A child’s laughter, Marilyn Monroe, White Roses, the smell of Lavender, the grandeur of the open ocean, dolphins, kindness; all of these are things I find beautiful.  I have been attracted to beauty in many forms since I was a boy and later as professional in the beauty industry.   I realized long ago what has been said many times and in many ways throughout history; that real beauty was not exclusively external, but came from the internal.

Have you ever met a celebrity?  Have you ever met 60+ celebrities? Well, one of my first opportunities to work with big and I mean BIG stars came when I got to do hair for a video that had more than 60 stars in it.  Everyone from Meryl Streep (who, by the way thought I had a great “derriere” (Not the word she used!) to Mickey Dolans (a has been celebrity from the 70’s group The Monkeys) was at this taping, so I can safely say that there was beauty from each end of the spectrum represented that day.

What I learned that day about beauty and how it is perceived could fill a book, but the main thing that stood out, (besides Meryl’s compliment!) was that there were a few of celebrities that challenged my belief about beauty.  In many ways they were sort of B list celebrities whom I recognized, but never really thought twice about, but in real life, they were drop dead beautiful! There were a couple in particular that were so radiant, I almost didn’t recognize them because my idea of them was not “beauty”. 

As I watched these women I began to realize what they had that many of the “Beautiful” stars that day didn’t have; a sort of… inner light.  I’m not kidding or exaggerating when I say that.  These women literally looked like they were lit from the inside out; a kind of diffused pale white light emanated from them.  It was the most amazing thing and I was utterly fascinated. I couldn’t stop looking at them.  They weren’t just beautiful, they were attractive and that attraction was not only a physical attribute.  That attraction came from this strange combination of confidence, happiness and that extra thing in Hollywood they call the “it” factor, which I still can’t put into words, but I’m sure that light has something to do with it.  My whole concept of what beauty is changed after that day.

“Beauty does not linger, it only visits.  Yet Beauty’s visitation affects us and invites us into it’s rhythm, it calls us to feel, think and act beautifully in the world: to create and live a life that awakens the beautiful”

~John O’ Donohue

I tell you this because a deceptively simple yet extremely effective way to begin to get back in touch with the Magic in your life is to begin to be conscious of beauty.  When I say beauty I mean anything (a thing, experience or person) that is in your life already or something that you happen upon during your day that you deem beautiful to you.

Being deliberately conscious of beauty does a number of things; it signals the Universe that you want a more beautiful experience of your life and when you begin to focus or refocus on what your soul tells you is beautiful, then more beautiful things, experiences and people will be attracted into your life. When your life begins to become more and more populated with beautiful experiences, things and people, then your energy will slowly begin to shift and the portal to Magic will be opened even wider.

It is literally impossible to be consistently focusing and inviting beauty into your life and have the contrary be true.  Through the law of attraction you will begin to see that if, for example you love white roses and begin to visualize them, think about them and buy some to have in your house, you will begin to see them manifesting in your outer experience.  Don’t be surprised when one day walking the same path that you travel for years, you suddenly see there is a white rose bush that you had never seen before.  Once these kinds of experiences begin to happen for you will know that you are getting back in touch with the Magic.

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions…sometimes it feels as if life is just made up of decision after decision right?!  What to eat?  What to wear? Where to go?  When to go?  Walk or Drive? Regular or decaf? How many sugars? Sugar or Splenda? Should I drink more water? Answer emails now or later? Should I spend less time on the computer?  Am I spending too much money online? IRA or ROTH? Buy or Rent?  Black or White?  Long or Short?  Apologize or stand my ground? Am I right? Am I wrong? …What should I do? What should I do? What should I do?!

 And those are just a few.  Not to overwhelm you from the beginning or anything, but I’d like you to take a moment and think about how many hundreds, if not thousands of decisions that you are making every single day.  Really, think about how many hundreds, if not thousands of decisions that you are making every single day. 

I know… it can be almost overwhelming to even comprehend the amount of decisions that you are making every day.  Have you ever thought that these decisions are literally creating what you call “My Life”?  Therefore, if this thing called “My Life” isn’t as fulfilling, fantastic and magical as you would like it to be, I suggest that a great place to start is by looking at the decisions you are making.

