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ОглавлениеAFFIRMING THE DREAM — THE POWER OF THE SPOKEN WORD
In the beginning was the word,
and the word was with God,
and the word was God….
In him was life;
and the life was the light of men.
— JOHN 1:4
It all begins with a thought, a dream — an ephemeral thing, as we have seen. Then the thought becomes a word, and in doing so, it gains power, momentum, and even substance.
All words have power. Spoken words, written words, even the thoughts in your mind all have power for good or ill — so it’s certainly better to focus on the words that bring good into our lives, and let go of the words that bring us harm in any way. That’s a no-brainer — and it’s not that difficult to do.
Becoming aware of your thoughts and words
is a powerful practice,
a complete spiritual path in itself.
Becoming aware of your thoughts and words can powerfully affect every aspect of your life. For some people, this simple practice is a complete spiritual path in itself. Buddha called it the path of right thinking.
James Allen, in As You Think, gave us brilliant insight on the path of right thinking. The book is a little masterpiece, and it is summed up in its opening poem. (In some Buddhist books, it is said that if you can understand the opening poem, you don’t need to read the book, because the essence of the book is contained in the poem. I believe that’s true of As You Think as well.)
Mind is the master power that molds and makes,
And we are Mind, and evermore we take
The tool of Thought, and, shaping what we will,
Bring forth a thousand joys, a thousand ills.
We think in secret, and it comes to pass —
Our world is but our looking glass.
We think in secret, and then we put our thoughts into words. When you focus your words on the good that you want in your life and repeat those words, you amplify their power, and the words become life-changing affirmations. In Eastern traditions, they’re known as mantras: words chanted and repeated so that their power is amplified.
The word affirm literally means “to make firm.” When a thought is repeated in silent or spoken words, it becomes more concrete than a fleeting thought. The way affirmations and mantras actually work will always remain a mystery, but we can learn how to set their power in motion. There are many ways to do this, with many different words from different traditions.
Here’s one way to look at it:
Affirmations and mantras program
our vast conscious and subconscious minds.
Every thought we have and every word we say programs our mind, both our conscious mind and our limitless, powerful subconscious mind. Most of us go through our lives programming ourselves with a great deal of contradictory information, ending up with beliefs that conflict with each other. We dare to dream to some degree, and some of us even tell ourselves that we have the talent and tools necessary to achieve that dream, but we also fill our minds with doubts and fears and beliefs that limit us and eventually can even destroy so many of our dreams.
Affirmations have the power to overcome our doubts and fears, and even to change old limiting beliefs that haven’t been serving us very well. Affirmations can replace and change even our most basic beliefs about the nature of our world and of ourselves, and because of this, they can be one of the most powerful tools we have that help us discover a short path to success and fulfillment of our dreams.
I used to believe what many people still believe: Life is basically a struggle. It’s hard to succeed. It takes hard work, and a great deal of luck. So few people actually succeed — and those who do are usually miserable anyway. Be realistic: The chances of succeeding are slim — especially for you, with all your problems and shortcomings.
Then somewhere along the way I became aware that these deep beliefs are not necessarily true in themselves — there are many people, after all, with completely different sets of beliefs — but these beliefs become true in our experience if we believe them. Our beliefs are self-fulfilling. Fortunately, they are pliable, and can and do change.
Affirmations help us to intentionally,
consciously, change our beliefs.
Affirm you live in an abundant world, and see what happens. Affirm that you can succeed — as you choose to define success — and even live the life of your dreams, in an easy and relaxed manner, a healthy and positive way, and see what happens. You don’t even have to believe in affirmations — just try them, and you’ll notice some remarkable changes that happen quickly, even magically.
I’ve seen my deep, underlying beliefs change dramatically over the years — and I know it was because of the affirmations I kept repeating. My life and in fact the entire world I live in have both changed completely. I now live in an abundant world, where there is no shortage of good.
For years, I struggled with money issues because I believed I was a fool with money, out of control. I just didn’t have whatever it takes to be successful. Once I was able to clearly see this belief and express it in those simple words, I was able to come up with an affirmation that completely contradicted it:
I am sensible and in control of my finances; I am creating total success, in an easy and relaxed manner, a healthy and positive way.
I wanted to keep these words in sight, so I wrote the affirmation down in big letters and posted it on the wall in several different places in my home and office. I put a copy of it in my billfold, and another copy by my phone on my desk. I said it a few thousand times over the next few years, and in an effortless, magical way, it became true in my life.
