Affirmations For Meditation And Reflection (Week Three)
1. SEE WHAT YOU WANT, GET WHAT YOU SEE
Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.—ALBERT EINSTEIN Winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics
Visualization is the technique of closing your eyes and picturing yourself enjoying life as if your goals had already been achieved—in rich, vivid, colourful detail. It’s seeing in your mind’s eye the places you would be, the sounds you would hear, the emotions you’d be feeling, and the actions
you would be taking.
Visualization is one of the most effective tools you can use to reach your goals because it
accelerates your success immensely.
- It allows your brain’s reticular activating system to “let through” ideas, observations, people, and opportunities from amongst the millions of images it processes for you every day.
- Through The Law of Attraction, visualization attracts to you the people and opportunities that will benefit you.
When meditating on your affirmations, repeat them aloud and visualize them in vivid Technicolor so they produce clear images in your mind. Be very specific on the details so that your affirmations release the creative powers that fuel success.
- Each night before retiring I am confidently reading my list of goals out loud and creating images of the completed goals in my mind.
Make the most out of visualizing your affirmations by applying these same principles:
- Add sounds, smells, tastes, and feelings to your images. What does it sound like at your home on the beach? How does the ocean smell? What feelings would you be experiencing?
- Use emotions to add fuel to your vision. When confronted with intense emotions, an image or scene can stay locked in our memory forever. Use this phenomenon to its fullest benefit by infusing your visions with emotion and energy!
Most of us don’t see things in bright three-dimensional images when we close our eyes; actually, we don’t really see an image as much as we think it. To help you truly see and focus on your goals, find pictures of your dream vacation, you at your perfect weight, a black Lexus LX600, and then glue them to a small poster board. Then display it where you can see it every day. You can also write your personal affirmations on index cards using colour felt markers, then draw illustrations of your dream house or perfect job.
- By adding sounds, smells, and feelings to my internal pictures, I am multiplying the benefits many times over.
Your brain operates very differently from your physical body. To your brain, there is no difference between visualizing something and actually doing it. Arnold Schwarzenegger, actor, body builder, film producer, and former governor of California, once said, “Create a vision of who you want to be, and then live into that picture as if it were already true.” I’d say that strategy worked pretty well for him.
You may not be aware of it, but when you visualize your goals as having already been achieved, your subconscious mind will find a way to turn your current situation into the new vision that you have been feeding it. If you feed your mind pictures of a beautiful home, a loving relationship, and an exciting career, it will work on achieving those things. On the other hand, if you are constantly feeding it negative pictures, like a stressful job, an impossible feat, or a failing relationship—guess what?—it will work to achieve those, too.
Set aside time each and every day to visualize every one of your goals as already complete. This is one of the most vital things you can do to make your dreams come true. Some psychologists say that an hour of visualization is equal to seven hours of physical effort. That’s a pretty big claim, but still, imagine what would happen to your life if you did that every day!
- I am heightening the impact of my affirmations by focusing and clearly visualizing them.
2. ACT AS IF
Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail.—CHARLES F. KETTERING Engineer, businessman, and inventor with over 186 patents
One of the greatest strategies for success is to act as if you are already where you want to be. That requires you to think, talk, act, dress, and feel like you have already achieved your goals. Acting “as if” projects to the world a sense of confidence and achievement, sending powerful messages to your subconscious mind, which is designed to find unique ways to solve problems. It also programs your brain’s reticular activating system—the function that allows into your awareness useful information from the millions of pieces of information you process every day—to make you aware of hidden resources that may help you. What’s more, when you act as if, The Law of Attraction comes into play, since acting “as if” sends strong vibrations to the Universe that you are committed to achieving your goal—and that you are open to accepting and applying anything it sends your way.
In the book, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Richard Bach writes, “To fly as fast as thought, to be anywhere there is, you must first begin by knowing that you have already arrived.” Pretty sound advice and one of life’s greatest lessons.
I am believing and acting as if I am already where I want to be.
