Affirmations that Work

Affirmations are powerful tools to work with for spiritual growth and overcoming. What are they exactly? Well, they are statements that affirm the truth. The truth of who you are. So when you say, "I am a worthy being" you are not making it true by saying it. Rather you are reminding yourself of, and therefore reinforcing, this truth. Since you are already all you need to be in a given situation, (remember if you can want it, you can be it) affirmations can help boost your confidence to give you the faith to walk towards that given situation. So, how do you write an affirmation that works? Here is a simple technique for formulating your own personal affirmations from Eric Butterworth: Write a few sentences describing your problem or need. Transpose these words into a description of how you think things ought to be. Transpose each "ought-to-be" statement into an affirmative "I AM" declaration. For example: "My body is afflicted with this disease." "My body ought to be alive and well, the expression of perfect Life and Health." "I AM perfect Life and Health, and my body is now alive and well, the dynamic expression of perfect Life and Health!" Take the resulting affirmation into your meditation and speak these words of Truth. They, then, become a projection of great power, imbued with the energy of Spirit. Now you have the formula. The next step is to practice it. You can also read affirmations someone else has written to see if they resonate with you. When an affirmation rings true for you, then you know it will help you. Here's some of my clients' favorites: "All is well." "I am the rich child of a loving father and I dare to prosper now. " "God loves me and he has a good plan for my life." "I am Whole, Perfect and Complete!" "I choose love, joy and freedom, open my heart and allow wonderful things to flow into my life." "I love and accept myself exactly as I am." If you'd like a list of Catherine Ponder affirmations that may resonate with you, click here.

Prayer & Meditation the Easy Way

In its simplest form Prayer is speaking with God/Spirit/Universe and Meditation is listening to God/Spirit/Universe. The Universe works on the principle that you ASK and it is GIVEN. So prayer is a time for asking, whether for yourself or for others. It is also a time for praise & thanksgiving, which is also called appreciation & gratitude. Here you are giving thanks and/or marveling at the wonder of your fabulous life. It is energy directed out of you. You can speak your prayers aloud or silently in your mind. It doesn't matter to the God/Spirit/Universe.

Meditation is the listening part. You see, G/S/U speaks to us through intuition. We need to have good inner listening, which gets clearer when you meditate. Now, listening is a relatively passive activity and is not embraced nor encouraged by your ego/conscious mind. So the goal is to quiet your mind and get it to go away. You want to empty your mind of thoughts. This is energy directed in you. When your mind is empty, that is when God/Spirit/Universe can speak to you.

So that's the bare bones of the two. Both expand as your practice them. But here are some suggestions for success in each:

Prayer: Keep a prayer journal. This helps you to see what has come to pass that you have prayed for. If you wrote a list of the 5 favorite things in your life right now, you'd realize they were all prayers of yours, not so long ago. Therefore you know prayers are answered. So will be the ones you are praying now.

Meditation: Set yourself up for success by turning off the TV and the phone first. Find a very comfortable spot and set an alarm that beeps to let you know you are finished. Then try this simple method here: Easy Meditation

Forgiveness and Release

I am continually amazed at the power of forgiveness. On all levels it can improve our lives. Because we humans tend to take things personally and get offended at every little thing. Most of what anyone else is doing is about THEM, rarely, if ever, about us. (See Don Miguel Ruiz's book The Four Agreements for the full story on this)

Some time ago, I was picking up my son from my mother's best friend, when she began to tell me the litany of grievances she & her husband held against their neighbor. This neighbor had called the police on them for parking their car in the street in front of his house, had called them the most heinous of names (crazy) and she could not sleep at night for worrying about what he might do next.

Knowing her strong Catholic faith, I said to her: "Well, you know what you have to do, right?"

Befuddled, she replied: "No, what?"

"Pray for him. Grant him forgiveness."

She looked aghast.

"And do it every night for two weeks, I continued. "And when you pray, pray for him to have every good thing that you hope for yourself. Love, good health, wealth, etc..."

