Ep 48: Have You Forgotten the Magic?

Welcome to the Mom on Purpose Podcast. I’m Lara Johnson and I’m here to teach you how to get out of your funk, be in a better mood, play more with your kids, manage your home better, get your to-do list done, and live your life on purpose with my proven method. This is possible for you, and I’ll show you how. You’re not alone anymore. We’re in this together. Hello, wonderful friend. It’s Lara Johnson here again for another fun episode. We are well into the summer now. We’ve had a couple weeks of transition and if you’re like me, I find that any transition that we go through, even good transitions, means that everything falls apart for a time and I know, I just plan on it. It’s not a big surprise when things fall apart. I just know that it’ll feel like my hair’s on fire for a little bit. We are rebuilding and finding our groove with the summer months, and I hope that you are feeling the same. I don’t know if your kids are out of school yet or not, but I hope that you are finding that groove, in whatever transition you are in right now. So, it was interesting as I was thinking about this episode and what I wanted to talk to you about, there was a fun question that popped into my mind and I just chewed on it for a couple weeks, actually, before I really recorded this episode, because it was one that. I don’t know. It was a very odd question that came to my mind, and it was, have you forgotten the magic? And as I thought about this, I’ve always liked the, the magic of life, like the excitement of things. I’m more of a natural optimist. I like looking at the brighter side of things. It just comes very natural to me, very sparkly type of person. And I feel like when we’re younger, there is a lot of that magic that we all participate in. If you think about like the first snowfall, if you live in a place that has snow, there’s such a magic when you wake up and everything is white, or Christmas morning or even birthday parties and the excitement around waking up knowing it’s your birthday and your friends are coming over also, but there’s also. Like every day magic that I feel like happens more in the moment. And as I’ve gotten older, those bits of magic, it’s almost like you have to hunt for them a little bit more. But they’re still there. And so that’s what I wanted to talk about today. So before we dive into that, I want to start with if this episode is for you, if you’ve heard about manifesting and it just doesn’t make sense to your brain. Or if you heard about manifesting and you’re one either super intrigued about it or it seems like way too “woo woo” for you. You’ll also know this episode is for you. If, so, sometimes things just work out for you and you’re not really sure how that happens. It’s almost like you’re. Toiling and struggling, and then something all come together and just in an instant, things work out. Also, if you’re hesitant to pray about something and to ask God, because you don’t know if it’s “God’s will” and then the last thing is, you want to manifest. You want to believe, but you just don’t know how to do that. So, that’s just a brief introduction. When I’m talking about the magic, what I’m talking about is the manifestation. Now, I have a lot of internal beliefs and passions about the universe that we live in, and when I’m talking about manifesting, I am tapping into the higher universal law that exists, that God abides by, that he is the creator of all things, and that there is this beautiful, source that exists within the universe that wants us to have a good life. God wants us to have this good life, and we have the ability almost to like tap into that universal law of goodness. So that’s kind of what I’m talking about when I’m talking about the magic or the manifesting. But first, before I dive into like how we manifest, I wanted to share a couple stories with you on times when I’ve manifested before I knew manifesting was a thing. Now if, well, yeah, we’ll go into that in a second, but, okay, so the first one, not many people know this about me, but when I was 21 years old, I was about to leave the country, go live in Canada and do service for my church. For about a year and a half and before that, my mom and sister and friends, we had the bright idea that we should go to The Price is Right. Now, if you are in the United States, you know that The Price is Right, is a very big deal. It is a game show. It was something that was on every morning of the summer that we always watched, there was the famous Bob Barker who was the game show host, and you got to go up and bid on different things and you could go up on stage and then you got to win prizes, and it was this whole huge hurrah. So, this was back in the Bob Barker days, just to be clear and when we went to go beyond The Price is Right, we had gotten tickets. And when you’ve come in and you fill all of the seats, all of those seats are filled in order of the people that are standing in line and there are really not that many seats. So we wanted to ensure that we got a seat. So we went to Los Angeles, LA in California, and we, we got there at like two 30 in the morning and we slept on the sidewalk of Los Angeles. It’s not in the safest part of town, but there was a big enough group of us who figured we would be safe. And we had some stories with some homeless people, but for the most part we had a really good time in line, didn’t sleep a whole lot on the sidewalk, but that was okay. So, eventually we got to move in and we were sure that we were going to get a seat because we were the first ones in line. So we got into line and there you stayed for many hours. I don’t even remember how long. I feel