What is Mindfulness?

The concept of mindfulness has actually been around for thousands of years. Its origins can be found in the earliest Buddhist teachings (2500 years ago). It has been used over the centuries in traditional eastern contemplative practices like Hatha Yoga and other meditation practices. Zen masters taught mindfulness to enlightened monks in the ultimate acceptance of their own existence.

However, the way we use the term here, Mindfulness should not be confused with inward focused mysticism or spirituality. Today Mindfulness not only refers to the acceptance of one’s reality but what one does with that reality. As we use it, Mindfulness is the skill of living in the moment and relating to the world in a nonjudgmental and reflexive as oppose to reactive fashion.

In recent years, science and westernization have adapted Mindfulness so that it can be cultivated daily, used without years of practice, and be compatible and useful within almost any modern human activity. Mindfulness is simply an introspective method for grounding your thoughts, emotions and behaviors in the reality you are currently experiencing, so you can stand back, observe, understand yourself more fully and take care of your needs.

The act of Mindfulness is the ability to focus your attention on your inner thoughts while letting go of past or future worries. It will take some practice to witness your thoughts popping up and then going away without self-criticism, but it can be achieved by most people without extensive training, just daily practice. For instance, just watching your breathing can have a calming effect on your mind and slowly restore your sense of well-being. When you quiet your thoughts about what you have to do and your feelings dictating what you want to do, your intuitive mind takes over. Here you gently move from dwelling on the past or future to being focused on what you are doing right at this moment. Being in this state of Mindfulness allows you to listen to your gut and discover what you truly need. Mindfulness allows you to acknowledge your feelings, witness your thoughts and redirect yourself away from distraction.

We live in era of constant upheaval and change. Actually, most of us get through life on autopilot. Our brain gets filled with restless ideas and memories that are hard to keep track of especially when we become stressed. We tend to “tune out” and just “try to get through the day.”

Everyone’s mind naturally wanders, but when you practice Mindfulness you are aware of your mind wandering and can gradually redirect it back to the present. Mindfulness allows you to gently quiet all the noise in your head. Paying attention to your breathing, tracking your thoughts, or scanning your body for tension are just few of the many ways to reduce mental chatter. With Mindful practice, you can learn to remove the tendency to jump to conclusions, make assumptions and idle judgments, and recognize that your negative or positive feelings are coming from you and not the external world around you.

Dr Marsha Linehan, founder of Evidence Based Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) says we need to adopt a “Reflexive Mind” in order to cope with distress and change. Here, your mind is trained to act like Teflon, nothing sticks to it long enough to attach. Mindfulness has been shown to bring calmness and patience to those who embrace the practice. People who practice daily Mindfulness are processing life rather than analyzing its content. The ultimate state of Mindfulness is mental resiliency.

In fact Mindfulness can also help you stay focused and aware even when you are engaged in mundane activities such as driving, eating, and walking. Research has shown its positive effects on boosting the immune system, managing pain, reducing stress and cultivating personal awareness.

A beginning Mindful sequence may involve:

- Sitting in a quiet and comfortable location

- Thinking about where you are and what you are doing at this very moment

- Closing your eyes

- Allowing thoughts about what already or will happen move in an out of your consciousness with your non-judging mind and gentle persuasion

- Focusing on the sensations of breathing each breath and noticing what that does to your belly, nostrils and lungs

- Making note of every thought and feeling that comes up and then returning to your breathing to further anchor your attention

- Observing your mind but, not getting stuck on any one particular thought or feeling as your breathing becomes more natural, full and steady

- Opening your eyes and looking at something you have seen before with a fresh perspective.

What are Affirmations?

Affirmations are declarative statements about something you now know, did, or intend to do. When you use an Affirmation you are not only being aware of your thoughts, but you are taking conscious control of them. When you say, write, read or even think of an Affirmation, you are, in effect, taking steps to acknowledge what is worthwhile about you.

Studies have shown that most of our daily thoughts are negative. Working with Affirmations makes you aware of how self-defeating thoughts chip away at your creativity. Affirmations help you create a new reality and visualize what you essentially want out of life.

Negativity can threaten your health and happiness. In fact, when you are not paying attention to your thinking, you are more liable to pessimistic and not realistic or optimistic. The more you are aware of what you are actually telling yourself, the more upbeat you will sound. Using command based phraseology, keeping the Affirmation in the present tense and making it reality based offers you more reinforcement. Repeatedly telling yourself that you are, or will be, deserving, healthy, and successful, the more your positive determination will flow. You’re more likely to see a bounce in your step and a lift in your life by using daily Affirmations.

What are Mindful Affirmations?

Mindful Affirmations ” are not just inspirational sayings. We use the term as thought provoking phrases that loosely derive from Mindfulness ideas of Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, who founded the medical and meditative models of Mindfulness. He came up with Eight Stations of Mindful Meditation:

- Smile

- Breathe

- Arrive

- Attend

- Find the essence

- Slow down

- Listen

- See things with a new perspective

Mindful Affirmations incorporate one or more of these active stations into each passage in order to support the Mindful notion of keeping an “open mind,” where possibilities have no limits. They are not meditations as used by Dr Zinn and others. Mindful Affirmations take ordinary Affirmations like “Your self-confidence will carry you on,” and make them more reality based so the reader can gradually acknowledge and accept the truth about their life. An example of expanding the above Affirmation into a Mindful Affirmation would be “I barely thought of my own self-worth until I saw myself going backwards in life. Letting myself go and losing all I had gained made me feel stuck and dependent. I now see how harnessing my self-esteem can help me not only find my way but, carry me through life.”

This phraseology helps to evoke not only the reader’s subconscious mind, but keeps the reader focused on the key of Mindfulness, just being in the moment.

Pain is about growth and is inevitable. Unfortunately, too many of us have become addicted to suffering… but suffering is optional! Mindful Affirmations make our conscious and subconscious minds look at our pain and release our fears about the unknown. Our inner subconscious mind has the desire for change but doesn’t know just what to change or how to do it. Our outer conscious mind desires to be relaxed, in balance and accept our state of affairs. When working in concert our two minds remove expectations/accusations and allow us to gently examine our feelings, thoughts and behaviors about the past without dwelling or being judgmental.

