Mindfulness

Trying To Recreate The Magic

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Most of us have gone back to a place where we had a transcendent experience in the hopes of recreating the magic, but we end up feeling disappointed with the result and almost kind of empty. The location might be exactly the same but it doesn’t feel the same. What we’re left with is a shadow.

The problem of course is that we make the mistake of attributing our transcendent experiences to our physical surroundings rather than our own mindful engagement with these surroundings. It doesn’t matter where we are or what we’re doing, if we’re living in the moment and open to letting things unfold without trying to control every detail we can authentically connect with life and people and derive that feeling of transcendence.

The magic is not in a place, the place is just the backdrop no matter how nice it is. The magic is in our own attitudes, our decision to leave the past and the future behind for a while to focus all our attention on the here and now. And the encouraging part is that this means we have the possibility to attain that magical feeling all the time, not just in the circumstances we consider to be ideal. Trying to recreate the magic almost never works because what made the experience magical was living in the moment, while recreating it is living in the past. But we always have the potential to create new magical experiences simply by cultivating the mindful attitude.

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