Though rumors were whispered throughout the hallways of my high school, it wasn't until I began attending a junior college in the early 1990s that I met another self-proclaimed witch.

Her background was very different from mine. She called herself a white witch and said that according to her tradition, she was unable to cast spells that would benefit her in anyway. We were on the newspaper staff together, and one night after a meeting, the staff members sat around discussing what types of spells she could perform. But everything suggested, she worked it around to how the results of each example given could be to her benefit, even if that benefit was just the satisfaction from helping others. In her practice, workings undertaken had to be completely selfless. Over the years, I learned this was a fairly common belief, to varying degrees, during that time period. It's important to remember this was on the downside of the "Satanic Panic" when witches were once again falsely accused of evil doings and the push to be a "good witch" was to differentiate yourself from witches who might not have the same honorable intentions.

Today, witchcraft is often used to benefit the caster. In fact, for many witches, spellcasting is employed to assist the caster in everything from manifesting their vision board to emotional healing and breaking generational curses. The beliefs about what witchcraft can be used for have changed. We know now it is perfectly fine to use your own power to help yourself, particularly in areas that help to bring peace fully into your life. The benefits of using witchcraft to build your spiritual connection with the universe is key to success in both your spellcasting and spiritual goals. The two go together and work hand in hand.

My newest book, Spells for Good Times: Rituals, Spells, and Meditations to Boost Confidence & Positivity, shows how to use witchcraft for self-care, to heal past traumas, and create positive outcomes, both in your personal life and in your community.

Spells for good times are ones that specifically benefit us by bringing positivity into our lives, and we are grateful for the benefits of these workings. They help us to become more complete, more magical, and more spiritual individuals. Part of the goal of life is to increase positive energy in ourselves and the world around us. The more we grow and learn, the more we understand our place in the vast oneness of everything. The more we understand our role, the more we understand the necessity of workings to assist in fulfilling our obligations.

We are living in a time when it feels like negativity is winning. Pandemics, insurrections, war—and these are on top of our already everyday problems including massive, damaging climate change. The news is filled with negative images and energies that we then focus our attention on. We give our power to negative energy. Now, trust me, I'm not saying to stop watching the news, but I am saying to start using spell work to dispel some of the negativity you endure from watching it.

We pick up negative energies in many ways, not just through watching horrific events on the news. It's all around us: less-than-ideal bosses, the person who cuts you off in traffic and then gives you the finger, social media trolls and bots, and the vast majority of advertising—negativity bombards us. Ignoring negative energy doesn't make it disappear. It can linger, and in some cases, take on a new life all its own. We must not only actively participate in cleansing the negative energy we encounter, but we must also send it back to the universe better than it found us. When we don't cleanse and ground ourselves of this energy, it bogs us down. It makes us feel heavy, low, and depressed. It also means that the energy we send out is infected and tarnished with the same negativity, resulting in the same conditions in the world around us.

Let your spell work find the positive energies in you. Focus on these positive energies and give them attention. Energy flows where attention goes. Make a conscious effort to include a daily practice of positive spell work in your life. When we encounter a great deal of negativity daily, it takes a lot of positivity to counteract it. The constant bombardment around us can be exhausting. Cancel negative energy around you with positive energy. Remember learning about positive and negative atoms in chemistry class? You can think about the energies in your life in the same way. Some energies, situations, even people in your life, are positive, some are negative, and some are neutral. The key is for the positive to outweigh the negative.

Manifest what you want by using like attracts like energies to bring good health, abundance, and happiness into your life. But also, be ready to work through trauma, cope with damage, and reverse destructive patterns. Though these examples don't sound like "good times" themselves, they are a part of the spell work necessary to create a future rich in growth and enlightenment—the ultimate good time.

Breaking patterns manufactured by negativity and creating a new blueprint for your life is easier said than done. It is work. It is hard work, which requires a conscious decision and effort to enact change. It requires accepting that bad days will happen, but not allowing them to set you back nor sway you from your course. It requires recognizing none of us are perfect, and we are all a work in progress. Your evolution and enlightenment are not to be measured against the journey of others, nor vice-a-versa.

Once you raise your own energy and vibrations from the work you do on yourself, it's easier to learn to shift your focus to create positive changes in outer workings, such as relationships, or community activism. Negative energy in your environment can be cleansed and grounded into neutral energy (positive energy when you are more experienced) and rereleased into the universe.

As witches, we know we can affect change in the world around us—we can see it when we pay attention and look for it. This change begins inside each one of us. When we work to grow, when we work to better ourselves, we are already making the world a better place—not only for ourselves but for everyone we interact with.

Spells for good times help us turn our focus to creating an existence focused on eye-opening growth, productive practices, and spiritual evolution.