You can begin right now to act as if you’ve already achieved the goals you set for yourself. Once you start acting successful, that outer experience will create the inner experience—the feelings, emotions, confidence, and thoughts—that will lead you to the fulfilment of your goal.
How would you act if you were already a straight-A student, a bestselling author, an Olympic athlete, a top salesperson, a celebrated musician, or a successful entrepreneur? How would you think, talk, carry yourself, dress, treat other people, handle money, and so forth?
There are a couple of very important lessons we can learn from the behaviour of successful people: they exude self-confidence, they’ve learned the power of asking for what they want, they speak up about what they don’t want, they take risks and celebrate their successes, and they also save a portion of their income and share a portion with others.
These are all things that you can start to do right now. They don’t cost more money, but they do require intention. And as soon as you start acting “as if,” the people and things that will help you achieve your goals in real life will start being drawn to you.
- I am exuding self-confidence and asking for what I want with complete faith that I will get it.
It’s imperative that you start now being who you want to be—don’t let any more time pass while you’re “thinking it over.” Why? Because inaction is the same as never taking action. Start now and be who you want to be, then do the things that go along with being that person, and soon you’ll find that you easily have everything you want in life—health, wealth, fulfilling relationships, and social impact.
Tania Kotsos, author and creator of Mind Your Reality, says: “It is your subconscious mind that is the storehouse of your deep-seated beliefs and programs. To change your circumstances and attract to yourself that which you choose, you must learn to program and re-program your subconscious
mind.”
For thousands of years this principle has been with us and yet so few people actually put it to use. Let those words inspire you into action!
- I am laying down powerful blueprints in my subconscious mind to make my dreams come true.
3. TAKE ACTION, EVEN IF YOU DON’T KNOW THE WHOLE PATH
Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.—ABRAHAM LINCOLN Sixteenth president of the United States
It’s long been known by successful people that the world doesn’t reward you for what you know. It rewards you for what you do. Yet, as obvious and practical as that statement is, millions of people every day get tied up analyzing, planning, and organizing instead of simply taking action. They seem to look the other way hoping the rules will change while they’re preoccupied.
In the end, however, what we know or what we believe is of little consequence. The only thing that matters is what you do.
What happens the day you decide to take action? People will wake up and start paying attention to you. People with similar goals will fall into alignment with you. You will begin learning things from experience. Things that once seemed confusing will become clear, and things that once appeared difficult will become easier. You will attract others who will support and encourage you, and wonderful things will begin to flow toward you—once you take action.
- As I take action, all things are becoming clearer and easier for me because I am constantly attracting people who are encouraging and supporting me.
- When I make mistakes, I know there is something valuable that I am learning from each experience.
In order to be successful, you have to do what successful people do, and successful people are highly action-oriented. If you hold yourself back for fear of looking foolish in one situation, you probably hold yourself back for fear of looking foolish in others. You have to identify those patterns, break through them, and stop holding yourself back.
Most people don’t take action because they are afraid of failing. Successful people, on the other hand, realize that failure is an inevitable and natural part of the learning process. They know that failure is just a way that we learn by trial and error.
Once you embrace failure as part of the journey to success, you’ll be much more willing to just get started, make mistakes along the way, pay attention to the feedback you receive, make the necessary corrections, and keep moving forward toward your goal. Every experience you have will
yield more useful information that you can apply to the next action you take.
So, by now, you have gone through the necessary foundational steps to success—created a vision, set specific and measurable goals, broken them down into small steps, visualized and affirmed your success, and chosen to believe in yourself and your dreams. Now it’s time to take action.
- I am enjoying getting feedback that is helping me make the corrections I need to become successful.
4. LEAN INTO IT AND SEE IF IT FEELS RIGHT TO YOU
A journey of 1,000 miles begins with one step.—ANCIENT CHINESE PROVERB
When someone says something important that will help you, or when someone makes you an offer related to something you want to do, your job is to “lean into it.” Dip your toe in the water and see what that opportunity feels like.
