(Excerpts from Affirmations for Self-Healing by Swami Kriyananda)
What Is an Affirmation
An affirmation is a statement of truth which one aspires to absorb into his or her life. "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.
Living a healthy life is an art which needs to be mastered by applying the right amount of energy. Unfortunately, it is one to which most people devote little energy. They take life as it comes, and wonder why things keep going wrong.
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Why Affirmations work
Words, which are crystallized thoughts, have immeasurable power, especially when we speak them with concentration.
The mere thought of fatigue is enough to sap our energy. The opposite is true also.
If one feels exhausted, but suddenly finds his interest drawn to something, fatigue may vanish altogether. If, in addition to that sudden interest, he verbalizes it with the words "I feel wonderful", he might find that, instead of only feeling vaguely better, he actually feels as though he had acquired a new self-definition.
But we are also far more than what we think consciously. We are the myriad of 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.
To be healed is to "get rid of an imperfection." To be perfect is to express the superconscious - the source of creativity and solutions. Therefore, in using affirmations we concentrate on positive qualities which are the solutions to our disease and imperfections.
