Wednesday, August 8, 2007

The Secret---Affirmations Change Your Life

I used affirmations that I wrote throughout the day to build my self-esteem until I could believe in my self-worth, to know that I had value as a human being. I had several books of affirmations that I would start my day by reading. I could believe what others wrote and said easier than I could trust my own self.

On page 168 of the book The Secret, Dr. Fred Alan Wolf shares an affirmation from Charles Haanel's book, The Master Key System, which says,

"I am whole, perfect, strong, powerful, loving, harmonious, and happy."

According to Dr. Wolf, this is "an affirmation that incorporates every single thing any human being can want, and that this affirmation will bring about harmonious conditions to all things." Dr. Wolf says, " the affirmation is in strict accordance with the Truth, and when Truth appears every form of error or discord must necessarily disappear."

This affirmation says it all. I don't know about you but I am going to do this affirmation every day and see what difference it makes in my life. I have already written it out on an index card that I can carry around with me to remind me to read it at different times of the day.

If you decide to use this affirmation, say it with as much feeling as you can put into it. Backing the affirmation with feeling gives it more power to manifest.


I know that affirmations work. As an incest survivor and young adult, I had a very low self-esteem. I used affirmations to learn to love myself. This process was not easy. It took years for me to learn to love myself.


Saying affirmations out loud is good. Writing them is better.


How to write an affirmation:
1. Write the affirmation down.
2. Listen to what your inner critic says about what you wrote.
3. Write the affirmation again.
4. Listen to what your inner critic says about the affirmation.
5. Write the affirmation again.
6. Listen to what your inner critic says again.


Continue writing the affirmation over and over until the inner critic is silent. Write the affirmation again several more times to make sure the inner critic stays silent.


Here is an example.

1. I am a lovable person.
Inner critic: Who do you think is going to love you?


2. I am a lovable person.
Inner critic: Sure you are.


3. I am a lovable person.
Inner critic: If somebody loves you, what does that say about them?


4. I am a lovable person.
Inner critic: You are so stupid if you believe anyone can love you.


5. I am a lovable person.
Inner critic: Girl, are you being fooled.


6. I am a lovable person.
Inner critic:


7. I am a lovable person.
Inner critic:


8. I am a lovable person.
Inner voice: I love you.


9. I am a lovable person.
Inner voice: I love you.


10. I am a lovable person.
Inner voice: Yes, you are.


I wrote the above affirmation only 10 times to show you how the process works. The reality was that I had to write my affirmations a lot more than 5 or 10 times before my inner critic was silenced. Write it every day for as long as needed to completely silence your own inner critic. Your hand may get tired of writing. That's ok. The prize of self-esteem is well worth a sore hand. Did you notice that the inner critic got quiet and then changed to the inner voice. You will know the difference. The inner critic is always negative. The inner voice is always helpful and loving.


Today, I know that I am a lovable person. So are you.

33 comments:

Anonymous said...

Patricia,

I love this exercise!

This is among my favorites of your posts -- very useful, practical, instructional -- a very strong post, all the way around.

I'd like to see more of this kind of "breakdown" from you on how you incorporate or apply spiritual concepts in your every day life.

Patricia Singleton said...

Thanks, Slade. I thought it was one of my weakest because it seemed too simple to me. I will keep your comments in mind for future articles.

Anonymous said...

Curious..do you recognize the Holy Trinity in your own religion? Do you confess Jesus Christ as the Lord and Saviour?

Patricia Singleton said...

Sam, Religion is man-made. Spirituality is God-made. Yes, I do believe in the Holy Trinity. I have been saved in several Baptist churches as a child. I have been saved and baptised into the Church of Christ as an adult in 1979. I have been a member of Christway Unity Church since November 1998.

Anonymous said...

I find that these work well:

"I am the best!"
"I am the greatest!"
"I must succeed!"

Patricia Singleton said...

Personal Development for the book smart, thanks for sharing what works for you. That is the secret of affirmations is to find the ones that work for you.

isabella mori said...

i love the idea of a prize at the end of this. and it was a timely thing for me to read and remember. i just made a major decision about my emotional life yesterday and am pulling out all the stops in order to get there. thanks!

Anonymous said...

Very practical advice and easy to do. Beating that inner critic is one of the main challenges in life!

Patricia Singleton said...

Isabella, I am glad that my article gave you some ideas on how to accomplish your goal. Give yourself credit for the important committment to growth that you just gave yourself. It is important to acknowledge the progress that we make along the way. Don't wait until the end of the journey to reward your changed behavior. You deserved to be praised for every step that you have accomplished. Don't forget to "be" each day. Have a glorious day.

Patricia Singleton said...