like total, it was like 12 hours. By the time we actually recorded it was in the afternoon. So, we were in line, and you can’t really leave, you know, to go to the restroom or do anything. You’re just kind of stuck in this line. Like you can’t even leave to eat, I don’t think, from what I’m remembering. So we’re in this line and they have what they call quote unquote interviews, which literally like you’re walking down, filing through like you would at an amusement park, and there’s somebody saying, “hi, what’s your name?” Tell me something about you. I have no recollection of what I said. Okay, that doesn’t matter when we’re talking about this, but what I do remember is at one point we were coming around the corner and there was some worker there standing there, and I turned the corner, and it was like just had this internal belief that like I would go up on stage. It makes no sense. There was literally no reason. There was nothing special about me on why I should go up on stage. But I turned the corner and I looked at that person that was standing there and I said, thank you, thank you for, for meeting all of us. And in that moment, something shifted inside of me and I knew immediately I am going up on stage on the price is right. And it was crazy. And I remember like starting to sweat and get like a little shaky because I. I had no reason why I should believe that, but I felt it so deep in my soul. So the funny thing with all of this is that, uh, months before I had a really strong prompting that there was some service that I should do. I had received a bonus at work, and instead of actually using that money, because I needed it. I felt really strongly that I should buy some coats with it. I had no understanding why I should buy these coats, but I did, and I felt inside of me that it would be made up in due time. The money that I lost there would be made up in due time. So, you know, fast forward to during this time, you know, at The Price is Right, of course, the very first name they called when we’re all sitting in the audience was me. And I got to go up, you know, to the row and I got to bid $1 higher than the other lady that I was sitting next to. And eventually I got up on stage and I played, if anybody’s familiar, I played the spelling bee game, which is just like random chance. But, I didn’t win the car. I had a chance to win a car and I didn’t win the car. But when I did spin the wheel, I was able to progress on to, the showcase showdown, which I ended up. The lady that I kept bidding a dollar over was the lady that I ended up beating in the Showcase Showdown. So, poor Susan, that was her name, poor Susan. I kept beating her at every corner. Anyway, I ended up winning the Showcase Showdown. I got a snowmobile, a piano, which is still the piano in our house, whole dining room set, the dishes I have, the dining room table, is still the dining room set from The Price is Right, all those years ago. And so I say that, you know, as just a fun example to talk about manifesting. So, that’s one example. So, the next example is when my husband and I, we were newly married, we were very poor, we were in college and it was getting closer to Christmas time. And again, I felt very strongly that we needed to do like a sub for Santa to buy Christmas presents for another family. And my husband being the very logical, wonderful person that he is, he’s like; we have no money for that. And we, we really didn’t have much money. And I don’t understand it. I just know that this is what I am feeling inside of me, and I know it will be made up somehow. And it was so funny because at the time my husband, there was this huge competition again, like this is many years ago. Technology wasn’t as advanced. And we used to have camcorders and it was like a really nice thing, like to have a camcorder to record things. And my husband, there was a competition or a drawing, a raffle or something, to win a camcorder at his university. Now there’s thousands and thousands. I think at the time there was like 30,000 students enrolled on campus, and there was this raffle for a couple camcorders. I think five people won and he is like, “okay, I’ll make you a deal. If I win a camcorder tomorrow at this raffle, then we will do sub for Santa.” And guess what happened? I think you can guess. And what was so funny is that I remember looking at him dead in the eyes and being like, okay, I’ll show you. We are supposed to do this tomorrow. And you will win that camcorder. Like there was no question in my mind. And of course the next day he won a camcorder. Okay. So that’s another example of manifesting. So then the next one is a much more recent one where, we had the most amazing sitter for the longest time. She was incredible. Her name’s Diana and I thought that we would have another baby. We never did. It got where my son was old enough that we didn’t need to have a sitter in the house and it was heartbreaking. We didn’t have, we couldn’t keep her, for when I was working and she went on and was with other families, and I still keep in touch with her. She’s incredible. But when I found out that I was pregnant, I was so sad because I thought, oh, now, I miss my chance. I miss my chance to have Diana here. And I remember thinking and feeling it will all be made okay. And I didn’t know what that meant. So once I started getting closer to my maternity leave, I started, you know, reaching out, signing up for care.com, you know, trying to find someone, but it was too many months out. But my anxiety level was like; I need to solve this now before I have this baby. And nothing was working and people weren’t responding, and I was getting really frustrated. But