The famous words that French pharmacist turned psychotherapist Émile Coué prescribed to his patients in 1920 may have been the first use of modern affirmations. Coué recommended constant internal repetition of this maxim as a means to transforming the mind and instilling a positive mental attitude. This perpetual reciting within was of course a time tested technology with a precedent of several thousand years found in the teaching of the Hindu Vedas and the teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha, but Coué seems to be the first to translate this idea from the Sanskrit mantras of these Eastern religions into a modern phrase in the native tongue of the practitioner.
Affirmations are an important part of any practice aiming to transform the mind and thus the environment. The negative programming of a lifetime of media and entertainment saturation, not to mention the effects of living in a world where the idea that one's thoughts produce a result on one's environment is heretical, makes it difficult to put to practical use the profound idea that we can transform our reality from within.
Try an experiment. Begin by spending some time, a few minutes, or as long as you can, just watching your thoughts. Start to cultivate the part of your consciousness which observes rather than participates. This is in fact the root of the Buddhist teaching of mindfulness, and it is helpful for those of us conditioned to believe that life is happening to us. No doubt you will find all sorts of interesting thoughts of which you may have been unaware. Then entertain the possibility that it is in fact these very thoughts which have produced the reality you see before you. It is this investigation which prepares the way for planting new seeds, the seeds of those ideas we wish to manifest in our world.
The next time you have a period of "blank" time, that time we all encounter when we wait in line for the bank or post office, or in our car stuck in traffic, use this time to repeat the simple words of Monsieur Coué, and then watch what happens.
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You need to create room for positive thoughts before you can manifest your desires. Naturally what occupies your mind will take shape in your life. One by one, everything that you don't want or fear will appear. You can stop this cycle by ignoring negative thoughts. Let negative thoughts come through but do not pay attention or get emotional about what it says. When you ignore it for the first time, it will reappear in another guise to catch you off-guard. Keep vigilant and avoid engaging. Slowly but surely the cycle will lose momentum and eventually stop altogether. When you remove negative thoughts from your mind, there will be more room for positive ones. By process of elimination you will fill your mind with positive and uplifting thoughts, ready to take form as your desires.
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