Affirmation is a statement of an idea you desire to "make firm", to impress upon
your subconscious mind, so that eventually it begins to work for you
automatically.
There are many different ways to practice self-hypnosis, and writing
affirmations is one of them. As you keep on working with self-hypnosis, you may
find that at different times your mood and preferences may change and different
methods may be more suitable for you. The more options you are aware of, the
better you will be able to deal successfully with any situation regardless of
the circumstances.
There may be times when you just want to relax and listen to a hypnosis
recording and let it guide you toward your desired outcome. There may be times
when you feel too busy and may find it more suitable to just let the subliminal
recording play in the background. And then, there may be times when you feel too
restless, or you are experiencing some pressing feelings you'd like to get out
of your system and transform them, times when you just don't feel like relaxing,
but would rather engage in some form of physical action. Writing affirmations is
one of the things you can do at such times. By the way, you can write them or
type them, repeat them silently or aloud, or even sing them, according to your
preference.
Another purpose of writing affirmations is that they allow you to become aware
of any conflicting beliefs hiding in your subconscious mind, so that you can
transform them at the same time.
An effective process of working with affirmations has three main stages- just
like a good hypnosis session, a prayer, or any other form of change-work. The
following process describes an effective way you can work with affirmations.
STAGE 1
The first stage gets you into the appropriate state of mind for impressing the
affirmation upon your subconscious. In a regular hypnosis session, you get into
this state of mind generally through relaxing your mind and body. When working
with affirmations, you may want to align yourself with the source of all power,
or if you prefer, your own inner power to create changes in your life, by
writing appropriate affirmations.
The purpose of this stage in hypnosis is to help you to put aside the critical
faculty of your conscious mind. The purpose of this stage when writing
affirmations is to help you put your "outer" self aside, so that you can access
your inner "creative power", your "true Self" which knows of no limitations and
has all the knowledge and power to bring about the desired changes in your life.
Here are few samples of such affirmations:
"I live and move and have my being in an ocean of love, power and wisdom of
God".
"I am in, one with, and completely amalgamated with all love, power and wisdom
of God".
"I allow all the love, power and wisdom of God to express fully and freely
through me now."
Depending on the goal you are working with, you may replace the word(s) "love,
power and wisdom", with "God", "Spirit", "abundance", "peace", "energy",
"healing energy", "light", "life", "chi", "ki" or any other attribute or the
"universal essence".
How long should you keep on writing these affirmations in one sitting? Until you
get the corresponding FEELING. You impress your subconscious mind through
FEELINGS, so you need to keep on writing until you can FEEL that the affirmation
you are writing is true for you.
If listening to a particular music helps you to create the desired feeling, by
all means have that music playing in the background. You may also listen to
corresponding subliminal or supraliminal recordings while writing your
affirmations.
STAGE 2
The second stage of writing affirmations consists of your "goal-specific"
affirmations. Your goal should be stated in positive terms (what you want to
experience instead of what you don't want), and be in a present tense - "as if"
the desired outcome is your reality now.
Your affirmations should begin with "I am" or "I am becoming", "I have", etc.
Your affirmations should also be specific. For example, if you affirmed "I now
have more money" - you may find one cent somewhere and the affirmation would be
fulfilled, but that's probably not what you had in mind. Your subconscious mind
takes your statements literally and it fulfills them according to what you
affirm. A better affirmation would be "I now have $ (specific amount)", or "I am
now earning $ (specific amount) a month".
You may write these affirmations in the first ("I am"), second ("You are") and
third person (" is").
Your affirmations will be even more effective if you incorporate "feeling" words
into your affirmations. For example "I feel so good that I am now able to ..."
"I feel so exited now that I have ..."
"I have decided to ..."
"I am committed to ..."
Certain types of general affirmations do work well, too.
For example
"All my needs are now and forever supplied", or
"I am enjoying perfect health now and forever".
These general types of affirmations are pretty close to the affirmations you
were writing in the first stage of the affirmation process because what you're
doing here is affirming and aligning yourself with spiritual truths. You are
simply affirming that you desire to experience in your physical world what is
already true for you in spirit. You are acknowledging these spiritual truths and
allowing them to express in your life.
The universe (or, your subconscious / Superconscious mind - whatever term you
prefer) follows the path of least resistance. This means that what you ask for
will come in a way that is the easiest to get according to your beliefs, desires
and expectations and according to beliefs, desires and expectations of everyone
else who may be involved in your project.
If you leave the "how", what you desire will come about often much faster than
if you insist that it has to come in any specific way. You can simply state:
" now manifests for me in a perfect way for the highest good of all".
There may be many more ways of getting what we desire than the ways we are
consciously aware of, so leaving this element to the universal creative
intelligence (or to your "inner wisdom") would often help you to get something
that is even better than what you have originally envisioned.
It is also good to distinguish between the "form" and the "essence". The
"essence" relates to the feeling you're after, the feeling you believe the
specific thing would give you. The "form" is the thing you believe will best
fulfill this need and enable you to experience the desired feeling. Often times
we may get exactly the thing we asked for only to find out that it didn't really
give us the feeling we desired to experience. Also, focusing on the "essence" or
the "feeling" will help to manifest the truly desired experience in your life
much faster and to your greater satisfaction.
