Yes, They Work!
Over the years, many people have shared their successful experiences with affirmations with me. The following are a just few. May they inspire you to wonderful changes!
A Cancer Survivor of Many Years
Margie Levine is the bestselling author of Surviving Cancer, which was nominated by the NAPA as one of the four best health books in the country. She is a wonderful example of how visualizations work together with affirmations to create miracles.
Margie has survived mesothelioma, the rarest and most aggressive form of lung cancer. She told me that affirmations played a huge role in her recovery. Margie Levine has been a health education coordinator in a public school, a social worker, and a therapist who specialized in integrative medicine. Her book Surviving Cancer is the result of her belief that she is alive today for a reason.
With all the knowledge she had from her professional experience, she was able to put together a personal program for healing that saved her life. She continues to reach out to others who embrace health challenges.
“Repeating reinforcing thoughts helped me to heal mentally, physically and spiritually. I created my own tape using my voice. Hearing my own voice was magical, as I gave direction to my body cells. I affirmed that the cancer cells were leaving my lungs through my skin pores. I confirmed that I was getting stronger every day. I then worked with my fear and repeated that it was being swept from my body with huge straw brooms, just as I visualized it happening in my mind’s eye. I repeated these thoughts many times. Then I put Mozart music in the background and listened to it daily. My affirmation tape was the last thing I heard before being wheeled to surgery each time.
“I learned to apply ‘affirmations on demand.’ Laying scrunched in the narrow MRI machines listening to the loud banging in my ear, I visualized hovering angels with axes hammering away at my tumor. At the same time I affirmed out loud that the cancerous growth was shrinking. I repeated, ‘I will be strong. I will survive!’
“When I was wheeled out by the techs, I was ‘high’ on my body’s own endorphins.
“Affirmations played a vital role in my healing. Words have power. Positive thoughts can shift energy and help heal disease.”
Karen sent in this success story:
“At one time I weighed 194 pounds. I had read about affirmations, that the subconscious could not discern between truth or fiction and that whatever you told yourself, and believed, would be who you became. I had become an overweight woman. After all, I wasn’t meant to be thin, according to an old family belief. I was thrilled to learn on the day that I read about affirmations that I could create new weight and body-type affirmations to literally change and transform my body and my mind.
These are the affirmations I wrote:
‘I weigh 145 pounds and I always have enough time, energy and desire to exercise my body.’
‘I weigh 145 pounds and I have created my perfect body with slim, trim limbs and firm toned muscle.’
‘I weigh 145 pounds and I maintain my weight easily, as I only eat foods that are healthy and consistent with a slim, trim figure.’
‘Nothing tastes as good as thin feels.’
“It has worked for a long time. I weighed between 140 to 145 for fifteen years! I now weigh 160 and need to use my affirmations again.”
They Work Even if We Don’t Follow All the Directions!
Dale’s lease was up and she had no place to go. Her landlady wanted her out in one month. When I met her, she told me her funds were limited and she was beginning to panic. I suggested a few affirmations she might try. One was:
“I am finding the right place to be safe, happy and secure.”
She forgot about the fact that one of the five important parts of an affirmation is that it must be stated in the present. When you use will it is always in the future.
She wrote:
“I will be open to my Higher Power’s plan for me about where to live.”
“I will find the right place to be safe happy and secure.”
“I will make the right choice for me.”
Three weeks to the day later, she found a nice condo on a quiet street and within her price range. Her friend Mary had gotten her real estate license on a Wednesday and showed her the place on Thursday. Another friend is her mortgage broker and helped her get a loan at a good rate. She’s saving money, and her friends will get a commission on her good fortune.
House Sale
My good friend Dorna wrote:
“Several years ago it was imperative that I sell my home. I put it on the market and waited. Time passed, but no one made an offer to buy, and I grew increasingly discouraged. Then my friend, Ruth, suggested that I create an affirmation to bring about the sale of my home. She said I needed to write this affirmation ten times each day for 21 days, and by the end of this period, my home would be sold.
“Although I held no belief in the power of this kind of validation, I decided to try it anyway, and began to write: ‘Today God is directing the perfect person to me to buy my home.’ I continued with my affirmation in spite of disbelief, and wrote daily as I had been told to do.
