You’ve heard it over and over again. Say your affirmations every day and you will be/do/have what you want. So we start saying things like “My bank account is growing every day,” “I’m going to meet my life partner,” or “My business is a great success.” We say these words and a little voice sneaks in and whispers in our ear. “When?” or “No, it’s not.” What we are not realizing is that by saying affirmations we are keeping what we want in the future by continually repeating, “I am going to…”, etc. So, we say, okay, what if I say my affirmations in the present tense. “My business is growing every day.” Better, but something is still missing. Property. And that’s where statements come into play.
I looked in the dictionary to find the distinction between affirmations and statements since I already had my own way of discerning between the two.
Affirm means “positively affirm, confirm.”
To declare is “to make known officially, formally, to make evident”
Now, at first glance, they may seem interchangeable. I mean, if I’m saying “My business is a huge success,” I’m affirming it in a positive light and aren’t I making it official too? Well not really. The difference here, and the reason many people get frustrated when they don’t see results with affirmations, is very subtle, but powerful. When you affirm, you are stating something in the positive, many times in the future (which will always remain in the future, but more on that later), but when you declare, you are NOW. You come from a place of being instead of trying to get somewhere. Let’s take a closer look at the difference and how they apply to the Law of Attraction and deliberate creation.
Affirmations are statements that attempt to move you from one place to another. In the “real” world, that’s what you’re trying to achieve, isn’t it? However, in the vibrational world, which is the undercurrent of all that we are creating, you are experiencing resistance to the present. This acts as an obstacle in the way of getting/experiencing what you want. If you phrase your affirmations as a process, “I’m getting richer every day,” this softens it up a bit, since it’s much easier for many people to see it as a process than just saying they “are.” This is still, however, the process of going from one place to another and you have not yet embodied what you want. We can take a closer look at this by looking at the energetic difference in the statements.
When you declare something, you are telling the Universe (and also yourself, which is extremely powerful) that you are already that thing/person you want. I am that. When you come from a place of being, you embody all of the qualities and characteristics of it now from a vibrational standpoint, and therefore align with it. All of this happens before you are actually in your physical reality. Then it must come to you. You express your statements in the present tense in the form of I AM statements. I am wealth. I am love. I am beauty I am successful Can you feel the difference of “I’m getting rich?”. It seems so subtle in wording and yet possesses great energetic distinction.
When you declare something, you are making a declaration from a place of being: you are already there. You can imagine and feel what it would be like to be that person that you would like for me. How would I act and feel if I were a person who is now rich or if I were a successful businessman or a great partner? When you can become this person (we’ve all heard of acting as if…) now, you’ll start to see evidence of it in your life in a short amount of time, with constant practice.
There is a wonderful formula I heard recently that will help exemplify this:
Being-thinking-speaking-acting-receiving
First you become the person who already has what you want. When you can feel what that is like, it will start to affect your thoughts throughout the day. As deliberate creators know, your thoughts carry energy that draws to you what you think about most. So as you think about the thoughts of a person who already has this, your speech will in turn align with your thoughts. This takes a bit of practice and a lot of self-awareness at first, but it soon becomes second nature. You’ll start paying more attention to your internal dialogue, as well as the casual conversations you have with friends, colleagues, and even strangers. When someone asks “how are you?”… now you will think twice before answering, as you now understand the true power behind the words, I AM…
As your thoughts and words begin to change, so will your actions. You will be inspired to take those actions that will lead you to see the results you desire. Actions are really just the vehicle in which you can receive. For example, you want to be really rich, but your past shows you all the evidence to the contrary. So, you start to “be” a rich person. You imagine what you would do with the money, how it would feel to have all your debts paid off, you would start planning where you would like to go on vacation, etc. Then you start thinking thoughts throughout the day and realize how rich you already are. You have a car, a beautiful place to live, food always when you are hungry, etc. So you start saying things to people like “I choose not to buy this now” instead of “I can’t afford it.” A few weeks later, he decides to attend a family reunion that he was invited to. Family reunions were never your thing, but this time you feel like going. He finds out that he is about to inherit $50,000 from a relative who recently passed away. Since he has already been aligned with being “rich”, he is allowing this to come into his experience. See how it all comes together?
So how do you start making statements work for you?
1) Start making a list of I AM statements of all the things you want for yourself. It can be a way of being, the type of person you would like to be, experiences or physical things that you would like to manifest.
2) Repeat your I AM statements each day (consistency is very important) and throughout the day as you remember. I have found it extremely helpful to tell myself “I am peace” when I find myself in a potentially stressful situation. You can instantly feel the energetic shift as you remind yourself that you can decide how you will react/experience your life.
3) Spend some time each day imagining or visualizing yourself being that person. The more rich detail you can add to this, the more powerful vibration you are sending out to the Universe that you already embody and therefore own.