Recently, at the healing circle I attend, one of the leaders talked to us about building our own mantras – or affirmations – to help manifest what we want in life. I must confess, at one time I thought affirmations were a waste of time, stating the obvious if you like. I mean, we all want better lives don’t we, so it’s a waste of time coming up with stuff and repeating it, because our thoughts are as powerful as our words, so let’s just keep thinking positive and things will get better, right?

Er – actually that’s wrong, as I have since discovered. Manifestation is all about setting intentions and sending them out to the Universe so it knows the direction you’re heading in. As I’ve said before, while the Law of Attraction premise that what you send out is what you get back is fine in principle, there’s one thing you need to know. The Universe can’t distinguish between what we want more of and what we want less of. It just focuses on what we focus on, assuming, reasonably enough, that if we’re giving something all our attention, it must be important to us.

So it follows that we must make sure our thoughts are occupied with what we want in our lives, not what we want to release, and this is where affirmations come in, because they focus our thoughts on what’s important to us. When I was building my affirmation, it was around the time of the Full Moon, which also happened to be a Super Moon and a Blue Moon. It was the perfect time to come up with a powerful affirmation focused on releasing what no longer served me to make room for abundance coming in.

Affirmations don’t need to be specific, as can be seen from some of the examples the circle leader mentioned. However, they should be personal to you, so begin with I Am, then add as much or as little as you wish. Here are some examples to get you thinking:

I am loveI am lightI am compassionI am aligned with my higher selfI am one with the Universe

Only you know what’s important to you, and what you need the Universe to know. For me, it was vital to affirm that I was eager to accept what I couldn’t control, release what didn’t serve me and make room for abundance to flow. I didn’t feel the need to be specific, just to let the Universe know that there was space in my heart and my life for abundance, and I was in the right frame of mind, that is positive, high vibrational and grateful, despite a few recent setbacks. In other words, I wanted to demonstrate my faith in the power of positivity, and the certainty that when things go wrong, it’s because they need to change, not because the Universe has it in for me!

Being a writer, a three or four word affirmation is never going to cut it, so this is what I came up with:

I am the Universe, the Universe is me

I accept and release, I am ready to receive

I am aligned with abundance

For me, this is my way of letting the Universe know I am in the best place spiritually for receiving abundance. I also add ‘And so it is’ at the end of any affirmation or prayer, it’s a sort of ‘Amen’ to state my intention, and show that I have faith that it will be heard and actioned. The other important thing is to repeat the affirmation three times, either out loud or in your head, because that adds extra power to the affirmation.

Once you have your affirmation, it’s important to imprint it on your mind and believe in it. I find the best way to do this is to have it written down, then place it somewhere were you’ll see it many times every day. Pin it to the fridge door, frame it and hang it on the phone, or take a photo and use it as a screen saver on your computer or phone. It doesn’t need to be particularly artistic – although if you want to exercise your creative streak, go to town with it. The choice is yours.

I chose to stencil mine onto a canvas panel and sit it on the sideboard, where I can see it from where I sit. I’m no artist, but it’s for me, not for display or sale, so it doesn’t have to be perfect. It is bright and eye catching though.

My affirmation, with a few words left out to fit it on the panel!

Start the day by repeating your affirmation three times on waking, and again before going to sleep, so it’s your first thought in the morning and your last thought before sleeping. And repeat it again at various times through the day, particularly if you find negative thoughts creeping in. Remember you can send it as a thought or say it out loud, whatever works best for you.

Just one day after creating my affirmation, a difficult situation changed for a friend I was helping, bringing an unexpected solution to some of her issues. Not saying the affirmation did it all by itself, but like I said, once we have faith that things will get better, they usually do. So, what’s your affirmation going to be? Let me know in the comments.

Affirmations are great for manifesting abundance

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