Meditation & Affirmation
Meditation helps us leave behind limited perceptions of who we are, allowing us to increasingly experience our true nature. Thus, the time at the end of our meditations is perfect for re-enforcing an expanded awareness of who we are in truth.
And using affirmations is a powerful way to do that.
In the book Affirmations for Self-Healing, Swami Kriyananda talks about using affirmations to transform our consciousness:
“An affirmation is a statement of truth which one aspires to absorb into his life. It has been said that we are what we eat. It would be truer to say, “We are what we think.” For our minds express, and also influence, the reality of what we are far more than our bodies do. Our thoughts even influence, to a great extent, our physical health…
Thoughts are things. Words, which are crystallized thoughts, have immeasurable power, especially when we speak them with concentration… …
We are what we think. But we are also far more than what we think consciously. We are the myriad conflicting patterns of feeling, habit, and reaction that we have built up over a lifetime – indeed, over lifetimes – in our subconscious minds. To heal ourselves, we must also set those inner conflicts in order.
Nor is it enough, even, to affirm change on conscious and subconscious levels. For we are part of a much greater reality, with which we must live in harmony also. Behind our human minds is the divine consciousness.
When we try to transform ourselves by self-effort alone, we limit our potential for healing and growth. Affirmation should be lifted from the self-enclosure of the mind into the greater reality of superconsciousness…
Affirmations should be repeated in such a way as to lift the consciousness toward superconsciousness. This they can accomplish when we repeat them with deep concentration at the seat of divine awareness in the human body, the Christ center, which is a point in the forehead midway between the two eyebrows.”
The 52 affirmations from the book cover a wide range of qualities. Here are a few reflecting some of the reasons why people come to a practice of meditation. We hope you enjoy exploring them:
~Happiness~
Happiness is an attitude of mind, born of the simple determination to be happy under all outward circumstances. Happiness lies not in things, nor in outward attainments. It is the gold of our inner nature, buried beneath the mud of outward sense-cravings. When you know that nothing outside you can affect you…then you will know that you have found true happiness.
Affirmation: I vow from today onwards to be happy under every circumstance. I came from God’s joy. I am joy!
~Success~
True success means transcendence. It means finding what we really want, which is not outward things, but inner peace of mind, self-understanding-and, above all, the joy of God.
Outward success means transcendence also. It means rising above past accomplishments to reach new levels of achievement. Success can mean accepting failure, too, when such acceptance helps us to transcend a false ambition…
Affirmation: I leave behind me both my failures and accomplishments. What I do today will create a new and better future, filled with inner joy.
~Good Health~
No medicine… can induce that state of boundless energy which comes when every cell in the body cooperates with the mind willingly, joyfully, in all that it seeks to do. Such radiant well-being comes after the mind has been cleared of every shadow of unwillingness, of fear, and of doubt; when one has learned to say yes to life; and when one has learned to love.
Affirmation: My body cells obey my will: They dance with divine vitality! I am well! I am strong! I am a flowing river of boundless power and energy!
~Calmness~
…we can achieve calmness… by keeping our awareness focused on the reality of the Spirit underlying all outward circumstances… Calmness comes with the determination to live ever happily in the present moment, relinquishing the past, and not worrying about the future.
Affirmation: Though the winds of difficulties howl around me, I stand forever calmly at the center of life’s storms.
~High-Mindedness~
The universe is, for each human being, both a mirror and an affirmation. One who entertains high thoughts will be, himself, ennobled.
Affirmation: I will see goodness in everything. I will view the world around me, not from the depths of matter-attachment, but from the heights of divine aspiration.
~Self-Expansion~
The Self-expansion toward which all life aspires is of the spirit: an expansion of sympathy, of love, of the awareness that comes from sensing God’s presence everywhere.
Affirmation: I feel myself in the flowing brooks, in the flight of birds, in the raging wind upon the mountains, in the gentle dance of flowers in a breeze. Renouncing my little, egoic self, I expand with my great, soul-Self everywhere!
How to Use Affirmations
“Repeat the affirmations…loudly at first, to command the full attention of your conscious mind. Then repeat them quietly, to absorb more deeply the meaning of the words. Then speak them in a whisper, carrying their meaning down into the subconscious. Repeat them again, silently, to deepen your absorption of them at the subconscious level. Then at last, with rising aspiration, repeat them at the Christ center.
At every level, repeat them several times, absorbing yourself ever-more-deeply in their meaning.
By repeated affirmation you can strengthen, and, later, spiritualize your awareness of any quality you want to develop…”
Affirmations for Self-Healing, by Swami Kriyananda
