Who I Am Affirmation – The Affirmation Spot for Wednesday December 2, 2009

Check Out Our Cool New Affirmation Apps:

Check out our new affirmation apps for Apple devices or search i-mobilize on the iTunes store. The Affirmation Spot is developing these motivation apps in partnership with i-mobilize. Click an app to view it – Love Magnet, Sales Booster, Confidence Affirmation, or Full Body Scan, and many more.

---

Today’s affirmation is:

“Who I am is not for sale at any price! I am brilliant and beautiful and a best friend to everyone who knows me. I am peaceful and happy and more successful than ever before. I am relaxed and confident and trading in my old fears on new hopes.

2010 is going to be a wonderful year for me; a year of breakthrough, options, and opportunities for new paths to follow. I am excited and ready for the challenges and the triumphs that lie ahead.

No, my self-worth, my happiness, my freedom, my unbounded optimism about what is ahead is not for sale at any price!”

Stay inspired!

Ray

2009 Affirmation

“This year I am absolutely committed to being the person I came here to be!”

Your Belief Inventory – The Affirmation Spot for Monday January 12, 2009

Today’s Affirmation:

“This year I am absolutely committed to being the person I came here to be.”
(This is the official TAS affirmation for 2009. Click the affirmation to hear the mp3 version)

What you believe about you, your life, and the world impacts your experience of them. Your beliefs inform your thoughts and your thoughts generate your actions. And, of course, your actions create the world where you live. It’s very important to be aware of your beliefs.

Are your current beliefs fully conscious to you? Or, is your self-perception stuck in yesterday? Do you know what you believe today? Of course, the quick answer is “yes”. Do you really?

Just as a once- thriving river bed slowly dries up and changes course your beliefs can subtly shift over time almost without your knowledge. You don’t notice it day to day, but over years the change can be dramatic.

Life is an ever-changing adventure, but sometimes your self-perception and the perception of others does not keep up with who you are today.

You and the people around you may have an outdated idea of who you are.

Have you had the experience of really advancing in your professional or personal life only to have your family not recognize the change? You go home for the holidays and your mother still sees you and treats you like you’re 13. It can be very frustrating when others fail to recognize the strides and leaps you have made in life. Their perception of you can become locked in time.

When I was 25 I became seriously ill and spent several weeks in the hospital. One of the best internists in the city took my case. He became my personal physician for several years. He was a gifted and talented doctor, but he never let go of his vision of me as that sick person lying in a hospital bed. Finally, I had to move on and find a new doctor. His belief about who I was didn’t keep up with reality.

While frustrating when other people do this to you, you often do it to yourself. Has your perception of who you are kept up with the reality?

Here is an idea to help you get in touch with who you are today. Complete a Belief Inventory.

Take each of the following dimensions of your life (feel free to add your own) and write a brief description of your belief on that area of your life.

Don’t jump the gun. Give it some real thought. Really capture your true beliefs on each of these topics.

Belief Inventory

• Personality
• Relationships
• Career
• Body image
• Future
• Spiritual life
• Life
• Politics

Here’s the punchline. Now that you better understand where you really stand on these aspects of your life you can map a strategy for self-development based on where you really are instead of where you thought you were.

If you’re really bold, share it with family and friends and have them complete one on you. The feedback could be interesting and you will get a sense of who they think you are.

Have fun with your Belief Inventory and I’d love to hear how it comes out.

Stay inspired!

Ray

Time to Be Who You Came Here to Be – The Affirmation Spot for Friday January 2, 2009

Today’s Affirmation:

“This year I am absolutely committed to being the person I came here to be.”
(This is the official TAS affirmation for 2009. Click the affirmation to hear the mp3 version)

Unless you adhere to the most skeptical view of evolution, you probably believe that life has a purpose. There is a reason you – and everyone and everything that shares this planet with you – are here. Your very presence is a certifiable miracle.

Literally trillions of events in the history of this universe had to happen just right for you to be here. If any one of them had happened another way, then no you.

In my book, that makes your existence rather significant.

That begs the question. Why are you here? What are you here to be?

More than likely you know the answer to that question. It’s hidden or forgotten somewhere deep inside of you, but it is there. You’ve had inklings of it throughout your life. There are those things you just love doing and experiencing. There are places you just love to be. Perhaps at one time you dreamed of doing those things or being in those places.

Somewhere along the line your dreams and reality collided.  You gave up on the dreams to live in “reality.” “They” told you your dreams were not realistic and you bought it. My question to you is do your dreams and your reality have to be conflict? Can your dreams become your reality?

The great thinkers and spiritual teachers of our species have been clear and unequivocal in their conviction that our dreams can be our reality. Few things have been more universally taught.

That’s not to say that you can blink your eyes “Genie-style” and your wish becomes your life. It may take work. There may be challenges. You might have to make hard choices. None of the great sages ever promised otherwise.

Are your dreams worth it or not?

