If you had Three Wishes?

If you ask anyone about the concept of three wishes, then they are likely to think about the story of Aladdin and his magic lamp. And most likely they will have come across this story from the Walt Disney film called Aladdin.

Walt Disney’s Aladdin

Walt Disney’s film called Aladdin premiered in 1992.  In this film Disney decided that Aladdin would have a magic lamp that, if rubbed, would call upon a Genie that could offer Aladdin three wishes.  Aladdin, however, did not think properly about his wishes and wasted them. This story did not originate from this film, it was based on a story that was centuries old.

Jinns or Genies

The idea of a magic lamp and genie that granted wishes was taken from tales that had originated in very early Arabian folklore and which later became part of Islamic mythology. Several of these myths described supernatural creatures called Jinns or Jinni that could use their powers in a helpful or a mischievous way. Over time the stories were edited and developed to suit the culture at the time and at some point they portrayed Jinns as creatures that had the power to grant wishes to humans.

In the early 18^th century a Frenchman called Antoine Galland collected many of these folk stories and translated them into French to create a set of twelve volumes entitled One Thousand and One Nights.  It is in one of these volumes that we first come across the story of Aladdin and his wonderful lamp.   These stories were then translated by an Englishman called Richard Francis Burton in 1885-1888 and the Jinni became known as Genies. 

When I was a child I was given a children’s book called 1001 Arabian Nights.  In this book a lady called Scheherazade made up stories to save her life. Each chapter of the book was a different story and one of these chapters was the story of Aladdin who was a poor Chinese man and lived with his mother. Together they found a magic lamp and a magic ring. When the mother cleaned the lamp she discovered a magical genie that could grant them their all their dearest wishes. The ring also contained a genie that could grant wishes. Together they managed to make the right wishes and live very happy lives. Interestingly, this story was used as the theme for a musical play at my primary school. I was too young to remember much about the play, although I do remember there were lots of silly songs.

It is this story that became the inspiration for the Walt Disney film even if he did change a number of details such as Aladdin was not Chinese, he only had a lamp no ring, and the genie only granted three wishes.

Just Three wishes?

So, if you had a genie who only offered you three wishes, what would you wish for?  Would you ask for the first three things that come to mind (e.g. new house, new car, exotic holiday)?  Would you agonise for hours trying to reduce your many, many wishes to just three? Whatever you wished for, would you later be happy or wish you had chosen something else? These wishes can all come true if you had enough money. So perhaps you would be better off asking for lots of money. We all have times when we wish to be rich, but the fate of many lottery winners shows us that becoming rich suddenly does not always equal a happier life. Being rich changes the relationships you have with family and friends, changes your life, you start to worry about what to do with the money etc. Life is not always better.

I created an affirmation that encompassed my own wealth wish. “I always have more money than I need.” I find that by reducing my needs, I can always make this wish come true. And by not having too much, I live a better life by appreciating what I do have.

So what else could you wish for?

Some people have thought about this and cleverly came up with the idea of wishing for another three wishes?  And then one of these could be a wish for more wishes, etc. Or just one wish for endless wishes. This is one way of getting everything that you want.  But when would this stop? Would you find life unsatisfying if you could get everything you wanted without any effort?  Perhaps this would make you happy at first but then very unhappy later on?  Many people find that leading a comfortable, easy life is quite difficult because it can be boring and it can lower your self-esteem and self-value.  Achieving things through effort can make your feel happier through a sense of achievement and pride in yourself. 

So perhaps you would wish to be happy all the time, but again this might become boring. As we get older we realise that the dark times make us appreciate the good times even more.

Perhaps it might be better to be more general in your wishes. You could wish for freedom, wellness, a great friendship. In many ways these could well bring more joy to those who would appreciate these things, than lots of material possessions.

So, if you only had three wishes what could you wish for? 

I thought about this many times and I came up with the following:-

The greatest health, the greatest wealth and the greatest happiness.

As I was creating my new life, I decided upon the three things that I could wish for.  The Greatest Health, the Greatest Wealth and the Greatest Happiness. These seemed to be the most important things that I needed to change in my life. I think that if a magical genie had appeared before me and granted me three wishes, then this is what I would have asked for and I would have actually believed that this would happen.

The problem for me in my reality, however, is that there was no visible genie in front of me. Just a dream that we have an Inner Genie that could grant our wishes by offering us Gifts of Joy. Spiritual teachings told me to visualise and believe and I found that it was a challenge.  It was difficult for me, in bad health, without a job/income and with no idea how to be happy, to visualise this abundance or to believe that it was possible.  Whenever I tried to think positive thoughts, the negative ones would soon appear and overpower any positive ones.

In addition, the more I focused on these wishes, the more problems came into my life. My health deteriorated, things in my house and garden started to break and fall apart. My savings were disappearing and my happiness levels had plummeted to zero. What was I doing wrong.

I did the only thing I could in my despair and asked for help from the Universe and my Inner Genie. I did this each night before I went to sleep and one morning I awoke with the thought came to me that I could not get to the greatest health etc. from where I was because I could not believe in it. Doubts would appear and these were lowering my vibration.

You have to Believe

I had the idea then that perhaps I could get to something that was closer to my current position. In order to come up with something more believable, I changed my wish to:-

Better Health, Better Wealth, Better Happiness

and I was open to ideas on how to achieve this. This felt more comfortable. I could try and get better every day, week, month. I was happy with this.