“Time went by with no results, and I found myself saying, ‘See, it’s all foolishness. My house hasn’t been sold. I knew this wouldn’t work!’ But I kept writing! On day nineteen of affirmation, I received offers from two buyers, and in a matter of weeks, my home was under contract. Today, I am a believer in the power of affirmation, and urge others with skepticism to witness the miracle and become believers, too!”
Even if You’re a Skeptic!
You can try affirmations even if you’re not convinced. The results may surprise you!
Here’s a wonderful testimony from Joe, a man in his sixties, who had never even heard of affirmations until his partner suggested he try them. Joe sent me an e-mail about the wonderful results of his undertaking and gave it the wonderful title:
Confessions of a Skeptic
“When my partner D first suggested that we add affirmations to our mix of daily rituals, I was outwardly agreeable but inwardly skeptical. I thought we already had enough rituals, beginning with our morning readings to one another over morning coffee. I had come to treasure the morning readings, which are equal parts psychology, philosophy and spirituality. We always discuss the main point of the reading, in easy and conversational terms, and it’s a great way to prepare for the day.
“But affirmations? What was the point? Rote learning? Yoga-like concentration on a concept or goal through repetition of language? Maybe all of that. Let’s give it a try. I concocted my first affirmation: ‘I will lose 5 pounds this month.’
“D patiently explained that affirmations usually aspire to something grander than small weight losses. Together, we focused on our current goal of greater harmony in our daily lives and came up with:
‘God, the Spirit of the Universe, is guiding D and me to harmony today.’
“We each committed to write this affirmation twenty times a day for 21 days. What an experience this effort became! Every day brought a new emotional ride. Some days I felt like the mere writing was improving my relations with D. Other days I focused on one word or phrase: What did I mean by Spirit of the Universe? What is harmony between two separate but respectful partners?
“Other days, I just wrote to fulfill an obligation. I wrote by hand, I used the computer, I wrote on airplanes, in bed, at the desk. When I worked past midnight, I wrote all twenty repetitions before going to sleep, because I feared I might be too tired that evening to do the job. But I always wrote them, I didn’t cheat once, and I kept the copies.
“This experience motivated me to try another one right away. I wrote this one on my own: ‘I will listen for D’s song.’ A lot shorter, for one thing. More personally directed, for another. It set a goal that I knew was right for me: to listen more acutely daily for the beauty in my partner’s inner life. I found it a pleasure, with few exceptions, to write this affirmation.
“What were the results? In my relations with D, I sense more harmony than we had before, and I hear more music in the air.”
Negative Thinking
Mindy, a woman with fourteen years sobriety, wrote that she had been having a terrible time with negative thinking when she was eleven years sober. Her sponsor taught her about affirmations, and they eventually changed her life. He told her to stand in front of the mirror, look into her eyes and tell herself, “I am a powerful woman. I am loving, kind, caring and giving; I can do anything I want to do; I am beautiful just the way I am.”
“Did I believe them?” she wrote. “No, of course not. Then about one month later something started to happen. I started to believe what I was telling myself. They were working. This changed my whole life, respective self-esteem, self-respect and self-love. Unbelievable! It worked. Miracles began to happen, one day at a time.”
A strong, capable woman, Sharon has worked her way up from the lowest ranks in a large, international company. Her latest promotion was to a consulting job in the company where she had been working for many years. While she really wanted the job, she realized that it would cause considerable changes in her life.
A recovering alcoholic, Sharon would be leaving a group of people she had been working closely with for many years who knew she was in recovery and had been very supportive of her personally. She was also leaving a position in which she had been very successful. The new job entailed a great deal of traveling, which meant that she would be away from her five-year-old son for days at a time. The job even included “wining and dining” her new clients, not the best activity for a recovering alcoholic.
The first five months were a big struggle for her. As she began developing new skills, she made many mistakes and was discouraged when her new business associates questioned her suggestions. Hoping for positive support, she attended one of our women’s spiritual retreats, at which I emphasized affirmations and meditation. After reading the original version of the Change Almost Anything in 21 Days, Sharon created the affirmation:
“I feel strong and confident in my job today.”
At first, she struggled to write it every day, but soon it became part of her daily recovery routine. It helped her self-esteem, removed her fear of failure and even helped to remove the perfectionism that she had been burdened with for many years.
