearl, emerging from its iridescent mother-of-pearl shell, which I just knew she would love. A gift from the sea. She later emailed me:

The Moon in Scorpio adores mysteries and all things of the sea! So this one is ideal since the Moon is sailing through Scorpio. The seashells, the seashell that looks like a sombraro hat is amazing ... I adore the colours. I have always loved mother of pearl shimmers and this has it! Look at how it stands out against the background of the velvety red bag.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from CREATE MAGICAL MOMENTSby Sherrie Hay Priya Tuli Copyright © 2011 by Sherrie Hay. Excerpted by permission of BALBOA PRESS. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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