How setting an intention can shift your life

Do you believe in magic?

While this may have been a question easily answered as a child, the older we are, the more skeptical of the metaphysical we often become. However, there’s a time once a year where belief in magic is much more acceptable; in fact, it’s encouraged.

The end of the year is ripe with holiday celebrations and an overwhelming field of possibility as people are willing to believe in miracles. It is the perfect time to watch as your visions, dreams, and prayers show up and become a part of your reality.

Living on a Prayer

Prayer, to me, is setting a powerful intention for what you want to experience in life. It is the understanding that we are somehow connected to God or a higher power. By acknowledging this, we can use our prayers to recognize our own power and create a life of our own design.

If you have a negative reaction to hearing the word “prayer,” I understand. I grew up in the Catholic religion and developed my own personal biases around some of the churchgoers, as well as a cynicism when my prayers went unanswered.

However, over the years I’ve redefined what prayer means to me and I’ve shifted my ideas from an antiquated belief of how one should pray and what one should say. By expanding my previous exclusively-religious definition, I realized what prayer actually is and how it works.

One with God

At some level, we are not separate from God or a higher power. We are a fractal of God-consciousness, like raindrops coming from one divine cloud.

The human experience can create a feeling of separation between us and the universe. However, there’s a part of us that recognizes that we are not actually apart from, but rather, a part of. So as we pray to the higher consciousness, we are praying to our higher selves.

This means that I am the creator of my reality. That when I say a prayer out to the universe, I am telling myself that this is something I want. When this is done at a time when the collective is also calling in miracles and magic, the power is amplified.

Strength in Numbers

Whenever the end of the year approaches, people expect Christmas miracles and prepare for New Year resolutions. The air is filled with hope and a belief in magic, in change.

When there are that many people believing in possibility, miracles can happen. The likelihood of dreams coming true is exponentially greater because of the collective field being aligned with this belief.

A case example is seen through Burning Man. Every year, an event is hosted in the desert to promote and cultivate a community of awakened individuals through art, communal effort, and self-expression, based around a set of principles.

When 75,000 people gather at Burning Man annually there is this powerful collective belief that magic will happen, and therefore, magic does happen. There is a higher rate of synchronicities and a willingness to receive the miracles, because they are expected.

This leads to the question: What’s possible if millions or billions of people believe in magic?

Christmas and New Year's Day are based around the idea of magic, that we will get what we’ve been asking and praying for. With this in mind, we can use this energy to set our intentions and prayers. An environment is created that is ripe for magic to happen more than any other time of the year. It is an opportunity to drop into what you want to see happen in your life.

You can use the collective magic to create a life you love. Personally, I have a prayer that I use to align with my intention that I want for my life and for who I want to be.

My Personal Prayer

I pray for the strength to let it all go,
So that I may never lose hope,
And I can live in a state of gratitude,
So that my life becomes an act of devotion.
And so it is.

With this prayer, I am purposefully setting my intention and telling my higher self that this is what I want. The power of prayer is that the very act of saying these words brings me into an emotional state to receive it. It is an act of gratitude for having it already done.

Prayer is an opportunity to connect energetically and emotionally to what I want to manifest, and as a result, it shifts my vibration into a position that allows me to be receptive to the reality I want to create.

The power of prayer, coupled with a belief in magic, will guide you to the future you’ve always desired. Use the joy and hope around you to manifest your best life.