Many of the world’s most successful people got that way because they paid attention to a door opening in front of them. They had the courage and wisdom to walk through that door and “lean into” the opportunity on the other side. They worked several months on a start-up company. They did a free speaking engagement for a global organization. They spent some money travelling across the country to meet a new contact. They checked out the opportunity, learned something new, and determined whether that new path was the one that would lead them to their goal.
Oftentimes, ultimate success finds you when you’re leaning into something. That’s when you find yourself open to opportunities and willing to do whatever it takes to succeed—without any expectation whatsoever. The time for thinking is over and the time to take action has begun.
- I am leaning into what I want to do and seeing any roadblocks as opportunities to develop new skills, greater confidence, and perseverance.
First you jump off the cliff and you build wings on the way down. Science fiction author Ray Bradbury said that, and it has become one of my favourite quotes. There is no perfect time or situation for you to begin creating and achieving your goals. Don’t keep putting things off waiting for a special sign, a double rainbow, or for 12 doves to fly overhead in the sign of a cross
Most of life is on-the-job training and some of the most important things can only be learned in the process of doing them. You have to just start—from wherever you are—in order to get where you want to be.
- I am willing to start without seeing the whole path because I believe it will take me where I want to go—or even someplace better.
5. EXPERIENCE YOUR FEAR AND TAKE ACTION ANYWAY
We come this way but once. We can either tiptoe through life and hope that we get to death without being too badly bruised, or we can live a full, complete life, achieving our goals and realizing our wildest dreams.—BOB PROCTOR Self-made millionaire and featured teacher in the book and movie, The Secret
As you move forward on your journey from where you are to where you want to be, you are going to have to face your fears. Fear is normal. And it keeps you on your toes.
If you are one of those people who run the other way when you feel a pang of fear, be aware that there’s something far more scary: never really living the life you want. The truth is, people do lose their footing, they do lose their jobs, they do forget their lines. William G. T. Shedd once said, “A ship is safe in the harbour, but that’s not what it’s for.”
You have already clarified why you’re here on this Earth. And you’ve made a commitment to reach your goals. The only way you will be successful and eventually become who you were meant to be is to leave your safe zone and trust that you will make it.
- I am confidently and courageously confronting my fears and moving forward.
Fear is one of the primary reasons we fail to achieve our goals and fail to find true happiness. We make incorrect assumptions about what’s required to be successful and then we actually believe these assumptions. Sadly, the limits we put on ourselves because of our erroneous beliefs prevent us from being as happy as we could be, or achieving a great measure of success.
It’s important to remember that almost all of your fears are self-created, but once you decide that an idea is true, you attach yourself to it even though it has little or no merit at all. Freeing yourself from your erroneous beliefs can be difficult. Yet, because you are the one doing the fantasizing,
you also have the ability to end the fear by facing the real facts and not giving into your negative images.
Here’s a little exercise that can help you overcome fear: Write down something you are afraid to do—like asking your boss for a raise. Then, write down why you are afraid to do it—e.g., I want to ask my boss for a raise, but I keep imagining he will say no and get angry. See? That kind of fear is not even real—you’re imagining a response that may never happen, and you may never get that raise if you don’t overcome your self-created fear and ASK!
- I am growing and feeling liberated by doing the very things I was afraid to do.
Celebrated American author and humourist Mark Twain once said, “I have lived a long life and had many troubles, most of which never happened.”Think about that. Are you living your life worrying about and avoiding imaginary troubles, many of which actually never happen? We all do that from time to time—some of us more than others. The solution to this problem is to train our internal eyes to recognize the limits we put on ourselves by worrying and entertaining negative thoughts—then deal with them.
Here are four very effective approaches to overcoming unfounded fears:
1) Identify what you’re imagining that frightens you, then replace that image with its positive opposite. Write it in the form of an affirmation.
2) Focus on the physical sensations of your fear, then focus on the feelings you would like to be experiencing instead.
3) Remember a time when you triumphed in the face of fear—like giving a speech or passing an important exam.
4) If your fear is so big that it’s paralyzing, scale down the risk. Take small steps first, then take on the bigger challenges at a later time.
- I am replacing my self-created, imaginary images and sensations of fear with positive images and sensations of my desired outcome.