There are a limitless number of affirmations. The best ones are the ones you come up with yourself. Keep adding and changing the words as you see fit.
Affirmations work. A vast number of practices from a vast number of traditions work. Prayer works. Declarations work. Mantras work. Summoning works. Creative visualization works. Positive thinking works. Unfortunately, negative thinking also works, and has the power to undermine and destroy our affirmations, prayers, and dreams.
It’s as if the whole universe in some mysterious way says “Yes!” to every thought we have. When we affirm something, the universe says “Yes!” — and then starts whispering to us, showing us exactly the next obvious steps to take.
But if our next thought is, “Oh, but it’s so hard to succeed, so few people succeed…,” the universe says, “Yes, it’s hard for you with those thoughts” — and, sure enough, things are hard. It’s a struggle. It’s tough. It’s (to quote a horrible negative affirmation) “one damn thing after another.”
T. Harv Eker has a good analogy: It’s as if there is a vast universal warehouse, filled with everything our hearts can possibly desire. When we affirm or pray or declare that we are now receiving the things we desire, those words become an order that the universe sets about fulfilling. We will receive the things we’re asking for, unless our next thoughts are negative or limiting thoughts, doubts and fears, that cancel our order.
We make an order, then cancel it, then make it again, then cancel it again. Our affirmations and prayers come to nothing.
It’s worth repeating:
Affirmations work.
Prayer works. Declarations work. Summoning works.
Creative visualization works. Positive thinking works.
Unfortunately, negative thinking also works,
and has the power to undermine and destroy
our affirmations, prayers, and dreams.
But there’s hope for every one of us: We can overcome a huge amount of doubt and fear by simply returning to our affirmations, over and over. Post them on your wall, where you’ll keep seeing them. Carry some around with you. Read them over and over. Implant them deeply in your mind. And prepare yourself for some inevitable results.
I’ve heard countless stories over the years that illustrate the power of the spoken word, affirmations, and mantras. I’m sure you have too, when you think about it.
Just a few weeks ago, I reconnected with an old friend from our back-to-the-land experiment. I hadn’t seen her in over forty years, and wanted to hear the story of her life: what she’d been through, where she was now, and where she dreamed of going.
She said she had wandered around through her twenties, much like I had, searching for something or other that seemed to elude her. Then in her early thirties, she read Creative Visualization by Shakti Gawain, and she started repeating an affirmation, over and over, through the months and years that followed. These were the words that ended up changing her life:
I do wonderful work
in a wonderful way
with wonderful people
for wonderful pay.
After chanting this for a while, some creative ideas, some possibilities, came floating along. She had several ideas she played with, and then one of them started to become much more concrete — more and more details kept coming to mind — until she was able to make a clear, simple plan that felt completely doable. She ended up setting up her own retail store, featuring all of the strange and unusual and wonderful things she loved.
She made a plan and went for it, repeating her affirmation often throughout the day, and for thirty years she had her own business where she did wonderful work in a wonderful way with wonderful people for wonderful pay.
I heard another miracle story recently: Several years ago, a woman was facing bankruptcy and foreclosure on her home; her real-estate career was earning almost nothing after the crash. She had bought her home at the peak of the real-estate bubble, and it was completely underwater — worth far less than the loan. She took one of my seminars and made a list of goals as affirmations in a notebook. Every morning, as she worked out for half an hour on a treadmill or StairMaster, she read her affirmations to herself, over and over.
She affirmed she was paying off her home completely, in an easy and relaxed manner, a healthy and positive way, and she had a million dollars in liquid assets.
Within a few days, she started getting creative ideas. She played with several possibilities that came to mind, but couldn’t see how they could work. Within a few weeks, she got an idea that she acted on: working directly with the banks to help refinance homes like hers that were underwater. Within two years, her home was completely paid off, and she had substantial savings — a comfortable nest egg.
She knows that the repeated affirmations had an effect, causing the creative ideas to surface in her mind.
There’s nothing you have to believe in to make any of this work — just try it, and see what happens.
The Two Most Important Affirmations: The First and the Last
When I look back over the winding path I took from poverty to abundance, it’s obvious to me that one of the most powerful, effective things I ever did was to write a list of dreams and goals as affirmations, worded as if they were already coming into being, and repeat those affirmations enough so that my subconscious mind accepted them and went to work fulfilling them.