Without skipping a beat, (to her credit) she proclaimed, "I'll do it!"

One day shy of the 2 week mark, I stopped by her house to pick up some pictures. She couldn't wait to tell me that, not only had the neighbor approached her to let her know, "he's all over that now," but has also offered to plant a dogwood tree for her where another had died just so that "she could enjoy looking at it."

It goes to show: when you shine your light, others can't help but to be enlightened by it. But forgiveness is not for the other person anyway. It's for YOU. When my friend released her resentments, judgments and bad feelings about her neighbor, the problems disappeared. And this can happen for any grievance you may have - old or new.

Praying for their happiness is one technique to bring about the release needed to unblock yourself. Another is the stage technique. I have recorded it in an 4 minute audio for you to listen to and follow along. It is guaranteed to help you with your stickiest forgiveness issue. (You know, that #&!* person you just don't want to forgive!) Click here to download: Forgiveness Technique

Forgiveness and Release

I am continually amazed at the power of forgiveness. On all levels it can improve our lives. Because we humans tend to take things personally and get offended at every little thing. Most of what anyone else is doing is about THEM, rarely, if ever, about us. (See Don Miguel Ruiz's book The Four Agreements for the full story on this)

Some time ago, I was picking up my son from my mother's best friend, when she began to tell me the litany of grievances she & her husband held against their neighbor. This neighbor had called the police on them for parking their car in the street in front of his house, had called them the most heinous of names (crazy) and she could not sleep at night for worrying about what he might do next.

Knowing her strong Catholic faith, I said to her: "Well, you know what you have to do, right?"

Befuddled, she replied: "No, what?"

"Pray for him. Grant him forgiveness."

She looked aghast.

"And do it every night for two weeks, I continued. "And when you pray, pray for him to have every good thing that you hope for yourself. Love, good health, wealth, etc..."

Without skipping a beat, (to her credit) she proclaimed, "I'll do it!"

One day shy of the 2 week mark, I stopped by her house to pick up some pictures. She couldn't wait to tell me that, not only had the neighbor approached her to let her know, "he's all over that now," but has also offered to plant a dogwood tree for her where another had died just so that "she could enjoy looking at it."

It goes to show: when you shine your light, others can't help but to be enlightened by it. But forgiveness is not for the other person anyway. It's for YOU. When my friend released her resentments, judgments and bad feelings about her neighbor, the problems disappeared. And this can happen for any grievance you may have - old or new.

Praying for their happiness is one technique to bring about the release needed to unblock yourself. Another is the stage technique. I have recorded it in an 4 minute audio for you to listen to and follow along. It is guaranteed to help you with your stickiest forgiveness issue. (You know, that #&!* person you just don't want to forgive!) Click here to download: Forgiveness Technique

Making Peace

What do I mean by this: 'Make peace with what is'? Most people find ways to get all worked up about things, to create drama in their lives and find countless ways to feel offended by other people. It stems from our need to be noticed, to be seen in a certain way by others or to feel love (or attention, at least) And it gets us in trouble.

This behavior causes us pain. By our own hand, of course. Or should I say by our own thoughts. We think our way into these messes and by ourselves we can't get out. We are stuck.

The fastest way out of any stuck place is to make peace with where you are. So we are talking about acceptance here. But acceptance is the result. How do we reach this state of acceptance? Here are 4 points to consider:

FINDING APPRECIATION
When you struggle, or push against, what is in your life, you ensure that it will stay. When we look for things to appreciate in whatever is happening to us, we instantly stop resisting and begin moving toward what we do want. That will be easy or hard to do depending on how attached you are to the particular thing, but it absolutely works.

LOOK FOR THE CONTRAST
An oft over looked principle of truth is this: When you really know what you DON'T want then you really really know what you DO want. So you can be grateful for the things that go wrong because they give you the clarity to know what is right. When you look at "things gone wrong" in this light, every situation has a blessing.

