(01-16-2018, 05:40 PM)anagogy Wrote: [ -> ] (01-16-2018, 03:15 PM)Coordinate_Apotheosis Wrote: [ -> ]...Are affirmations best said out loud or can I whisper it or just think it?
It doesn't matter in my opinion.
Just like a mantra, the more purely you utter the vibration of it (whether internally or externally), the more power is will garner. The quality of the seed you plant is important.
Affirmations can be powerful if they are practiced with *meaning*. After enough repetitions, they will become rote and mechanical and fade into the background of consciousness. This is fine and natural and expected. Just like you don't think about walking anymore, you just do it. The vibration of the affirmation will slowly seep into the background and start shaping your reality. It will become the reality most humans refer to as "second nature".
The seed must be planted properly, and then it must be watered properly (love attention), and when it sprouts it needs plenty of positive sunlight (faith attention). And if tended to carefully, it will grow into a mighty and sturdy tree indeed.
You are living in the garden and forest of your own cultivation. In the story of the Garden of Eden, Adam was commanded to multiply and replenish the earth. Our job is *cultivate*. Everything is a garden.
This is incredibly helpful, I want to note, while I understood you, it was your interpretation of Genesis that made it all click for me.
I suppose in a hard to explain way, I should take up gardening, of both the internal and external. It's crazy because you make me remember, and I guess realize, how one of the happiest times of my life involved spending nearly an hour most days just watering the plants in my yard, and in my mind.
Thanks, Teach. Have you ever considered writing down all of those insightful thoughts in a journal to share one day? Someone might get something great out of your thoughts.
(01-17-2018, 10:17 AM)Stranger Wrote: [ -> ]I've just had an important realization on this thread's topic.
Love allows us to see the perfection in all things. When we love someone (or something), we don't want it to be any different from what it already is. We accept and welcome it. Think of how we see the person we love - none of their "flaws" matter; a mother's love for her baby is a great example.
So, love = acceptance.
Now, a second important point. How do we love something that bothers us about ourselves? The key here is that love is not an attitude, it is not approval. It is an actual energy that exists independently from our mind. The mind can disapprove of something, but we can still bring love to flow and shine onto that thing we disapprove of. We always have access to a constant stream of love, and disapproval simply tries to block that flow.
Here, then, is the process for accepting anything in or about ourselves.
Close your eyes and focus your attention on whatever you're having trouble accepting. Simply let it be present in your awareness, without trying to change it or push it away.
Imagine bright sunlight filled with love shining down on it, again without trying to change it in any way. Simply let it shine.
Stay with that image, simply observing. Notice that it will begin to change on its own, without any effort on your part, in its due time.
Notice how you feel toward whatever you're shining the light onto. If there's any negative emotion toward it, you can choose to focus your awareness on the source of that emotion, and shine the loving sunlight on it instead, until it dissolves.
This process can be applied to any negative feeling or disliked aspect, and it will take it beyond acceptance into healing.
Thank you for your suggestions and advice, while I find this is good and helpful, I regret to say I am uncertain as to if some of these emotions should be accepted, I have often cited my own murder fantasies, many of which are more unpleasant than anything else. I accepted them as a suppressed mind lashing out at the perceived monstrous behavior of others. You might imagine how that reflects on me. For me, shining light on those dark images doesn't really do much but make them even more vivid. I've found I've had to come to some uncertain understanding as to their existence for a positive and good reason, as otherwise it'd throw me for a loop in trusting the good intentions of any unknown force on my life such as Creator or Guides or even Spirits. It says something in my mind of those who can accept such horrible images, it scares me.
However I have observed that when I provide loving attention to my rather intrusive and indifferent cat even in the middle of being angry, it does help alleviate those unpleasant feelings...
I like to think acceptance comes in a gradient of levels, and that when it comes to some of the more harder things to accept, at the very least I can try to accept the existence of another aspect of creation, I just find that acceptance comes a whole lot easier from some form of appreciation of what is attempting to be accepted. It is very hard to appreciate and accept some of the more sad things that happen. More so for the atrocious things. And especially of the grotesque things.
One can remove titles such as horrible and monster, but the manifestations speak for themselves.
But perhaps from a Psychological point of view, every manifestation of darkness can have a reason or 'cause' that when treated or 'healed' can make such darkness be explained as an effect of something positive being twisted and hurt.
Thank you though, as for many other important things your article will probably provide much needed guidance on how to deal with the most basic problems of nonacceptance. I just find I've always found an easier appreciation from some technical or mechanical explanation, or the hows and whys of how and why something works.
@Glow, I'm going to give more thought before replying, not that you said anything bad! I'm just a bit tired and need some time to reflect on your words. It's the too true ones that take me some time to process...
(That moment when I never clicked Post and almost closed this tab before doing so...)