yet I kept coming back to this feeling inside of me, this like deep knowing of I’m going to find an incredible person. And so every time that fear came up of, I don’t know who’s going to be watching my baby. I’m very funny with who watches my kids. I’m very, just due to past traumas, like I’m very particular about things. And so, anytime my brain started to wander, I’d always bring it back and say, nope. I feel so strongly that I am supposed to work, so God will help me. And I have this very deep feeling inside of me that this is going to work. And so I just kept taking little steps, little steps, finally, after my baby was born. My incredible neighbor, brought dinner over for us and later on she and I were just texting. She was checking up on me and she’s like, by the way, if you ever want somebody to help with your kids, let me know. My daughter is incredible. This is her married daughter. I didn’t know her. I think I’d maybe seen her once. And I said, well, that’s funny because I’m actually looking for a sitter for when I work. And she immediately messaged her daughter and her daughter’s like, that’s funny because I’ve been trying to manifest a family that I could work with part-time. And so she and I just laugh and she is, her name’s Lexi. She is such an incredible, incredible human being and we are so incredibly blessed to have her as part of our family environment. And it’s so cool to see how in that moment, as I was manifesting, she was manifesting. And so somebody asked me the other day, like, how did you find your sitter? And I just kind of laughed. I was like, we manifested each other and because I really do feel like that’s what happened. And so I share these examples because, these examples feel magical where everything, like, comes together and it’s just so I don’t know. It’s like this fun excitement, like Christmas morning type feeling. And so, I used those because I guarantee that you probably have similar stories that maybe you have forgotten. So the first thing is I would invite you to sit down and think about the magic in your life. What magic have you forgotten? What experiences where things just came together and worked out for your good? And think about how you created those things. And so that’s where I wanted, you know, to transition into what those three stories, there are three things that they all had in common. And this is how you create the magic. This is how you manifest. The first thing is belief. The second thing is action. And the third thing is trust. And so I want to talk about each of those because if we were to put this like in a formula, for example, those would be the three components to create the magic or the manifestation. So when I talk about the first one, belief, if you haven’t listened to my episode on affirmations, go back. It’s a few episodes back. It’s a really amazing one. I share my love-hate relationship with affirmations and how to make affirmations actually work for you. Because the biggest thing that I see with this is that it, well, I guess there are two big things that I see. The first is, someone will say some kind of belief that’s so outside the realm of possibility or that they actually believe. And so it was interesting. I was talking with one of my amazing clients today. And she made a comment that she was telling herself that she was a good mom, but every time she said that, her brain immediately started arguing. Not arguing, but like bringing up. But you could do better, you could do more, you could do this. And so it was hard for her to believe that. It’s the same thing when we’re manifesting. Like when I was thinking about The Price is Right, for example, it was like, this belief that, I could totally go up on stage. I didn’t believe that I would win the Showcase Showdown. That was actually beyond my belief, but I did believe I could get up and go up on stage, and I didn’t have any reason to believe that, except for the fact that it just seemed fun to believe that, like it was believable to my brain. And so that’s the first thing that, as we’re talking about manifesting, is sometimes it’s just more fun to believe and like, think about it in terms of, again, Christmas. Even if you knew when you were, you know what, fourth grade or so, maybe fifth grade, when people were starting to tell you that Santa wasn’t real. This happened to me. I was like, no, I don’t want to believe that. I want to believe in Santa, because it’s just more fun. Same thing when you’re thinking about creating something in your life. Sometimes it’s just more fun to believe that things are going to work for your good. Okay, so that’s the first step is find those thoughts that feel believable and have fun believing them. The second is action. Now I really struggled with this when people would talk about manifesting. Because I’m like, I can’t sit on my couch and think happy thoughts all day and something magic like a million dollars aren’t going to show up on my doorstep. And so when I really started studying, like how I have manifested things in the past, there was always action involved. I took the steps to go to The Price is Right. I put myself in the situation. Same thing with like, I took action on a feeling that I had, you know, to donate and, and purchase clothes or purchase the coat, same thing with like the sub for Santa. Like those were nudges that I had and I believed. One, that all of those things would be made up, and two, that if I took the action it would happen. And so that’s where when we think about that, when I think about action, what I’m doing is I’m putting myself in the orbit of this internal like manifestation law of goodness. I mean, I made that