Advice on affirmations

Advice on affirmations The following excellent advice comes from "God without religion" which I have just started reading - I highly recommend you geta copy as reading off the screen can't compare with sitting in a nice, comfy chair with a book in your hot little hands :)

Affirmation:

Affirmation uses the power of the mind to gain needed things - such as good health, suitable employment or caring friends - or to positively modify behaviour. Affirmations themselves are like seeds in the soil of the mind, harnessing and directing energy otherwise squandered in daily routines. They are practiced by silently repeating a carefully worded thought or by focusing on the visual image of a desired outcome. In either instance, the phenomenon that manifests if the world's response to your focussed mind, much as a blossom is the universe's response to a fertile seed.

Affirmations produce results because they create a vacuum in your experiences by establishing a contradiction between your thoughts and other thoughts. Nature, abhoring a vacuum, then fills it with the strongest thought, or a combination of strong thoughts, thereby eliminating the contradiction. Provided that you persevere with an affirmation regardless of any sensory data suggesting it may not be fulfilled, thus overcoming all contradictions, your thought will eventually come to realisation. Old-time religionists, aware of this phenomenon, explained it by saying, "Whatever you believe strongly enough, God believes also."

Ideally affirmations are practiced to manifest an uncluttered, productive and virtuous life. However, they can just as readily breed anguish. Depending on the particular thoughts or images seeded in the mind, they may either attract a lover or destroy a relationship, induce calmness or stir up restlessness, secure the essentials of life or generate material possessions in excess; they may likewise either eliminate or accentuate unwanted things and habits. For best results, temper the power of your mind with introspection, remaining continually aware of your desired outcomes and cultivating an increasingly expansive sense of self.

Also reevaluate any inclination you may have to manifest things or behaviours for the sake of personal happiness. The belief that we reap happiness after acquiring everything we want, or after changing our ways, places happiness in some eternally distant future and keeps it contingent on positive results. So if you learned from the self-help movement, for instance, that happiness derives from manifetsed affirmations for healing, romance, prosperity or personal conduct, reevaluate your past accomplishments to see if they were instead outcomes of happiness. Experienced practitioners of affirmation, aware that unconditional happiness unfailingly fosters success in the external world, look deep within themselves for happiness before using this technique.

The successful practice of affrimation depends on three additional considerations. First, since your experience of the world will create the conditions for your affirmations to manifest, word them carefully to avoid ambiguity; state your true desires; and to tap into the well of unconditioned happiness within you, give voice to your most expansive sense of self. Affirmations shaped by a narrow sense of self often generate results that cause suffering and further narrow the sense of self. Second, keep your affirmations deliberate. Since spontaneous thoughts uttered in a highly emotional state may produce immediate and regrettable effects, review many possible affirmations before choosing one to silently intone. Silent affirmations are generally more effective than spoken ones because they harness more intensity of concentration. Finally, couple your affirmations with daily actions that support their manifestation. For example, affirming that you will win the lottery, a thought sure to be pooled with millions of other such thoughts, can only start to bear fruit if you play.

To begin using this technique, write down the things or behaviours you want in life. For each one, compose a single-sentence affirmation such as "I am eager to question and challenge new ideas," "I am physically robust," "I am a conduit for wealth and riches," or "I act in the highest service of others." Once you have arrived at your affirmations, keep them confidential. In sharing an affirmation with someone, you risk dissipating a portion of your initial determination. It is also possible to decrease the power of an affirmation by revealing it to someone who may then affirm its opposite. A listeners well-intentioned thoughts can have an equally adverse effect. For example, a seemingly positive statement such as, "I hope he gets better" negatively affirms that the individual is not well.

The best affirmations for health of any sort - physical, financial or emotional - unconditionally affirm vibrant wellness without assuming the need for recovery. This means that if you are ill, do not pray for healing but rather affirm that you are already healthy, for then your thoughts and outlook will automatically focus on well-being. And above all, persevere despite any counteractive thoughts in you midst. An affirmation for health that does not materialise instantly is contending with harmful thoughts, moods and habits of living in either the present or the past; prospects improve with steadfast practice. On a much larger scale, the same is true for affirmations for world peace.

