Why Affirmations May Not Be Working

Guest post by Roger Kenneth Marsh

"Personal intention carries great power. Intention is what you consciously or unconsciously aim for or establish as purpose.

"Your intention, if strong enough, has an almost unbelievable power to create your reality." - George Leonard, LET (Leonard Energy Training) Principle #8

AFFIRMATIONS are incredibly powerful instruments for creating your reality!

However, when it comes to affirmations actually working in one's life, there's A LOT to it. There are plenty of pitfalls people commonly fall into. 

The classic affirmation (pic by rubymcguire.com)

It's FAR MORE than simply identifying something you want to have in your life, creating a statement to capture that, and then saying it over and over again.

Why is it that some affirmations work and some don't? Let's explore the pitfalls on the path of using affirmations and explore how you can make them work for you in your life.

Here are nine keys to ensure affirmations are working in your life:

1) It must be crafted in the positive, present tense. An affirmation is something you are claiming as true right now, not some day in the future. A good example is: "I am balanced and centered".

A bad example: "I will be balanced and centered". Notice the difference?

2) It must be short, clear, and to the point. Just like anything, if it goes on and on it loses its power; it's not as concentrated.

3) It must represent something you TRULY want. If you are affirming something because you think you should (so that others will like you, or to avoid some sense of guilt you may have, etc.) that affirmation will not work.

Why? Because deep down your TRUTH is that you don't really want it. It's our deep-down truth that creates our reality.

4) It must be a stretch, but not too much of a stretch, in the sense that it has to be believable for you. If you are greedy you may set yourself up for failure, especially in the beginning.

Miracles are absolutely possible, yes, but in the beginning, it's best to start with something a bit more reasonable.

5) You've got to FEEL the truth of it in your being, on all levels. You can't just "think" it into existence. This is VERY important and often missed.

The mind is powerful, but your emotions are even more so; they are powerful creators. Think of emotions as "energy in motion."

When affirming your affirmation you must feel the feelings you will feel when that affirmation has manifested in your life, as if it already has!

6) You need to identify and transform the opposing beliefs working against the affirmation. I've written a great deal about this sneaky little factor, capable of thwarting you on your creative path.

You see, an affirmation is actually a transformative portal; in order for this new experience to come into your life, you must change who you are!

All the blocks you have in place which keep that experience from manifesting must be cleared. This is the "work" on the path.

Most of these blocks are subconscious and will rise to the surface as you work to manifest the new desire.

Most folks have no idea how to deal with these subconscious limiting factors, so their affirmations never reach fruition. Helping people clear out their opposing beliefs is a big part of my coaching Program.

7) You need to see, say, and feel the new belief/affirmation on a regular basis.

Think of your affirmation as a garden; you've got to water it and pay attention to it on a regular basis so you can experience the harvest and bounty you desire.

8) You need to pay attention to the ways in which the Universe is providing you opportunities aligned with the new belief, and then TAKE ACTION on those opportunities.

The mistake here is thinking everything will be done for you - that God or the Universe is going to just make it happen without you having to do a thing.

Usually there is a role for you to play; an affirmation tends to unfold in baby steps. The Universe shows you the next step, but you must take it.

9) It may take YEARS for any one affirmation to come to full fruition.

In our society of instant gratification, many people do not have the patience it takes to manifest in this manner; they want it now and if it doesn't instantly manifest, they give up.

Typically, the amount of time needed depends on "how big" of a change the affirmation represents in your life.

For example, manifesting a cup of coffee could happen in a day, finding a great new job may take months, establishing a successful company may take years.

This is just a partial list of keys to making affirmations work. My clients regularly report that affirmations are amazing, miraculous, and powerful tools for co-creating a life that they love.

And I have certainly found the same! Hopefully these hard won insights and tips will help you on your creative path.

Try this:

Take a good look at one of your affirmations which you repeat regularly; does it fit within the concepts of these nine keys?

Check it against the keys, and make some adjustments. Is it too long? Does it feel like truth? Is it something you truly deeply desire?

Is there an uncomfortable feeling anywhere in your body as you repeat it which might signify a deep opposing belief, some form of criticism you heard as a child, for example?

Are you watching for opportunities presented by the Universe - or are you missing them?

And remember, patience, patience. It is a practice.

If I've said it once, I've said it a hundred times: the key to your growth, evolution, and anything you want in life is PRACTICE.

As Michael Murphy, co-founder of Esalen Institute and ITP, said: "The choice is not whether to practice or not. Every one of us is practicing something every day. The choice is what to practice."

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit." ~ Aristotle.

Congratulations - you're one step closer to your mojo!

Roger Kenneth Marsh is a Spiritual Life Coach & creator of the Major Good Mojo System.

He has an engineering degree, MBA, is a Certified Life Coach, HeartMath® Provider, and Passion Test® Facilitator.

Get his book "NexGen Human" on Amazon.com, and FREE CD "3 Keys to Major Good Mojo" at http://www.majorgoodmojo.com/free-cd

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The Mysterious Power of Doing Nothing

By Roger Kenneth Marsh

Do you feel as if you have so much to do and so little time to do it? Is your "to do" list never-ending?

What is it about doing something that is so seductive and alluring? Let's take a closer look at doing something and the mysterious power of doing nothing, to see if we can create a bit more freedom, peace and ease around this aspect of our lives.

