"Affirmation without discipline
is the beginning of delusion."
-- Jim Rohn
Creating and using affirmations has been taught by hundreds, if not thousands over the recent past. I think of Jim Rohn as a mentor to me and it seemed to me that he always made fun of the idea of affirmations. I never really understood what he was saying until recently.
I read and followed the advice of affirmations promoters such as Jack Canfield, Louise Hay, John Demartini and others. I always seemed to lose faith early on and find fault with the idea of using affirmations. I didn't really understand why until very recently.
I've tried to change my results without changing my thinking. That, of course, is the definition of insanity, where I keep doing the same things and hope for or expect a different result. Vincent Roazzi states that "people want to change their lives, but they don't want to change." Gandhi said, "you must be the change you want to see in the world." In other words, for things to change, I must change--not someone else, or the world, but me--what I do, what I think, how I behave, who I associate with and more.
So, back to affirmations and what has changed my thinking about them and thereby my results. When I first learned about them and it seemed similar with each new teacher was to write out a positive affirmation of what I want or what I want to become or how I want something to be. So, of course, I wrote that I want to be wealthy so I can enjoy a bigger life and help people, or that I wanted better health, etc. It should be in the first person as if it has already been accomplished. I got it, and wrote them out on cards and just before bed each night I would say one over and over and try to visualize it being done, then move on to the next and so on.
The problems were several. It was as if I were trying to use exercise equipment at a certain time. I didn't believe well enough that they could or would come true; in other words, they weren't all that believable. They didn't do anything to change my thinking except in the moments I was reading the affirmations and hoping things would change.
It has to be better and easier than this. It needs to be a discipline as Jim Rohn says, but not the kind of discipline that is WORK. If it isn't fun and playful, it isn't going to take hold.
Many of us so commonly make comments about the latest negative tragedy or event on the news. We may watch it over and over listening for new details about how bad it is and then hear all the tragic cries of the people involved. For good news sake, of course. Then, we repeat thoughts about the economy and how the President hasn't got a clue, and the Republicans or the Democrats have their heads between their legs, or Social Security is almost broke and then, there's the global climate change situation, oil prices, gasoline price changes, taxes, and the list is pretty much endless. We talk about all that stuff to ourselves and to our friends and to our coworkers and family, and we try to have things change for the better.
Maybe we even start an affirmation program like I did and deal with the stuff during the day and at night read some meaningless dribble on cards. At least, that is how it began to feel.
But, the bottom line is, for things to change, I must change my thinking, my action, my speech (to myself and to others). I must choose differently.
So, here is the easy way. Substitute a positive affirmation for a negative one and then keep doing that over and over until your thoughts about your life are predominately positive. For example, a great one I found and have shared with many is this: "Things are always working out for me." I used to say stuff like, "that stuff is always happening to me, one step forward, and two back, there's more bills at the end of the money, I can't ever seem to get ahead," etc.. Now, whether something came out well or didn't, I say to myself and aloud, "Things are always working out for me."
This changes things. This changes thinking. This is fun and playful. This works. All you have to do is try it for a couple weeks and you will find that it works just like magic.
It Is Simply Amazing. . . Things Are Always Working Out For Me!
Spread Some Joy Today--With things like this, how could you not?
No comments:
Post a Comment