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Affirmations
for Self-Healing
by J. Donald Walters
This article
explaining the art and science of using affirmations, is excerpted
from J. Donald Walters' book, Affirmations
for Self-Healing.
An affirmation
is a statement of truth which one aspires to absorb into his life.
It has been said that we are what we eat. It would be truer to say,
"We are what we think." For our minds express, and also
influence, the reality of what we are far more than our bodies do.
Our thoughts even influence, to a great extent, our physical health.
No real progress
in life ever comes haphazardly. A sportsman must work hard to master
the techniques he needs: throwing a ball, skiing down a difficult
slope, jumping the greatest possible distance. And a pianist must
work at least as hard to master the movements of his fingers, to
play with ease the most intricate musical passages.
Living, too,
is an art. Unfortunately, it is one to which most people devote
little energy. They take life as it comes, and wonder why things
keep going wrong.
Thoughts are
things. Words, which are crystallized thoughts, have immeasurable
power, especially when we speak them with concentration. The mere
thought of fatigue is enough to sap our energy. To strengthen that
thought by the words, "I'm exhausted," gives definition,
and therefore added power, to the thought itself.
The opposite
is true also. If one feels exhausted, but suddenly finds his interest
drawn to something, his fatigue may vanish altogether! One is what
one thinks. If, in addition to that sudden interest, he verbalizes
it with the words, "I feel wonderful!" he may find that,
instead of only feeling vaguely better, he actually feels as though
he had acquired a new self-definition.
So many of our failures in life - to master new languages, to get
along with others, to do well whatever we want to do - are due to
the simple thought that what we want to accomplish is alien to us.
Again, many
of our successes in life are the result of fully accepting the new
as our own. French, for example, can be learned more easily by the
student who absorbs himself in the thought, "I am French,"
than by him who says (as children in the classroom often do), "Those
people talk funny!"
The difficulty
is that our habits are buried in the subconscious mind. Thus, even
when we resolve to change them, we find ourselves being drawn back
repeatedly, and quite against our conscious will, into old ways.
Affirmations,
on the other hand, when repeated with deep concentration, then carried
into the subconscious, can change us on levels of the mind over
which most of us have little conscious control.
We are what
we think. But we are also far more than what we think consciously.
We are the myriad conflicting patterns of feeling, habit, and reaction
that we have built up over a lifetime - indeed, over lifetimes -
in our subconscious minds. To heal ourselves, we must also set those
inner conflicts in order.
Nor is it enough,
even, to affirm change on conscious and subconscious levels. For
we are part of a much greater reality, with which we must live in
harmony also. Behind our human minds is the divine consciousness.
When we try
to transform ourselves by self-effort alone, we limit our potential
for healing and growth. Affirmation should be lifted from the self-enclosure
of the mind into the greater reality of superconsciousness.
To be healed
is to "be rid of an imperfection." To be perfect is to
express the superconscious - the source of creativity and solutions.
Therefore, in using affirmations we concentrate on positive qualities
which are the solutions to our disease and imperfections.
The superconscious
is that level of awareness which is often described as the higher
Self. It is from this level, for example, that great inspirations
come. It is through the superconscious that divine guidance descends
and true healing takes place. Without superconscious attunement,
affirmations, like any other merely human attempt at self-upliftment,
have only temporary benefits.
Affirmations
should be repeated in such a way as to lift the consciousness toward
superconsciousness. This they can accomplish when we repeat them
with deep concentration at the seat of divine awareness in the human
body, the Christ center, which is a point in the forehead midway
between the two eyebrows.
Repeat the affirmations
in this book loudly at first, to command the full attention of your
conscious mind. Then repeat them quietly, to absorb more deeply
the meaning of the words. Then speak them in a whisper, carrying
their meaning down into the subconscious. Repeat them again, silently,
to deepen your absorption of them at the subconscious level. Then
at last, with rising aspiration, repeat them at the Christ center.
At every level,
repeat them several times, absorbing yourself ever-more-deeply in
their meaning.
By repeated affirmation you can strengthen, and, later, spiritualize
your awareness of any quality you want to develop.
Affirmation
is only the first step to self-healing. We must do our human part.
Without additional power from God, however, our efforts are forever
incomplete. Affirmation, in other words, should end with prayer.
Why should one
pray only after repeating the affirmations? Why not before? Prayer
is always good, certainly. But if it isn't uttered with an affirmative
consciousness, it can easily become weak and beggarly: a plea that
God do all the work, without man's active participation. Effective
prayer is never passive. It is full of faith. It matures in an attitude
of affirmation.
To become established
in any new quality, it helps first to affirm it, following the sequence
that I have described. Then, however, offer that affirmation up
in loving prayer to God.
It is at the
point of our deepest and most positive attunement with Him that
He helps us the most. By divine attunement, our resistance becomes
minimized, and our cooperation with His grace becomes fully open,
willing, and superconsciously aware.
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The
quality of Devotion is one of fifty-two selections from J.
Donald Walters' book, Affirmations
for Self-Healing.
No good
end is ever reached without devotion. No true success is achieved
unless the heart's feelings are involved. Will power itself
is a combination of energy and feeling, directed toward fulfillment.
In the
quest for God, the unfolding of the heart's natural love,
in the form of deep devotion, is the prime requisite for success.
Without devotion, not a single step can be taken towards Him.
Devotion is no sentiment: It is the deep longing to commune
with, and know, the only Reality there is.
Affirmation
With the sword of devotion I sever the heart-strings that
tie me to delusion. With the deepest love, I lay my heart
at the feet of Omnipresence.
Prayer
Beloved Father, Mother, God: I am Thine alone! Let others
seek Thee - or seek Thee not; it matters not to my love for
Thee. Through all life's trials, my prayer is this alone:
Reveal Thyself!
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