Fusing meditation and affirmations (Part Three)

Positive affirmations added to meditation can significantly change the equation, and that’s where my personal experience comes into play. An affirmation repeated after 20–30 minutes of meditation is a different animal after one has just spent considerable time reducing mental chatter, sustaining attention, becoming more aware of thoughts, without automatically following them, settling physiological arousal, and entering a state in which one’s attention is unusually concentrated. 

Both can be a very effective combination. It’s probably less as programming the subconscious and more as repeatedly training where my attention and behavior go, creating a fascinating feedback loop. For example let’s say that my affirmation is about becoming more patient (something I’ve been working on). When I meditate, I become calm, I repeat the affirmation while visualizing or emotionally experiencing patience. Now, just a bit later, I encounter an irritating situation.

Previously, the event might have triggered irritation and then automatic reaction, but after months of repetition, If I begin to get the same irritation, I can recognize it and that gives me pause before making a more deliberate choice. I won’t probably not even remember the affirmation consciously and that's a part that can feel almost mysterious, but it might be that the conscious mind doesn't have to be present at every step for a learned pattern to influence behavior. 

Then there’s another ingredient, and that’s emotion, a particularly important element in my case. An affirmation such as “I am becoming more patient” is one thing, but if repeated while I’m in a deeply peaceful state, accompanied by a genuine feeling of appreciation for the people and experiences that shaped me, it may turn into something quite different. 

I’m not merely saying the proposition, but I’m now associating it with a particular internal state that gives me something that through attention, followed by emotion, plus repetition, gets a true change in my behavior. That’s a much more potent learning combination than simply repeating words. 

My meditation/affirmation sequence may be doing several jobs simultaneously, and there is a remarkable circularity where meditation makes the affirmation more receptive. 

My affirmation gives my meditation a direction, while my behavior provides evidence, that evidence strengthens the affirmation and finally, my stronger belief makes subsequent meditation more meaningful. If anything, this explains in part why, after several years, I describe the results as “stunning.” 

Tomorrow we’ll conclude with the limitation I can see in part of my approach...