GRATITUDE - A DAILY HABIT
A key to making peace (and to a happy life) is to acquire the habit of listing the things you are grateful for everyday. It not only reminds you of all that is going right in your world, but it is the easiest way to shift your point of vibration to positive.

FORGIVE EVERYONE, ESPECIALLY YOU
We do not get away with unforgiveness. When we forgive, we do it for ourselves, not for the other person. There is not ever a good enough reason to give away our peace and our freedom. Resenting someone or something is like chaining yourself to them - you cannot be free. Forgiveness is the key that lets it go. Forgiveness of yourself is crucial too. You did the best you could and you must make peace with that.

Try this forgiveness exercise to help you along. Fill out this sheet, print it out and review it everyday, stating the affirmations at the bottom. Do this for just two weeks and watch the amazing results.

How to Be Joyful

Here's the question that I want to pose to you today. What are the components to living a happy and joyful life? I was asked this question by a friend and after much consideration, I came up with these top 3 for me. What are your top 3?

Living in the present
Accepting what is going on right now in my life is the gateway to freedom. When I just accept that whatever I have going on JUST IS and it’s okay, the grip of resistance is loosed and change is free to take place. Resisting (or resenting or regretting) my present circumstances is sure to guarantee that they stay.

Years ago, my heart was broken by a man who wanted something different, while I wanted him. I tried with all my will to alter that hollow feeling, that echo in my head of “he doesn’t want me.” I knew that if this was happening to me that I had attracted it. And that can be a hard pill to swallow. But when I made peace with that fact -- that I had brought this incredible pain to my doorstep -- there must be a gift inside there somewhere for me. Napoleon Hill says: “Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.” Aha!

***Three very helpful tools in staying in the present are: faith (someone Higher than you is in charge), affirmations (reminding yourself of your truth) and forgiveness. (everyone is doing the best they can)

Reaching for higher understanding
Without prayer and meditation, life is limited to this physical experience. And while this earth has many blessings and opportunities for joy, it is only a small part of the big picture. Meditation is not only, at times, a blissful experience, it actually conditions your mind for smoother sailing in your waking hours. Meditation is a time for no thought. It is a time to merge yourself with Source. (or God, or pure positive energy or Universe) Prayer is the open communication with your Higher Power. That’s where you speak, ask, wonder and then listen. There are many forms of both of these practices, all of them good if they are connecting you with your Maker. And all can increase your joy.

Helping others
It just feels so darn good to help others. I’ve been a volunteer all my life as well as choosing a profession that focuses on helping others. For me, I believe it is part of my life’s purpose. And I can tell because, well, it feels so darn good while I am doing it. (God’s little hint, eh?) Helping others is gratitude in action and when you are doing it, it’s impossible to focus on yourself. It is the surest way to get out of your own pain – lifting up another.

Mind Control (Can you do it?)

You have the power to change your mind.
This is not news to most of us. For one, we have experienced it first hand. We make decisions every day about everything from which toothpaste we use to wearing a seat belt or not. Think about the brand of toothpaste you use. Is it the same as you've always used? When did it change and why? Somewhere in there you made a decision and it stuck.

These are rather simple decisions that we don't pay a lot of attention to, we just make them. But what about the changes we want to make that come harder... like quitting smoking or exercising regularly? The decisions to change these habits may be a bit more challenging...

Many books have been written and energy expended on the subject of Thought Control, but probably none as intriguing as Richard Bandler's work on NLP - Neuro Linguistic Programming. (see Get the Life You Want by Bandler) His idea is to just recode the brain to elicit the responses, and therefore change our behavior, to what we really want.

So, you want a healthy body, and you know that regular exercise will give it you, but you don't feel like doing the exercise. Now what? What if you could recode yourself to love, look forward to, even relish every part of the exercise process? That way as you are putting on your running shoes, you feel good. As you leave the house, you feel better. As you hit the track you feel elation. Amazing, eh?

We love to imagine that things will take place in our lives by magic, but Bandler says this is the magic! That you can decide the course, code your brain for success and then go live it.


