It didn't strike me as odd at all to hear these people asking for help from Santa. Call it the power of positive thinking or prayer or just putting it out there, but any way you look at it there is a real power in just simply "saying" what you want.
We have so many traditions and tricks set up for how our wishes can come true. Whether it's blowing out birthday candles, or speaking what you really want to a kind old man dressed up in red velvet and a white beard.
And I for one believe in it. Not that the magic of blowing out the candles on your cake makes what you want come true, but that once you set an intention and are brave enough to form the words of what you want — you've made that wish come that much closer to being a reality.
Several years ago I was on a yoga retreat in St. John Virgin Islands. One morning my tent-mates and I embarked on a sunrise hike to a cliff nearby promising a spectacular view of the sun coming up over the ocean. And the gorgeous view wasn't the only appeal to the hike. Local legend had it that if you stood on the edge of the cliff and threw a rock as hard as you could into the sea while shouting out your wish — if your rock made it to the water without crashing back against the cliff — your wish would come true.
My hiking companions and I found it somewhat difficult to not only come up with our wish, but also shout it out loud (so many of our wish making rituals involve a whisper or a silent wish), but we all did it. I've long felt that that moment was a truly powerful one in my life.
Maybe there was some magic in that cliff and particular patch of sea. In fact there was probably magic in the whole trip. But I think the real power of the moment was in what it forced me to do. Choose the thing I wanted most, put it into words, and put it out into the world.
That day I wished for a family of my own — a bold intention coming from a career focused single girl living in New York City. But that wish feels like the turning point for me. When I stopped closing off options to find a partner and start a family.
One of my yoga instructors on that trip gives a particularly helpful set of instructions for getting into difficult poses. It starts with your feet. With your pinky toes. She guides you through the process of getting ready for the pose by having you set your feet with strong grounding in the earth. And then set the intention for the entire pose in your pinky toes.
With that small action of understanding in your toes where you want to go, you lay the groundwork for everything else.
When you find the courage and the words to tell Santa what you really want, you set your intention. And from that moment on your wish has started its journey on the road to reality.