When Mindful Affirmations are written in the first person they can help the reader not only empathize with the writer, but slowly begin to accept and validate their own pain, saying inside themselves, “I guess I am not alone.” Mindful Affirmations not only break down the reader’s self-imposed isolation but offer them options for change such as in the passage, “I now see that responding rather than reacting will build a healthy interpersonal world for myself.”

It has been my clinical experience that each time I ask a patient to read a Mindful Affirmation, they mention to me that they now see their old problem in a different way. One of the core values of Mindfulness is to be able to see yourself and the world around you with a “new set of eyes.”

The focus is on accepting, commitment and learning (refers to “ACT” therapy) a new way of living or looking at life. Mindful Affirmations help the reader’s mind stay engaged while supporting the surrender of old baggage and unfulfilled expectations.

Mindful Affirmations use positive assertions like “I feel happy,” but allow our present awareness to reinforce our declaration giving us clarity of thought to see our options. It is a coping strategy. For example, the statement “When I am stressed I make myself sit and take notice of my surroundings,” supports your inner desire to stay calm and centered rather than be overwhelmed and scattered.

The book takes Affirmations to the next level by first talking about how “I” (the reader) arrived at the state of not being able to take control, what resulted, and how “I” plan to take command of my life in the future.

Using these three components to the Affirmation not only supports the drive to do better, but plants the seed more firmly that “I” will make progress and “I” can learn from my past. Mindful Affirmations are cyclical in nature. Each time a negative feeling comes up the reader has a choice to make good or bad decisions. The truth is that we are more likely to accomplish what we set out to do, if we are keenly aware of how the past made us feel and what consequences may lie ahead.

Mindful Affirmations help you not only face reality, but look beyond it by challenging your old mental dialogue with a new perspective. Mindful Affirmations allow you to step back from life enough to examine regrets and embrace new options. Mindful Affirmations help you discover that who you really are is what keeps you alive, vital and present.

Dr Unger’s new book “Presence of Mind – Mindful Affirmations” is available at the website Store.

Real Psych Solutions ( http://www.realpsychsolutions.com ) provides Real Psychology Solutions: Practical Self-Help Materials for Mental Health and Living Well and is physically located at The Center for Empowerment in Dana Point, CA, but has a global online following. It was founded by Arlene Unger, PhD (PSY) and Stefan Unger, PhD in 2009.

Real Psych Solutions aims to provide useful and practical self-help materials based on the work of licensed mental health and medical professionals, certified lifestyle and wellness coaches and other recognized experts. We have lots of Free Materials and Resources from many Authors, as well as an online Store with valuable and insightful, but economically priced, items.

? 2010 Arlene Unger, PhD. All rights reserved. This article may be reproduced “as is”, i.e. without change or fees.

Affirmation statements -we hear them spoken often by motivational speakers, authors, writers etc., but what can we personally do to harness the power of affirmations in our own lives?

Think about a time in your life when you desired to make a change – something major, like finding a new job, moving to a new city or home, or something less momentous like a New Year’s resolution to improve your overall health. Can you think of a past experience like that? Now, think about the tools that you used or steps that you took to help guide you through that transition and keep you focused on achieving your goals while making that change.

These tools in effect, involved you setting in motion a series of events to accomplish the goals you’d set out for yourself, and one of the easiest ways to achieve success is to create affirmations.

Affirmations are very easy to use and quite powerful once you get the hang of practicing this daily exercise. Affirmations keep you focused on what’s important to you and help you achieve positive transitions. Basically an affirmation is a declaration that something is already true and has come to fruition in your life in the present moment. You have to believe what you are looking to achieve or obtain has already arrived in order for ‘it’ to show up in your life.

If your desire is to create personal well-being, first choose a phrase that describes what you desire. For example, if you desire to adopt a healthier lifestyle, then your affirmation statement could say, “I feel good and look good when I live a healthy lifestyle.” Or “I enjoy the great feelings I get from exercising daily.” Short powerful statements are more focused and work much better to bring about results than long, drawn-out paragraphs.

There are some rules to follow when creating an affirmation that I’d like to share with you.

Rule # 1: The phrase must be in the present tense, such as “I feel good”, as opposed to “I will feel good” which implies that at some point in the future you ‘might’ achieve your goal. Remember to phrase your affirmation as if your desire.

Rule #2: The statement must always be written from a positive perspective, instead of a negative one. For example, you wouldn’t say “I don’t feel good when I am not healthy” as this places your health – which you are trying to change – in a negative context. Always phrase your desire/affirmation statement in a positive context and in the present tense.

Rule #3: Repeat often. After you create an affirmation, write it down on something that you can keep with you, like a notebook or card to put in your purse or wallet, or place it somewhere that you look at often throughout your day such as on your bathroom mirror or your desk at work. Make sure that you read your affirmation statements as many times during your day as possible.

Studies have shown that using the power of affirmations can lower stress and I have found this to be true in my own life. When I get clear about what I want in my life and focus on my desires with affirmations every day, I am more content and peaceful. What we focus on grows, so the more you focus your attention on your affirmations, the more likely you are to create positive changes in your life and achieve your dreams.

My favorite book on affirmations and the power of healing is Louise Hay’s, You Can Heal Your Life. In this fascinating book you can learn more about the healing power of affirmations and how you can harness them to improve your overall health and well-being. And frankly, who wouldn’t like to live a healthier, more serene life in these turbulent times?

Using the power behind affirmations can truly change your life for the better. Put this into practice this week by writing down three short affirmations about three areas you’d like to make positive changes in your life. Be sure to state your desires in the present tense and in a positive way. Practice repeating these statements as many times as you can for 7 days and see what wonderful changes reveal themselves in your life.

Inspired by her passion to support others on their own personal growth journey, Carolee Laffoon founded Affirmations To Go, a company which encourages people to create lasting personal affirmation products to carry with them daily to keep them focused on their goals, hopes and dreams. Carolee publishes a monthly newsletter “Affirmation Inspirations” to share her favorite affirmations, inspirations, and product specials. Visit Affirmations To Go and sign up to receive her newsletter as well as participate in her special monthly Affirmations product giveaway.

Affirmations are simply positive, or affirmative, statements of truth. The tricky part is that the truth of the affirmation need not be a “present reality;” it can be a future reality you truly wish to create. By declaring this future reality in positive, definite terms, you are tasking your conscious and unconscious mind with finding this new reality. It is important to consider that, when your prayer is answered, it will be now; so, the proper way to “declare a thing” and make it so is to offer thanks NOW – in this moment – for your desired reality as if it had already happened. Your emotional guidance system will seek to recreate the experience of being happy for having achieved this particular goal; and it is likely to do it by bringing that goal to fruition.