The joy and jubilation created by the new year will pass and “real life” will begin again. The momentum you need to make the changes you are promising yourself this year need to be boosted by something inspirational, if they are to survive.

Your dreams fit the bill perfectly. Suspend your disbelief and start walking in the direction of your dreams. As you get in better “dream shape” pick it up to a jog. By the end of the journey, you will be in full sprint towards your dreams.

Soon you will be embracing your deepest dreams and spending your days living your dreams instead of…well…dreaming about them. Belief and commitment are the only price of admission.

It’s time to “show up” and be the people we came here to be in 2009! Are you with me?

Stay awesome!

Ray

Yes, Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus – The Affirmation Spot for Christmas Eve 2008

Today’s Christmas Affirmations:

“Faith. I have the faith of a mustard seed. I command the mountains in my life into the sea and they obey.”

“This year I am restoring the true meaning of Christmas to my life.”

“I am building momentum for love in my life.”
(Click an affirmation to hear it or get the mp3 version for your music player)

---

Is there a Santa Claus? This headline appeared in the September 21, 1897 editorial page of the New York Sun. The question was posed by eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon. Her letter to the editor reads as follows:

“Dear Editor: I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, ‘If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.’ Please tell me the truth: Is there a Santa Claus?”

~ Virgina O’Hanlon
115 West Ninety-Fifth Street

New York Sun editor Francis Pharcellus Church responded to Virginia’s letter with this now famous editorial.

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowlege.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas how dreary would be the world if there was no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if their were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

110 years later we live in a world infinitely more skeptical than the one Church decried. Many view Santa as just another marketing device to feed our consumerist frenzy. He is real only in as far as he serves the bottom line and provides a small slice of innocence to an ever shrinking childhood.

In our world, one where knowledge is controlled by economists and scientists; if you cannot weigh something, measure it, or define it in objective terms, it’s not real. Santa doesn’t fit into this worldview. He cannot be observed or tested in a lab. Therefore, the reasoning goes, he is not real.

Santa represents one thing – The Possible. He cannot be conclusively proved. Neither can your dreams, determination, hope, compassion, or most of the other things that make life worth living. You cannot measure a dream or weigh determination or define hope. These concepts are not susceptible to the scientific method or measurable on a profit and loss statement. And, yet, can you deny their reality?

They, like Santa, are only observable indirectly by their effects on the world. What would the world be without dreams, determination, hope, or compassion? It would be devoid of The Possible the same as if there was no Santa. Even as adults, we must continue to believe in The Possible or risk being stuck in what is; unable to move forward.

So, Virginia, is there a Santa? Yes, there is, but those looking for Santa in chimneys will never find him. He lives only in the hearts of determined, hopeful, compassionate dreamers willing to suspend disbelief long enough see what is possible.

Believe!

Ray

Breathe, Visualize, Smile – The Affirmation Spot for Wednesday December 17, 2008

Today’s Affirmation:

“I am calm and entering an absolute state of peace and relaxation.”
(click the affirmation to hear it in mp3)

It’s Wednesday. The stresses of the work week have been accumulating for three days now. You’ve got fires to put out and deadlines to meet. Take a quick break.

Join me in a little exercise. It takes just two minutes and I guarantee it will bring peace to your day and smile to your face. You can do it right in your cube or office.

I want you to think about the most beautiful place you have ever been. It might be Hawaii, the Caribbean, The Grand Canyon. Anywhere is fine as long as you make sure it is the most beautiful place you’ve ever seen.

OK. Got it? Close your eyes and take a deep breath. For the next 30 seconds, I want to you to completely experience that place. Visualize the sites, hear the sounds, smell the smells…be there.

Great! You probably feel a little better than you did 30 seconds ago. Let’s continue.

Now I want you think about some upcoming event or activity that has you a little nervous. It can be work-related or personal. OK. This time I want you to see yourself performing that task in the most successful way you can imagine. Put aside all your concerns and focus on the absolute best outcome.

Close your eyes again and take another deep breath. For the next 30 seconds, I want you to see yourself “knocking this one out of the park”. Feel the successful outcome. Hear the kudos from colleagues, friends, or family. Be aware of the benefits that will come from this success. Enjoy your moment in the limelight.

How are we doing? Are we smiling yet? Feeling more confident and relaxed?

Last one. I want you to think about the one person in this world that you love the most. I want you to experience the feelings you feel when you get to spend an entire day uninterrupted with that person.

Close your eyes, deep breath…you know the routine. Feel the feelings you feel when you are around this person. Let those wonderful feelings fill your heart, stir in your gut, or well in your eyes. Let the warmth you feel inside spread to the rest of your body. Remember the good times you’ve spent together. That time at the beach…the time you got caught in the rain…the time you painted the house…whatever good memories come up.

Open your eyes. I’ll bet you feel happier, more relaxed, and that a smile has come to your face. Now, get on with your day and keep these feelings with you no matter what you face.

Stay inspired!

Ray