When it came time for her performance evaluation, Sharon was thrilled when her boss showed her letters from four of the business people with whom she had consulted. The letters glowed with positive comments relating how she had helped them build their business and achieve great results. She now keeps a very positive outlook and her attitude in this tough business environment is very refreshing.
Mary Jane Beech, founder and director of Bridges Associates, Inc. in Hyannis, Massachusetts, a program for children with special needs and learning disabilities, told me a wonderful tribute for affirmations. Ten years ago, a group of parents identified self-confidence as the most important factor influencing child success and began the “Plant the Seed of Confidence” campaign. They found that affirmations are the best ways to build self-confidence. Many children, parents and teachers report that they feel better using daily affirmations.
A Time for Every Season
Sometimes no matter how much we would like to change something, the timing isn’t always in our control. One woman told me the story of how she desperately wanted to be in a relationship. I suggested she write the affirmation: “God is guiding me into a healthy and loving relationship.”
She went to a party a week later and met someone she really liked, but didn’t hear from that person for some time. Then, one year later, she received an invitation to dinner. The person she met the year before had just not been ready yet, but kept her number, knowing that they would get together some day. They have been in a healthy and loving relationship ever since.
There are times when we set the energy into motion by our affirmation and think that it isn’t working, when months later the job, house or relationship might come through. And there are times when what we think is right for us just isn’t meant to be. You will always get what you need at the right time. There’s an old saying that God is never late.
Financial Insecurity
Judy worked at a nonprofit agency and could barely make ends meet on her $18,000 salary. She knew she was a very good therapist and had wanted to start her own private practice for years. Fear of financial insecurity held her back.
I suggested she try an affirmation. She was willing and wrote, “I am working for myself and earning $18,000 a year.” I proposed she double that figure, and she laughed and said that was an impossible figure. Within one year Judy was earning $38,000 and a few years later was earning over $50,000 and climbing.
Transforming Stress into Gratitude
Mersh has some favorite affirmations that she uses in times of stress. When she is having a particularly stressful moment, she stops what she’s doing, especially if self-defeating reactions threaten to erupt. Then she silently reminds herself of one or more of her favorite affirmations or intentions, such as:
“I welcome the transformation and relief that a simple, intentional moment can bring.”
“I feel nothing but gratitude for the way in which using this positive power can turn the itchy discomfort of defeat and self-doubt into a welcoming wrap of love, care and possibility.”
A few of her others include:
“I am responsible, organized, motivated and productive today.”
“With every cleansing breath from the universe, I heal my body as I meditate today.” “I am kind and gentle with myself and others today.”
“I make things easy on myself today.”
Breaking a Bad Habit
When Nancy’s daughter, Joan, was five years old, she began to pick at her fingers, making them very sore. Although Nancy tried many things, such as scolding, painting her daughter’s fingernails so they would look pretty, or putting on salve to help them heal, nothing worked.
Nancy followed a nightly ritual since Joan was a baby. She went into Joan’s room after she was asleep to whisper soothing words and affirmations to her. Now she began to add the words “you are peaceful with the details of life” from Louise Hay’s book Heal Your Body. Within a week or two, Joan stopped picking her fingers!
If It Feels Good, Don’t Fix It! You Don’t HAVE to Stop in 21 Days!
Nan is a lovely young woman afflicted with multiple sclerosis. We had the good fortune to meet long before she was diagnosed, at the age of twenty-nine. During that time she had gotten married, was looking forward to having children and then crash! It felt as if her world fell apart when she heard she had MS. Since then, her illness has become much worse, but she has received a variety of treatments, including chemotherapy, and has recently seen a small improvement.
Nan also used the affirmation:
“Healing energy is pouring through my entire body with every breath I take.”
She recently sent an e-mail that said, “I haven’t followed the ‘traditional’ 21-day routine. It has been months actually. I can’t say how much it’s helped physically, whether it’s been the chemotherapy or the affirmation, but I suspect it’s a combination. I have definitely seen physical improvements. I feel that emotionally and spiritually the affirmation has been extremely beneficial to me. That’s why I’ve continued for so long. I feel now that I have a feeling of control over a very frustrating, fluctuating disease, as well as a tremendous sense of peace and calm. I repeat it to myself after crawling into bed each night. It has become such a routine that I think I’m often unaware of exactly how frequently I have relied on it for a sense of calm and control.
