Into the Magic Shop - James R. Doty, MD  ## Metadata - Author: **James R. Doty, MD** - Full Title: Into the Magic Shop - Category: #books ## Highlights - The box also held a worn copy of Dale Carnegie’s *How to Win Friends and Influence People*, dog-eared on the pages that listed the six ways to get people to like you. I could recite the six things from memory. 1. Become genuinely interested in other people. 2. Smile. 3. Remember that a person’s name is, to that person, the sweetest and most important sound in any language. 4. Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves. 5. Talk in terms of the other person’s interest. 6. Make the other person feel important—and do it sincerely. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01k1s234jkmz31d3abcqy45x7v)) - In fact, through most of the twentieth century, it was believed that the brain was fixed, immutable, and static. Today we know that the brain has great plasticity and can change, adapt, and transform. It is molded by experience, repetition, and intention. It is only because of the extraordinary technological advances over the last few decades that we can see the brain’s ability to transform on a cellular, genetic, and even molecular level. Extraordinarily, as I learned, each of us has the ability to change the very circuitry of our brain. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01k1s42ywzg9ntewtes8nj0ba2)) - • Find a time and a place to do this exercise so that you will not be interrupted. • Do not start if you are already stressed, have other matters distracting you, have drunk alcohol, used recreational drugs, or are tired. • Before beginning sit for a few minutes and just relax. Think of what you wish to accomplish with this exercise. Define your intention. • Now close your eyes. • Begin by taking three deep breaths in through your nose and slowly out through your mouth. Repeat until you get used to this type of breathing so that the breathing itself is not distracting you. • Once you feel comfortable breathing in this manner, specifically think about how you are sitting and imagine that you are looking at yourself. • Now begin focusing on your toes and relax them. Now focus on your feet, relaxing your muscles. Imagine them almost melting away as you continue to breathe in and out. Only focus on your toes and feet. When you begin, it will be easy to be distracted or to have your thoughts wander. When this happens, simply begin again, relaxing the muscles of your toes and feet. • Once you have been able to relax your toes and feet, extend the exercise upward, relaxing your calves and thighs. • Then relax the muscles of your abdomen and chest. • Next think of your spine and relax the muscles all along your spine and up to your shoulders and your neck. • Finally relax the muscles of your face and your scalp. • As you are able to extend the relaxation of the muscles of your body, notice that there is a calmness overcoming you. That you feel good. At this point, it is not unusual to feel sleepy or even fall asleep. That’s OK. It may take several attempts to get to this point and be able to hold this feeling of being relaxed without falling asleep. Be patient. Be kind to yourself. • Now focus on your heart and think of relaxing your heart muscle as you slowly breathe in and out. You will find that your heartbeat will slow as your body relaxes and your breath slows. • Imagine your body, now completely relaxed, and experience the sense of simply being as you slowly breathe in and out. Feel the sense of warmth. Many will feel that they are floating and will be overcome with a sense of calmness. Continue to slowly breathe in and slowly exhale out. • With intention remember this sense of relaxation, calmness, and warmth. • Now slowly open your eyes. Sit for a few minutes with your eyes open and just be with no other intention or thought. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01k1s5c4zhchm1sca6kssbddmy)) - 1. Relax your body completely (Ruth’s Trick #1). 2. Once relaxed, focus on your breathing and try to empty your mind completely of all thoughts. 3. When thoughts arise, guide your attention back to your breath. 4. Continue to breathe in and out, completely emptying your mind. 5. Now think of the person in your life who has given you unconditional love. Unconditional love is not perfect love or love without hurt and pain. It just means that someone loved you selflessly once or for a time. If you can’t think of anyone who loved you unconditionally, you can think of someone in your life to whom you have given unconditional love. 6. Sit with the feeling of warmth and contentment that unconditional love brings, while you slowly breathe in and out. Feel the power of unconditional love and how you feel accepted and cared for even with all your flaws and imperfections. 7. Think of someone you care for and, with intent, extend unconditional love to that person. Understand that the gift you are giving him is the same gift that someone gave to you and will make others feel cared for and protected. 8. As you are giving that same unconditional love to one you care for, think again how you feel when you have been given unconditional love and acceptance. 9. Again reflect on how it feels to be cared for, protected, and loved regardless of your flaws and imperfections and think of a person whom you know but have neutral feelings for. Now with intention extend the same unconditional love to her. As you are embracing that person with love, wish her a happy life with as little suffering as possible. Hold that person in your heart and see her future. See her happiness. Let yourself be bathed in that warm feeling. 10. Now think of someone with whom you have had a difficult relationship or for whom you have negative feelings. Understand that oftentimes one’s actions are a manifestation of one’s pain. See them as yourself. A flawed, imperfect being who at times struggles and makes mistakes. Think of the person in your own life who gave you unconditional love. Reflect on how that love and acceptance impacted you. Now give that same unconditional love to that person who is difficult or for whom you have negative feelings. 11. See everyone you meet as a flawed imperfect being just like you who has made mistakes, taken wrong turns, and at times has hurt others, yet who is struggling and deserves love. With intention, give others unconditional love. In your mind bathe them with love, warmth, and acceptance. It does not matter what their response is. What matters is that you have an open heart. An open heart connects with others, and that changes everything. ***You can visit intothemagicshop.com to listen to an audio version of this exercise. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01k1sh9sz6ds1g82mtr52np9fj)) - “You have to believe in your own magic. This is what makes a magician great. He believes the story he is telling to the audience, he believes in himself. It’s not about the illusions, or the applause, or any sleight of hand. It’s about the magician’s ability to believe in himself and his ability to have the audience believe in him. A trick is never done at the expense of the audience. Magic isn’t a hustle or a con. A real magician transports the audience to a world where anything is possible, everything is real, and the unbelievable becomes believable.” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01k1shkvk2g05q7nx0zkx18tgw)) - Clarifying Your Intent 1. Sit in a quiet room and close your eyes. 2. Think of a goal or something you wish to accomplish. It does not matter that the details of the vision are not fully formed. It is important that such a goal or vision is one that does not involve harm to another or bad intent. While this technique could help you accomplish such a goal, it will ultimately result in pain and suffering to yourself and make you unhappy. 3. Relax your body completely (Ruth’s Trick #1). 4. Once relaxed, focus on your breathing and try to empty your mind completely of all thoughts. 5. When thoughts arise, guide your attention back to your breath. 6. Continue to breathe in and out, completely emptying your mind. 7. Now think of your goal or wish and see yourself as having accomplished it. Sit with the vision as you slowly breathe in and out. 8. Feel the positive emotions associated with accomplishing your goal or having achieved your wish. Experience how good it feels to have taken a thought and turned it into reality. Sit with the positive feelings as you see yourself having accomplished your goal. 9. Once you have seen yourself having accomplished the goal and have sat with the positive feelings, begin to add details to the vision. Exactly how do you look? Where are you? How are people responding to you? Add as much detail to the vision as possible. 10. Repeat one to two times daily or more for ten to thirty minutes. Each time begin with the vision of yourself having accomplished your goal. Sit with the feelings. Each time as you look at the vision add more details. It will start fuzzy, but the more times you do the exercise, the more the vision will become clearer. 11. With each time you do the exercise you will find you are refining the vision as your unconscious mind begins having clarity of the intent. You may be surprised what you discover and how you end up achieving your goal. What is important is the goal, not exactly how you get there. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01k1tftfqe0a15vtzaw0zxxwbm))