Ep 68: Re-engage with The Magic

In this episode, I'm going to be sharing a simple exercise you can do to start re-engaging with the magic in your life. And of course, it will only always create more of it. You ready? Let's do it.

Hello! You are listening to the Love Your Life as a Performer podcast. I'm Kelli Youngman and I am the life coach for performers. I help actors, singers, and dancers love themselves and their lives way more. So keep listening to learn how you can love your life. Both on and off the stage.

Hello and welcome back to episode 68 of the Love Your Life as a Performer podcast. So I gave you guys a little update about what's been going on and I wanted to invite you to re-  engage with the magic. Something that I did throughout the month of January that was really fun was I just started documenting every time something amazing, wonderful, unexpected happened. And gave myself the time to celebrate this.

And I actually created a thread inside of our Momentum Facebook group for people to start dropping things like this, so that we're acknowledging and celebrating them in real time. Because when you do this, you're going to train your brain to look for the good and all of this to say that my brain didn't always used to be like this.

I feel like, you know, people are always, I don't know, acknowledging, celebrating the way that I'm naturally positive or that I, you know, the way I see things and find the good and you know, this isn't to like create some kind of toxic positivity, but you could easily have a naturally positive outlook on life when you start expecting and seeing more of it, right?

Because what we expect we will experience and what we get we'll receive more of, right? It's like you're going to keep getting what you're giving and being too, right? So if you're constantly finding ways to, you know, see the magic, to appreciate the magic and to just yeah, like, be on that energy of appreciation and gratitude and acknowledgement, like, yeah, the universe will definitely give you more of it.

And so wherever you're starting out, not a problem. But this is such a simple way to start finding and celebrating and becoming a magnet for good things. Because I always say that I'm like the luckiest person that I know, I always attract amazing things. Even if that's as simple as like the bus always being there for me or the subway pulling into the station, right as I come down the stairs, like I attract exactly what I want all of the time. And it's a belief that I've created over time. And because that's my belief, that's what I experience more of the time, right? Because our thoughts are always creating our reality, not only as like a nice thing to say, like on a quantum physics level, right? Like we are creating what we experience. And so this podcast episode is all about re engaging with the magic.

And so what I did in January is I actually just like wrote it. Terry and I have a giant white board in our bedroom and we moved it so that it's right across like at the foot of our bed when we wake up. And in addition to creating like a really fun vision board with pictures and you know just like creating the mood of how I wanted to walk into the New Year and who I wanted to be. All of the things that I was just, again... these are not new ideas, but sometimes we need to reengage with them, right?

So I was creating new mood boards and I was also just writing down magic. Like I think it literally just said January Magic and anytime something amazing happened I just wrote it down to remind myself of that good thing, the surprise and delight of it, and the positive expectation of what else? Like what else is coming, what else is coming, what else is coming?

Because we can actually be in positive expectation of good things happening. And Then when they come, we can be delighted. Did you know that?

And so anytime something magical happened, I'm trying to think of specifically some of the things. Okay. I pulled up a photo and I'll just read out some of them. Because again, it doesn't have to be big or small, but how you engage with it, the relationship you create to this good thing that happens in your life, that's how you're going to experience it. Right?

So like, for example, I got asked to go and speak at the Dalton school. I visited one of my friends who is teaching there and I got to talk about Newsies and do a Q and A with students who were doing Newsies. Because I had done the production with this friend at Arena Stage in 2019. So I wrote down that I got to do this Newsies Q& A.

I had an upcoming gig in Detroit and that I just did this past weekend and it was so fun. But in January I was in rehearsals for that, so I celebrated that I had that gig coming up.

I celebrated that I had postponed the Paradigm because like I talked about in the last episode, it was this moment of really honoring myself and creating space and I just felt so much relief when I did that and I celebrated that I wasn't afraid to make that decision and that I didn't push through in a way that, you know, wasn't going to be in service of me or of my clients.

I wrote down that I got my nails done with this amazing woman near my apartment. It's only two blocks away, and I happen to just adore her and her like meticulous nature of how lovingly she did my nails. And I go through phases where I'm like, oh my gosh, I really want to have nails, like I really want to have gel nails and then sometimes I don't but anyways, I was in a phase where I was like, this is important for me to get my nails done. And not only did I get them done. I found an amazing nail tech in my neighborhood that I get to go to now.

I... oh, I remember this. I really wanted to take a dance class with Marcus Allen Cobb. He's a dancer, but also now I think the associate choreographer for &Juliet and I had. You know, experienced his energy at an ECC and I was like, Oh my God, I love this human. I just want to be around him. And so there was a class he did that I wasn't available for and then he had another class and I really wanted to go and it was sold out and I was like, No, I really wanted to be there. I happened to just like message him and say like, Hey, if anyone cancels or if anything comes up like I would love to just be number one on the alternate list right like if you have a late cancel like, just let me know I'm so there. And at the last second I got a spot to a sold out dance class like that was super fun.

One day Terry and I were out at a friend's place and we just happened to stop by a restaurant that one of my good friends works at and it's a super fancy Indian restaurant near Columbus circle and we just happened to pop in to say, really to just say hi. And then we got like the most amazing VIP treatment at the bar. She sent out little like canapes or like, you know, little small plates. And we just got to try this amazing, like food and drinks for practically nothing. It was just like such a sweet, generous thing that we experienced.

