Dearest girlfriend, I was about to wish that your cup runneth over this year; that you’d be surrounded by lots of love and laughter; that you’d have wealth, health and happiness. But then I thought nope. Not going to deprive you of the magic of making your own wishes.

Author Madisyn Taylor calls it innocence; something that recalls the energy of childhood. She says that when we wish for something our minds open up to receiving it like a flower unfolding its petals to receive a bee.

“Wishing is not about formulating a plan and following it step by step to attain a goal, which is the realm of adulthood. Wishing is more like a playful volley across the universe, an invitation to play. Waiting for the response is an integral part of the process.”

The thing is that wishing inspires an innocent opening up to the possibility of magic. Regardless of the outcome, this opening up is a wonderful gesture in itself. “We place ourselves in a magical mind, and this mind is arguably as wonderful as the fulfilment of our wish itself,” Madisyn writes.

We tend to underestimate the power of this seemingly passive process in our action-oriented society. What wishing does is to put us in receiving mode, bringing balance back to our lives. Frantic action is just one part of the coin. The other side is allowing life to happen to you; trusting and believing that everything is all right.

According to Gabrielle Bernstein something extraordinary happens when we let go. “The universe gives us shiny new pearls, that are a lot lighter, more enjoyable to work with, and resemblant of the ideals you’ve been holding in your head while juggling life.”

Of course, letting go would be the very last thing you’d trust doing in an uncertain economic climate. Somehow we’ve become convinced that money is the only thing that could solve our problems. I think it was Freud who said that he preferred treating rich patients, because they no longer believed that all their problems could be attributed to a lack of money.

Mike Dooley puts it this way: Do you think that if ten million rand were to be deposited into your checking account, you'd have fewer challenges? Or do you think, perhaps, that your challenges would simply evolve and change?

Right, evolve and change.

And do you think that with your extra ten million, you'd gradually be presented with more opportunities to be happy? Or do you think, perhaps, that your opportunities would simply evolve and change?
Right, evolve and change.

Mike says that abundance is relative. Today you have as many opportunities to be happy as you ever will. It just depends on the way you think about things.

I’m sure you can remember a time when immense frustration, which was based on a misunderstanding, instantly faded away when you understood things differently. Your interpretation defines your experience, says Madisyn, and it can change in an instant.

Your only true reality is the present moment. People who succeed in finding peace in ‘the now’ are not so very different from the rest of us. They have troubled emotions and jabbering thoughts like we all do.

“The difference is that they do not lend their energy to them, so those thoughts and feelings can simply rise and fall like the waves of the ocean without disturbing the deeper waters of peacefulness within.”

If you want to break free of your habitual patterns of thought, you have to see the step-by-step adult mindset for exactly what it is – just one side of the coin. Flip it over and bring the magical side that you knew so well as a child back into your life. You do it by wishing.

So, next time you see a falling star – wish upon it. Then let go. Just about anything can happen next. How excited would you be about this year if you knew that endless possibilities were awaiting you?
When looking back at your most dazzling ideas, you’ll know that they seemed to show up out of thin air and surpassed even your wildest wishes.

Don’t you think it could happen again this year? And again, and again . . .