Affirmative Prayer: Harnessing Positive Intentions for Life's Transformation by Olivia Salter

 

Affirmative Prayer: Harnessing Positive Intentions for Life's Transformation

 

by Olivia Salter

In times of challenge and uncertainty, prayer becomes a powerful tool for seeking comfort, guidance, and positive transformation. One such approach is affirmative prayer, a method that transcends traditional notions of supplication and instead focuses on affirming positive outcomes and aligning one's thoughts with the desired result. Rooted in metaphysical principles, affirmative prayer offers individuals an empowering way to connect with the divine and manifest positive change in their lives.

Understanding Affirmative Prayer:

Affirmative prayer, also known as spiritual mind treatment, is a practice that originated in the New Thought movement of the late 19th century. It is based on the idea that our thoughts and words have creative power and shape our realities. Unlike traditional prayer, which may be centered around asking for help or intervention, affirmative prayer emphasizes the power of intention, asserting that our words and beliefs can transform our experiences.

The Principles Behind Affirmative Prayer:

1. Oneness with the Divine: Affirmative prayer operates under the understanding that our essential nature is intimately connected with the Divine. It recognizes that we are not separate from a higher power, but are expressions of it. This principle underscores the belief that by aligning our thoughts and beliefs with the divine essence within us, we can tap into a limitless potential for positive change.

2. Positive Focus: Affirmative prayer shifts the focus from problems or negative situations to desired outcomes. Rather than dwelling on lack or limitation, it involves focusing on the all-encompassing possibilities of the universe. By adopting positive thoughts and affirmations, individuals align themselves with the potential for transformative solutions, attracting the desired outcomes into their lives.

3. Co-creation: Affirmative prayer recognizes that we actively participate in the co-creation of our experiences. It emphasizes personal responsibility and agency, encouraging individuals to take an active role in shaping their realities. Through the power of affirmative thinking, individuals can deliberately shift their beliefs and expectations, aligning themselves with the circumstances they desire.

The Process of Affirmative Prayer:

1. Recognition: The first step in affirmative prayer involves acknowledging the presence of a higher power or universal intelligence. It recognizes that the divine essence is within and around us, ready to support and guide us.

2. Unification: Affirmative prayer emphasizes the importance of aligning our thoughts and beliefs with the divine. By affirming our oneness with the higher power, we create a receptive space within ourselves for positive transformation.

3. Affirmation: Affirmative prayer utilizes positive affirmations and statements to embody the desired outcome. These statements are written or spoken in the present tense, as if the desired outcome has already been realized. By maintaining faith and conviction in these affirmations, individuals open themselves to receiving the intended blessings.

4. Gratitude: Expressing gratitude is an essential aspect of affirmative prayer. By cultivating appreciation for the blessings and transformations being manifested, individuals reinforce their alignment with the divine and invite more positive experiences into their lives.

Benefits of Affirmative Prayer:

1. Empowerment: Affirmative prayer empowers individuals by shifting their focus from problems to solutions. It encourages self-belief, personal responsibility, and proactive engagement with the creative forces of the universe.

2. Emotional Healing: Affirmative prayer helps individuals release negative emotions and limiting beliefs. By choosing to focus on positive outcomes, individuals can experience emotional healing and a sense of peace.

3. Personal Growth: Through the practice of affirmative prayer, individuals cultivate a mindset of possibility and abundance. This mindset nurtures personal growth, resilience, and an expanded perception of what is possible in their lives.

In conclusion, affirmative prayer offers a powerful and transformative approach to prayer, enabling individuals to align their thoughts and beliefs with positive outcomes. By focusing on the limitless potential of the divine and adopting positive affirmations, individuals can co-create the life they desire. Through the practice of affirmative prayer, individuals tap into their innate creative power, experience personal growth, and manifest positive change in their lives.

 

 Prayer Wheel / Prayer For Earth

 

 This is where prayer wheels enter the cyber-age. Prayer wheels are used by Tibetan Buddhists to purify themselves and the entire world of its accumulated negative karma. Inside each prayer wheel is a paper or some other medium (such as microfilm) on which a mantra has been inscribed many times over. Typically the mantra is OM MANI PADME HUM, which Tibetans pronounce: Om Mani Pémé Hung.

 In English this means "the jewel in the lotus of the heart"; it is a reference to the hidden spark of divinity within each of us. The six syllables of the mantra are said to purify the six negative emotions: pride, jealousy, desire, ignorance, greed, and anger, while simultaneously engendering the six qualities of the enlightened heart: generosity, harmonious conduct, endurance, enthusiasm, concentration, and insight.

 If the mantra is inscribed once and placed into a prayer wheel, each rotation of the prayer wheel accumulates the same merit as saying the mantra once. Similarly, a prayer wheel containing 100 million instances of the mantra yields the same purification power per rotation as saying the mantra 100 million times.

 As I understand the concept of the prayer wheel, it spins and spins, continually sending our prayers up to the Diety. The turning of a prayer wheel brings incredible purification to all our negative karmas and obscurations, it causes us to actualize the realizations of the path to enlightenment, and accumulates unbelievable merit to the viewer.

 I have already filled this wheel with prayers for those in this world who are suffering or grieving or struggling to make their way, that they may find solace, healing and peace. I also pray that those whose lives are filled with joy and abundance may continue to be so blessed and that their blessings radiate out in wider and wider circles until they encompass us all.

 Please add your own prayers to the wheel - as many and as often as you wish. It is my prayer for all who stop here that your lives will be blessed with love and abundance in all its forms. And so it is.

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A Short Method of Prayer, and Spiritual Torrents by Jeanne Marie Bouvières de la Motte Guyon

 

A Short Method of Prayer, and Spiritual Torrents

by

 Jeanne Marie Bouvières de la Motte Guyon

 

Jeanne-Marie Bouvier de la Motte-Guyon (commonly known as Madame Guyon) was a French mystic and one of the key advocates of Quietism. Quietism was considered heretical by the Roman Catholic Church, and she was imprisoned from 1695 to 1703 after publishing a book on the topic, A Short and Easy Method of Prayer. Guyon believed that one should pray all the time, and that in whatever one does, one should be spending time with God.

 The "Quietist" heresy was seen to consist of wrongly elevating "contemplation" over "meditation", intellectual stillness over vocal prayer, and interior passivity over pious action in an account of mystical prayer, spiritual growth and union with God (one in which, the accusation ran, there existed the possibility of achieving a sinless state and union with the Christian Godhead). 

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