Be Careful What You Wish For… Online

The Internet is a magical tool.

Think about it in terms of witches and wizards, cauldrons and spells.

You light a fire, fill and heat the pot, throw in some eye of newt, call upon the spirits, above and below, ancestors, angels, et. al., and then you make bold statements of desire and intention.

Today, you warm the computer up with a little electricity, which is brought to you by forces greater than yourself via wires above and below (okay, I’m stretching the metaphor a bit), and then…

You post a thought on Facebook.

You fill in a profile on an online dating site.

You upload a picture.

What if… every intention you put behind every word and image you place on the Internet has power? What if you are — knowingly or unknowingly — changing the shape of your reality through these… incantations?

What if the Internet truly is a magical tool?

Be careful where you point that thing.

These last two days, I have rather cavalierly invoked a little magic. And not necessarily in a way I would have liked.

Last night, I received an email, notifying me that a team I’ve been involved with is losing a key player, possibly tanking the whole project.

My first thought was, PANIC.

My first action was to complain. To the next person I encountered. A nice woman who asked me, “How are you?” while we were waiting for our exercise class to start.

Oh, I am awful, I moaned. This thing happened, this person flaked on me. It’s so, so awful.

She listened, briefly, then averted her eyes and physically removed herself from my cloud of misery as quickly as possible.

And suddenly I noticed.

I noticed that my misery was an old story, an old reaction pattern, an old habit. I could feel the groove of it, worn into my brain, muscles, and bones.

And then I realized how this all relates to the two posts I just wrote in the last two days.

I have a choice.

So, I chose differently. I chose to be accepting and curious. I can’t stop this bad thing from happening. People will be disappointed, a whole cascade of effects will take place. I don’t know yet exactly what those effects will be.

Instead of fighting the idea of the situation, I decided to accept that someone else will probably step up to take the place of the person who left, accept that my plans were falling apart, and that maybe, just maybe, some wonderful surprise might occur in their place. And even if it doesn’t, whatever we face next in the process of picking up the pieces will be easier to handle if I’m not spending half my energy (or more) feeling angry at the Universe (or the people involved) and sorry for myself.

So, yes, the Universe is laughing it’s &ss off at me. Tell other people to embrace the suckage, will you? Awesome, here’s your chance to walk your talk.

That’s my takeaway.

Your takeaways?

Here:

1. If the Internet is your cauldron, how can you use it to create more of what you desire in your life? More love, more excitement, more contentment? Notice your energy when you create a post, write an email, tap out a text, fill in a profile, upload a photo. Recognize that this is the love letter, or hate letter, or fear letter, or curiosity letter, you are sending into the Ether, and know that the Ether will respond.

And if you notice that you are not feeling good at the moment that you are to click enter, send, submit, consider saving that as a draft and coming back to it later. You might be receiving information from your gut, your subconscious, your intuition, your Higher Self, that this is not the right action, this is not the right time, you are not ready. Stop and take inventory of that feeling and see what you discover. What are you afraid of? Are those fears real?

2. The next time you are facing a perceived obstacle or disappointment, experiment with reframing. Breathe into it. Make space around it. Notice where you are holding tension in your body when you think about this thing and try tensing that area more, then letting it go. Breathe again.

Not knowing what will come next is different from deciding that the outcome will be awful no matter what…

I have, in my life, been SO GOOD at talking about how awful things are. I can inflate the drama of a story for great effect. I can milk anything for all of the self-pity its worth. That used to be my story. Me, the queen of the black cloud.

So, just for a few moments last night, I was inspired to choose differently. And what I noticed is that I felt better. And people around me felt better. I still don’t know who is going to step in, if anyone, or how the project and its team might shift, change, continue. But something interesting will happen… not what I’d planned, obviously. But something else.

(Note, the shadow period of this Mercury Retrograde cycle ends on March 2. Please extinguish all flaming materials, replace blanket over head, and continue consuming chocolate and journaling until the pilot has turned off the fasten seat belt sign. Enjoy your flight.)