All we are doing here is bringing it up and looking. It is literally impossible to be aware of all of these decisions. But, if you can start with baby steps and become a little more aware of your unconscious decisions and also sharpen the awareness of the ones you are making consciously, it is a surefire way to get back in touch with the Magic of life. Once you start to become more aware of your decision making, I know the quality of your life will shift.  

You are creating your life with every decision. You are shaping your destiny with every decision. You are responsible for making that destiny something that you look back on and say “Yes, I made decisions that brought me to my joy and my ultimate self.”

 “It all comes down to making new decisions. The only thing that can change your life is a decision and in the moment of a decision, life is changed”

–Tony Robbins

When we make a decision to move forward about something in our lives…anything, it sets in motion many, many things.  Making the decision to move forward says to you and to the Universe; “The wheels are now in motion, rehearsal is over, the curtain is up and the show is ON!”  Your life will not be the same as it was before you made that decision.  When you make a decision towards something you are declaring that you are ready for, what will come from that decision, no matter what the outcome may be.  Decisions are extremely powerful because they can be the entry point where your endless power of creation meets with the Universes limitlessness.  That combination can and will move mountains and more in your life.

On the other hand when we make the decision NOT to move forward with something… the EXACT same thing happens.  We think that if we say “No” to something that we are stopping the energy.  That’s not true. What actually happens is that when we say “No”, that intention drives the energy towards what we are saying “NO” to!  And in terms of the powerful Law of Attraction, when we say “NO” to something, we are really saying “YES” to it and bringing more of it into our life. The Law of Attraction is always working whether you are aware or not and it is just giving you exactly the same vibration that you are giving attention to… Make sense?  At its most fundamental level all a decision is, is a cue for energy to go in a direction.  When energy moves in any direction that’s when things, events, situations occur in our lives. 

You can look at anything in your life and trace it back to a single decision that you made which began a ball rolling and eventually took on a life of its own. Some decisions lead to huge changes and others are simpler.  For example, cook a dinner, lift your arm, get a divorce…  A decision can be something as simple as deciding to get out of bed in the morning or as complicated as getting married. One seemingly small decision can be hugely powerful and starts a whole variety of experiences and possibilities into motion in your life. 

There is a way of going through life by default which among other things, means that you are not aware of the decisions that you are making. Therefore, for the most part you are an unconscious decision maker.  Or you can live your life with awareness as a conscious decision maker.  In between these two extremes is where most of us are, most of the time.  Usually we are hyper aware of the big, huge decisions in life, but we are relatively unaware of what we call “small” ones.

Let’s look at the decision to get out of bed.  Think about it, none of the things that happen in that day, including the opportunities to make more decisions, would have been presented if you stayed in bed.  Who knows?  Maybe one of the opportunities you could have that day would be to buy a lottery ticket or “bump” into Mr. or Ms. “Right”…I’m just saying… if you make the decision to stay in bed you could have missed all those opportunities or you could have stayed in bed, pulled out your laptop and written the great American novel! You see how this is all about making a decision about staying awake and living by intention instead of default?

Among many other things in my life, acting on stage has been a passion of mine since I was a little boy and when you are trained as an actor you learn “There are no small parts, just small actors”. How many times have you seen a play or a film where the lead actor or actress was less than phenomenal, but there was that one person who had one scene and sometimes even just one line, but  you will remember them forever?  Even though he does lead roles now, Phillip Seymour Hoffman started his whole career based on this philosophy. Actors like Phillip Seymour Hoffman decide that their seemingly small roles have just as integral a “role to play” (pun intended!) in the story as the lead character.  In the same way, almost every decision has the same potential to affect the whole as any other. 

When you make the decision to live in the Magic of life you are making a decision to be a conscious participator in your life for the better and when you become a conscious decision maker the possibilities for your life are literally limitless.

·        Find or create a journal, so that you can record any thoughts, impressions or revelations.  In that journal please write down the 3 decisions that you have made that have most affected your life.  Do not do anything about them.   Just notice what power one decision can have in your life.