MDB, Thanks for the comment. Before we can beat the inner critic, we have to become aware of the inner critic. That is one thing that doing affirmations can do for us. Have a glorious day.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for sharing this exercise! I haven't practiced affirmations in a while, so thank you for giving me that reminder. I haven't read The Secret yet, but it's definitely on my list of books to read next.

Anonymous said...

Hi Patricia,

Thank you for your post, it reached in and touched me. Reading the example affirmation with the responses from the inner critic brought tears to my eyes because the critic was so familiar.

I am going to do this exercise because I am lovable, I am whole, perfect, strong, powerful, loving, harmonious, and happy ... I just need to convince myself of these facts :o/

Peace & Harmony

Willow

f.y.i. I came to you via 'be the change - tread the path'

Nneka said...

Hi Patricia, love the way you went through the process of how the affirmation works.

In fact, I'm teaching Unity Basics this Sunday and I'll use your example. (If that's okay.)

In Spirit,
Nneka

Anonymous said...

I'm on the bandwagon! I love this. I'm putting it up in the header of my site I love it so much...

Namaste

Patricia Singleton said...

Elena, you are welcome. Glad I could be of service. Have a glorious day.

Patricia Singleton said...

Willow, "be the change" is one of my favorite sites. Damian has such a beautiful way of weaving words together to make an awesome story. Glad I could help with the affirmations. I know they work because I have worked with them. Someone else taught me to do them this way.

Patricia Singleton said...

Nneka, I am honored and yes, you may use my examples. I wish I remembered where I learned them but it has been over 15 years ago that I learned this method. Let me know how your class goes. It sounds like something I would like to take if we lived here each other.

Patricia Singleton said...

Steve, again, I am honored. I had no idea that this article would be so popular. Makes me glad that I followed my intuition which guided me to write it. Thanks everybody.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for sharing your blog with me! Your posts are very useful and inspiring. I look forward to reading more of your writing in the future.

Patricia Singleton said...

Anastasia, I am glad that you find my posts useful and inspiring. Thanks. Visit anytime.

Patricia Singleton said...

This article has been accepted into the Abundance Thinking Blog Carnival #4 found at http://www.abundancehighway.com/abundance-thinking-blog-carnival-4/

Anonymous said...

Hi Patricia,

I tried to write affirmations on making money.I am feeling guilty about it.Shall I just continue with the affirmations?
Thanks.
Sudheer

Patricia Singleton said...

Sudneer, I would look at the feelings to see where they are coming from. Sit with the feelings. Feel what they are telling you. It sounds like you may need to write a set of affirmations to address the issues behind the feelings of guilt first. I think a lot of us have issues with money and feeling that we deserve to have abundance in our lives.

Anonymous said...

Pat, this is a very good exercise. That darn internal editer of mine sure can be active when I begin to affirm my wholeness.

I'll conitnue to use the affrimation and the exercise. Good unexpected stuff has been bubbling up.

Patricia Singleton said...

Tom, I wish I could remember the source of this exercise. I learned it so long ago. I use it with wonderful results. It helped me learn to love and respect myself. Growing up in a family with incest and alcohol, I had a lot of negative, internal criticisms that I had to un-believe. Glad you visited and like the article. I find your comments very interesting on Slade's and Andrea's blogs.

Pat said...

Patricia - I've read it and loved it. I'm going to be using it. Thank you so much for following your intuition and writing this post. It's simple and easy to follow and resonates with me.

Patricia Singleton said...

Pat, I am glad that you found this article and that it resonates with you. I think the simplicity is why it works. It gave me a way to learn to trust myself when I needed it.

Patricia Singleton said...

Karim, thank you for the visit and for your comment. Have a glorious day.

Self esteem Affirmations said...

It is beneficial to have a positive attitude towards life. We should not be discouraged to the adverse circumstances of life. We must never lose the north, after the storm is always calm. If we persevere with our efforts will be strengthened and our self-esteem will be strengthened.

Patricia Singleton said...

Self esteem Affirmations, I agree with you on this one.

Patricia Singleton said...

Dear Anonymous, I hope that you will come back to this blog post so that you will see my response to your comment. I am not posting your comment as it is because I don't know what your comment says since you posted it in a foreign language that I am not familiar with. If you can read my post in English, please post your comment in English. I won't post a comment that I can't read and don't know what it says.

Vigabo said...

What a helpful article Patricia. I agree 100%. Affirmations are important to healing. We are good at feeding ourselves negatives ... and we believe them. So why not feed ourselves positives? We ARE what we think!

http://notearsformyfather.com

Patricia Singleton said...

Cruiseroo, Thank you. We definitely are that we think. I do believe that we create our reality as adults. Change your thoughts, change your world is so true and using affirmations gave me the power to change my life. This is the most important message that I got out of The Secret. Have a glorious Saturday, my friend. Thanks for sharing the link to your book. I should start reading it within the next few days.