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Affirmations - experience?

  
 
Saturn's nod
14:33 / 20.04.06
I guess affirmations are a bit too 'normal' for the edgy magick types here, right? But I thought I'd give it a go since the word has come up in a number of threads, by the looks of a quick Google [affirmations site:barbelith.com]. Want to talk about affirmation magic, or even the applied psychology of affirmations (as I think it could be either)? Everyone who is too edgy and avant-garde or whatever to talk about something so sweet can read the other threads, right?

Anyone use affirmations for personal change? How? Want to comment of the usefulness, limitations, or mechanism thereof?

Personally, I think they are the most effective and useful magical technique I've seriously engaged with, way outstripping Book of Changes, Tarot, or RAW/New Magick type exercises about taking on a completely opposite worldview, looking for 20p pieces and so on. (I never did really get into the whole masturbating over sigils thing, maybe I have the wrong hormones or something? I've suspected it's popular because it requires masturbation regardless of any useful effect, but maybe that's my cynical gland speaking.)

To look at it a bit sideways, in terms of material success, (e.g., multimillion dollar empire, numbers of thousands of devotees, lack of negative apparent personal consequences) Louise Hay probably has to be rated as one of the most successful and powerful magicians publishing, right? She's one of the key writers who recommends affirmations (sure there are others, she's the one who I've read), if I understand her correctly affirmations are the core of her pratice. Personally I find some of her stuff rubbish and offensive - it can lead to victim blaming though I'm sure she'd argue that is absolutely not the intention - but I ignore that bit and use the stuff that I like the flavour of.

But affirmations, I have pretty much blown my own head off with ... but in a good way, if you see what I mean. So I'm a fan. For me, there is some crossover with my prayer life, but also something to be worked on with affirmations that's not entirely about prayer, hence not writing this onto the 'Praying' thread. I have used them for affecting my own attitudes, feelings and behaviour, not so much on anything outside my human skin envelope yet.

Technical details: I favour reciting aloud 30 times or more, chanting them aloud whilst in the bath or when walking. Also, writing them out longhand 30 times or so. Repetition seems to be key, as does keeping up the practice over several days. I think phrasing is very important, as mentioned in previous thread 'Magickal Themes In "Conversations With God"', and I think the studies I did in NLP come in handy for designing really tight & precise affirmations. (That's probably the thing I use NLP consciously for at present, though I find it a pretty handy toolkit for debugging verbal communication in general.)

Recently I've started alternating between saying "I ..." and saying "You ...". I think that's helping: I listen carefully as I say the "You ..." version to myself out loud, listening for whether it would sound like I meant it if I was speaking to a good friend. Then I try to make the "I ..." version sound convincing in the same way.

I think that there is a condition for successful use of affirmations, which is; a strong enough sense of self to produce the 'operator instruction' to make the affirmation take effect. That's a bit of a fuzzy corner of my thinking about this so I'll leave it there unless anyone's particularly interested in that aspect of discussion.
 
 
Quantum
14:52 / 20.04.06
Could you tell us a bit more about affirmations? I've never heard the term (I'm in the UK), I'm assuming it's like repeating 'Every day and in every way I get better and better' or that bit in American Beauty when Annette Benning recites 'I wil sell this house today!'

Is that right?
 
 
Saturn's nod
15:48 / 20.04.06
Doh. Sorry, thanks for that prompt. Yeah, pretty much. I've been using ones like 'It's safe for me to succeed now beyond my wildest dreams', 'I fully deserve to be loved', 'I am powerful and I am loveable' so more like the first example than the second; I've not seen American Beauty and I wouldn't see selling a house as an effect on my self, hence would exclude it from the particular kind I'm describing. The first example maybe would work I guess, but isn't too precise and sounds a bit sappy to me, but I'd defer to the experience of anyone who claims it had amazing results for them.

Did you Google? Some sites from my first attempt with Google on 'affirmations': 1, 2, 3 might provide further background and look like they are talking about the same thing, though no guarantees.
 
 
PhatMikey
16:38 / 29.05.06
Hi all, I'm just giving this thread a bump.

I've been reading about affirmations recently, but I've never really tried them. It just all seems a bit Opera Winfrey to me.

Does anyone have any experiences with doing affirmations? Any tips, etc.?

Ta,

Mike.
 
 
Slate
17:57 / 29.05.06
yeah I used to use affirmations a while ago when I was dating a Naturopath, we got into all sorts of magik for a while.

I use them from time to time, infrequent mostly but I have one affirmation I still use regularly. I have a hopeless memory, so I carry a little scrap book with a thread wrapped around the book 3 times. When I really want to remember something important I get the book out and unwrap the thread and internalise 3 times as I unwrap the thread "I will remember what I write here now" and actually do write it down to further enhance the process. I do not vocalise this, it is done as a mantra, and I think it works for me.