“Initially, I pictured a yellow light of healing that I would breathe in and over the course of time. It has evolved into a visualization with mini-starfish pouring into my body, not only bringing calm and happiness to my body, but also acting as a kind of mortar, or Band-Aid, in the areas of my body that have a deterioration of myelin to help transmit nerve impulses. The only two colors always present are yellow and purple, kind of a purple background with a more compact yellow area and yellow/gold starfish.”
Nan has begun her meditation practice again, and “without question it keeps me from being completely depressed and full of self-pity. There’s been a drastic improvement since then.”
Cash Flow
After a very painful divorce from an alcoholic husband, Caryn found herself in deep financial difficulty and on the verge of losing her livelihood. She knew she had lost herself in her marriage and didn’t want to lose anymore.
I walked into her store at a moment when she was desperately trying to put everything back together. After she filled me in on all that she had been through I suggested she try:
“All the money I need is flowing to me.”
“I have practiced writing that affirmation almost daily,” she wrote in an e-mail. “Not only ten times, but as many times as there were lines on the paper, and I do believe it helped to make a difference in my life. My attitude changed and so did many other things. I refinanced my home and decided to grow my business back and began writing a new affirmation:
“The will to be fit and strong is within me.”
“With this affirmation, I am caring for myself both physically and mentally. My family and my business function better when I have clarity of thought. While I am not fully out of the water yet, I am pretty sure that I will be okay!”
Purpose and Passion
Kate sent an e-mail that she had been writing the affirmations:
“I am waiting patiently for clarity of my purpose.”
“God is guiding me to the perfect job for me today.”
“Through these affirmations I am thrilled to have focused in on my passion and goals. As a result, I have decided to go to graduate school and get a master’s in social work, a field that has always been enormously interesting to me. In my free time I find myself reading self-help, social work, sociology and psychology books. I can’t get enough information! I have a B.S. in sociology and psychology and always loved every minute of school. Thank you for the inspiration to tap into my passion again.”
Faith
Darlene struggled with her fear of public speaking for many years. She finally reached the point of acceptance that it would never go away and she decided to avoid any situation that involved any speaking before others in groups.
As she became more mature, she realized this fear was holding her back, both socially and at work. I shared with her my story of my own fear of public speaking and gave her the following affirmation:
“God gives me all the courage I need to speak confidently.”
While her self-talk told her, “You just don’t understand. I’m different and this will not work,” she had the gift of desperation and was willing to try anything. She no longer wanted to be ruled by this overwhelming fear!
Darlene wrote this affirmation daily ten times a day for 21 days. She could feel herself start to surrender and she began to believe it. She started to change the way she was thinking.
Every time she heard her inner voices say, “I can’t do it,” she exchanged it with, “Whatever God wants I am willing to do, just show me the way.”
Since Darlene faced this fear, her world is starting to open up. She knows today that she doesn’t need to fear anything as long as she has faith and is willing to open her mind to new possibilities.
New Living Space for a Creative Person
Sharon lived with her daughter and son-in-law to save money. At first, it was very pleasant and comfortable and she enjoyed being with her family.
She had her own room, which gave her privacy, and she took great joy in being with her grandchild.
During the time she was writing her affirmations, Sharon was fortunate to get a job dog-sitting in a beautiful house. It was a great opportunity to have twelve days quiet time, during which she could complete one of her projects and be very much at peace.
During that time, Sharon finished a book she was writing and developed a successful newsletter for healers on Cape Cod. Soon, her space began to feel smaller and smaller and she began to crave a place of her own. I suggested the following affirmation:
“All the energies of the universe are guiding me to the perfect place for me to live and create and be peaceful.”
Sharon changed it to conform with her own belief system. It is a perfect example of how you can personalize any affirmation you find in the index to make it right for you:
“Source is guiding me to the perfect place to live, to create and to be peaceful.”
When she completed the 21 days of her affirmation, her financial situation had changed for the better. She investigated available senior housing and considered moving. This would give her the privacy she needed. When she told this idea to her daughter and son-in-law, they told her they had a surprise for her. They had plans to add on a garage for workspace for her son-in-law and a room upstairs for her! This way she could have her privacy and still enjoy her family, a perfect combination of peace and freedom to continue her creative work, a place to create and be peaceful.