Life is a continuous series of changing circumstances. Our thoughts help us make sense of this ever-changing landscape; and they help guide us from one event to another along this path to future “now’s.” Along the way to your future, you are continuously asked to offer thought as a way of generating your future realities. Change happens with or without your input; but you can create affirmative change with affirmative thought. Consider the following words from two great teachers of this path of positive thought and affirmative action:

“Be the change you seek to create in the world.” – Gandhi

“Do unto others what you would have them do unto you.” – Jesus

“Declare a thing and it is so.” – Jesus

“As a man thinketh, so is he.” – Jesus

“Our thoughts become our words as they become our beliefs; our beliefs become our actions as they become our habits. Our habits become our values as our values become our destiny.” – Gandhi

“Whatsoever you desire, when you stand in prayer – believing – will be given unto you.” – Jesus

Believing in a thing is affirming it – it makes it firm, or physical. As you think about a thing which has sparked your interest or curiosity, or which has become desirable to you, your thoughts will naturally want to return there. As you think of a new thing, you will begin to notice that new thing in your world where you haven’t noticed it before. You will also begin to look in new places, read new books and magazines, and perhaps begin doing research or study in this new area of thought. As you give more attention and thought-energy to these ideas, you will develop mental imagery and additional ideas.

The imagery and new ideas you experience, while giving thought to your new desire, will make you feel a certain way. If the feelings are positive, your desire will grow; if your feelings are negative the desire may also grow, but it will likely grow into that which you are afraid of. If your thoughts are positive, and they excite you, you will probably begin speaking about them, as we think and talk about those things which most interest us. These thoughts and words will then stimulate actions and behaviors. Affirmative thoughts inspire affirmative action. Inspired action seems to be effortless and always creates positive change and new realities.

Just imagine that you are programming a computer; you wouldn’t tell the computer all the things you don’t want it to do. You simply tell the computer – in a language it understands – what you want it to do; and then you tell it to do it. Your mind and body operate in much the same way; so, your self-talk – which is actually a type of self-programming – should always be affirmations of what you want to happen. Your programs should always be positive, affirmative, direct, and specific; but you should keep in mind that this is a process – and part of the process is exercising patience and a peaceful countenance. You may not master this immediately; so relax, and be of good cheer.

By thinking and speaking affirmative words, we can generate an affirmative mood, or disposition; an affirmative disposition is one which is free from stress. This state of mind and body is a healing state. Positive thoughts do not stress us out; that’s because they do not cause or stimulate the release of the harmful stress hormones which we experience as “bad feelings.” The way we phrase our words and intentions has a lot to do with the way our subconscious hears, interprets, and acts on those thoughts we hold so important that we took the time and energy to turn them into words. When you turn a desire into words, it is one step closer to becoming a physical reality.

Imagine that you are ordering dinner and you tell the waitress what NOT to bring you. Do you know what you will get for dinner? Some people say that affirmations are not useful or effective because they affirm the lack of the thing you are affirming. In these cases, semantics are everything; re-framing your negative desires into positive affirmations may take some time and thought, but it is worth it. A declaration of what you do not want is really a “negation,” and not an “affirmation.”

By saying, “I don’t want to be sick,” or “God, please take away my illness,” you are focusing on the fact that you are sick, or have an illness; and you are trying to negate it by thinking about it. This does not work. Though you may heal; it will be through natural processes that you could have sped up with an affirmation instead of slowing down with a negation. “Thank you, God, for giving me this wonderful health and strength so I can go for a walk!” is a much better prayer for restoring health and wellness than those listed above.

To create health, wellness, happiness, success, and prosperity, in all areas of your life, begin thinking positively and affirmatively. Think creatively and optimistically if you wish to create a new reality. Express gratitude in your affirmations; and try to feel the feeling of gratitude in your heart as you imagine the happy, new reality you wish to create. Continue to affirm only those things you wish to experience in your life, body, and experience. Below are a few examples of affirmative prayers for health, prosperity, etc; they will give you an idea of how effective thinkers effectively create using effective, affirmative thought. Affirmations need only contain gratitude, joy, and a positive intention.

Try generating a new attitude in the areas where you have problems or suffering. Consider re-framing your focus on the most positive statement you could make about the conditions you wish to experience. “A man must first assume those characteristics he wishes to possess.” Some people say, “Fake it until you make it;” but repeating affirmations will help you choose a more positive track for your thoughts. Try some of the following affirmative thoughts and see how they feel to you; say them out loud and hear how they make you feel:

If you are ill and thinking, “God I feel miserable!” try thinking:

Health – “Thank you, God, for giving me health and strength so that I might live fully and be a model of health and joy to others. Thank you for giving me the strength, courage, and willingness, to do the things that enrich and empower me…”

If you are in turmoil and chaos and thinking, “I’m going to kill someone if these people don’t get off my back!” or “I don’t know what to do! I’m so afraid and worried…” try thinking:

Peace – “Thank you, God, for giving me peace. Thank you for giving me faith and trust and for quieting my mind so that I might rest and hear more clearly your will…”

If you are experiencing relationship problems, instead of thinking, “God I am married to such a _________!!! I can’t stand this anymore!” try thinking:

Relationships – “Thank you, God, for giving me the love and wisdom to see you in all your creation and to love all creation and all living things unconditionally. Love and harmony are alive and well in all my relationships.”

If you are experiencing weight issues and you hate what you see in the mirror, try thinking:

Weight Loss – “I am happy and peaceful here and now. I am safe and loved and create my own peace, security, and nourishment from the power from within me. I am free; and I release the past and others to be free now.”

If you are having financial difficulties, instead of thinking about debt, or a pile of bills, try thinking:

Prosperity – “My good returns to me now in an avalanche of abundance; thank you, God, for prospering me in all my ways. Only good comes to me; and there is always more than enough to share.”

If you can’t seem to make things work out, and you’re thinking, “Why can’t I ever catch a break?” try thinking:

Success – “Thank you, God, for growing my good thoughts now. I give thanks for the wonderful insights and ideas which I have been given and are now coming to light. Thank you for all things going my way, favoring me with your blessings, and for benefiting all as your grace now benefits me. “

“It’s the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen.”

