“Whatever you believe in today, makes a specific tomorrow that much more likely.”
Learn how to formulate your intentions in a more productive manner. Find out why telling yourself what you want to accomplish, often will take you further away from your goal.
This Practice assumes you have an issue, relationship, or circumstance in your life that you would like to better understand or change, over the course of time. In other words, it assumes you have an intention to somehow be or do things, differently.
Important background points
Talk to yourself in “positive” terms, and with “positive” images.
It is important to think about the unintended message you give yourself when you state an intention, in “negative” terms. For example if you say to yourself, “I want to stop smoking.” You are talking to yourself about smoking, and not about your positive intention of “living a healthy life”. You are inadvertently focusing on what you are wanting to avoid, rather than focusing on what you are wanting to accomplish.
If you state your intention over and over again in negative terms, you will be reinforcing the point that “smoking” is the important issue, rather than instead reinforcing the point that “being healthy” is what you are truly concerned with.
As a further example, think about the pictures you will likely make in your “mind’s eye” if you repeat over and over again, “I want to lose weight.” In order for you to understand the meaning of the words you are repeating to yourself in regard to wanting to lose weight, you will likely create an mental image of your current “overweight” condition. Not a great self image to keep in your mind’s eye when wanting to be, “slim and trim”. When you describe to yourself what you no longer want to do, or how you no longer want to be, you create negative self images that make change and understanding all that much more difficult. A successful athlete would NOT say to herself “I am no longer missing important field goals.” Instead, she would want to state what she DOES want to be doing. “I shoot my field goals with confidence and focus.” These are the words that will give her a positive self image.
Let yourself know in positive terms how you do want to be, and create a positive image that reinforces your desire.
Speak in the present tense
Physicists tell us that time is not really linear as we normally experience it, but rather happening “all at once”. In other words, science leads us to understand that tomorrow does not necessarily come “after” today. With this thought in mind you can consider the wisdom of the following: “Whatever you believe in today makes a specific tomorrow that much more likely to occur.”
When you think about how tomorrow is strongly influenced by what you believe in today, you can see that if you tell yourself “I want to be healthy,” you are reinforcing a belief that you currently are not healthy. Reinforcing such a belief will tend to make the changes you desire that much more difficult to achieve.
This Practice offers you a new time perspective from which to consider learning and changing. It suggests that you consider your intention already accomplished, and go from there. In this way you will be “trying on, like a new suit of clothes” how it is you DO want to be, rather than reinforcing what your currently are not.
If you want to understand yourself better and help yourself to change, you will do best to talk to yourself using positive terms and images based on the “here and now that is timeless”. This gives you the best opportunity to create an image and a felt sense that aids you in your process of self understanding.
One more point:
It is important to keep your “I am” statement simple. In general, the simpler the better.
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You will do best to read through the instructions once or twice before actually performing this Practice.
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This Practice assumes you have an issue, relationship, or circumstance in your life that you would like to better understand or change, over the course of time.
1. Seat yourself so that you are comfortable, while having the possibility of free and easy movement.
2. Create an “I am” statement.
In order to do so:
A) Consider something about yourself, a relationship, or the world you live in, that you would like to better understand or change.
B) Now imagine you have already achieved the results you desire. Make a statement that describes your new way of being, in simple terms. Remember, you need to phrase your statement in regard to how you feel having already accomplished your intention.
Examples:
Instead of saying “I am no longer arguing with Fred.” you would want to create an “I am” statement something like “Fred and I are good friends.”
Instead of saying “I am no longer anxious.” You might want to create an “I am” statement that says, “I am calm and confident.”
If you are feeling depressed and would like to feel energetic and upbeat, your “I am” statement could be, “I feel energized and enthusiastic.”
Please create your “I am” statement now.
3. Once you have created your “I am” statement, take a deep breath and repeat it slowly and calmly to yourself.
4. Now take another deep breath and repeat your “I am” statement again.
5. Now, slowly take a look around you…. hear the sounds in your local environment…. take a deep breath…. and repeat your “I am” statement once again.
6. If you feel like you need to or want to, please further tailor or edit your “I am” statement now. This ongoing “tailoring” process is sometimes of great importance, because it is likely your understanding of your challenge will change over time.
7. Now take another deep breath and repeat your “I am” statement again.
8. Now, slowly take a look around you…. hear the sounds in your local environment…. take a deep breath…. and repeat your “I am” statement once again.
9. This time take THREE deep breaths and then repeat your “I am” statement once again.
Debrief
How do you feel having made your “I am” statement numerous times?
Many people report feeling somehow “odd”. Others say that they feel like they are lying to themselves. Still other people report feeling a sense of peace and growing confidence. Whatever you do feel is totally fine, because one of the main ideas of this Practice is to support the process of believing in yourself. The benefits of this Practice are received by repeating your statement and “growing into it” over time.
Instead of hoping for a sudden short term change that is lasting, look for small changes in the way you think and feel, over the course of the coming days and months. Lasting change rarely comes along like a thunder bolt.
If you are in an appropriate space, it is excellent to alert the world to your intention, by making your “I am” statement out loud. Making your statement out loud is an excellent way of “growing into” the statement, and feeling comfortable with your new self image as time goes on.
Engage in the process of repeating your “I am” statement, and “tailoring” it as often as you like, whenever you like, over the course of the coming days and weeks. Remember, keep it simple, and you are likely to become more confident in your ability to achieve your goals and desires.