Worth a try, I'd say...

The Secret (Missing) Ingredient

There is an essential ingredient to acquiring our heart's desire. It is often overlooked as we make our plans for attracting riches into our lives. It is so simple, yet critical that it be included in our vibration when summoning up our next great manifestation. And it is: LOVE.

Consider this passage from Emmet Fox:

"There is no difficulty that enough love will not conquer;
No disease that enough love will not heal;
No door that enough love will not open;
No gulf that enough love will not bridge;
No wall that enough love will not throw down;
No sin that enough love will not redeem. . .
It makes no difference how deeply seated may be the trouble, how hopeless the outlook, how muddled the tangle, how great the mistake-a sufficient realization of love will dissolve it all. . . if only you could love enough, you would be the happiest and most powerful being in the world."

Food for thought, eh? And, certainly truer words were never spoken. But how do we love enough? How do we summon up this quality at will? The answer lies in simplicity itself. We are love. It's the stuff we are made of. Our only job is to get out of its way and allow it to come in. It's so empowering to know we have total access to the only answer we'll ever need!

So the practice of this principle only gets difficult when the opposite of love is strong. (ie fear, hate, anger or resentment) It is then that we need to step aside and let our inner love flow out. It can be a challenge when we are agitated. Here is an exercise to try: Imagine a shelf in your kitchen. Imagine placing your anger on that shelf. You can come back and get it later, if you want, but for right now it's on the shelf. And then sit down at your imaginary kitchen table and let loving thoughts come forth. You can just repeat the word: Love. This is an excellent spiritual treatment. Try it out and let me know how it works!

Another that works well is to just repeat the word, "Love" over and over. Close your eyes and really feel that presence of love as you repeat this word. Amazing, eh?

So give these a try to bring love's energies into your life. Because all you need is love. And you have all you need.

The Case for Faith

Faith and fear have the same definition: “belief in something that hasn’t happened yet.” Most of us practice fear a lot more than we practice faith. We imagine (sometime in great detail) the things we fear happening to us. We speak about our “worst fear” coming true or we speak fear for others, under the guise of “warnings.”

And it’s not totally our fault. We are set up for this kind of behavior by our society, drenched as it is in the media – 90% of which is negative and fear-based. What we don’t realize is that the news is only a VERY small portion of what is happening in our world. Most of us are living in well-being – so the media is just not a fair representation.

We know that our thoughts (and words) are creative so it behooves us to switch our attention to what we WANT to see happen in our lives. And then have faith that it will come. That’s the belief in something that hasn’t happened yet.

So how do we practice faith? The first way is to recognize when you have had faith and it paid off. Notice when you believed…and you were right! Acknowledge faith working in your life by being grateful for what has manifested in your life.

The second way to increase faith is through study. So many wonderful books have been written on this subject such as “God Works through Faith” by Robert Russell and “Sermon on the Mount” by Emmet Fox and “Discover the Power Within You” by Eric Butterworth. Sometimes it is easier to absorb a lesson when you are looking at it from another’s point of view. Each new book will expand your knowledge but it is up to you to apply what you are learning with practice. And practicing faith means BELIEVING in what you are not yet seeing.

The Truth about Abundance

The truth is abundance is all around us. When we really open our eyes to the rich abundance that surrounds us, we begin to see more of it. It's that same old adage: What we focus upon expands. So if you will look for more abundance, you will find more abundance.

This is deceptively simple, of course. The reason that more people don't do it, is because we have not been trained in thought control. We've been trained to observe what is and put our attention on that. (and it expands, naturally) If it's something bad, when it enlarges - we pay even more attention to it! And so it goes, the story of many many people's lives.

The trick is mind control. If we could only focus on the abundance in our lives and/or the abundance we want to see in our lives, life would unfold as a series of predictable miracles. But life gets in the way and demands our attention and oops! now we are off the dream.

