Why Affirmations Don’t Work – Part 20

Instead of being given pep-talks based on incredible testimonies of what happened in someone else’s life - I would much rather have been given a balanced, realistic message that encouraged me to make the most of the life circumstances that I face right now at this very moment.

The Need to Question Your Beliefs

Instead, I actively and forcefully reacted against my life circumstances in the hope of something more exciting and rewarding. I believe that it is this which is the main source of anxiety: it is the way in which we war against our life circumstances in our mind.

Thankfully, this is where through The Work of Byron Katie comes to the fore. The Work uses four questions and a “turnaround” to gently lead a person to see that the thought that they were holding onto so tightly, which is causing them so much stress, is simply not true. It is not just the thoughts of lack and defeat which can cause stress – it is also the incessant thoughts which demand that we need this or that in order to be happy, popular or secure.

Unfortunately, it is the things we cling onto in order to give us hope that we do not even consider to dare question – even though they are fuelling our anxious state. It is often these wrong desires around which we will make affirmations. A common example of this would be the desire for more money: when we make poor financial decisions and feel a sense of lack, we inevitably react with thoughts that insist we need more money. Therefore, such a person could start affirming something such as, “Money now flows to me copiously and effortlessly.”

But the people who think they need more money are often trying to compensate for something else in their life: they probably have a low self-esteem and assume they will be more popular if they have a big house, expensive car and flashy job title; perhaps such a person finds themselves in the red every month, because they spend money on things that they think will make them happy, therefore they buy things that they don’t really need, racking-up a debt on their credit cards.

Perhaps you are trying to maintain a lifestyle that you simply can’t afford? Do you think that God or the Universe is going to see to it that more money flows to you so that you can continue to live in your own little fantasy world?