– Muhammad Ali

Pete Koerner, author of The Belief Formula

http://www.ExploreExpandEvolve.com

Affirmations are simply statements that we make to ourselves; it’s our self-talk. You use affirmations all the time, whether you’re doing so intentionally or unintentionally. If you make a mistake and you think to yourself, “I’m always making mistakes, I never do anything right”, you’ve just made a negative affirmation. If instead you make a mistake and you think to yourself, “That’s OK, I have the ability to correct this”, you’ve just made a positive affirmation.

Your self-talk has an enormous impact on your conscious and subconscious minds. By repeating positive affirmations you can reprogram your thought patterns. Creating new thought patterns will allow you to begin to change your underlying beliefs and the way that you think and feel about yourself, others, and your place in the world. In this way, you can improve your life dramatically through the use of daily positive affirmations.

Choosing Your Affirmations

Shakti Gawain, author of Creative Visualization, offers the following advice for choosing your affirmations:

o Always phrase your affirmations in the present tense, as if it already exists. Say “I enjoy being at my ideal weight” instead of saying “I will reach my ideal weight.”

o Affirm what you want, not what you don’t want. Instead of saying “I am no longer a procrastinator”, say “I always get things done on time.”

o Don’t simply go through your affirmations by rote; add positive feelings and emotions to your affirmations.

o Choose affirmations that feel right for you. If you come across an affirmation that you like but you would feel more comfortable changing a couple of words, go right ahead.

Use Three Different Pronouns

A technique that you can apply to make your affirmations more effective is to write down the same affirmation using different pronouns. For example, if you want to affirm that you’re surrounded by positive people who want the best for you, you can write down the following three affirmations (in this example your name is Joan):

o I am surrounded by positive people who want the best for me.

o Joan, you are surrounded by positive people who want the best for you.

o Joan is surrounded by positive people who want the best for her.

When you say affirmations in the second and third person it’s as if someone else is talking to you or about you. Your internal critic is less apt to interject a negative comment if it thinks someone else is making these positive affirmations about you.

Affirmations Can Be General or Specific

Affirmations can be general or they can be very specific. Some examples of general affirmations are the following:

o Abundance is all around me.

o Abundance is my birthright.

o There is more than enough for all.

Use general affirmations to “set the stage”. Once you’ve established clear, well-defined goals for yourself you can create specific affirmations to help keep you focused on your goals and to strengthen your belief in your ability to reach your goals. For example, if your goal is to lose 10 pounds in the next three months by exercising, your affirmations could be the following:

o I now jog for 40 minutes, 4 times a week.

o Jogging helps me to lose weight and makes me healthy and fit.

o I am now lifting weights 3 times a week.

o I enjoy going to the gym and lifting weights.

o I am getting excellent results from jogging and weight lifting, and it shows.

o Every day I am getting fitter and fitter.

o I now weigh X amount of pounds (your target weight).

o People comment on how much thinner I am and how good I look.

You Have to Be Able to Believe Your Affirmations

Whenever you choose to change anything in your life, you’re choosing to move out of your present comfort zone. We should always strive to grow and expand our definition of ourselves and of what we are capable of. However, you have to make sure that your affirmations are not so far off from where you are at the moment that there’s no way you can get yourself to believe what you’re affirming.

If you don’t believe the affirmations you’re saying to yourself, then you need to start with a less ambitious affirmation and gradually make your affirmations bigger and bigger. For example, if you currently make $3,000.00 a month, it may be difficult for you to believe “I am now making $50,000.00 a month”. However, you can probably believe the following affirmation: “I am now making $4,500.00, or more, a month”. As you move forward and begin to see results you can progressively increase this number until you do feel comfortable affirming that you make over half a million dollars a year.

Repeat Your Affirmations Often

There is much power in repetition. Positive affirmations are not something that you do once in a while, instead, you should expose your mind to the affirmations that you choose for yourself as often as possible. In the words of Robert Collier: “Constant repetition carries conviction.”

Write down your affirmations and place them where you can refer to them often (you can even carry them around in your wallet). You can say them out loud to yourself every morning when you wake up and at night before going to bed, or you can set aside a few minutes each day to scribble them on a sheet of paper several times to help reinforce the message in your mind.

Taping the affirmations in your own voice and listening to the tape while you’re relaxing-or, even better, meditating– has had extraordinary effects for countless people. Louise Hay, author of the International bestseller “You Can Heal Your Life”, recommends that you sing or chant your affirmations. Some people leave a CD with positive affirmations playing softly in the background while they sleep at night.

In addition, there are several programs that allow affirmations to flash on and off on your computer screen unobtrusively, helping to program these affirmations into your subconscious.

Affirmation Bath

Practitioners who offer healing workshops often use a technique called “affirmation bath”. Basically, several people stand around one person and they all begin saying positive affirmations directed toward that person. The person is “engulfed” by positive messages from others. You can try this technique if you can find several like-minded people to participate in this exercise with you.

Release Any Negative Feelings That Arise

Negative feelings can act as self-imposed stop signs to getting what you want in life. If you feel any discomfort, self-doubt, fear, anger, and so on when saying your affirmations, you need to let go or release these negative feelings. One way to do this is by using the Sedona Method. As stated before, you have to add positive feelings and emotions to your affirmations, and if negative feelings are getting in the way, you need to be able to let go of them.

Your self-talk can either prevent you from getting what you want in life, or it can be a powerful catalyst for creating the life you’ve always wanted. Create a daily practice of using positive affirmations to help motivate, support, and inspire you to go after your dreams.

Written by Marelisa Fábrega who blogs at http://abundance-blog.marelisa-online.com

Success can be your reality on the path of enlightenment, if you reprogram your life for it using affirmations which align with your true desires and the voice of your Soul.

For example, one of the simplest affirmations can begin your journey on the path of enlightenment if you declare it, believe it, and then commit to “being” the affirmation. That simple affirmation of only three words is “I am awake.”

“I am awake.” It can be the most profound affirmation you can proclaim and this declaration can truly revolutionize your life. To be awake is to affirm your right to create your reality as a divine being. As such, you have made a quantum leap from victim-hood to co-creating your life with the cosmos. And with this quantum leap you have the power to direct the flow of positivity, creativity, and productivity in your life.

