Affirmations

The philosopher Descartes is known for his famous statement “I think, therefore I am.” However, if we believe this then we are deluding ourselves, because we are not our minds. The mind is a wonderful and powerful instrument if we use it properly, but it can become destructive if it is misused. It is a tool, and is designed to be our servant rather than our master.

Thoughts are continuously rambling on in our minds. In fact it is very difficult to cease this incessant inner chatter. Those of us who are in the habit of meditating will attest to the fact that to quiet the mind is very challenging. Most of our thoughts perpetuate the old self defeating programming and beliefs that keep repeating themselves habitually. As stated before, thoughts are sending out vibrations that attract to us anything else that is resonates at that vibration.

One effective way to change these disempowering thoughts is to replace them with positive thoughts called affirmations. Using affirmations is a very powerful technique that can help us to elevate our vibrations, which in turn draws to us those things that we desire.

However, just like any other discipline, affirmations must be practised regularly to work –in fact using them needs to become an ingrained habit.

What is an affirmation?
To affirm means “to make firm.” Accordingly, an affirmation is a strong, positive declaration that something already is true. Affirmations can be spoken aloud, said silently, sung or chanted or even written down.

Here are some guidelines for using affirmations:
An affirmation is a positive statement. It is necessary to declare what is desired rather than what is not wanted. Thus rather than “I don’t want to get into debt, or “I am not fat” it is important to express positive statements such as “My body weighs the right weight,” or “I am debt free.”
An affirmation is always in the present, not the future. It must be in the now. Saying “I am wealthy now,” is an effective affirmation. “I will be wealthy,” which indicates that this will happen sometime in the future, is ineffective
since the future by definition never comes.
It is important to understand that to make a desired condition in the present tense is not the same as telling a lie.
Everything is first created in the inner realm before it manifests
in the outer reality.

An affirmation is always personal. An affirmation that feels right or works for one person may not work for another. An affirmation should evoke a feeling of resonance and expansion in your being.

Techniques for using Affirmations.

It is commonly said that “the eyes are the windows of the soul.” The eyes are like a mirror, reflecting back whatever is presented to the mirror.
Here are some affirmation techniques using the eyes that can be used, alone or with another person.
While standing alone in front of a mirror, we can look into our own eyes
while saying and affirmations and feeling the affirmations being reflected back at us as we witness our soul confirming what we are saying.
With sitting across from another person, we can take turns saying the affirmations aloud while looking into each other’s eyes.
An example of this would be as follows:
Susan says: “Mary, you are loved.”
Mary replies: “Yes, I know I am loved.”
This can be continued for a period of fifteen or twenty minutes before changing partners.

Affirmations may be declared silently or aloud all through the day –in the shower, in the car, doing chores in the house or at work.
Two excellent times to do affirmations are after meditation, just before dropping off to sleep, and just after awakening.

Why Affirmations may not work
I have had several people tell me that affirmations do not work for them. For a long time, I used to wonder why. After careful reflection, I have discovered some of the reasons.

One is that sometimes we do not believe that what we are saying is true. For instance we may be saying “I am cherished” and at the same time we hear another inner voice rejecting the affirmation saying “Yeah right!” or “You’re kidding yourself aren’t you,” or even “that’s a lie.” Of course when such constant negative chatter is contradicting the affirmation, its energy and focus are dissipated and its vibration reduced.

Here is a way to reduce this negative self-talk, and thus use affirmations more effectively. Instead of saying “I am cherished, we can say “Sally is cherished.” In this way that part of the mind which is having a problem with accepting it in the first person can now accept the idea that someone else is saying this about us.

As a second stage we can change the affirmation to the second person by saying “Sally you are cherished.” Finally when this form of statement is accepted we can return to the first person, once again saying “I am cherished.”

In essence this is the process:
The third person is declaring to the Universe that this is so.
The second person represents to the Universe declaring the affirmation back to the speaker.
We are declaring it to ourselves.

Another reason for affirmations not working is that we may be doing them by rote. We need to affirm with strong emotions. Affirmations work in the same way as creative visualization requiring us to focus our senses on the desires and goals that we want to achieve.

It is important that our thoughts and feelings and what we are affirming are all brought into alignment. On the other hand, if we declare an affirmation at the start of the day and then think negatively, this neutralises the effects of the affirmation.

Affirmations are powerful because we are declaring what we desire and want to create in our lives. This helps us to disregard the prevalent circumstances we are facing and focus on a different result.

The words “I am” are very powerful. We must carefully choose which words to attach after the “I am” because they are directly connected to with our state of being. This is the essence of who we are. Rather than saying “I am sick, or unhappy, or sad, we need to change the sentence to a positive statement such as “I feel well and happy.”

Are you ready for an action step?
Go ahead and declare who you are with feeling. Who you are is your internal state. This is who you are at your core. What would you like to experience? Joy, happiness, wealth? This is already who you are. You are not trying to be it. You are it. So say it. Be it.

Are you ready for practicing affirmations?
Affirmation booklets are available at:
http://www.peacefulinterlude.com/
604-572-1136