November 24, 2006 Afformations Why are you feeling so happy lately?

Why are you feeling so peaceful and strong? What I just did was treat you to a few "afformations," a new psychological tool everyone needs to know about. You've probably heard of "affirmations." These are sentences uttered in order t o create or "install" in the mind a supportive or generative belief about realit y. "I am peaceful and happy." "I am making plenty of money." "I deeply accept myself." Etc. The practice of affirmation is based on the fact that our minds contain a whole structure of beliefs about reality, some of which are supportive and generative of success, others of which are limiting and generative of paralysis or pain. I f, for example, we are beset by shame, we might want to install the belief, "I d eeply love and accept myself." If we feel financially stuck and think we can ne ver make an adequate income, it may be useful to install "I can easily make enou gh money to satisfy my needs." If we feel overloaded by duties and obligations, it may be helpful to install "I set boundaries gracefully and powerfully to cre ate space in my life." I was never a huge fan of affirmations, even though I used them on occasion. I always felt unpleasantly tense when saying them, like I needed to work the affir mation against a strong internal resistance. But, a revolution has occurred. I have learned from a teacher a new way to install beliefs, and I've been findin g it powerful and effective. It is this: Instead of saying, "This is so," about what you want to believe, you ask yourself the question, "Why is this so?" So, instead of, "I am peaceful and happy," you would say, "Why am I feeling so p eaceful and happy?" Instead of, "I make enough money to satisfy my needs," it would be: "Why am I ma king such a satisfying amount of money?" Instead of, "I set life-serving boundaries clearly and straightforwardly," it wo uld be, "Why am I setting boundaries so clearly and straightforwardly lately?" You don't actually need to answer the question, though you can say answers if th ey pop into your head. But all that is necessary is to ask the question, and to ask it repeatedly if you want to make it stronger. Then, let your unconscious mind do the rest. I've been using these "afformations," as they're called, for several weeks now, and I love them. They've worked well for me on both short-term and longer-term issues. I've done "Why am I giving such a good math lesson?" and then taught a great mat h lesson. I've done "Why am I enjoying myself so much at this family dinner ton ight?" and then enjoyed myself at the family dinner (when I'd walked in feeling like hell). I've done "Why am I getting along so well with so-and-so?" when soand-so and I had been arguing, and then got along fabulously with so-and-so.

For longer-term issues, I started with "Why am I feeling so happy lately?," and lately I've been feeling happy after years of feeling not so great. I've done, "Why am I making such a good income?" And, wouldn't you know it, my income has g one up significantly in the last few weeks. I've even done, "Why am I enjoying my body so much lately?" And for the first time since I was a little child, I'v e had in the last few days moments of enjoying my body. I don't mean to imply that these afformations are magic or that I have not also been doing other things, and other work, to bring about these changes; I have. I also don't wish to suggest the new age premise that we can be totally happy an d peaceful and blissed out at every moment of our lives, and that if we are not, we just need to "believe" differently. Life is far more complex than that. But I acknowledge that complexity. I know how to look at challenges and pain st raight in the eye; I understand the importance of accepting anger or sadness or pain with kindness and compassion; I am well practiced at allowing myself to be aware of uncertainty, doubt, and the like, as facts of my experience. And in th is context, I really feel like these afformations are helping me markedly and I' ve also gotten great results teaching my math students how to do them. Now, why are the afformations so powerful? For a very simple reason: they hypnotically address the unconscious mind, in a w ay that brilliantly bypasses resistance. You see, when you ask yourself a question, your unconscious begin to search for an answer. This is simply the way the ks ask it a question, it begins to generate answers. And ns like, "Why are you so happy lately?" are, indeed, useful mind cannot help but unconscious mind wor the answers to questio answers to know.

But more importantly, an afformation is a loaded question. Which means that in order for your unconscious mind to work on answering, it must accept the premise with which the question is loaded. It's really quite brilliant. Now of course, when someone uses loaded questions against you maliciously, it is important to identify the trick and block the trojan horse from entering your m ind. But given that the premises with which you are loading your afformations are, pr esumably, premises or psychological realities you want to install, there is obvi ously no need to block them out. That is to say, you can "trick" yourself enthusiastically and with a clear consc ience. So: Why am I feeling so happy lately? Why am I making such a good living? Why am I setting boundaries so clearly and straightforwardly? Why am I learning so much about life, and at deeper and deeper levels? Go ahead, try some of these out right now, out loud! See what it feels like. And then, whatever state of affairs you're looking to promote within yourself or in your life, I'd heartily propose that you experiment further with afformation s. Ask, ask, and ask again; imbue your questions with a spirit of intense curio sity; and then watch what happens over the next few weeks, months, and years. (Gratitude to Noah St. John, who invented this great technique.)

Posted at 12:24 PM | Permalink Comments Hi Andrew, This is Noah St. John, author and inventor of Afformations. Just wanted to say, thank you for letting folks know about the Afformations meth od. I appreciate your post and I really like the way you explained how to use the me thod. Well done! If I can be of any help or answer any questions, please don't hesitate to let me know. I'm happy to help people understand how to use this amazingly simple but oh-so-p owerful method. Oh, and you might want to stop by Afformations.com to see how people around the world are changing their lives using Afformations. Let me know any time I can help. Warmly, Noah St. John http://www.Afformations.com http://www.SuccessClinic.com