Some would say, you are “unplugged” from the trappings of the Matrix…Either way, you are free.

And because you are free, the same is true about your success on the path of enlightenment. It doesn’t matter what anyone says or thinks. Once you have affirmed your commitment to success on the path of enlightenment, success is your reality and it becomes your experiences in life.

This commitment to success on the path of enlightenment doesn’t happen because you repeat a bunch of affirmations. It happens when you “become”, believe, and thus, are “being” the affirmation.

It is easy to say the affirmation, “I am infinite potential with infinite creativity flowing through me. I use this creativity to take right action and inspired action in my life which manifests for my highest good. As a result of being a willing vessel for good, I draw to my reality success on the path of enlightenment which helps me to create more life–more life which will advance me in my purpose as I prosper.”

This is a very powerful affirmation; however, it is a more powerful affirmation when you are being the affirmation. Now some among us might ask, “How can I “be” an affirmation?” Now this answer reveals a metaphysical secret to success.

It is through the Art and Science of Being and Becoming that we are able to “be” the affirmation we habitually speak. It happens because “being” is the process of allowing or remaining aware in the Presence (present moment awareness). Being allows the flow of oneness and creativity to continue in the present and empowers you with the ability to pre-construct through right action or inspired action the reality you want to experience in your life.

Accordingly, as you declare your affirmations in the present moment as if they “are” with words like “I am,” you are “becoming” the affirmation. You become the affirmation because you are “one” with the affirmation. However, it is when you believe the affirmation, that you are “being” the affirmation and the affirmation is “realized.” When the affirmation is “realized” it manifests as such in your reality.

Yes, we are just that powerful in this holographic time-space-reality network, if we unplug from the energy zapping programs and systems of the matrix and create our reality as we desire it to be.

Metaphysical principles including the Cosmic Law of Vibration and the Cosmic Law of Attraction govern the power of affirmations. Affirmations can help. When we declare our success through affirmations which align with our true desires, we direct the flow of positivity, productivity, and creativity in our lives. Positivity, productivity and creativity result in success. In other words, we should “be” the success we desire.

Until Next time, know that your success is a cosmic celebration and remember to “Let the Creative Spirit move you.”

Carmellita M. Brown, a Writer, Artist, Visionary, and Entrepreneur, is the Creative Director of Blue Lotus Living, a Spiritual – Personal Development Community providing esoteric and metaphysical teachings on creativity, the law of attraction, personal development, consciousness, spiritual awakening, beauty, and the raw food diet. Carmellita has released a deep trance channeling at the community called “The Oracle Within – The Scepter of Prosperity.” In addition to online publishing, business development, performing, and teaching spiritual principles, Carmellita is the columnist for the syndicated column Metaphysical Secrets to Successalso published here at EzineArticles.com

Do you have questions on affirmations? Do you wonder what they are and how to use them? Are you stumped when it comes to writing affirmations of your own? If any of the above rings true for you this series on affirmations will be very useful for you.

I have received more than a few inquiries regarding affirmations with particular requests for sample affirmations on a variety of different subject matter. Affirmations are really any thought that you think or say out-loud or to yourself all of the time.

For our intent and purposes we will refer to affirmations as being statements said with intention. You are no longer letting your mind wonder away with whatever gibberish that may have previously been common place. You are taking control of your thoughts; you are giving them your attention for your desires.

Any positive thing you say to yourself is good for your overall well-being and state of mind. However, I do believe that you’ll find your affirmations more useful if you tailor them specifically to you and your situation much like a tailor would fit you for a custom fit jacket.

Use whatever affirmations below that you like and that feel right with you. Then, once you’re comfortable, start to write some of your own that are specific to you and your ideal state.

Emotions Affect Affirmations

Remember that your affirmations are going to be much more affective that much faster if you can invoke your emotions while saying them. Your thoughts are energy and your emotions put those thoughts into motion.

You stir up a much stronger emotional response when you raise your voice and vary your inflection oppose to when you just read something off in a monotone voice.

Your emotions will be stronger still if you give your attention to the words as you say them instead of uttering the words with your mouth while your mind is wondering off on anything other than the task at hand.

Thoughts are energy and the emotions you put behind your thoughts set your life in motion. If you constantly are affirming that money is hard to come by, then don’t be surprised if you receive small raises from your employer, barely meet your social obligations, and have trouble accumulating wealth.

When did Negative Thinking Start

You’ve likely been thinking this way for a long time and if it were working for you I doubt that you’d be here, reading this article. Thinking in a way that doesn’t suite you was most likely thrust upon you as a young child by people who had learned to think and act the way they did from the people that surrounded them as a child.

Now here you sit with so much knowledge literally at your fingertips and you realize that you have the power to change your experience. It may seem too easy but I say… it’s just as easy as it should be.

Mirror Affirmations

If you don’t spend much of any time looking into your own eyes I can’t recommend doing it enough. I’ve done this before I even fully understood the significance or the impact of it. For me it feels like reconnecting to something within myself, like I was starring into something that knew and understood my many anguishes. Which is true, no one understands me and my experiences the way I do.

Looking into my own eyes gives me great comfort and peace and brings me back to the present moment when I have slipped off into worry about the future or sadness about the past. I am comforted and soothed with a calm that words just don’t seem to measure properly.

Another way to look at this is to realize that some of the most powerful and emotionally striking messages we’ve received have been from others who looked us directly in the eye.

You taking the time to look into your own eyes when you say something solidifies the importance and the power of your own message.

But seriously, don’t take my word for it, try it for yourself. Look into your eyes and just say hello, say I love you, or any one of the many affirmations listed below.

If you’re scoffing at this idea remember how many times you’ve stood in front of the mirror getting ready or passed by your reflection and let out a deep and heavy-hearted sigh at some aspect of your body that just measure up to how you’d like it to be.

Recall the countless times you condemned yourself for not being better at something or for not doing more in a day.

The only difference here is that instead of affirming something negative about yourself you are affirming something positive about yourself.

You can change your thinking and thereby your experience by taking control of your thoughts. You must realize that you have a say in what plays in your mind. You do not have to think thoughts that don’t suite you.

As Wayne Dyer says, “Change your thoughts and you will change your life.”

Writing Your Affirmations

When you write out affirmations of your own then do so describing your ideal situations and be specific, be crystal clear on exactly what you would like to experience. Write each one 10 times to really get them imprinted on your mind.

