Overcoming Financial Challenges & Personal Setbacks

Perhaps you have been given a financial diagnosis that paints a grim picture for your future. Or, maybe you’ve suffered a major setback in your career and now it appears nothing will pull you out of this abyss. The Truth you must remember regardless of the condition you face is: There are no impossibilities; there are no incurables; there are no unattainables. Right now, you have the inner strength to handle whatever has appeared.

Inner strength is your inheritance as a human being. None of us is gifted with more or less strength than another person. Each of us has just what he/she needs to meet the challenges that sit before him/her.

So, calm yourself. Relax. Breathe deeply. Relax again. Close your eyes. Still your emotions. Worry, fear and self-doubt scatter your inner strength. Quieting your emotions conserves your inner strength and allows it to build up quickly. Remind yourself that there are no impossibilities; there are no incurables; there are no unattainables. You can handle whatever lies before you.

 

Suggested Spiritual Treatment for Wealth: There are no impossibilities; there are no incurables; there are no unattainables. I can handle whatever challenges I currently face!

Affirmations 101: Focus On Thinking

Affirmations and denials DO NOT change conditions; they change your thoughts about conditions.

Focus on Your Thinking

If you have a new product to launch, but your product has not yet found its audience. What you say – good or bad – about your lack of sales does not change the fact that you do not have sales. You may affirm, “I have plenty of sales! I have more sales than I can imagine possible! Everyone wants to purchase my product now!” Or you may openly express your frustration: “No one is paying attention to my efforts. I will never get this product adopted by a big enough market to earn me any money.”

Neither of these statements changes the fact that you do not have sales. But, these statements DO influence what you think about your lack of sales. And what you think about your lack of sales determines the ultimate outcome. Your words – positive or negative – DO NOT change your experience; rather, they change what you think about your experience.

This distinction in the application of affirmations and denials may seem nitpicky but understanding the mechanics of how change happens is key to living and creating deliberately.

Our lives unfold from the inside out. The words you speak change your life only to the degree that those words influence your thinking. Positive words spoken to a negative condition only work when there is a corresponding change in your mind.

No change in mind = No change in experience

Nearly everyone can site one experience wherein they made an affirmation and immediately saw a result. But the permanency of that result depended upon whether the underlying thinking was adjusted. Our affirmations and denials produce temporary results when we merely work it on the outside, rather than where it really counts on the inside.

A change in mind = A change in thinking

Thoughts are things and they occupy “space” in the mind. When properly applied, affirmations and denials remove old, weak, inefficient thoughts and replace them with new and better thoughts. A mental house cleaning is even more necessary than a physical one, for the outer is always a reflection of the inner.

The most important element to grasp about affirmations and denials is that, first and foremost, they are mental processes. Because our lives are so outwardly oriented, our first instinct is to focus upon outer behavior. We develop rules – “if you speak your affirmations for 21 days, you create a new habit.” When that does not work, we say, “well, what you really needed to do was speak it 21 times per day for 21 days.” Someone else will come along and say, “No, you have to write and speak them 21 times per day for 21 days.” Yet another will say, “21 is not enough, you need 40 days because 40 is the number of spiritual completion.” And, so it goes.

It matters not whether you speak them, hum them, sing them or dance them. Words spoken without the corresponding mental attitude produce no results. Outward behavior is always secondary to inner thinking. Adjust your mental attitude first.

A change in thinking = A change in experience

Now, it is your turn. Can you see a usefulness to focusing your affirmations and denials on your thinking rather than on your outward experience? Do you think this adjustment will make the difference in how you are using affirmations and denials? What other distinctions have you observed that make the difference between affirmations and denials that work and those that do not work?

Affirmations 101: The Four Basic Denials

In her seminal book, “Lessons in Truth,” H. Emilie Cady teaches, “all systems for spiritualizing the mind include denial. By denial, we mean declaring not to be true a thing that seems true.” Denials are the way that we speak Truth to false beliefs that limit us.

What are the beliefs that have limited us? Any reason we give to explain why we do not have some desire is a belief that has limited us. The universe is an instantaneous deliverer of dreams. The buffer of time between our desire and its arrival is our mind’s ability to receive it. In the moment that we desire a thing, it is available to us.

“Denial is the first practical step toward wiping out of our minds the mistaken beliefs of a lifetime.” (Cady)

Denials uproot entrenched family beliefs and attitudes:

• When our personal goals stretch beyond the dreams our family or community can imagine for us, we need denials. In the absence of role models and encouragement from others, denials dissolve our own self-doubt.

• When we are breaking through to a new level and no one around us believes we can, we need denials. Family and friends can be our biggest cheerleaders and they can be our greatest dream-busters. Their lack of faith in our ability can be a very powerful stopper in our lives. Denials will neutralize the effects of their lack of faith.

Denials counteract longstanding cultural beliefs:

• In every culture, we maintain prejudices about men, women, people in certain ethnic groups, people from other countries, etc. Many of these beliefs have no basis in reality but we have carried them for so long – sometimes centuries – that few question their validity. We may have a personal dream that forces us to confront a longstanding cultural belief. Our first job will be to overcome that belief in ourselves.  Last night Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win an Academy Award® for directing. Just as Kathryn Bigelow had to overcome her beliefs about what women directors could accomplish, we must do the same for our dream. Denials help us speak Truth to longstanding beliefs that run counter to our dreams.

The only beliefs that limit you are the ones you refuse to deny!

Cady identifies four common error thoughts that nearly everyone grants great power.

Affirmations 101: Denials – Your Mental Stain Remover

Your mind is the starting point for change. Change your mind – change your life.

In Part I of Affirmations 101, we said that before you affirm what you do want, you must deny what you do not want. Affirmations and denials are tools for deliberately building your mind. Denials prep your mind for affirmations. They dissolve negative beliefs, thereby creating room in your mind for positive affirmations of abundance.

Before we explore what denials are, let us get clear on what denials are not.

• Denials are not a way of focusing on what you do not want. Using denials will not interfere with you attracting what you want. The essence of a denial is its dissolving power. Its very nature will not allow you to hold onto any condition that you do not want. Instead of focusing you upon a specific form, denials withdraw your attention from the belief behind any undesired form.

• Denials are not your excuse to live in denial. They are not a sophisticated form of sticking your head in the sand about the undesired problems in your life. To the casual observer, it may appear that denials are a way of “pretending” that a bad condition does not exist. But the skilled thinker knows that as long as you live in mental contact with any undesirable condition, you recognize its place and therefore give it license to be in your experience. Denials sever mental contact.

• Denials are not applied to physical conditions. All causes are mental. Denials are your opportunity to speak the truth to the false beliefs that stand under the experiences you no longer want. True denial targets negative beliefs, not negative things. Always deny the mental cause.

This is NOT how denials work!