My thoughts today are all about affirmations.
We have been working on a car for my son who will turn 16 in December. He just bought a used BMW that had a few oil leaks and was in need of repair.
As always, I like to find metaphors in life–that oil leak reminded me about affirmations.
Let me explain.
I strongly believe in affirmations, but not in the way that is sometimes taught. So many people think it is enough to just write a few “I AM” statements–“I am successful,” “I am financially free,” “I am happy”–and then repeat them a few times a day. Often times these same people find themselves frustrated because they’ve been “doing the work,” and it’s still not working. These kinds of results understandably leave them feeling more frustrated than they were before they started.
Here’s why I believe that happens.
Repeating affirmations is like adding new, clean oil to a car to keep it running well. If you don’t remove the old, dirty oil and change the filter, that new oil is not going to do much good. It is going to mix with the old and soon be muddied down by all the junk the filter tried to remove. Eventually the whole system will be as dirty as if you hadn’t changed the oil at all. If it runs that way for too long, the car will eventually shut down.
Our subconscious mind is much like the oil filter in our car. It is filled with thoughts and beliefs that we have been collecting our whole lives. A lot of these are based on childish interpretations of things that have happened to us in the past from which we create belief systems that, quite frankly, are not the best. Many of them are limited and restrictive and a lot of times quite negative. Adding clean, happy, powerful affirmations into a mind that is eager to make a change might feel good at first ~ until they trickle down into that subconscious brain filter and get lost in the gunk.
Affirmations are important and can help to truly change our lives for the better, as long as we also remember to change the filter. We must examine our beliefs and work on changing faulty beliefs in order for the new “oil” (affirmations) to work for us as we hope they will.
Is your belief system holding you back somehow?
Here are a few simple things I have learned to change that faulty filter:
- Take time every day to quiet my mind.
- Ask myself what I want to have, do, and be.
- Listen/feel the answer that comes from inside me.
- See it in my mind and feel it in my heart as if I already have it. Bob Proctor explains it “I Dream my life, and then I live my dream.” (A twist from a quote from Victor Van Gogh “I dream my painting, and then I paint my dream.”)
- Then… I listen for all the excuses that come up about why I don’t or can’t have it.
- I recognize that excuse as a junk belief.
- I challenge that belief by doing something to prove it wrong. (Hint: is usually a step or two out of my comfort zone.)
- I repeat my affirmations as I’m acting ”As If” it is already reality.
