Have you seen any miracles lately? Or maybe experienced one or two of your own? Do you even believe in miracles these days? Regardless of how you define one, when you start looking for miracles, you'll find life is filled with them. Even better, when you understand the nature of miracles and how they come about, you can create your own at will.

Miracle-making is a highly underrated activity, as many assume it's left in the hands of a higher power and not within our personal purview to create magic. Although there are books on the subject and plenty of folks practicing it already, most of us weren't taught to believe we can create whatever we want.

In fact, we're usually taught the opposite: that it takes hard work and perseverance to get by. Anyone believing in wishes, fairy tale endings, or spending time daydreaming is admonished to be realistic and not get their hopes up. We're trained to deny our wants and desires to avoid disappointment in a harsh and unfair life.

Nothing could be further from the truth, it turns out. We can create miracles. We can create whatever we want in our lives. All it takes is believing it and daring to want whatever we want.

What Makes a Miracle?
What would constitute a miracle in your life? Some of us use the term loosely, but that doesn't deny the wonder and marvel we feel when the swim suit looks as good on us as it did in the catalogue, or we discover the job of our dreams we didn't know existed, or the vet tells us there's an effective affordable treatment for our ailing dog.

I suspect it's partly because we're so used to bad news that when things do go our way, it feels extraordinary or magical. The more we think something is unlikely or impossible to happen, the more miraculous it feels when it does.

Webster defines a miracle as an "extremely outstanding or unusual event, thing, or accomplishment." On his ABC Radio National show "Encounter," David Rutledge questioned whether miracles really even occur, since all miracles could be "explained rationally if our rational apprehension was up to the task." He paraphrased St. Augustine in saying when something extraordinary can be explained rationally, it's no longer miraculous.

Indeed. It sounded miraculous to me when researchers recently announced they successfully made a copper cylinder appear to disappear. But after reading their explanation of how metamaterials guide electromagnetic waves around a central region so objects within the region don't disturb electromagnetic fields, thus creating invisibility, it seemed perfectly logical to make something disappear. What took so long to create that? After all, it's just metamaterials guiding electromagnetic waves around the object. What's next, walking on water?

But just because something can be explained logically doesn't make it any less miraculous. In fact, if anything, it brings us closer to believing in and allowing miracles into our daily lives. Why wait for the logical explanation before we believe in it? Let's embrace the miracles awaiting us now.

This brings up two important points regarding miracles and our ability to manifest them.
When we're consciously aware of and grateful for the miracles present in life, we invite more in (because like attracts like and we get what we focus on). Second, when we believe miracles exist and that they can happen to us, we're aligned to experience them.

Our Personal Miracles
What miracles do you take for granted? They are present everywhere, in each of our lives. As you begin to see them, you allow more to manifest. What miracle would you like to see happen next?

A woman who has always struggled in relationship feels like she's been gifted by the gods when Mr. Right appears. Someone who's fighting the weight battle feels like a superhero when he drops 20 pounds and keeps them off through the holidays. One of my favorite personal miracles was quitting my corporate job after five years of talking about it, throughout which I dreaded every work day and feared financial ruin to give up a steady paycheck. People around me, and myself for that matter, were incredulous when I actually did it. It felt like a miracle that I found the courage to create change.

Morris Goodman, dubbed the "Miracle Man," broke nearly every bone in his body (including his skull and spinal cord) when he crashed his plane. Although he wasn't expected to live, Morris not only survived, but recovered from a coma and proved doctors wrong after they said he would never walk, speak or function normally again. Today he's one of the most inspiring motivational speakers on circuit.

Morris' wife, Cathy, created her own miracle by reversing a breast cancer diagnosis simply by using laugh therapy. We often hear stories of people who use the power of their mind to eliminate tumors or survive severely terminal cancer diagnoses.

Regardless of what makes a miracle for someone else, what would yours be? What would amaze and astonish you, and make you believe that not only do marvelous things happen, but that they happen to you?

Once you get a handle on what you'd love to see happen in your life, you've taken the first step to experience it.

Miracle Making 101
It might even be a miracle that today we can openly discuss creating them, since in the past this sort of "blasphemy" could have earned a spot at the burned stake. In fact, there are many contributors spreading the word about deliberate creation today.

Todd Michaels' "Twelve Conditions of a Miracle," Michael Rann's "Shortcut to a Miracle," "The Secret" movie, "Ask and It Is Given" by Abraham-Hicks, even the mysterious Emerald Tablet by Hermes - the list is long of those encouraging us to embrace our powers to create miracles. Larry King even got in on the action last month when he interviewed various authorities on creating reality with your thoughts.

Are you ready to order up a miracle this holiday season? Here's how to get started:

1) Believe it's possible. It's a challenge to create something you don't believe in, so the first step is to embrace your ability to manifest what you want. Even if you can't completely buy into the thought that you can create whatever your heart desires, start by entertaining it as a possibility. The more you consider the thought, the more successful results you'll experience - and the easier it becomes to believe.

2) Choose what you want. Get clear about what you'd like to see happen in your life, whether it's something you'd like to do, be or have. The sky is no limit and you get what you ask for, so make it good!

Start small if that feels more comfortable. Enjoy manifesting rock star parking spots during holiday shopping traffic and truly delightful company parties. Once you gain confidence in your miracle-making capabilities, you can work your way up to the more exciting stuff.

Don't let anyone talk you out of what you choose, and forget whatever you've heard or believed in the past about what is or isn't possible. We live in a realm of infinite possibilities.

3) Feel it now. Your miracle-making capacity lies within (in your thoughts and feelings), so you won't need magic wands, hats or potions - although they might add to the fun. All you need is the discipline to direct your thoughts and feelings in the direction of the miracle you're conjuring up. Focus on what you want, instead of the absence of it.

Set an intention that search acim  will allow this miracle to unfold in your life, and enjoy the feelings that thought brings up. Imagine what it feels like to experience this event or thing now. So much of your energy has been unconsciously directed toward "not wanting" the things you deeply want in life that this step may feel like a breath of fresh air for your true self.

4) Do what feels good. Many of us have lives filled with things that don't feel good, so this final step could entail dramatic change. It may mean new jobs, new relationships, new lifestyles. The way you feel dictates what you attract, so as you make feeling good a higher priority, you'll find life naturally gets better. Feeling good is a fun practice that allows you to naturally and effortlessly create miracles on purpose.

Remember that everyone's "feel good" is different, so don't look to anyone else for what should feel good to you. Trust your inner guidance and follow it.

With this process you become much more deliberate about what you create in your life. You believe in your ability to get what you want; focus on what you want instead of what you don't want; feel what it feels like to have it; and purposely do what feels good - raising your vibration and increasing your power to create the life of your dreams.

So have fun flexing your miracle muscles as you wrap up 2006, and set your sights high for the New Year. It is our destiny to continually expand what we believe possible for ourselves and our world. Now that we've got invisible figured out, we can move on to reversing aging and disease; an abundance of time and money; and loving our "enemies." There are no limits when we free ourselves from the boundaries of what we thought possible!