Relationship Affirmations

Below are affirmations concerning relationships. If you are not presently in a relationship the idea here is to be thinking only of the ideal relationship you desire. If you continually think of your relationship disasters then you will go on to have similar experiences as you try to move your life forward.

If you are in a relationship and wish to tailor these affirmations, then you would say something like, “Joan and I are very patient with each other.”

* My partner and I are very patient with each other.

* My partner and I are very understanding of each other.

* My partner and I hug, touch, and kiss each other all the time.

* My partner and I have a wonderful sex life.

* My partner and I are very affectionate with each other.

* My partner and I have great respect for each other.

* My partner and I are very considerate of each other.

* My partner and I genuinely enjoy each others company.

* My partner and I love to cook with each other.

* My partner and I laugh together all the time.

* My partner and I have a wonderful friendship.

* My partner and I have lives outside of our relationship.

* My partner is comfortable within his own skin.

* My partner cares about my feelings.

* My partner is honest even when it’s not easy.

* My partner has great integrity.

* My partner is a great kisser.

* My partner takes excellent care of his physical, mental, and spiritual health.

* My partner has goals and takes action to move himself towards them.

* My partner will try most anything at least once.

* My partner treats others with respect and appreciation.

* My partner appreciates affection.

* My partner is a little goofy and silly at times.

* My partner makes me laugh.

* My partner laughs more than he scowls.

* My partner loves the time he spends with family and friends.

* My partner enjoys a bit of travel.

What’s Next

The positive talk is great in helping you feel better and is instrumental in bringing better experiences into your life. But you’re not likely to find your ideal match sitting on your couch when you return from the bathroom during a commercial break of your favorite sit-com. You must give your words action.

You must go places, you must do things, and you must interact with the world. For example, if you’ve always wanted to learn how to khaki then take a community course with a friend, you never know who will be doing the same.

If you like to read, do so in a public place. Simply go to a coffee shop for a while, have some tea, and read for an hour or so. Join a club and become activity in the things that interest you. You are surrounding yourself with like minded people, and you are further allowing the universe to do its job.

If you want someone to cuddle you on those chili evenings you have to put yourself out into the world.

How to Use These Affirmations

Set aside a few minutes each day, preferably first thing in the morning or right before bed when your subconscious mind seems most open. Invoke your emotions, sit in front of the mirror, look into those beautiful eyes of yours and proclaim your affirmation. Get excited about the new life you are beginning, think about the new possibilities and adventures.

Give yourself praise for being brave and busting out of an old and familiar way that was getting you nowhere.

The more persistent you are with an affirmation the more it becomes the natural nature of your thoughts. You will be surprised and delighted at how differently you feel after only a short time of affirming your best life.

I hope you were able to find some relationship affirmations that work for you. If you have a relationship affirmation you’d like to share, a constructive comment to leave, or a question of your own please contact me at http://www.kimchelltalk.com.

Most Sincerely,

KimChell Haskell

KimChell [Kim-Shell] Talk is a simple reference guide designed to inspire you to transform your Self from a reader to a doer.

We strive to help you shed your disempowering thoughts, words, and actions with the free content found throughout http://www.kimchelltalk.com.

Life is a journey… not a destination point. We want to help you dance along your course as if no one is watching you, sing as if no one can hear you, and enjoy the many pleasures of life. So we wish you many happy trails.

Affirmations are one of the most popular personal development tools, but they can also be one of the least effective, simply because most people aren’t shown the correct way to use them. One of the most common misconceptions about affirmations is that they act as “magical incantations” that will transform your life circumstances. Want to earn more money? Recite an affirmation that you are a millionaire, and *poof!* you are wealthy.

The True Purpose of an Affirmation

Believe it or not, the words in an affirmation have no power to change anything in your life. Like I said, affirmations are not magical incantations, and you may be surprised to learn that the purpose of an affirmation is NOT to change anything outside of yourself.

Yes, your ultimate goal is to create better circumstances in one or more areas of your life, but that’s not the first thing that needs to happen. Instead, the true purpose of an affirmation is to change the way you FEEL about a given topic. When you feel differently about something, you will start to think and believe differently about it. And when you think, feel and believe differently, you will take different actions – and therefore you will change the results you receive.

Many people don’t grasp the importance of this concept, so they create affirmations that focus more on their outer conditions rather than how they feel. As a result, they don’t change their beliefs, their actions don’t change, and their circumstances don’t change either. With this in mind, think back to those example affirmations I just shared. Do those make you feel differently about money, health or relationships? More likely, you don’t feel much of anything at all when you read them. That’s because they don’t get to the heart of what you really want, which is to FEEL differently about that aspect of your life.

Take a moment right now and jot down a few key words about how you would like to feel regarding the main areas of your life:

Health and well-being

Spirituality

Relationships

Money

Career

Overall quality of life

Do you yearn for a greater sense of peace, happiness, security, freedom, fun, passion, ease, or meaning? If you could create anything you wanted in these areas, what would you create? What is important to you? Which negative habits and qualities would you like to release?

Creating Effective Affirmations

Now that you have a better idea of your goals in the key areas of your life, it’s time to explore just what makes an affirmation effective. Read the following affirmation and consider how it makes you feel:

I achieve my goals easily and quickly.

If you are like most people, you probably feel some resistance to that statement. Most of us do not achieve goals easily or quickly – more often it’s a long, strenuous journey to success. Even if you didn’t experience a feeling of resistance to the affirmation, you may have felt detached or impassive when you read it, like it just doesn’t have any meaning for you.

Based on the concepts we’ve covered so far, would you say that this is an effective affirmation? Perhaps if a person had experience in achieving goals quickly and easily, they might be open to an affirmation like that; but for the majority of “average” people the answer would be no. How about this alternative wording:

I am capable of achieving my goals easily and quickly.

That one feels a little better, doesn’t it? You aren’t saying that you always achieve your goals easily and quickly, but you are affirming you are at least capable of doing so. This affirmation may feel a little better, but it can still be improved.

I am eager to achieve my goals easily and quickly.

That one feels better; a little more upbeat and inspiring, right? Maybe it even triggers a little glimmer of hope that it’s possible to achieve your goals quickly and easily? How about this one:

I am ready to achieve my goals easily and quickly.

