Just some ideas for you. Kick them around and see how they work for you. And I’m getting a great idea for an ebook or two.

Davidya’s last blog post..Something religious is going on

Somehow this post stayed with me. When an idea stays stuck, I think there’s an element of unfinished personal business calling one’s attention. This proved to be no different.

One of the things I am personally struggling with is the idea of ‘convincing’ myself of something, which is ‘for my own good’, as I don’t have my own reference point at this time. And I realized that is what affirmations represent to me. Not a feeling of my own, but someone else’s good idea I’d be better to adopt, might like to adopt, etc.. Which may or may not be a good thing…but I more naturally rail against than toward.

The dilemma is then this idea of change for the better. If I have been stuck somewhere in a destructive pattern, am I trusting the same feelings felt over and over? Or is my bristling about this seemingly better idea just not what is true for me? It is after all when I can see anew that change happens.

Sounds like I’m not finished with this yet.

Thanks for the post.

I do agree with what you’ve said though. Only observing that there is some deeper values to it that should not be missed. As you mention in comments, its whats behind it all that matters.

Davidya’s last blog post..Existence is

Came to your site via Urban Monk. I’ve run into this problem before with affirmations. “Fake it til you make it” is too superficial a way to change a deeply rooted thought, like putting on a thin layer of paint over an old building to make it look nice. We have to get to the root of the issue and face it.

May’s last blog post..He Healed Me with Love

Hmm…. So what’s behind the words is all that matters. I still maintain affirmations are a waste of time. It is the power behind them that matters. As you say, Mark, if you are in a negative space right now, no amount of positive affirming is going to break it.

So, David, I think the thing we are discussing really goes back to some of our early discussions on thoughts. Mind and thoughts, or we could say “psychic energy” literally create the physical universe in my view of things. The entire world of form is then a mental creation. You are calling it, in effect, an affirmation, and I see your perspective. But it clearly isn’t a “fake it ’til you make it” kind of affirmation. It is a pure energetic creative SURGE. I’d be more inclined to call it WILL.

Maybe we are debating semantics, maybe not. I do get what you are saying. Lately, I’ve had the experience of looking at various areas of my life and sensing that my mental framework was too “small” to contain a certain facet of my life. For instance, I saw how the “mental space” seemed too cramped to allow for significant wealth in my life. Not that I’m gunning to be rich, but more that it seemed to explain why money seems to “leak” out of my life. As I sat with the “energy” of this, I could feel an expansion occurring, as if greater energetic space was being created.

I have no idea what I was really doing, because, well, I wasn’t really doing. It was pretty spontaneous. But it felt like beliefs were changing and shifting around. I think it was akin to what you describe in your comments as “affirming” but not quite so conscious and wordy. Hmm…. That just gave me an idea. I wonder if “beliefs” are just a word picture for the “psychic energetic state” I’m more or less referring to above in this comment. Interesting. I’m going to have to play with that. It would make the whole idea of beliefs simply a method for accessing this energy.

Some of the items on the list may not be noticeable when saying the affirmation, therefore, an observer is sometimes needed to point out what happened when I gave the affirmation.

Anyway the above list points to conflicting beliefs with the now stated affirmation/belief. If I really want the affirmation to work, I need to release the prior conflicting beliefs or I will not feel very great until the conflicting war is won by one of the beliefs.

Hope this helps.

But when you go deeper into it and find the power of intention, you find how much of your world is structured in belief, a set of stories of “how it is” which have surprisingly little to do with how it actually is. Inversely, that points to how powerful affirmations are.

No matter how much we debunk affirmations, if you watch your mind, you will find that you are affirming all the time. And some of it perhaps not what you would consciously want to affirm.

In that way, its a useful thing to study. But for many of us, more in understanding than necessarily a practice. I found, like Tom, that doing the emotional clearing more directly was much more effective. But that rather depends on where you are on the path. The woman in the video was a long way from emotional self-awareness.

I agree with you that over all affirmations don’t work. Have you heard the saying “fake it till you make it” used in many of the self help books. I’ve tried this before but it just never worked for me. I like your reference to a pig in a bonnet. It is after all still just a pig.

For me if I’m in a here and now moment and that moment has a negative bent I can affirm a positive thought until I’m blue in the face, it isn’t going to change the here and now is it?

And one final thing Tom, You said, and I quote “I could be wrong” perish the thought.:)

Mark’s last blog post..You’ve justa gotta be joking right?

Its quite true theres a lot of mush around affirmations. As there is indeed about almost everything spiritual. But as Mags and Harold observed, there is value there as well. If you are on a more heart-driven path, you are driven more directly by belief and thus want to manipulate belief more directly. Affirmations can help there.

Its quite true that the key is in clearing old trash rather than adding new things and yet further conflict. But don’t blame the tool for being abused. Everything can have a value at some point. And that same tool can be used to blame. And it can be used to mess things up.

One could say that the entire world is an affirmation. Everything arises out of consciousness, is intended. So mastering intention is a key aspect of living well.

Of course, if you are not very conscious, its very easy for intention/affirmation to just be another layer of illusion. As you observe, to be another story of blame and making wrong. The video certainly illustrates that. (laughs) But if we see how we’re constantly intending, understanding better ways to approach it can be helpful. Affirmations can help us see how our very language can be one of making wrong. And that can be a powerful lesson.