up, but that’s where like I’m placing myself in these positions. I’m having fun. I’m believing, I’m following my joy. Automatically that is attracting good things to me. And, and so it’s this exchange that starts to happen is that as you are acting and believing in those moments, there is this exchange that starts to happen. That’s like the magic part of all of this, and I promise you it’s real and it will work for you. I want you to really think about the things that you do want to manifest and practice believing, and then go take action. And what’s really fun about this, and, and I want you to think about it in terms of, of something spiritual where. That’s what faith is, faith is belief and faith is action. You don’t always have faith or you don’t always have evidence that something will work, but you have faith and you keep taking action like it will. That’s exactly what manifesting is. It’s just under a different name. You know, for me it feels more fun to call it magic than or to call it manifesting. For some reason, faith just feels not as fun to me. So whatever name you want to call it, go for it. Have fun with it. But then the third thing and I think this is the most important part, is that I always say, this is the most important part. If I’m telling you these things, I think all of them are the most important parts. Just to be clear, I just think they’re all so wonderful. So I want to tell you, all of them are the most important parts every time. So the third step, how about we call it that is trust. And this is really similar to belief, but the difference that it feels in my body when I believe something. It’s almost like there’s this excitement, anticipation, but if I trust something, it feels deeper in my body. More like in my core, where it’s steady. It’s strong. And when I’m trusting, it’s like this very deep knowing inside of me that no matter what, like I know God has my back and this thing will happen. It’s a very deep knowing, but it’s challenging when you’re going through like the manifestation process because your brain will want to doubt that. And every time I go back to trusting. It’s always like I consciously choose not to “go there” where I’m not going to question. Now there’s a time and place where I’ll look at all the obstacles. I’ll have backup plans. You know, I give myself space for that. But when I’m very much like practicing manifesting, I set those things to the side for a moment and I just go back to. I’m trusting, I know this will work. I know this will happen, and I’m trusting and I’m choosing not to go to the place of doubt, and that’s where it feels so steady and secure. The last thing that I’ll mention on this, and I think it’s so important to talk about because it was something I heard all the time growing up, when, with regards to if it’s according to God’s will or if it’s the right timing, or like there was always these phrases that were added on and I want to be clear that most of the time when people were saying that or when I have said it to myself, it’s because I didn’t actually believe. And what’s really interesting about that is immediately you are putting that disbelief out. You’re taking yourself out of the manifesting process. When you do that, when you. Add on those, like that little bit of like cliché doubt phrases. Now I do believe that things are according to God’s will. I do believe in divine timing. But if I’m putting something out there and every time I put it out there, I’m adding this little bit on of like, if it’s according to God’s will. It’s because I don’t actually think it’s going to happen, and I think I’m trying to save myself some disappointment, but all that’s really happening is I’m feeling disappointment ahead of time. So, I made these statistics up. Just to be clear. There’s no evidence to support these, but in my experience, in what I have seen in myself and my clients and people that I’ve worked with is that oftentimes 95% of the time we’re asking for something in prayer or we’re working towards something 95% of the time, a normal brain will say, “I’m just going to leave it up to God. It’s according to God’s will.” And then 5% of the time we’re actually asking for the things that we want. Okay, now I want you to think about the manifesting mind. Okay? If we were to reverse that, think about how different things would be if 95% of the time we were asking for the things that we wanted, we were believing they would happen, we were taking action to put ourselves in the situation and, and to create those things. And then we trusted that they would happen no matter what. And then 5% of the time we would leave it up to God’s will. Think how different that would be, like, what a different experience that would be for every single one of us in our lives. That’s what I’m asking you to do. I’m asking you to shift. That is not you taking control of God’s will that is trusting and working and having faith on a much deeper level. And you know that things are according to God’s will, but you’re not going to lean on that as a, almost as a like hidden doubt anymore. You’re going to lay it all out on the table and you’re going to go work to make it happen, and you’re going to trust that it will happen. And you know, sometimes things will be a little bit different, but that’s not where you’re going to put all your energy anymore. You’re going to put it on the magic. So, I want you just to think about, you know, invite you to think about that. Like, have you forgotten the magic and are you ready to recreate it? Have a wonderful week. Thank you for listening. Please share, review, and subscribe to this podcast so that together we can live life on purpose.