It took time to work towards my wishes. I was meditating, visualising and saying affirmations, but I was also being grateful, being appreciative and filling in my time with activities that brought me joy. I will tell you more about my challenges, the people and ideas that helped in future posts. I feel that I am a different person from the person I was a few years ago, because I have learnt to accept my situation as being OK and allow things to work out. Everything will work out fine is my mantra.

I am now grateful for all the help that my Inner Genie and the Universe have given me. I live a more frugal and simple life, but this has given me the time and energy to appreciate what I have. This in turn has shown me that my life is still abundant and I definitely feel happier.

Inspired Action

Of course I did not just sit there and expect things to come to me without any action. I did not lose weight by just sitting there visualising a slim body (although I am wondering if this might be possible), I had to find a slimming diet that was enjoyable and affordable, and I did, and I lost 42lbs. When I lost the use of my right arm, suffered a painful back and lost hearing in my right ear, it was difficult. I spent a lot of time visualising a healthy body, but I also motivated myself to learn how to do things with only my left arm and a painful back. It was extremely difficult but I did manage to survive until I could use my arm again and my back was not so painful. I even managed to get back some hearing in my right ear. Hot flashes are still work in progress though!

Struggling to do something that you really do not want to do, is difficult. If you truly cannot find a way of motivating yourself to do this with some joy, then perhaps you need to change your life so that you do not have to do it. This change is your wish.

If all this sounds difficult, then you need to ask for help from your Inner Genie. Find some quite alone-time and wait for the answers to come. Inspiration will come to you on how to make your struggles easier. How to bring happiness into your life (without hurting other people or animals of course).

I used to hate housework and it was a struggle to do it even when . I decided that housework was something that I had to do because I did not like my house when it got too dirty. I trained myself to clean floors, wash-up and do the ironing with joy. I focused on the good feelings that I would have when I looked at clean floors, clean dishes and put on clothes that were not creased. I worked on creating a simple schedule for doing a little housework each day and now I do it without any struggle.

Harmonious Vibration

Fortunately our Inner Genies do not limit us to three wishes and we can ask and attract many things into our lives. The Inner Genie does not grant wishes s/he gives us gifts of joy. I will write more on this in my next post. These gifts help to make our wishes come true if we wish correctly.

We need to wish or ask for help with a harmonious vibration. To do this we need to stop focusing on the lack of what we want and focus on the great feelings we will feel when we do have it.

Most of us wish with a sigh. When something goes wrong we wish it was different, but when we wish we are focused on the things that are wrong. Our car breaks down and we wish that we had a new car. The wish will come with anger at our current problem or it will come with a sigh. I wish that I had a new car even though I know I can never afford it. When we wish but do not believe it will come then we are wishing with a sigh. When we wish for something when feeling angry or miserable then we will only attract more of anger and misery. The new car may turn up but then it may also break down. Wishing with a disharmonious vibration and stops us from attracting things into our lives that would make our wishes come true. We need to wish with a more positive attitude.

When you go into a restaurant you look on the menu for something that pleases you and then you politely ask the waiter “Please can I have……”. You do not look at the menu and wish for something and say “I would like this but I know it will never come” You do not shout at the waiter, ” I am hungry get me something to eat”. So when you wish or ask for something make sure it is something that you desire and ask for it politely, knowing it will turn up and be delicious.

Thus most important part of making our wishes come true is to stop focusing on the problem and focus on the solution. Keep negative thoughts away. It is not always easy so you have to train yourself to get into a happy place so that you can figure out a good solution. Mediation or visualising pictures of things you love can help. So can going for a walk in nature. Ignoring the problem and doing things you love can help you to maintain a good vibration long enough to persuade your Inner Genie to send gifts that will help you. And do not forget to be appreciative and grateful for all that you receive.

Love, Peace and Joy.

As I develop the spiritual side of my life/personality, and as I find that living a simpler more humble life is enjoyable, I have not needed to wish for many things. I am attracting better health, wealth and happiness in my life every day and I enjoy doing this. So what else do I need to attract into my life. The idea of designer clothes and exotic holidays does not really appeal anymore. Neither do fast cars and big houses. All these things seem stressful and wasteful now.

So is there anything that I am wishing for. Nothing in particular, except perhaps I would like the following:-

an abundance of Love, Peace and Joy, for myself and for the world.  

The idea of wishing or praying or focusing on love, peace and joy is mentioned in Christian religions (Galations 5:22) and also in many spiritual practices.  The original phrase seems to be Love Joy and Peace.  I prefer Love, Peace and Joy and this is what I am asking of my Inner Genie. Learning to love my self and others more, to choose the most peaceful option and to find Joy in everything around me is what I about now. This is what I am now working on attracting into my life. And the work is not hard.

If you look at the world for long enough you can easily find lots of negative things that can make you afraid. It does not help anyone to dwell on these things. I have friends that seem to focus on all the things wrong with their life and the world. It is energy draining. Most of these things we cannot do anything about. However, by looking at the things that are right in the world, we gain the energy to do something about the things that we wish to improve.

So my thoughts now are about how can I love myself, my cat, my friends, my possessions, my environment etc. How can I create a peaceful life. What do I need to do to find and give more Joy. By attracting these things into my life, I feel that I can make a small difference in making the world a better place to live in.

I wish you all good fortune in making some truly magical and wonderful wishes to spread joy to yourself and the world. So what are you wishing for? Tell me in the comments below.