I recall seeing an interview with James Ray, one of the fellows from The Secret, soon after the film was released. He observed that if we keep asking for something over and over, we don’t believe it. The key is in asking once, right, in the first place.

The concepts around affirmations can help frame that intention correctly, hence the effort at wording. (oft abused to become planning without doing or magical thinking)

I shared your opinion of affirmations for a long time. Now I see there is great power hidden in the mud

Davidya’s last blog post..Stroke of Oprah

Evan’s last blog post..Online Counseling

@Evan I’m going to have to write a post on this here and now stuff. I agree that it is all kind of loose. Kind of like the “it’s all an illusion, there is no doer” stuff you hear from the Advaita crowd. While that is TRUE, it doesn’t mean anything unless you’ve really awoken to the truth. Okay, give me a few days.

I just aggravated about the loose talk about ‘here and now’. It’s so often just a reduction to a crass sensory state (‘leave your mind and shoes at the door’ kind of thing).

For me the meaning of this slogan is a widening of awareness not a narrowing (or giving up) of awareness.

I think investigating our negative is far more productive than just contradicting them with an affirmation. I do like Harold’s thought about using affirmations ‘diagnostically’.

Evan’s last blog post..Three Benefits of Being Childlike

A possibility: If a person does not have an opposite belief within them and they make an affirmation, it could be like making an original belief and this could come true in whatever time frame is working for that person. I suppose that one keeps in mind that a belief that works for now may become a limitation later. Enough guessing.

Keep up the good work Tom.

Again, nice to have you here. Thanks for the comments.

As for your question: does advocating here and now presume there is something wrong with “there and then?” Good question. If you are denying your memories of “there and then” (and they are only memories), then I would say yes, you are pushing away your memories. But I find that when thought is firmly planted in now, there really isn’t a “there and then” at all. Again, there and then is just a thought about the past. If those thoughts arise, as long as I don’t attach to them in any way, I’m not denying them or saying there is something wrong. I think all we are doing is putting awareness on the present moment instead of thoughts about the past. Does that make sense?

@Per I forgot about the apple analogy. I remember Hale using that one, too. Thanks for the reminder!

@Mags You are right about the affirmation lit. You gotta get it “just right” or else they don’t work. Or you might turn yourself into a turtle or something like that. And I agree: it is the energy underlying. If you feel like a lazy slob, then, well, that’s what you will tend to be no matter what you tell yourself.

@Mel Thanks for the comments. I do think there is some value to “affirming” what is already true. But do you really believe it? That’s the key. You gotta already know it deep down.

Great insight about what is wrong with affirmations, that they are ultimately attached to a flawed, self-conscious identification with something that needs to be “fixed.”

You are already everything you’ve ever wanted to become.

I absolutely agree with your breakdown and love the smiling face graphics!

Slade | Shift Your Spirits’s last blog post..If Your Cup is Full, Stop Pouring

i *do* think we should remind ourselves of our strengths and successes, so we don’t get caught in negative self-talk. but we need to be realistic about our self-talk. sometimes, getting caught up in the negative self-talk (i’m stupid, i never do anything right, nobody likes me) is just as ridiculous as the affirmations!

(i say after i spent a couple of good whole days throwing myself one gigantic walking pity party!)

i think we can affirm ourselves without resorting to false hope affirmations.

mel’s last blog post..local wildlife

That said, I think affirmations can help people to move from a lower level of consciousness to a higher one… but, this happens when people are also committed to releasing their negative or limiting beliefs. It doesn’t happen when affirmations are seen as some sort of magic mantra that will change one’s life simply by constant repetition.

Mags | Woo-Woo Wisdom’s last blog post..The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull

I think the truth in the affirmation approach (we need to understand its appeal too) is that how we approach something does affect our response. This insight is largely misapplied I think.

The best critiqueI have heard of the affirmation approach comes from a friend of mine: it’s like pulling the wool over your own eyes, hoping that it will work if you do it fast enough.

To go a little deeper. Doesn’t advocating the here and now presume there is something wrong with being “there and then”? Perhaps this advice also presumes a judgement? I’m not sure – that really is a genuine question. It may be difficult for me because if it is a judgement then it is one that I (largely) agree with.

It’s difficult to avoid being negative about being negative. There are knots here that I find intriguing.

I like your smiley illustrations too..

Anyway, in the old Sedona basic course, Hale says that affirmations are like putting golden apples on top of rotten apples, eventually all the apples are going to rot!

Affirmations never seemed quite right when I’d read them. There was always a falseness I felt I had to assume in order to get in alignment with them. Like the girl in the video investing in her future castle life. The departure from reality to fairytale was often not a long trip.

I also think there was a direct parallel to what I was trying to correct in my life. I kept looking for what was true, including and especially the stuff I was deluding myself about and with. Faking it until I make it, as the saying goes, seemed like more of the same.

Repetition of untruths rarely looks different than untruth to me. Affirmations most often seemed to cover rather than uncover.

Maybe a nice gig if one can somehow keep it alive…I don’t think I ever managed.