When magical thinking hurts you

My cat Arlo doesn't understand how dressers work.

When I open my bottom dresser drawer, he slides under it, does happy-baby yoga pose on his back, and marvels at this magical, new place. When I close the drawer, suddenly the whole world as he knew it is back.

I love me a little magic in my life, who doesn't? But here's the thing: Arlo thinks he lives in a magical world.

Magical thinking is the fallacious attribution of causal relationships between actions and events.

This is because he doesn't understand cabinetry (as if I do), physics, nor several millennia of human invention and ingenuity that make up his environment.

If he understood those things, the nook that opens up when he's next to my dresser would not delight him as much. I think he would say,

"But of course. I will lie here and then Girl Human will push in the drawer, triggering the slide mechanism to happen along the track. Finally, the drawer will disappear into the greater apparatus, awaiting its next use."

Magical thinking can be a trap or a hiding place if you go there too much.

Have you ever had a great work day and chalked it up to the universe or solely because you had a green juice, or something? I thank the universe too, but I also know my stellar creative days are the fruit of the following:

• wake up before 8am

• meditate

• move mah boday

• shower

• eat breakfast

• switch off from my sitting desk to standing desk every 90 mins

• eat lunch

• take breaks

• try to see the opportunity for growth in every moment.

Sometimes the way things go is super smooth and there's no feeling quite like it. At the same time, it's quite ordinary. You can put a lens of magic on it if you want, but the truth is it's entirely within your power to have a great work day.