Affirmations I guess are a way of brainwashing yourself into whatever state you wish to achieve. Take severe depression for example, if someone puts themselves down day after day and repeats negative things about themselves in their mind then sure, you will subconsciously follow that line of thought all the way.

IMO Affirmations are a very powerful thing, they exist through all levels of Religion for all of human existance. I liken affirmations to communicating directly with your subconscious and if you put enough mental effort into your mantra then life can expand before you and paths open up to you that might not be seen beforehand. The trick is to make the leaps or your affirmation attainable, like if you affirm to yourself every day you are going to the moon, then... Hello?

Give it a try if you want something to change. It may be just re-enforcing the will to save money, stop bad habits, get a new career etc.

You have nothing to lose.
 
 
Less searchable M0rd4nt
21:24 / 29.05.06
Yeah. I've used them on and off; I employed Scott 'Dilbert' Adams' technique of writing out your statement of intent 15 times a day until you get it. They work well enough if you commit to them. Frankly I'd rather eat a six-course meal made entirely of wax, string and Plaster-of-Paris every day than practice magic like that, but there you go.
 
 
Less searchable M0rd4nt
21:38 / 29.05.06
Okay, I should flesh that out a bit. The method I used was much like the standard sigil opener: Write out your statement of intent using a suitable form of words, I WILL as opposed to I WANT ect. Only instead of crossing things out and making a pretty picture, you just take that phrase and write it down 15 times a day.

As for usefulness: I used them pretty much as an instead-of-sigil, a continuous-creation technique that got round the need to forget the intent. They're pretty good against lust for result, largely because writing "I will achieve XYZ" like a million times will eventually make XYZ first into an abstract concept and then a chore.

I don't use them anymore because they're boring as all get-out.
 
 
gravitybitch
21:44 / 29.05.06
For a while, I was using affirmations sort of like a bug-catcher...

I'd write down the affirmation and watch all the negative reactions boil up... write those down, counter/refute them, then write down the affirmation again to see what else would come up. It did a pretty good job of unearthing the counterproductive crap the back of my head could come up with, as well as most of the real-life obstacles I might run into and need to solve.
 
 
the Fool
21:49 / 29.05.06
as a sorta aside to this, I created a sigil that was all affirmations. It had no intent per se, other than to hold good thoughts and good words.

I've used this sigil in art to represent good or noble things.

  
 
Z. deScathach
07:22 / 30.05.06
Actually, I've found them to be potentially problematic, as they tend to produce an opposing effect if persisted with for too long. I was able to get around that though by using a technique described in the book, "Beyond Duality: The Art of Transcendence". The idea is to include visualizations of the inherent contradiction to the trait desired. An example: Suppose I wish to develop strength. I not only would visualize developing strength, but would visualize an instance where strength appears to be weakness. I would do this separately of the affirmation proper. I found that those techniques took care of the backforce problem.

One technique for affirmations that I found quite effective was to buy a counter, specifically a non-digital one. With each mental repetition of the affirmation, I would press it. The satisfying click, along with the repetitive motion would put me in a trance in short order. I found that my mind would quickly adjust the speed of the repitiion in order to establish an alpha rythm in the clicking, and as a result of that, powerful visualizations would arise of their own accord.
 
 
EvskiG
18:04 / 30.05.06
Sounds like you rediscovered the effect of the Rosary.
 
 
FinderWolf
20:50 / 02.06.06
As usual, Fool, I love your art/sigils/graphic design.

I'm glad to see this thread because I use affirmations a LOT. My journal is filled with pages of affirmations in between actual journaling, things-to-do lists, and sketches. I say them verbally and mentally VERY often. And yep, the way they are phrased is key....and nice to see someone bringing up the Conversations With God thread, as I found that book (and the series) verrry interesting.
 
 
FinderWolf
16:11 / 03.06.06
Also, I find weaving statements of giving thanks and gratitude for pretty much everything in life/in my life along with the affirmations is both powerful and helpful.
 
 
Anthony
07:34 / 04.06.06
affirmations work, absolutely. they are manifestations of intent. intent being, as Don Juan said - or something like this - the motivating force behind the universe.

these days i tend to use sigils instead; i tend to find other aspects to a sigil in the respect that one's desires can be interconnected. i draw a sigil representing my desire & put it somewhere i can see it repeatedly then destroy it when it's been fulfilled. there's always a price to pay though. but if the desire is strong enough one will be willing & able to pay it.
 
  
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