Notice one important thing about these examples – all I am doing is inserting emotionally-charged words into the original affirmation! Capable, eager, ready… these words simply trigger your emotions so that the statement makes you feel better about your goals.

Do you think that feeling better about your goals will bump up your level of motivation and determination? Do you think that being eager and ready to move forward might inspire more focused action and persistent effort over time? Absolutely!

Remember, the true power of an affirmation is that it makes you feel differently, form better beliefs, and take more productive actions. Now you can see how this works in our examples.

Next we’ll go over the exact steps you should take when writing your own powerful affirmations:

Step One: Identify the Goal

First, you need to be very clear about what you want. Not the outer goal; but the inner goal of how you want to FEEL. Focus on the essence of the feeling you are aiming for. For example, you want to feel confident, strong, empowered, happy, uplifted, free, inspired, loved, proud, secure, and so on.

If you were creating an affirmation to help you lose weight, your goal would probably be to feel proud of your body, light, happy, confident, or craving-free. Ideally you will want to focus on just ONE essence per affirmation rather than trying to cram a bunch of different goals into one.

Let’s say that your main goal is to overcome feelings of self-loathing and start loving your body. The essence you are going for is self-acceptance. You could call it different names but it really comes down to being able to accept your body rather than hating it.

Step Two: Lay the Foundation

Now create the basic affirmation, which is simply the new “truth” you wish to experience. Using the weight loss example above, your new affirmation might be:

I completely love and accept my body.

But remember, if you don’t feel so good about your body, that statement is going to trigger a strong feeling of resistance, disbelief, and maybe even anger. You just won’t believe it’s true because it ISN’T true (yet). That’s okay – we’re just laying the foundation before we move on to the next step.

Step Three: Soften Rough Edges

Right now your affirmation doesn’t feel good to you – it just brings up some unpleasant thoughts and feelings and does nothing to shift your beliefs about your body. However, there are many ways we can “soften” it a bit and make it feel better. For example, adding the word “choose”.

I choose to love and accept my body.

Adding that little word helped, didn’t it? But some people still might struggle with the affirmation even in its altered form. How about adding “okay”:

It’s okay to love and accept my body.

Ah, that one is better! You aren’t saying that you DO love and accept your body; just that it’s okay to do so. Even though we’re taking a roundabout route to the main goal, you can still feel a stronger sense of acceptance about your body, right?

If you were to recite this affirmation regularly for a few days, do you think you would start to feel more accepting of your body? Probably so!

Another way to soften the rough edges is to add an element of “will”:

I am willing to love and accept my body.

If that one still feels a bit too unbelievable, you could add “learn”:

I am willing to learn how to love and accept my body. (or)

I am learning how to love and accept my body.

Softening the edges just means choosing words that are a bit more relaxed so that you have an easier time believing in the concept. Most often this is a temporary measure because after saying the softer version for a few days to a few weeks, you will be able to step up to the stronger version.

For example, starting with, “It’s okay to love and accept my body” can easily lead to “I choose to love and accept my body,” and then straight to “I completely love and accept my body.” This is an effective way to gradually improve your beliefs and feelings on any subject.

Conclusion: Use Affirmations with Care

I often refer to affirmations as “power tools” because they can transform your life like few other development techniques can. But like all power tools, they must be used correctly to get the intended result. Use them incorrectly and you could end up with results you didn’t intend or want – or worse, results that displease you more than your original circumstances did.

One of the greatest things about affirmations is that they can easily be altered and personalized to fit your own goals. If the examples I used in this guide don’t resonate with you, keep tweaking them until they do.

Remember that the true power of an affirmation lies in how it makes you feel. If you can feel yourself leaning in a positive direction when you say an affirmation, even if it’s a subtle shift, you are on the right track!

Even better, your mastery of using affirmations effectively will continue to grow the more you work with them. You’ll be able to “feel” when an affirmation is right for you, and being sure your affirmations are tightly focused like this will allow you to exert less effort but still achieve great results.

In fact, your affirmations will continue to grow and evolve with you. The more work you do on your personal and professional growth, and the more control you gain over your self-talk, the less you will need to do the “stepping-up” technique we described at the beginning of this guide. You simply won’t feel the need to “soften” your affirmations to make them more believable. Instead, you will easily remain open to big goals and believe they are possible for you.

As your initial affirmations start to come true, be sure to keep expanding them to be bigger and better! Don’t settle for just “good” results – keep going after GREAT results in every area of your life. Make long lists of everything you wish to accomplish, and then steadily and surely change the way you think about those areas of your life.

As you change your thoughts, beliefs, feelings, and actions for the better – the circumstances of your life must also change for the better. Once you understand the reliability of this approach, you should find yourself feeling very motivated and inspired because that means virtually ANYTHING is possible for you.

Every goal is achieved the same way; step by step.

“Want more free information? Feel free to get all sorts of top-notch internet marketing tips about Affirmations and much more on the E1KAD a blog, or visit the main Earn 1K A Day site.

It appears that everywhere you turn these days you cannot help but run into someone espousing the benefits of affirmations. Many of these people are very well intentioned, and some are simply riding what they believe to be a popular wave of excitement. The truth is affirmations do work, when you work them.

Affirmations are not a new idea. The history of the word can be traced back to the mid 1500s. Still today’s culture provides a fertile playground for their use and abuse. Affirmations are touted as the end all and be all of human aliments, discomforts and desires. The truth is much more subtle. Reciting an affirmation once or twice or posting in on your bathroom mirror simply does not cut it. Affirmations must become a part of your feelings and emotions. We must also determine just what feelings and emotions are. Feelings are the physical aspects of an event and your emotions are the mental reaction to those feelings. It follows that first we must create a feeling, something that moves our physical being and this will produce an emotional response. Here lies the true power of affirmations.

In order to manifest our desires, change our conditions or create a new reality for ourselves we must create an underlying sense of having already accomplished our desire. Many of us have heard or used the phrase “Fake it until you make it.” While this does in some sense hold true, I prefer to think in terms of “Know it as possible and Know it as SO.” Affirmations help us to know the possibilities. I do not believe we need fake anything. Faking it subtly implies the impossibility of something. We are working with a very subtle principle here so the more specific we are the better results we will experience. Knowing IT is possible leads us to feeling hopeful, expectant, accepting of our truth or greater yet to be. This is the real feeling we are after with affirmations, the Greater Yet To Be. We simply know our good is coming to us; there is really no way it could not. The Law of Attraction (LOA) spells all this out clearly we will get whatever we think about. Affirmations are a simple way to initiate the LOA and we must do so with a firm belief that our requests are already manifest in the mind of the Universe. Once we recognize our affirmations as possible in the Universe it is only a short path to recognizing these same affirmations as manifest in and as our body of affairs. Are you with me?