To find out what is the "essence" of what you desire, you may simply ask
yourself a question "What will having this thing enable me to experience?" For
example if you are in debt, you ultimate desire to have all of your needs met
and all debts paid off. Even if it is a financial debt, you may or may not need
money to pay it off. There are many different ways in which your debt may be
cleared - it may happen that you encounter new opportunities to create that
money and pay the debt, it may happen that money from an unexpected source lands
in your lap, it may happen that the debt simply becomes erased as if it never
existed, or some other serendipitous circumstances occur. For this reason, it is
always in your best interest to remain open and expect even miraculous
solutions, while at the same time you commit yourself to do your very best to
help yourself.
The affirmations you write will work in conjunction with the beliefs which are
already impressed upon your subconscious mind. So, if you are writing
affirmations for prosperity, what may initially happen is that you end up with
more offers for the same type of work you're accustomed to getting.
This simply means that, through repeated action, this method of acquiring money
has become conditioned in your subconscious mind. And, of course, you can change
it by reaffirming the method in which you'd rather be acquiring money now, until
this new idea becomes impressed upon your subconscious mind.
Or, if you have a health challenge, and begin to affirm for perfect health, the
first method you may come across may again be the one that is most acceptable to
you according to beliefs and conditioning already impressed in your subconscious
mind.
Whatever first comes your way as a response to your affirmation doesn't mean
that it's the only way - it just means that it's most appropriate based on your
current beliefs. By sticking with the idea you really had in mind, sooner or
later you'll get your desired outcome.
You may also get the actual thing you are after or you may end up with a lot of
opportunities requiring some kind of action on your part and leading to the
acquisition of the desired thing. It is important to recognize when what you
asked for is manifesting in some way in your life, even if it's not exactly what
you asked for. This will still boost your confidence and condition your
subconscious mind for success because you'll know that something is working even
if you need to adjust your request in some way.
While I did say that you should be "specific" there are some things that you
should avoid regardless of how initially attractive such ideas may seem to be.
Things to avoid are asking for a job that a specific person has, a possession
belonging to a specific person, or that a specific person (e.g. Joe or Mary)
goes out with you on a date, or worse, drops dead. Can you get those things with
affirmations? Yes, you can - but ultimately you may not like the consequences.
These things would be "ill-gotten" and sooner or later, something would be taken
away from you "in exchange", something that you consider valuable.
You can, on the other hand, affirm for yourself that you are irresistibly
attractive and that you ideal partner is now coming into your life. You can also
list down the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual qualities of such a
person as well as any other general interests. You can specify what kind of
relationship you'd like to attract and enjoy. You can specify that you'd like to
work in a specific occupation, make certain amount of money, etc. And you can
affirm peace, love, happiness and abundance for other people. In short, if you
wouldn't want other people affirming something for you, don't affirm such things
for others.
When you affirm for something, it is pretty much like throwing a pebble (your
statement) into an ocean (of infinite supply). It will create waves in all
directions, gather all different expressions of the energy (thoughts and
feelings) you just sent out, it will multiply and come back to you. So, unless
you'd really like to experience what you asked for multiplied and returned to
you, don't affirm it.
If you desire something, but don't have a clue how to create such experience in
your life, or it appears that all doors are closed to you, you can affirm:
"The way now opens for me to ... (state your desire)"
The way to uncover any conflicting beliefs you may have regarding what you
desire to create in your life is to write your affirmation once, then take a
deep breath, and write down whatever first comes to your mind as a response to
such statement. Then write your affirmation again, take another deep breath and
write down whatever comes to your mind as a response. For example:
(affirmation) "I, (your name), completely forgive myself"
(response) "I smashed my dad's car. I was so irresponsible."
(affirmation) "I, (your name), completely forgive myself"
(response) "I never once called my mother in two years. What kind of a person am
I?".
(affirmation) "I, (your name), completely forgive myself"
(response) "I yelled at my son. Oh boy, I'm so stressed out" ... etc.
Incidentally, if you choose to work with forgiveness affirmations, it is
recommended that you write them 70 times a day for seven days. You are bound to
experience some major transformation and emotional clearing in just one week.
You may be very surprised with the results.
And talking of "clearing", if you find yourself standing in front of apparently
insurmountable obstacles, you may write the following affirmations:
"The path to my (being, having, doing) ...is now clear."
"All obstacles to my (being, having, doing) ... vanish into nothingness".
"I now give all of my problems to the Spirit (Christ, Inner Wisdom, God) within
me."
"All obstacles to my (being, having, doing) ... now dissolve in the Light."
"I totally surrender to my Inner Wisdom".
"Beloved God, Thy Will be done in me and through me now and forever."
STAGE 3
The third stage of the affirmation process consists of closing the process. In
hypnosis, this is usually done through suggestions for emerging from the state
of hypnosis to normal waking consciousness.
While writing affirmations, you can write down "gratitude" affirmations
acknowledging the acceptance of the blessings (change) you have just asked for.
Some examples of these affirmations are:
"I am deeply grateful for my life".
"I am deeply grateful that I now enjoy perfect health."
"I am deeply grateful that the million dollars are now manifesting in my hands."
"I am deeply grateful for the ability to serve others."
"I am deeply grateful for my ability to ..."
And, of course, you may close the whole process with "It is so!", or "So be
it!", or "Amen!" knowing that what you asked for will most definitely manifest
in your life according to your beliefs and expectations.