You can't monitor every thought. It's literally impossilbe to do so because we have tens of thousands of thoughts each day. But we can notice the way we feel. If you feel bad, emotionally, you know you are thinking a thought that is not good for you. Bless those emotions because they are your connection to those thoughts that are racing by you. They are like the thought police, pulling you over when your thinking has gone awry.

Then reach for a higher thought. When your emotions alert you to a negative thought pattern, you can't just eradicate the thought from your head. (unless you can and then by all means do!) So the best thing to do is reach for a better thought, one that is beleiveable to you, acceptable to you. One that makes you feel better! You may have to try a few on before one sticks, but all you are looking to do is feel a little better.

Then get back focused on your abundant life. Becaue if you can dream it - you can have it. Don't let the negative thoughts hamper you - reach for a better one. And then from the good-feeling place look for your abundance. And then it must come.

The Power of Forgivness

There is only one reason to forgive. It's for ourselves. We are the only ones who suffer when we choose to hold on to resentment or condemnation or judgment of another. And it's not just to better our lot in life to forgive others, it is to prevent hardship to come upon us!

You see, we do not get away with unforgiveness. As (one of my absolute faves) Eric Butterworth puts it: "We may feel that it is too much to ask us to forgive those who have deliberately and spitefully used us. Don't we have a right to our indignation and bitterness? Yes, you have a right. But you also have the responsibility to accept what happens as a result. You have to pay the price for a broken connection in the Divine Circuit."

There is not ever a good enough reason to give away your peace and your freedom. Resenting someone or something is like chaining yourself to them - you cannot be free. Forgiveness is the key that lets it go.

And forgiveness gets you back in the prosperous flow. Holding on to judgments and resentments blocks your flow. Sometimes it's been blocked (at least partially) for a long time. And that's why people often get dramatic results right away when they begin this practice of forgiveness. Things you've been wanting for a long time get freed up to come to you when you truly apply this practice. And you never have to say a word to anyone about it.

So determine right now that you will forgive everyone and yourself, too. Take a sheet of paper and write down anyone you feel resentment for, or judge or are just irritated by. Review it everyday and speak words of forgiveness and release for anyone on the list.

If you find someone to be particularly hard to let go of, imagine them in your mind's eye in front of you in a room, or up on a stage with you alone in the audience. Imagine what they would say to gain your forgiveness. "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to hurt you. Please forgive me." Things like that until you feel the release of forgiving them. Powerful stuff!

Practice this daily for just two weeks (15 minutes per day is good) and watch the amazing results. You'll unblock your flow and you'll feel better in the process.

Give What You Need

The best way to get what you need on any day is easiest achieved by giving that very thing to someone else. No matter what your problem, if you will go out and find someone with the exact same problem and help them - you will be helped. That may seem difficult for you to imagine, because you may think if I knew how to help them, I could help myself! But this perfectly ordered universe doesn't work that way. We are all in this together, so to speak, and this method uses that principle to your benefit. So to do this, when you discover that you have a problem, ask yourself, "How can I help someone else with this same problem?" And immediatley follow up with the answer you receive.

For example, you might find yourself needing some new clients. When you ask yourself this question, you immediately think of your friend, Joe the chiropracter who you heard complaining last week of needing new clients. You call up Joe and say, "Joe, I was remembering this morning your comment last week of needing new clients. How has that been going for you?" Joe says, "Not so good. I'd like to have 10, I have 5." And let the brainstorming begin. As it turns out he wants to get hooked up with a sports medicine outfit and your neighbor 3 doors down works at one of those...and, well, you see where I'm going with this. The next day, 3 new clients walk through your door. Like magic.

You see, when you are busy helping someone else, you take the focus off your problem. And remember energy flows where focus goes. Now you are not flowing energy toward your problem and creative solutions come to you, unimagined good comes to you and things that you were expecting are free to come in. It is the great un-stopper!

Also, helping others is gratitude in action. When you practice gratitude you stay on the right side of the prosperity equation. It is important to remember in your mind your gratitude list, but ever so much more powerful is it when your action backs up your belief.