When I hit my financial low, near bankruptcy, I came up with an affirmation that changed my life and my world:
I am sensible and in control of my finances;
I am creating total financial success,
in an easy and relaxed manner,
a healthy and positive way,
in its own perfect time,
for the highest good of all.
I kept repeating those words, at a time when that affirmation was very different from my current reality — exactly the opposite, in fact. After a few weeks of that affirmation, it began to slowly dawn on me that creating financial success was not all that mysterious, not even all that difficult — and, even better, I began to get all kinds of ideas about how I could actually create financial success in my life.
In the beginning was the word, says John in the Bible. The affirmations you repeat in your mind start to give you ideas — more words in your mind — that show you the steps you can take to build a much more abundant and fulfilled life. And the steps are obvious, simple, and easy to take. In its own perfect time, for the highest good of all, those things you continue to affirm become true in your reality. That’s worth repeating….
In its own perfect time,
those things you continue to affirm
become true in your reality.
Our subconscious mind knows no limits.
If we keep telling our subconscious mind we are creating total financial success, it immediately gets to work showing us how to do it. And if we keep saying to ourselves — programming ourselves — that we’re succeeding in an easy and relaxed manner, a healthy and positive way, our subconscious goes about showing us exactly how to create success with ease.
Make a list of your goals as affirmations. If you don’t like the word goals for some reason, pick something else, like dreams. Repeat your affirmations often enough so that your subconscious mind absorbs and accepts them. You know that’s happening when you start getting ideas, seemingly out of nowhere, that show you the next obvious steps to take to move toward your dreams, your goals, your desires.
In the beginning, I had twelve affirmations on my list; the first and the last affirmations are the most important ones. This is what has just naturally come to me, over the years; find your own first and last affirmations, and put them in your own words.
The first affirms my connection with spirit, every moment; it affirms my enlightenment. Yes, we can affirm our way to enlightenment in the same way we can affirm our way to financial success. It all depends on how you define enlightenment, of course. I like to look at it this way:
To be enlightened is to realize who we are
and what we are in reality.
We are, in reality, one with the quantum field, with all that is. We are not our bodies; we are not our thoughts and feelings and perceptions. Those things pass away. We are the eternal force of life that animates our bodies; we are life and light and love itself. That is who and what we are in reality.
Here’s the first affirmation on my list — create your own in your own words:
In an easy and relaxed manner,
in a healthy and positive way,
in its own perfect time,
for the highest good of all, I pray…
Spirit flows through me every moment
with its healing energy.
I am guided by spirit, doing God’s will.
I offer no resistance to life,
I am at peace with what is,
filled with grace, ease, and lightness.
This is enlightenment.
The last affirmation on my list programs my subconscious mind about other vitally important things in life: family, marriage, friends, and, for me at least, time alone. These affirmations are a bit long — I usually just affirm whatever shortened version appeals to me at the moment.
In an easy and relaxed manner,
in a healthy and positive way,
in its own perfect time,
for the highest good of all, I pray…
My marriage and family life and times alone
are filled with grace, ease, and lightness.
I have plenty of time for family and friends,
and plenty of healing time for myself.
This, or something better,
is now manifesting,
in totally satisfying and harmonious ways,
for the highest good of all.
So be it. So it is!
Reflect on these words for a bit, then come up with your own. Words like these can show us a short path to attaining our heart’s desires. Their effect can be immediate.
Stress Reduction and Creative Meditations
It has been proven scientifically that spoken words and repeated thoughts have a profound physical effect. Calming words calm your body; aggressive, violent words cause stress and harm your body. Watch what you say! Your whole body reacts to every word.
Listening to spoken words — or silently repeating words in your mind — can reduce stress and help you become much healthier. The right words repeated often enough can help with a great many other things in your life as well, including building wealth and finding fulfillment and self-actualization.
The meditations that follow take about twenty minutes each. You can just do one or the other, or do them together for a deeply relaxing forty-minute journey into the power of creative meditations.
There are several ways you can do the meditations: (1) have a friend read one or both of them to you while you close your eyes and go through the meditation; (2) read slowly through it — take a little piece at a time, then close your eyes and repeat the words to yourself; (3) record it in your own voice, relax deeply, and listen to the recording (one advantage of this is that you can change my words and make them your own); or (4) listen to the recording I have made, titled Stress Reduction and Creative Meditations