"On the path of spiritual evolution you do less and less achieving more and more until ultimately you do nothing and achieve everything." ~ Deepak Chopra

Spiritual life coach Roger Kenneth Marsh

Getting things done in life is a good thing. We are creative creatures and there is so much to experience in our relatively short lives. However, the drive for doing and accomplishing can be excessive. In the interest of finding a healthy, productive balance, I'd like to point out some of the less healthy (and likely unconscious) drivers of our never ending to-do lists: addiction, fear, and ignorance. Let's take a look at these one by one.

ADDICTION: Getting things done is so satisfying, isn't it? You see something needing done and you do it. Ah, the sweet victory of accomplishment. You get to check it off your list. From the very large to the very small, it all feels good, so good it seems we have become addicted.

It's really no different than any other high; it's a fleeting moment that must be repeated in order to regenerate the good feeling. The drug wears off and you need another fix. Hence, we've become a society of doers getting things done. Socially the behavior is highly encouraged, supported, and even applauded; a full schedule means you are important, you are worthy, you are somebody.

While we may secretly yearn for luxuriously lazy days and an open, flexible schedule, we dare not go there. Why? Because we believe anyone with spare time on their hands must be a loser "with nothing to do." So we are driven, we are addicted.

FEAR: Now let's look at fear. Parker J. Palmer wrote a fabulous little book called "Let Your Life Speak." He outlines a behavior he calls "Functional Atheism." Palmer described this as a belief that ultimate responsibility for everything rests with us.

As he says, "This is the unconscious, unexamined conviction that if anything decent is going to happen, we are the ones who must make it happen. This belief leads us to impose our will on others, stressing our relationships, sometimes to the point of breaking.

"It often eventuates in burnout, depression, and despair, as we learn that the world will not bend to our will and we become embittered about that fact.

"It drives collective frenzy as well and explains why the average group can tolerate no more than fifteen seconds of silence: if we are not making noise, we believe, nothing good is happening and something must be dying."

This is the fear of bad things happening, and it goes something like this: "If we don't get busy making things happen, then bad things will happen!" The unexamined, fear-based belief underlying and unconsciously driving this behavior is 'doing nothing = bad things happening'.

Where did we learn this? That's right, probably in childhood where if you didn't clean your room, bad things happened. If you didn't do your homework, bad things happened. If you didn't eat all your vegetables, bad things happened. We learned we have to do something to keep bad things from happening. And we continue on with that belief and behavior today.

But is this true? Do we have to beat our hearts? Digest our food? Grow the grass? Make the sun rise each day? Make gravity so we don't fly off the planet into space? Make the rain fall so we don't die of thirst? All of these good things happen without our having to do anything. In other words, ladies and gentleman, it is possible that doing nothing = good things happening.

IGNORANCE: And this now leads us to our third driver of the human-doing: ignorance. This is a huge one! Because we are ignorant of the amazing life-force energy that is on our side wanting the best for us, we are all stressed out doing-doing-doing since we believe we are alone in our actions. We are ignorant of the 'mysterious powers and secretly decisive influences of existence'. Consider this quote by Sri Aurobindo:

"There has been a great and ordered classification and mechanisation, a great discovery and practical result of increasing knowledge, but only on the physical surface of things. Vast abysses of Truth lie below in which are concealed the real springs, the mysterious powers and secretly decisive influences of existence."

Sri Aurobindo is basically saying that, yes, we have come a long way and lots of helpful knowledge has been developed and helpful things have been created. But all of this discovery and creation is NOTHING compared to the VAST ABYSSES OF TRUTH lying beneath in the metaphysical world. AND - very importantly - that in this vast abyss are the real causes and powers that are determining and creating our existence. It is these mysterious powers about which we know very little. We are ignorant.

Michael Bernard Beckwith puts it this way: "Consciousness always precedes form." Consciousness arises from the vast abyss, and then puts on clothing in the physical world for the duration of its existence, whatever that form may be. If we can really understand this creative process and come to KNOW it to be true, we would spend a lot more time cultivating our sixth sense. More time navigating the vast abysses of truth. More time surfing the winds and waves of those secretly decisive influences of existence.

Cultivating this sixth sense has many aspects to it; it is the essence of personal transformation and spiritual evolution. Becoming a clear channel where "doing nothing" produces results might require emotional healing work, a regular meditation practice, visualization, contemplation, deep reflection, or any number of other transformational practices and processes. In the external world this work of cultivation might look like doing nothing. However, as you walk the path you will come to know, trust and love this mysterious power of doing nothing, doing less and less while achieving more and more.

TRY THIS:
Take five minutes and do nothing. Just sit and notice all the good things happening without you doing a thing. Notice that your body is being breathed, notice that your heart is being beaten, notice that your food is being digested, notice that the grass is being grown, notice that the sun is being shined, and notice that the breeze is being blown. What other good things happening do you notice while you are doing nothing?

Congratulations - you're one step closer to your mojo!

Roger Kenneth Marsh is a Spiritual Life Coach & creator of the Major Good Mojo System. He has an engineering degree, MBA, is a Certified Life Coach, HeartMath® Provider, and Passion Test® Facilitator. Get his book "NexGen Human" on Amazon.com, and FREE CD "3 Keys to Major Good Mojo" at http://www.majorgoodmojo.com/free-cd

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