Blog February 25, 2021
Recently, I was going over class materials and the class for affirmations caught my attention. Affirmations are an important part of our spiritual tool kit. When you think of your self- talk, how you talk to yourself and others, we use affirmations all the time. Are we aware of the tone of them? Is it positive? Or negative?
For most of my life, I assumed that affirmation to be a positive thing ; to affirm equals positive. Not so. It is a wonderful word to use and I feel that there is power behind it and that is because it means to declare, to assert that which is true,to stand in the light of Truth. And I use a capital ‘T’ because many who live life in a stupor are living from a small ‘t’ reality until they awaken to their magnificence. They are still using affirmations but not in a desirable way. This was true for me until I started studying Science of Mind.
In Science of Mind, we use the affirmations as a spiritual practice and it serves us well to practice them. Within our powerful form of prayer, Spiritual Mind Treatment, or ‘Affirmative Prayer” we use affirming statements in the declaration or realization step. When first introducing steps of treatment, we give lessons in affirmations and how to write them and to use them in daily life. It is the bases of Louise Hay’s life’s work; to plant and nourish the seeds of self-love.
So why am I starting off with affirmations, well I have encountered a situation and I have seen the effect of the negative use of affirmations in a person’s life. “I am tired.”; “I am so burnt out.”; “I can’t get anything done”.... guess what showed up in that person’s life—a meltdown. Now, there are a lot of things going on and many contributing factors, but the statements were consistent enough that it grew the build up to the meltdown. They were declaring what was going on was true for them.. And we know by studying Science of Mind, so within so without.... Ernest Holmes says “We are constantly affirming our way through life; and since affirmation is the only mental action possible, it behooves us to find the greatest affirmation and use it.”
Life for all of us has been different and difficult because we have been in a pandemic for so long. There is a mental tiredness for many of us because we have to be on guard, vigilant and aware of each other in a sanitizing and distancing way. Being unable to gather together is foreign to most of us who love being with others and to hug and break bread together. But when we walk around and say we are sick and tired of this or that, well then our experience is that we will be sick and tired.
Write your affirming statements and put those sticky notes all over the house, write on the mirror, tape a note on the dash of your car so that you see your affirmations that you have written for yourself. Make it positive, personal, in present tense and powerful. I am love. I am joy. I am prosperous. I am lovable. I am full of the wonder and awe of life. Say it out loud and to yourself, frequently instilling the power of the affirmation into the subconscious mind.
The “I am” statement is very powerful and so how are we using it. “I am that, I am.” Our awareness, our consciousness is vital to our life being fulfilling, successful and full of love and joy. Yes it takes effort and consistency and the rewards are unlimited. Know you are loved; each of us is the Beloved of God, an individualization of Life Itself, endless possibilities.
Blessings. Reverend Gwen