Thinking Affirmatively

Holmes starts this essay, from Living the Science of Mind, pages 18 - 20 with the declaration that, “There is a Power for Good in the Universe greater than you are and you can us It.”

The question is how can we use this power more effectively? Why do we not use it? In this essay he offers three principles to deepen our awareness of the this Power and through a deeper understanding of It, it strengthens our us of it.

Principle One

We are are already one with Universal Mind that can do anything. We don't have to make ourselves into something other than what we are now. Electricity already exists but until we are aware of it and its principles then we cannot use it to power our homes. Our awareness of our relationship to Universal Mind empowers us to cooperate with it and as a result, reap the benefits of this relationship. It isn't about changing our Self, but how we are relating to this Self and the Universe of which we are a part.

Divine Mind made us of Itself, and It responds and reacts to us in the way we think. This is what is most important - the way we are thinking, the way we use our mind. It is important because our thoughts become the Law of our Life. It does this as Divine Mind mirrors back to us what we are holding in our consciousness. If we want to know what we are holding in our consciousness, pause and consider what you tell yourself and others about your life.

Principle Two

As centers of consciousness in this Universal Mind, the "sum total" of our consciousness is either drawing us or repelling us from our good. Another way to describe this is that the sum total of who we are is either a vibrational match to the good we seek or it is not. What is in our mind determines the channel we are tuned into or not. It is not possible to be tuned into prosperity if we are dialed into lack. It is not possible to be full of peace when we are ready to attach and defend ourselves from those we have named as enemies.

In this Universal Mind, we are "thinking centers," like servers in a computer network. In any given moment through our attention we are serving up a vibration that either matches our intention or not. Most of the time this is an automatic process, happening unconsciously. And yet because the trajectory of our life is driven by what we are giving our attention to, if we desire to create a life of choice and purpose we must make the unconscious, conscious.

It is when we bring "awareness" to these patterns of thought that we discover the power to think a new and different thought in order to bring us into harmony with the flow of Life.

Principle Three

Because we can change our thinking, we cause the Law to act for us rather than against us. And by using the flashlight of awareness we can bring about changes in our patterns of thought. As we bring into focus what we desire to experience, that which is is "undesired" can begin to fade into the background. It is a process that takes time and practice, we did not get to where we are today overnight but a new thought like a drop of ink in the water, will diffuse into the sum total of our consciousness.

Affirmative prayer is a means by which we go within ourselves to examine what has been going on beneath the surface of thought and clarify what it is that we do want to experience. As we accept this inner reality as an experiential reality it will become the perception and experience of our daily life in time.

According to Holmes:

"This whole ideal is so simple that it often eludes us. We are surround by a Creative mind which reacts to our thinking. The sum total of all our thinking decides what is going to happen to us. We can chane our thinking and cause the very law that limited us to bring freedom."

This simplicity can cause us to discount its power in our life, and to not use the power that is as close to us as our next thought. These principles require our active use of them, as "living out loud" is an active state of being and doing.

How is it that we use them? It starts with us accepting them at least at first as a possibility. By our practice and experience of them at work we will come to develop the mental attitudes of belief and faith. We can begin by introducing new thoughts in your mind regarding your belief. Holmes offers affirmations:

"Practice affirmative prayer daily, by saying: "I do have faith; I do have conviction; I do believe; I do know and understand that there is a Power greater than I am; I do realize that I can use It; there is nothing in me that can doubt, deny or limit this Power; my whole being accepts It both consciously and unconsciously."

This is a conscious use of our thought redirecting what we are thinking, and creating new patterns in our mind of how we relate to the Creative Process through the use of affirmations and affirmative prayer.

We may have been convinced that things are not working out for us. Our feeling provide us with plenty of evidence of the truth of this; it is through thinking affirmatively that we adopt a new thought that we gradually accept and embody and experience.

"I do accept this good. I do believe my prayer is answered. I do affirm the presence of love, friendship, happiness, prosperity, health, peace – whatever the need may be – and nothing in me denies rejects or refutes it. I do accept it."

We identify ourselves with what we are thinking, but with understanding that these principles are at work we can come to see that the Thinker and the Thoughts are not synomous. We may have identified with thoughts: "I am poor. I feel bad. I am weak and lonely." These are rooted in unconscious patterns of thought that creative intelligence has mirrored to us as our experience of life. The Power that is in us as us is greater than these and we can introduce a new thought and by changing our thoughts through the use of these principles, we create a shift in our experience, and with practice overtime our fears become faith, thinking, affirmatively we come to live affirmatively.