Whenever I think of affirmation, Al Frankin as Stuart Smalley comes to mind: I'm not a big fan of self-affirmation. At least not when God is left out of the equation. To me, trying to empower yourself without acknowledging where that power comes from just walks too fine a line with sinful pride. My affirmation comes through faith and prayer. Be it to invoke the power of God or to invoke the power God bestows upon us in his name. So when I say, I just can't do this... or this is too hard... it's not negative at all. I'm simply acknowledging my limitations without God.
Nor am I, although it has its place. There's a gender issue here in the Uk which has noted that men out-perform women, and a factor in the process is that women tend to play down their abilities, whereas men play up ... so a bit more self-affirmation in that regard would not go amiss. The issue for me is when it's in isolation. I had a long-standing friend who, after having his heart broken by a girlfriend, went into this self-affirmation process to overcome his doubts. He went too far, to the point that he would argue black was white or day was night. In the end he just became impossible to live with. He entered a business venture with a new girlfriend, and got her to put up her house as collateral. Without a product production line in place, and no clients to his name, he bought a top-of-the-range exec saloon because he saw it was necessary to impress clients — we argued, believe me, but he wouldn't have it — and subsequently lost everything. And it was all 'their fault' ... Be careful what you wish for ... any psycho-self-programming carried out in isolation is a potentially risky if not dangerous. No wonder all spiritual traditions, any serious spiritual development should not be undertaken without the guidance of a guru/starets/director/anamcara. Always a risk. I've had my most sublime moments in just such situations ...
Dear Friends As we know, our thoughts are responsible for both our attachments to worldliness (experienced as happiness and suffering), and our means of escaping from this attachment. Most destructive thoughts arise from bad personality traits (anger, jealousy, lust, etc.) and are a great obstacle to growing spiritually. They keep our minds from God and push us to make the wrong choices which hurt us and others. I think for those who wish to make fast spiritual progress, affirmations are a great aid. And we all need aids (that's a little joke). Example: You accidentally knock your toe on a stone which leaves you with only a bloody stump. Your react with anger and curse your fate. Affirmation mentally or verbally worded: ''When I feel bodily pain resulting in anger, I will realize that such experiences are a part of the human life, and will instead chant the Name of God ten times. (Name of God repeated ten times.) I express gratitude to the loving Lord who has helped me to turn anger into an opportunity to remember God's holy feet.'' This is actually a large topic in spirituality, and if we Google ''Personality Defect Removal'', we can find more detailed ways to help us overcome. May love of God be each reader's portion.
St Thomas Aquinas, the Angelic Doctor, once argued that when a man struck his thumb with a hammer and cried, "Oh, Christ that hurts!" It was not a sin, but an ejaculatory prayer ... so we have to be very careful about determining whether the reaction was fear, anger, pain, loss, or a mixture ... Affirmations are we we find peace, be it in the 12-step process, the Prayer of Simplicity, a mantra ... Where we find peace we find stillness, where we find stillness we find ...
