“Watch your thoughts, for they become words. Choose your words, for they become actions. Understand your actions, for they become habits. Study your habits, for they will become your character. Develop your character, for it becomes your destiny.”
—Anonymous
If you listen to the news or read social media, you become aware of much grief and tragedy in the world. Our own personal lives have also been greatly disrupted over the past several years of the pandemic. Yet bad news just seems to keep coming. As you try to digest the constant barrage coming through the media, you may feel a knot of anxiety growing in your stomach. Naturally, when we pay too much attention to news or events outside ourselves, much of which is beyond our immediate control, we often feel it internally. The news affects us all, often painting a pessimistic picture of the world, coloring the content of our thoughts.
How do we overcome the tendency toward worry and negative thinking? How can we manifest our dreams and harness the power of positive affirmations to improve our lives? Isn’t that what we all want? A chance to make each day a bit better and hopefully leave a legacy of worth when we are gone. Beyond these modest impulses, perhaps some may rise to even grander heights of sharing and creative manifestation.
For four decades I have used spoken word affirmations and guided meditations to bring groups together in a shared communion of visualization and prayer. With my husband, Dean Evenson, playing flute, along with me on harp, we have been able to create deeply meditative experiences for large groups of people, opening for Deepak Chopra, Don Miguel Ruiz, Larry Dossey, Denise Linn, and playing for Joan Borysenko and Iyanla Vanzant’s own meditations. These experiences led us to investigate further the power of affirmations and how we can utilize them to create a life worth living.
Why do affirmations work?
What is it that makes them so compelling?
An affirmation is a positive statement asserting that the goal to be achieved is already happening. It is a declaration to manifest a desired outcome. This desired way of being may seem far from the truth at the moment, but amazingly enough, with repetition and focused intention, it can become reality. Since the subconscious mind processes affirmations and suggestions as reality, it is important be aware of one’s thoughts and constantly edit out unwanted negative suggestions.
The fact is, we are constantly affirming in our mind what we believe. When we look honestly at the content of our thoughts, we may be shocked to discover that we have been telling ourselves a ‘load of crock’ as they say. We can usually tell the quality of our subconscious mind by looking at the quality of the life we are living. If we are not pleased with our life, we might consider looking at the content of our mind to discover how we have been programming our existence to meet our belief structure.
In the 1950s, Earl Nightingale, cofounder of Nightingale-Conant self-development company, recorded a classic motivational record called ‘The Strangest Secret.’ He recognized the ‘strangest secret’ to be we become what we think about every day. He emphasized the power of positive self-talk, expectation, and belief. These ideas were ground-breaking at the time but fortunately today, many people use guided affirmations in some way to try to achieve their goals. Affirmations hold great promise for helping improve our lives but like any other tool of transformation, skill and understanding are required that once mastered will enhance their performance.
When we take hold of our thoughts through the repetition of positive affirmations, we can move in the direction of manifesting our highest ideals and vision for our lives. The word ‘mantra’ in Sanskrit means ‘mind protection’ for it is through the use of a repeated phrase, prayer or affirmation that we can regulate the rampant thoughts and tape loops that tend to control us. By repeating a positive phrase over and over again, it becomes embedded in our subconscious mind and then the creative forces of the universe are able to rally support to make it happen.
The interesting thing about affirmations is they do require a belief and faith in them, even though the actual statement may be different from our current circumstance. We increase their effectiveness when we put our feelings into them and actually begin to experience the emotions connected with the fulfillment of our desires – of love, prosperity, success, or whatever it is we are aiming toward. This may be difficult at first, but with perseverance and repetition, the words become a part of us, and before long, we look around and realize that we are actually achieving what we may have thought impossible only weeks or months ago.
Affirmations only work when spoken in the present tense. The subconscious mind takes things very literally so if you say ‘I will be rich’ you will never experience prosperity in the present moment as it will always be just around the corner, in the elusive future.
Another aspect that increases the effectiveness of affirmations is repetition. In the negative aspect of this principle, we experience inner ‘tape loops’ or ‘monkey mind’ that constantly replay a phrase or thought that is not in our best interests. This thought may be something a parent or ex partner told us about ourselves long ago (‘You are a mess’ or ‘You’ll never amount to anything.’) and we unconsciously have repeated this idea for years, thus creating for ourselves a messy, unfulfilling life.
When we take hold of our thoughts and use affirmations regularly with an understanding of how they work, positive change will occur. When we can truly visualize and feel the reality of the spoken word affirmations, we enter into a cooperative contract with the universe to make use of this powerful tool for manifesting our highest dreams. Now is a good time to become clear on the best possible life you want to live. Craft your own personal affirmations that reflect that life. Repeat often. As you focus your intention on those positive dreams, may you be pleasantly surprised as your life evolves just the way you want it to.