How many times have you heard “thoughts become things” or “what you think about you bring about”? These statements are very true, but can you simply think a thought once or twice and expect to experience a manifestation of that thought? Of course not, if this was true we would all be murders, divorced, or in jail. Our errant and wild thoughts do not become things because we give them very little energy. Our affirmations become reality when we give them energy. Where then does the energy come from? The energy in affirmations is repetition. How many times must a recite an affirmation for it to work? The answer is simple, as many times at it takes. I have always bee a proponent of “praying unceasingly” and this refers to praying until you see or experience the manifestation. Remember as soon as you affirm your truth the Universe begins moving that good into your life, if you give up affirming before you experience the good it is not that the universe failed to bring you your desire, it is that you must remain steadfast in your belief until your life matched the good you have been attracting. Repetition is therefore the key to manifesting our affirmations.

A good affirmation is short and easily to remember. This makes it a simple process to repeat 100 times a day. Try reciting “I am whole and complete with nothing missing in my life.” Now say that ten times. How long did it take? Now try repeating this affirmation ten times at ten different times a day. If it takes 1 or 2 minutes to repeat ten times you will invest ten or twenty minutes a day reciting this affirmation 100 times. It is a simple process to get to one hundred. The fun begins when you realize it need not be a verbal recitation to be effective. What if every time you used a restroom you silent repeated “I am whole and complete with nothing missing in my life”? Soon you will begin to feel this affirmation as the truth of your life. As you build the feeling you begin to believe this truth. As you begin to believe the Universe responds by bringing experiences that prove this as true of your life. As you begin to experience the proof of your affirmation you more easily accept and recognize the experiences of life as more proof of this truth. This self feeding cycle builds and builds until you no longer need remind yourself of your truth. Once you experience the manifestation of your affirmation you are open to moving into a new affirmation. Soon life becomes an amazing experience of Divine Truth operating as you life in every moment.

Will you slip and forget this truth? The obvious answer is yes you will, but you are not required to forget and repeat these reminders. The belief that you may forget your truth is one of those limiting beliefs that I believe no longer serve your Divine Life. Why not try affirming “I let go of any beliefs that no longer serve me and my evolution as a spiritual being.” The possibilities are endless and that’s the good news.

The truth of Affirmations is simply that they do work and they are the truth of your Divine Life if you use them. Many people today tell me they have tried affirmations and they did not work or that they worked for a short time and then they became too simplistic of a process. I ask you to consider if you are really working your affirmations or are you playing lip service to this powerful spiritual practice? The term spiritual practice is just that, a practice. We must continue to use the tools we have and practice them daily in order to master the skill.

I want you to know I recognize you as a Divine Emanation of Spirit, GOD, the Universe and you have the Power to express that Divinity in every moment. I suggest you practice reminding yourself of this truth by using affirmations unceasingly. Enjoy today and remember to affirm your truth until you see the manifestation and you will create the life you truly desire.

You can find more information about crafting your own affirmations or order a copy of my affirmation e-book by following this link. http://www.spiritevolving.com/Bookstore/Robert.html

Robert Brzezinski R.Sc.P. The Spiritual Evolutionist is a Professional Practitioner of Religious Science.
He currently resides in Lakewood CO.
Robert also serves as a Nationally Certified Vision Facilitator with United Centers for Spiritual Living.
He provides workshops, class, and retreat facilitation on a wide variety of Spiritual topics.
Robert is also available for Professional Speaking Engagements.
He can be reached at info@spiritevolving.com

Lots of people really become very committed to their affirmations. They speak the affirmations in the morning when they awake. They speak the affirmations at night before they fall asleep. You can hear them speaking the affirmations at every moment – in the shower, while they cook and when they are walking the dog. Day in day out the affirmations are right there on the front of their minds. Some people even turn the affirmations into a sort of chant that continues on all day long. Sounds like a winning formula to me.

Well, it is, sort of. Affirmations work best when repeated many times over and over. This repetition helps the inner mind change and fall in line with whatever it is you are focusing on. Over time the repeating of the affirmations will change how you think about your desired outcome and in turn change how you feel, behave and the decisions you make. What tends to happen with hyper- affirming, like described above, is that the person who is doing the affirming becomes paralyzed with their current life situation. Sometimes the affirmations turn into an intense desire that cancels out whatever is happening right now. It is as if the person starts to hibernate, waiting until the affirmation comes to pass.

As mentioned, affirmations work best when repeated over and over – but not over and over all day long! The purpose of affirming is to slowly change your inner perceptions about your life – not to blot out your current life situation. Affirming all day long will not help you get to your goal faster. It will put you in automatic mode – you need your mind working, not on mute!

Affirmations work best when your mind is impressionable:

1. First thing in the morning while you are getting awake.

2. Last thing at night when you are falling asleep.

3. During meditation or journaling.

4. While walking alone and enjoying the outdoors.

5. During a visualization time (some do this while meditating).

6. When you are feeling bombarded with thoughts of fear regarding not achieving your affirmation. At these times let the affirmations rip fast and furious to get yourself back in balance.

You will find that affirming three or four times a day is sufficient if you are focused while you are doing the affirming. As mentioned in number six keep the affirmations flowing if you are feeling overwhelmed with fear. At these times the chanting method is actually quite helpful. Remember to turn it off and come back to reality once your feel back in line with your desired outcome.

Other than that go live your life – the one you have right now. Your affirmations will come to pass over time as your inner self becomes more aligned with what you are affirming. Racing through affirmations over and over all day long will only prevent you from seeing what is perfect in your life right now – and keep you focused away from your current reality which you need to attend to if you want it to become something else.

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Copyright (c) Joan Pasay 2009. All rights reserved. You may forward this article in its entirety (including author bio/links) to anyone you wish.

Joan Pasay is just one of the MoneyAffirmationsMP3.com Team, whose lives have been radically changed by the continued use of positive affirmations for money and in every area of life.

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