I got free show tickets because my sister in law, bless her, like she's amazing. But with scheduling, you know, her and my brother have a baby and at the last minute they weren't able to go to something. So she offered me free show tickets and I got to go see, what was it? An off Broadway play. It was the Friends parody. And I got to go with one of my friends who also had the intention for the New Year to see more shows. So we got free show tickets and we got to go see Friends the parody.

And on top of that, we, you know, I went on my bachelorette trip with my sisters and it was really successful and fun. And even though the weather wasn't great, like we had the most amazing quality time and, you know, we got to be there and celebrate my sister and, you know, Terry and I wanted to treat my sisters to lunch one day. So we did. And like all of that felt abundant and magical. And just like, again, to like get to experience being generous is just such a fun feeling.

What else? Oh. Actually, this is something I've been wanting to share with as many people as possible, because in December, I happen to have a month where, and I want to talk about this in depth on another episode, but I had a month in December where my numbers were significantly lower than usual in my business and I happened to apply for there's like a discounted subway fare program in New York City.

It's called FAIR FAIRS. FAIR, like F A I R, F. And, if you qualify, you can get 50%, I think it's 50 percent off your subway rides for a year. My partner was aware of the program, so, you know, I just decided to apply, and I made it mean nothing about me except for like, this would be awesome to get discounted subway rides, and I got approved. And so for the next year, I get 50 percent off all of my MetroCard rides. And that, to me, was like really freaking magical.

And so like, all of these things to say, every time something good happened, I just wrote it down. And, you know, other things that happened that were really magical, we got to go to a Knicks game. Again, like, Terry and I are not really sports people, but we got offered tickets because someone couldn't make it. Oh, my sister in law. And she gave us tickets to a Knicks game.

We got invited to a gala. I got to go to my first gala at Cipriani and I got to get dressed up and I found the perfect dress and you know. I got my bridesmaids dress in and because Terry has had seamstresses here working for New York Fashion Week, I got to have my dress altered right in the comfort of our own home, right?

I don't know other things that happened were auditions popped up. I was in callbacks for something. And, you know, like when you start looking for the magic, you will find it. But you have to actively start seeking it and acknowledging it when it's present, so that you can stay in the frequency. And when I say frequency, again, if that's not your verbiage, just like you know what it feels like when you're like, Holy shit, I'm having an amazing day. Like I'm on fire.

And you know, not to create an expectation or a standard where like, if you're not in that place, it's not good or, you know, something's wrong, but like that we can milk that feeling more of the time. And all it takes is shifting your focus from what is already working rather than looking at what you don't have or what's not working, right? Like all of those things are always going to coexist, but where you put your attention is what's going to amplify, right? What we focus on will grow. There's like so many different little slogans like that.

And I feel like I'm not saying any of them in the complete way, but what you put your attention on is what's going to grow, right? So when you start seeing that, like your life, you, your life. When you start seeing that your life is magical and that you are a magical being and that your life unfolds with perfect ease, you'll start becoming the person that the universe is rolling out the red carpet for, right?

And again, like I used to be this person too. Like I look at everyone else and be like, what is going on? Like, why are they so lucky? They have things so easy. Like, I've been thinking about this a lot for money. And honestly, it's a lot of what created The Performers Plan, which is, you know, part of Momentum is like all of the thoughts about money that we have to uncouple and untangle and work through.

Like, I remember in college thinking like my life was so hard compared to everyone else's. And I'm not saying that I, like, I had circumstances that were challenging and tough. Yes, but I also was always looking at them. Like I was always experiencing them and I didn't quite know how to process my emotions and I didn't know how to tune myself and my energy and my attitude and my perspective to being blessed. Right.

And that's just available to all of us, regardless of the circumstances to feel blessed, even when... to feel blessed ahead of time to know that things are always working out for you. Like I know these sometimes sound like cliches or things you'll see on the poster of like a elementary school classroom, but like they're so foundational. And when you actually ingest them and allow them to become your truth and find the ways for them to be your truth, you will experience blessings on blessings on blessings. And you'll be the person that people are always nice to and things are always working out for.

And again, I say this in real time because I've watched myself become that person. I've watched myself become the person that good things always happen to. I feel like, I don't know if this happened, this might've happened not in January, but I'll just say it for the sake of saying it is like, I also won like a hundred free headshots. I don't know. I'm always like, good things just pop up, right? And when you expect more good things, you will experience them.

So that is the episode for this week. Where in your life are you experiencing magic and what would it look like to invite in and welcome more and to start practicing the belief that good things happen to you. Good things happen to you. Not just other people. But that you are a walking blessing and that just by being here, you are changing the world. I promise you it is so fun to have that experience and it's not a problem if that doesn't feel 100 percent true yet, but I want you to start tracking it and start engaging with it and appreciating it and celebrating it and watch what happens in the next week, the next month, the next year, if you start seeing all of the magic that's already here. All right. I'll meet you back here for another episode.

Hey, I want to invite you to get started because if this is blowing your mind, imagine the impact of when we actually work together. You get to love your life as an actor, singer or dancer, even including auditions. And if that sounds amazing, come join us inside of Momentum, you get lifetime access to The Performers Plan, coaching, community, and more. And I will be supporting you the entire way. Go to kelliyoungmanwellness.com/momentum to join us now.