A Deeper Dive into the Deep Magic Group Process

Gratitude

We begin the first round by going inside for one minute to connect to something we feel gratitude for right now. Then we come back to start the group by sharing what we’re grateful for. 

Gratitude is a magic practice of orienting to what is enough, what is good, what is nurturing, what is beautiful, what is holy. 

Gratefulness brings us back into alignment with the sacred nature of being alive. It peels back the distortions and reveals again: this life is a gift. 

Beginning in gratitude creates a higher vibrational container for the work to come. 

Focus 

Our group is not a free-for-all, random check-in support group. Rather, harnessing one of coaching’s greatest insights, we focus on ONE issue or problem arising in our lives right now. 

We begin the second round by going inside for a spacious three minutes to connect with the issue or problem we would like to explore. As we remain inside, we query ourselves about which specific issue to bring up and how best to convey it. As with all sharing, we decide how much or how little detail to share. There is no “right” way to share; no expectation of how much information or how little. 

During the Focus round, if there’s something strongly pulling your attention, you may also choose to speak it in order to bring yourself fully into the group. Whether it’s celebrating you new website or grieving the loss of a sweet dog, speaking ‘what needs to be said’ in order to be right here, right now, is also welcome.

As an IFS-informed group, we are at liberty to not only speak for any specific part of us who is facing this challenge: we may also choose to speak from a self-led part who wants to present its own problem or issue. 

Guidance

After sharing the issues we each face, we turn to our higher forces, whatever they may be, to ask for guidance.

Ancestors, guides, the universe, inner wisdom — in whatever form we connect to spirit, this is our time to connect to that higher power and receive from it. 

We begin the third round by going inside for a spacious four minutes, in inward quietude, to listen to the ‘still small voice within’ that speaks to us in its unique way, bringing wisdom from higher or deeper levels. Keeping our specific issue or problem in mind, we open our self to receiving. RECEIVING. Receiving images, words, guidance, sensations, movements — whatever comes. Receiving is something we can all get better at! Thus, this round is magical not just in the sacred nature of our openness to the universe or whatever wisdom we connect to, but also simply in practicing receiving — deeply receiving. 

This is not a round to ‘figure it out.’ This is a round to share a reverent stillness with one another and to relax into that mystery. 

What if our issues are a portal to discovering deeper truths about the world and about ourselves?  What if we can use this deep magic process to PRACTICE ALLOWING and RECEIVING instead of efforting and striving and hustling? 

Sigh. 

We are in the middle of a process that beckons us to lean into the support of the group, of the process, of the universe — we are in the middle of a process of experiencing and remembering we are not alone in our struggles and issues and problems. Together, we can breathe a sigh of release and simply be with our struggles instead of struggling against or through our struggles. 

Intention

After receiving from the universe, intention is the act of communicating back in response. It is a pause to clarify something we will ask, with humility, of the universe, on our behalf. 

We begin the fourth round by taking another spacious interlude inside, to formulate how to ask the universe / higher power / wisdom / spirit for support with our challenge. (I’ll call this ‘the universe’ going forward, but please use whatever term is right for you in the group!) 

We come back to the group, and in turn, each person explains in a sentence or two what they are asking ‘the universe’ for support with. Immediately after each person shares (before we go to the next person), we go inside and the entire group asks the universe to bring this support to the person who just spoke. 

This is a very reverent time of extending deep compassion and positive intention to our fellow group members. It is powerful magic to both ask the universe to support someone else, and also to receive the entire group’s sincere request that the universe extend support to you! Many group members feel enormous nourishment from this experience. 

After the group, some members may choose, during the week or weeks to come, to ask the universe for support, both on behalf of other group members or themselves. It is a truly deep form of magic — both to set an intention and to share it with an intention group. 

To learn more about the power of intention groups like this (including many research studies) you can Google Lynn McTaggart ‘The Power of Eight.’ Lynn’s work is the reason I added this round to the deep magic group. 

Kaizen

Kaizen is small changes for huge impact. In business it is an idea of ‘continuous improvement’ or ‘improvement mindset’ by focusing on very small issues, constantly, to create massive transformation over time. In a way, our group is a ‘kaizen’ group in the sense that it helps us focus on a particular issue, and then utilize multiple angles of support to transform it. 

In the next step in our journey, we go inside again, for about two minutes, to decide on 

ONE • SMALL • KAIZEN (change) 

to implement between now and the next group, which will support us in moving ahead with our problem or issue. 

Getting the hang of a ‘kaizen’ is not easy, mainly because it can be a wide variety of things, and also because it is SMALL. 

First, a kaizen can be any of the following six things in the acronym SMART Q: 

solution • moment • act • reward • thought • question (SMARTQ)

Second, a kaizen is small. It is a small solution, a little moment of noticing, a minor act, a tiny thought, or a low-key question. It is something you do that is NOT a big ask. If you want to start exercising, you decide to touch your yoga mat once a day at a certain time. If you don’t want to be on the computer too late at night, you put a post-it note on the computer that says, “Is it after 8 pm right now?” If you want to give yourself a reward for achieving a goal, you give yourself five minutes to watch stupid YouTube videos, you don’t book a vacation to Brazil. 

In this way, we share a commitment to moving ourselves forward in resolving our issue in gentle and loving ways. 

Sharing

Now is an open-ended time to share our responses to the group journey. Using “I” statements to own our experiences, we weave threads, express appreciation, and acknowledge being affected by each other. As moderator, I will gently step in to help rephrase in order to maintain safety if advice or projection accidentally arise.

Rhema

The Greek word ‘rhema’ means ‘any spoken word.’ It has Christian religious connotations, relating to “the spoken word of God.” Here, I use it to simply refer to the power of summing up our group experience.

To finish the Deep Magic process, we go inside one final time to arrive at a word or phrase that articulates what we are taking with us. It is a practice of imbuing deeper meaning into everyday words, so that going forward we can have a touchstone for our entire experience in the group today.

The deep magic process is a flow of transformation practices that build on each other to create an outcome
greater than the sum of the parts.

We leave the group connected in a field of compassion. Perhaps also confronted and challenged, but further along in our self-understanding and self-actualization than when we started.