One of the problems of the Mental Science period that led to the New Thought was the use of
affirmations. “I am healthy, happy, wise
and free” may not be part of your reality. “I am wealthy” may not elicit the emotional attitude related to
it. Saying “I am not sick” or “I am not poor” works for some people
but for others, the subconscious mind ignores the not and hears sick or poor.
The Self-Talk of the 70’s and 80’s was a
re-hash of the New Thought stuff.
But similar problems existed. It is necessary to find the syntax that your MIND can absorb and short circuit the
little voice in your head that says otherwise.
Positive self-talk is an
important self-help technique that you will find comes naturally once you begin
to engage in it.
“I am
sitting on this happy chair. There is this happy table. And these are happy
windows with happy curtains.”
Since all the sentences are
about some aspect of the world being
happy, there is no conflict between saying that when the person is not feeling happy. An unhappy person can still talk about
happy curtains. This is very
different from the “I am happy”
affirmation, which will contradict someone’s present state if they are unhappy.
The word “happy” is a trigger for that state, so using it tends to elicit
happy feelings, no matter what it describes, even a chair or a table. When I
describe the curtains as “happy,” that connects happiness with
the curtains—and with everything else around me that I describe with that word.
After that, each time I look at the curtains—and the other things around me—I
will think of the word “happy,” and that will tend to elicit
that happy feeling.
Since a
window can’t be happy, your mind will unconsciously attempt to make meaning out
of the word “happy” by applying it to something else. If you are alone, you are
the only other available possibility, and even if you are with others, you are
still a possibility. All this processing will occur completely unconsciously,
so it can’t be countered by your conscious thinking.
ACIM Lesson 29 is interesting. It’s using a similar technique.
God is in everything I see.
God is in this coat hanger.
God is in this magazine.
God is in this finger.
God is in this lamp.
God is in that body.
God is in that door.
God is in that waste basket.
We see in the world what is
in our minds, and what we want to recognize is there.
