THE POWER OF THE WORD
For years we have heard that we should create a list of affirmations and repeat them daily. What is interesting about this is, often we follow this advice without understanding it. We don’t research or study – What affirmations are, How they work, and more importantly – Why they work or should work for us but don’t.
Affirmations are Confirmations, Declarations or Statements of a Truth, Support, or Encouragement made by a person.
When learning how to make affirmations, we are told to use power words such as – I AM. We have even heard things like we should use affirmations in the present tense as if we already have the thing we are affirming. We are told to write affirmations down, read them daily, and speak them aloud. Sometimes we are told to do this is for a number of days, and other times just for an indefinite period. Following these steps is supposed to lead us to some measure of success, encouragement, empowerment, riches, or other things desired.
But, WHY? ISN’T IT TIME TO ASK
– What are affirmations really?
– How do they work?
– Why do they work for some and not work for others?
The word affirmation comes from the root word affirm. Affirm means to state as a fact, to proclaim something, to guarantee, to pledge or vow, and to fix or bind whatever we are affirming to something somewhere. These definitions are important because an affirmation uses words.
Have you ever heard – WORDS HAVE POWER? The spoken word ranks among some of the most amazing and powerful forces in Mankind and the Universe.
Now many of us grew up hearing, “Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words will never hurt You.” This is absolutely not true. There’s a conflicting saying that we also heard growing up, “The pen is mightier than the sword.” This is True. Why is this saying true and not the other? It is because pens are used to write, and they are writing what? They are used for writing Words and words have power. Yes, words do have power and that power can hurt you when you don’t realize it exists.
I’ll say it again – words have power! In looking at the spoken word, in particular, we see that its power is tied into frequencies. These frequencies create things. For those who have religious backgrounds, religious works teach that a Creator designed and manifested this world and then All of Creation using the spoken word.
“And God said, Let there be _______ and there was _______.
Whether this is part of your belief system or not, a question still has to arise, “If it is true that words have power, then how does this power work and how does it affect me?“
Let’s take a look at this. In the early 1900s, Rudolph Steiner, a well-known researcher and occult sciences teacher, uncovered several conclusive universal language connections based on sound. His work ranged from meditation and mind exercises to revolutionary educational techniques, and even farming methods. But one of the things that he found as it relates to the subject of this article is a connection between sound and movement. To describe this correlation he used the term eurythmy. Eurythmy means “a system of harmonious body movements to the rhythm of music and spoken words” or “speech and music made visible.” In his findings, Steiner showed that speech was not just a mere form of communication. He showed that speech was and is a part of creation itself. Steiner said that each word we produce takes on a definable form in the air. In reference to the alphabet, he said if all of the letters of the alphabet from the letter A to the Z were uttered in a certain way, a human etheric body will be created.
When we look at other examples, we have often heard language as it relates to computer programming. Haskell, Scala, C, C++, and Java are types computer languages. These are the languages that computers speak, and these languages speak back to the computer. They are used to program computers for certain actions and responses. The language tells the computer something on the inside, through coding, and then the computer gives an external response. Well if language affects computers in this way, wouldn’t it make sense that our own language might work to program us in some way?
Every word that we utter takes on an important part in generating a positive, negative or even neutral impulse that affects us in some way. Just like computers have a language to program it, we too are programmed with our language and sometimes we are even programmed with the language of others. Have you ever felt your body get tense when you are angry and yelling at someone for something they did? That is your language programming your body to respond to what it is saying. Even more, have you ever felt yourself get stressed, tense and weighed down when someone else was venting to you about their problems and issues which have nothing to do with you? This is someone else’s language programming you.
Language is both internal and external. When we have thoughts we are using internal language. When we express our thoughts we are using external language. In a collection of his lectures before his death, Steiner published a work called Eurythmy versus Visible Speech. In this work, Steiner said that Consonants represent “an imitation of external happenings,“ and Vowels represent, ”an internal experience.“ This means that when we say words with consonants, they affect us externally and vowels affect us internally. He also said that the letter H is midway between consonants and vowels in the alphabet, and H is related to the breath itself.
So, let’s look back to Affirmations
What are Affirmations?
Affirmations are information. They are a language programming that we give to ourselves. The word affirmation means that we are fixing or confirming something to ourselves. This could be by declaring something we need and/or want or making a vow to ourselves about something.
How do Affirmations work? Why do affirmations have the power to affect us?
According to Steiner, every letter of every word affects us internally or externally. In his research it says, “we are creating our own internal and external worlds with the spoken word.” As we look deeper into this, we see that positive words create a positive charge and positive change in us. However, when we use negative words they create a negative charge and change in us.
Why do Affirmations work for some and not for others?
Affirmations actually work for everyone. Hold up. What? You may say, No they have never worked for me.“ But the truth is – You may have been using affirmation in an external way. You follow the instructions, write them down, read them daily, and even say them out loud. But ask yourself, “What were you saying to your inner self?” “What was your internal language?” “What were your thoughts saying and programming into you?” This is EXTREMELY important. It is this internal language that keeps your external good from manifesting. No matter how many times you go back to affirm it externally – verbally. All Things Happen First Within or Internally, then They Happen Without or Externally.
Have you heard of positive thinking and negative thinking? Sure you have. But did you know that positive and negative thinking are really positive and negative languages? Each of these languages calls and causes something to happen within your inner world and thus your external world. Positive language and positive thinking express themselves through you. Negative language and negative thinking repress you. The YOU spoken of here is – Your True Self.
The power within our minds always strives to release itself as expression into our lives. Using positive language and thought allows positive energies the opportunity to express through us. This is because our True Nature in our normal Perfect State is positive. By filling our minds with a positive thought, we allow positive thought energy to enter in and tap into our inner, higher powers which rises into higher levels of consciousness. This is expressed externally and improves our lives, thus allowing the affirmations to work. When we fill our minds with a negative thought, our inner power recedes back into lower levels of consciousness. Negative thought energy forms inner walls and barriers against the emergence of our higher thought energies and powers, thus blocking the affirmations from working.
This Is Why Affirmations Don’t Work.
Now, do you understand why – Words Can Hurt You?
- If you’re seeking a better life.
- If you’re seeking happiness.
- If you’re seeking a higher mind and power.
- If you want to fulfill all your dreams.
Be careful of the language you use – both your internal language “thoughts” and your external language “verbal use of words.” All Words Have Power on you.