When you are ready to implement an affirmation you have composed, identify its function and adhere to the practice guidelines described below. Afirmations have a wide range of functions and can be categorised according to the following types:

Maintenance affirmations

Maintenance affirmations involve the basic needs of life, such as health, food, clothing, shelter, friendship, education and peace of mind. This type of affirmation can be practiced upon rising and going to sleep. If your maintenace affirmations remain the same from day to day, avoid repeating them by rote, for then they may not take root in your mind. Instead, practice them by concentration and depth of feeling.

Ideal affirmations

Ideal affirmations target harmful habits and the acquisition of virtues such as patience, equanimity, honesty and healthy living. This type of affirmation works to create both the inner and outer conditions needed to support the new habit or virtue. Careful wording will prevent the likelihood of triggering an adverse effect. For example, if you want to quit smoking, an affirmation that contains the word smoking, such as "I am not smoking any more," can prompt your mind to affirm the habit of smoking. A better affirmation might be "I respect the cleanliness of my body"; this thought will help eliminate the habit if you believe that smoking pollutes your body. If instead you want to quit because smoking is an expensive habit, you could work with the affirmation "I respect money and spend it only on promoting my well-being." Ideal affrimations can also be used to remove good habits in the attempt to gain freedom from all habits. When you are no longer enslaved by good as well as bad habits, you will be freer to choose your thoughts and actions.

Visual affirmations

Visual affirmations orchestrate future events, ideally for the maximum benefit of all participants. This type of affirmation has endless applications - from preparing for a performance to making peace with a co-worker or directing a job interview. Alternatively, it can be used to excel in a competitive sport. The scene is visualised, after which it may or may not be put into words. We all engage in Visual affirmations spontaneously; however, when practiced deliberately and with concentration, their power intenifies significantly. For example, before a scheduled meeting with someone you have experienced as cantankerous, you might visualise him being ornery and tell yourself to prepare for the worst, actually affirming that he will be in a bad mood. Persistently visualising a harmonious exchange contributes to a more positive encounter.

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Gratitude affirmations

Gratitude affirmations, extended either mentally or verbally, give thanks for the good things in life. Frequently thanking God for the food set before you or the roof over your head affirms the place and value of these commodities, thus helping to ensure that you are never without them. You might also thank God for giving you things you are without. Using gratitude affirmations in this way corrects the beggar's mentality that has us praying for something we do not have and thereby affirming it s absence in our lives. So, if you need a vehicle but do not have the money to buy one, rather than praying for a vehicle thank God for it, doggedly affirming its presence in your life. Your experience of the world will respond and, having overcome contradictions, will make a means of transportation available to you.

Though all types of affirmations are empowered by depth of concentration and perseverence, each has an optimal practice routine. Maintenance affirmations can be practiced year round; ideal affirmations for one week, then rotated; visual affirmations for one to three days for isolated events, or for one week and then rotated for material desires and gratitude affirmations spontaneously throughout the day, to correct negative thinking and to fulfill specific needs. All affirmations other than maintenance affirmations need a rest period to allow the practice to take root in the mind and environment and to keep the affirmations fresh and thus effective.

Affirmations require little time, no money, and prove that you do not need to rely on unpredictable external forces to secure the necessities of life. The seeds of contentment, whether directed towards material gratification or harmonious circumstances, are in the mind.

May type more of this ... or you could just go out & buy the book - I highly recommend it!

From the Complete Idiot's Guide 2 Meditation -

- I am becoming happier

- The core of my being is at peace

- Each experience I have is an opportunity for greater growth

- There are no mistakes in my life, only lessons

- I forgive all who have hurt me

- I forgive myself for all I have hurt

- I go forth in love and peace

- I embrace the universe

- I send loving thoughts to all human beings and wish for their happiness and well-being

For more affirmation ideas - click here - or peace happiness