Affirmations are new thought processes that we plan to use in order to program ourselves so that we can live happier and more productive lives. If you would like to listen to the video for this post, click here.
Our brains have been soaking up programming instructions since we were babies. It’s a never-ending process. Every day we wake up and program it some more.
When we go to sleep, that information that we’ve taken in gets sorted and stored in a place that has many different names. It may be referred to as your subconscious, your spirit, your heart, the “collective consciousness,” “divine matrix” or “in the clouds” where Christ resides. In addition to the metaphysical or religious names, from a more scientific perspective Stuart Hameroff suggests that our brains are basically quantum computers.
“The data isn’t enough to confirm Orch-OR, but the new findings suggest some of Hameroff’s claims are more plausible than previously supposed. Furthermore, the microtubule — the tiny structures that Hameroff thinks house quantum operations in the brain — is suddenly a hot subject. And two researchers are finding that the old anesthesiologist might be right: Quantum physics might be vital to our awareness, cognition and even memory.” — Discover Magazine
No matter what we call it, we’re exposed to programming of all sorts, and it’s done subconsciously, meaning we’re not aware or conscious of it. And it’s usually not us doing the programming. Most people are programmed by their parents, by the media they watch (e.g. television shows, news,, movies, advertisements), teachers, friends, and so on.
Your parents may tell you how to feel about your grades at school. They can program you to think your B on your last test was amazing or a failure. They may tell you, “You’re so smart, you’re going to get into an awesome college,” or “You don’t do anything right. I don’t suppose any college will take you. You better start learning how to scrub dishes now so you can get a job when you don’t get in.”
We are a product of our programming to a large extent. Sometimes we are the ones who programmed ourselves. If you know there’s an external reason to why you failed the test such as someone making you unable to concentrate, you’re not going to take your parent’s reaction as negatively as you would if you actually believed it was your fault because you weren’t smart enough to get a better grade.
The Subconscious Garden
Think of your thought patterns, like, “I’m so smart,” or, “I’m so stupid,” as seeds and your subconscious as a field, When you hear or see a thought pattern in your life, and believe it, you are letting that seed fall onto fertile soil in your subconscious. If you don’t believe it you are letting it fall on the rocky ground and it won’t be able to grow. Just because a thought pattern has been allowed into the fertile soil of your subconscious doesn’t mean it will turn into anything big. You also have to water a thought pattern consistently for it to grow from a seed into a tree.
Weeds in the Garden
Most of us have been walking around in a daze, sleep walking through life. But many are waking up and becoming lucid right now. We’re realizing that we let a lot of weeds grow in the garden of our subconscious mind. It’s time to do some groundskeeping. We need to root out all the weeds, all the thought patterns that we don’t want to be affecting us. Some of these include, “Rich people don’t get into heaven so I have to be poor right now,” “I’m so weird, nobody gets me,” “I’m never going to get healthy,” “I need to pay bills so I’m stuck at this job that I hate,” etc.
Bacteria is everywhere, good and bad. We run into it everyday, and we can’t escape the bad bacteria in our life completely. But we can strengthen the body, by adding good bacteria to fight off the effects of the bad bacteria. In your life you will still run into people spreading the “bad vibration” disease because they’re programmed to think negatively by society. But if you plant enough good seeds, your garden will be overrun with beautiful flowers and trees bearing great fruit, and the weed seeds will drop to the rocky ground or be pushed out by the good seeds.
We have some weeds (little thought patterns) and we have rotten trees (large thought patterns) in our subconscious garden. An example of a rotten tree would the thought patterns about money being disgusting. Many people have a contempt for the rich elite and this implies a contempt concerning the state of having money. A contempt for the rich because of how much money they have compared to what you have will keep you from ever having that kind of money, because if you ever entered a state of having that amount of money, you would have contempt for yourself.
Of course, we never let it get that far. If we believe subconsciously that it’s “contemptible to have money” then we’re not going to let ourselves become rich. When this is the case there is a rotten tree in the subconscious and the rotten fruit that appears in your life is that you will always be struggling trying to get a good amount of money and never quite doing it.
In the book “The Game of Life and How to Play It” by Florence Scovel Shinn, she says in order to be wealthy, you have to act like you already have the wealth. We have to affirm that we are wealthy.
Planting Good Seeds by Affirmations
Affirmations, visualizations, and new thought processes are the ways in which we tend the garden of the subconscious. It may seem like a lie at first to say you are wealthy when you don’t feel wealthy. Over time, this will be less of an issue, because you’ll see the benefits coming in, but at first you may have to think about it logically. Think of other ways that you are wealthy, such as a wealth of friends, wealth of information, wealth of love, wealth of health, etc. Think of something you are wealthy in, and continue to affirm you are wealthy in your life, and you’ll find your wealth will increase under certain conditions.
