Why is it that when we talk about ‘miracles’, we omit our own responsibility from the equation? It’s as if we think of miracles as not just unexpected, but without the slightest bit of help from us. But if we create our realities through our beliefs and decisions, can it be possible that miracles are out of our control? Is something only a miracle if it makes us happy?
A survey from the Pew Forum on Religion showed that nearly 80% of Americans, even Millennials who don’t consider themselves religious, believe in miracles. Since you know what I think about miracles (I am one!) it’s time we all took a second look at what miracles are, and how we can all be, and create, more of them…
What are miracles?
The definition of a miracle is: a welcome and surprising result not explicable by science.
By it’s very nature, a miracle has to be something that is both surprising but also welcomed. We have to be so slightly in want of it, yet not blatantly expectant of it. For example, a friend dropping by your house without warning; you might be surprised, but you welcome them into your space and your life. A visit wasn’t something you expected, but your happy with this outcome and allow it in. By definition, that is exactly what miracles require: we must be available to them first. We have to welcome them in.
Here is how we’ve been misusing miracles: if a miracle is only an outcome that is surprising and welcomed, miracles don’t necessarily have to be a positive outcome that benefits us. It means only that we welcomed the outcome, an outcome not explicable by science.
You and I both know from all the self-help books out there and every Super Soul Sunday episode on the planet that our story creates our belief system. We were dumped by a boyfriend, so we aren’t lovable. You were made fun as a kid, so you aren’t attractive. I failed a test, so I’m not smart enough. We use the past as evidence to create a story that we repeat to ourselves every single day. The story creates our beliefs about ourselves and our lives. And with those beliefs, we make choices that shape our entire lives, from our work to our relationships to our health to our happiness.
So every time we prove our story true is actually us working a miracle, an surprising but welcomed outcome. By repeating those messages in our head, we’re putting off the energy into this world that tells life “I keep repeating this to myself, I’m holding on very tightly to it”, and all the universe hears is how much you love that story and want to keep it near. Life keeps handing you opportunities to make that story true, and you work like a detective to keep finding evidence of why your story is true. You simultaneously attract and seek out evidence for your own story. Sometimes it’s actions to keep avoiding your story (being shy and not attracting attention because you think you’re not attractive), sometimes it means enforcing your story (seeking the approval of authority figures because you think you’re not smart enough).
That also means that positive and happy miracles occur with the help of your energy as well. For example: you finally decide you’re too old and too tired to date guys that break your heart; you change your mind and story from ‘a lonely girl who needs that jerk to love me back’, to ‘a girl who wants a stable partner or nothing at all’. Lo and behold, a few years down the road, in he walks. Or your realize life is too short to stay in a job you hate, your story changes from ‘enslaved to your job’ to ‘on your way out’. Your energy goes out into the world, you pull a few strings, opportunities arise, and a new job comes your way.
It’s not that we can’t use some science, some cause-and-effect measure to argue that every day circumstances aren’t miracles. We can study the car’s seat-belts to see how a person survived a crash; but we can also see that all the elements aligned, miraculously, to help him survive. As Einstein says, it’s all miraculous, every force and facet. The mindset you use to create your reality absolutely, constantly works miracles to bring you what you want. In turn, this universe is so giving and loving, it gives just the reality you asked for with your beliefs. Life loves you that much.
Here is Einstein’s quote again, with more to help you see how even someone so invested in science could see the circumstances of his life as miraculous:
“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.
But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people; first of all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness is wholly dependent, and then for the many, unknown to us, to whose destinies we are bound by the ties of sympathy.
A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving.”
– Albert Einstein (source)
How have we created the miracles of our lives?
So how do we create miracles in our lives? By welcoming them. By creating a mindset in which the miracles you wish to occur are invited. By creating the story in which what you want is possible, has potential. By believing in yourself, in your goals, in your own power. Also, by allowing life to surprise you with it’s support of your beliefs and stories in unexpected place. By trusting life to present you with what you want most: the story of a victim or the story of a champion. By remaining in wonder of how life will unfold around you.
If you choose not to do this, you’ll still create miracles. If you decide to believe in all the reasons you can’t, or all the stories about how you’re not good enough, smart enough, pretty enough, you’ll continue to seek out opportunities that prove it. Either way, this loving and wonderful universe will give you whatever you dwell on most. Second, that you open your eyes to every moment this giving universe is giving you evidence of the story you’re either trying to avoid or trying to create. Great guy shows up for your blind date? Miracle. New *comfortable* heels in your size – on sale? Miracle. Another reason to hate your boss like so you can mentally check out at work? Miracle!
If you want to break free of the story of your past of why you are not enough, you must only go back and analyze the decisions that created the story. Looking back on your life, what decisions have you made about yourself, or about the world, that created your beliefs and your reality? What belief is holding you back from what you want; and at what moment in your past did you make the decision that created this belief? This is a painful, awkward process because it often means going back and looking at what you decided about your failures, and what decisions you made in your most embarrassing moments. (Mine involved an instance when my crush threw rocks at me, and a mortifying encounter with a karaoke machine). It’s not exactly fun to do, but it’s how to deconstruct your reality so you can make a new one. It’s the only way to widen the lens of the tunnel-vision you currently use about yourself.
The first step is to go back and take inventory of the decisions you’ve made that have shaped your reality. The second is to unblock yourself by releasing the beliefs that shaped your current reality. The third is to make new decisions not based on the past, but based on the future of what you want to happen, what you are striving for.
Now your belief system goes from reliving the past to creating the future. Your decisions go from “because of” to “so that”. And the universe can respond to your new energy with the opportunities you’re asking for, seeking for, and calling out.
You truly are a being of incredible power miraculous intention. You can break free from that loser boyfriend by changing the belief you don’t need him anymore. You can get out of that dead-end job by changing the beliefs that you are chained by the money or aren’t able to do better. You can break free of your own insecurities by realizing you made a terrible decision about your body in the past, a limiting decision, and see the unique beauty and individuality only you have.
YOU are a Miracle
You are capable of creating every miracle in your own life you see fit. You have the ability to be grateful for every miracle – even the challenges – you’ve been able to create in your own life so far. And in those challenges, you can be grateful that they are now indicators of how you can grow bigger, better, and more capable. Best of all, now you can create the belief system to make better decisions that build the future you want, and use this incredible, kind, generous universe to help you achieve every miracle you dream of.
You are a true miracle, just like me. And I’m so proud of you.