Affirmations: Directions for the GPS of Your Life

Introduction

An affirmation is a statement that you intentionally repeat to yourself describing the way you want your life to be. Here are a few examples for purposes of this discussion:

• My health is improving daily as I make healthy food choices
• It is easy and joyful for me to practice playing the piano 30 minutes every day
• I am pleased that my focus of attention and productivity are increasing noticeably

These may sound like declarative statements but they are not. The person who wrote and is repeating the first affirmation actually feels that their health is not good and is using this statement to guide and direct themselves to improve it. The second affirmation is being used by a person who wants to become a proficient pianist and knows that they need to practice daily to achieve that goal.

Is it possible that repeating an untrue statement can bring about such a change? Yes, it most certainly is if you follow certain guidelines.

You see each of us has an internal mechanism that is similar to the GPS in your car or smartphone.

Your Internal GPS System

A GPS (Global Positioning Sattelite) navigational system works by being aware of where you are and where you want to go. It then uses its map of the area around you to determine the quickest and most direct route for you to get there. Based on this information it will tell you where to turn and when you will get there.

Your internal guidance system, which is part of your nervous system, knows where you are in your life. It knows the current state of your health, your finances, your career, and so on. If you tell it clearly and specifically ‘where you want to go’, then it will know your desired destination with regard to your health or career, for example.

The purpose of an affirmation in this process is to tell your internal GPS system where you want to be in your life, how you want the various aspects of your life to manifest, to show up. In this case let’s think of your internal GPS as your Goal Promoting System.

Ask for What You Want

Most of us spend a lot of our time talking about what we don’t want to have in our life. We complain about our health to anyone who will listen. We gripe about how hard we work with our colleagues. We get all worked up over the poor state of our finances. All the time, our internal GPS is listening to what we are saying.

It is like getting in your car and telling the GPS where you don’t want to go. Who would do that? It’s ridiculous, but we do it all the time.

Who would get in their car and tell the GPS: “I don’t want to go to the grocery store.”?
That’s ridiculous. Yet we do that all the time. Stop it!
~ Jerry Levin

It is a big mistake to spend so much time and so much mental and emotional energy focusing on what you don’t want. You could easily spend the same time and emotional energy focusing on what you DO want. That simple (not easy) shift will make a HUGE difference in your goal achievement.

You see, there is a portion of your internal GPS that creates a mental image of where you tell it that you want to be. If you tell yourself: “I am joyful that I now make $2000/week in my business” your mind might create an image of you depositing that money in the bank with a big smile on your face. It will then guide you step-by-step to experience that situation in your life.

The problem with complaining about your finances is that if you say: “I never have enough money to pay all my bills” your mind will create an image of you not having enough money and lead you to experience that more and more.

Follow the Directions

It only works if you work with it. Your car GPS won’t get you where you want to go unless you start the car and follow the directions to drive there. Your car’s GPS will never tell you all the turns you have to make before you need them. It’s just one step at a time and that works perfectly.

We all know that. But then when it comes to our life we expect it to work differently. We want to know all the steps and everything we will have to do before we get started. Ridiculous! It’s just an excuse, a cop-out.

You have to do what you are guided to do to achieve your goal. Using affirmations will not work for you if you don’t do your part. If you want to have more income and so you repeat an affirmation like: “My income is now $10,000 per month” you will get nudges and intuitive guidance about what you can do to make that happen. You have to follow that guidance. Just repeating the affirmation and leaving it up to God or the Universe to bring you the money will not work. And until you have followed the first guidance you have received you won’t get the next step.

Your GPS Will Adapt

As you progress along the path towards your goal, you may encounter unexpected challenges. This does not mean that the affirmation is not working. You just may have to adapt your plan to accommodate these issues.

Did you use one of the early GPS navigation systems? If you made a wrong turn or ran into a detour it would say: “Recalculating”. Then a few seconds later it would adjust the directions to accommodate the issue. Modern GPS systems have some awareness of traffic, construction, and accident issues and can make adjustments ahead of time. But if you veer off course or make a wrong turn, the system will know that and still inform you of how to get where you are going.

In the same way, if you are using an affirmation to help accomplish something in your life and the guidance you are getting doesn’t seem to work ideally for you, you may notice some shift in the guidance. For example, if you are looking for support from someone and it’s not going to work out for them to help you, another possibility will show up and it may take some time for that to happen. Have faith and know that it is working perfectly especially when it doesn’t look like it.

Staying Connected

We all know that in order to get good guidance from our GPS navigation, we must be able to connect with the satellites that send the signals.

In the same way, getting good guidance about your goal requires a good connection with your Higher Self, your Spiritual Self, the wisest part of you. There are several ways to facilitate that connection. A regular practice of meditation or mindfulness is very valuable in this regard.

The interference to communication with your Spiritual Self may be the result of your ego shouting out its fear-based beliefs about what you can and can’t do. There are a lot of ways to deal with this in addition to meditation. Most of these activities will serve to distract your mind, offer you other points of view, and enhance your general creativity. For example:

• Physical activities: exercise, being in nature, dancing, taking a walk
• Mental activities: deeply listening to music, reading a great book especially about someone who faced similar challenges
• Creative activities: coloring, drawing, playing music.

It is also important to be as free of stress as possible when you are trying to create a new way of life for yourself. Making these kinds of changes is somewhat stressful itself and stress activates your ego and interferes with your creative, problem-solving abilities.

Taken all together, these activities will support you in connecting to your wise Goal Promoting System and keep you on course over the long haul. Tune in and pay attention.

There are a lot of other guidelines about writing and using affirmations. To check them out, start HERE.