The Conditions
Please see the article on the Lake of Fire for more information on this, but it is important to understand that our time here is one of improving ourselves. Often if we’re trying to get “heavenly rewards” before we’ve done our Father’s will on earth, as it is done in heaven, we’re going to be met with “obstacles.” It’s best not to think of them as obstacles, but opportunities to show our mastery over sin. When we show our mastery over sin we are blessed.
Matthew 5:3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. 5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. 6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. 7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. 8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. 10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. 12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
Anything we ask for will be done IF we keep our Father’s commandments, come in Christ’s name/character and pray for our Father’s will to be done above our own.
John 14:11 Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake. 12 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. 13 And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name will be caused/manufactured, that the Father may be glorified in the son. 14 If ye shall ask any thing in my name, we’ll cause/manufacture it. 15 If ye love me, keep my commandments 16 and I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; 17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
Jesus (Yehoshua) prayed for his Father’s will to be done above his own when facing death. If we’re going to come in his character/reputation/name then we have to do the same. Shinn suggests praying for (or affirming) things to come “in divine timing” and that they come “under grace” because there’s a chance that you’re not keeping all the commandments, and thus mistakes can happen.
The Wealthy Tree
An example of how praying for wealth can go wrong is if you’re affirming you have $5,000 and you’ve got a rotten tree, namely the contempt-for-the-rich thought process, you may manifest in your life an accident where you get hurt and the hospital bills are over $5,000. Then you sue and receive $5,000 to pay for the hospital bill. You manifested in your life that you received $5,000 but you made sure you didn’t become wealthy with it and it also didn’t happen “under grace” because you got physically hurt in order to receive the manifestation.
The reason why it is important to not have contempt for the rich, is because Jesus (Yehoshua) said to love everyone, even our perceived “enemies” as ourselves, and pray for them. He prayed for his own murderers to be forgiven while they were killing him. To pray in his name would require us to pray in that character where we love our enemies as ourself. If we have contempt for the rich, the manifestation result is contempt for ourself, and that is why the person may end up injured, physically, mentally or spiritually.
Praying/affirming without praying “under grace,” or for “divine timing,” or for our Father’s will to be done above our own is a recipe for unintended consequences.
Visualizations & Feeling the Feeling
Gregg Braden speaks on the Essene method of prayer in his video “Feeling Is The Prayer.” The way to show how much faith you have in something, is to be able to feel like you’ve already received an answer because you know God already knew what you were going to pray for and provided before you even asked. When praying to get an awesome job, pray feeling like you’ve already got it and go about as thrilled, relaxed and content as you would be if you were already working there. You should try to use various senses to put yourself in that frame of mind. If you would treat yourself to a fancy desert if you got it, imagine what that would taste like, or better yet go and buy it and eat it. If you would smell something specific at this new job, try to smell it when you visualize this feeling. If you would hear something specific, picture yourself there working and hearing it.
Being Grateful
Besides feeling the feeling of what it’s like to have what you are after, remember your feeling of thanks. Thank the divine creator, for bringing this awesome thing about. Be excited. People might think you’re weird if you’re super excited over something they don’t see you having, but you can’t let their pessimism bring you down. Being thankful is the most important thing. Singing praises about how awesome this thing is and how thankful you are to have it is the best way to get into the mindset that you’ve already got it.
1 Thess 5:17 Pray without ceasing. 18 Give thanks in every circumstance, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 19 Do not extinguish the Spirit 20 Despise not prophesyings. 21 Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. 22 Abstain from all appearance of evil.
Affirmations
Here is a list of some affirmations that you might find helpful. Remember to give thanks for these blessings, and visualize these things as being true when you say them.
- I have a wonderful business in a wonderful way where I give wonderful service for wonderful pay.
- I am beautiful inside and out.
- I bless everyone I meet, and they bless me.
- I’m getting healthier every single day.
- I’m healthy, wealthy, and wise in more ways than one.
- Everything I perceive as “bad” is actually for the best in the big scheme of things.
- Everything works out for my health and wealth.
- I learn from my mistakes.
- I’m a critical thinker and not easily deceived.
- There is nothing to fear since God is always near.
- I easily roll with the changes so I don’t get stuck in bad situations.
- I love myself completely for who I am.
- I see the best in others and am forgiving of faults.
- I know when and how to best cut off things in my life that are dragging me down.
For many more affirmations, check out the Florence Scovel Shinn page to read or listen to her “Game of Life and How To Play It” book.