Affirmations are a Gift!

The image below is from www.mysticmum.co.uk.  What a wonderful poster!

Yesterday, I watched a short movie called “THE STRANGEST SECRET”.    The key point in the movie is that by changing what you think about and how you think about anything, you can change your life.  This same thought was the theme of the movie “A KNIGHT’S TALE” starring Heath Ledger.  In fact, the theme was – You can change your stars!

Listening to Nightingale talk sent me back to a sales and marketing course that I took many years ago.  In that three day workshop, I learned ten affirmations that I still use today.  Here they are:

1. You like yourself unconditionally. You really like yourself. 
2. You always speak in positive terms about yourself and others.
3. You enjoy and appreciate everyone you meet. You like them, and they like you.
4. You always decide for yourself what is best for you, and you allow others the same right.
5. You accept complete responsibility for your life, and for your reactions to all situations.
6. You enjoy excellent health, and you are easily able to relax at any time.
7. You are always calm, confident, and self assured in your interactions with others, with groups as well as with individuals.
8. You are very creative in all areas of your life, always tapping more and more into your super conscious mind.
9. You have an excellent memory, and you easily recall names, numbers, and information.
10. You are a total winner and you are completely successful at everything that you undertake to do.

When I say them, I change the word “you” to “I”.  When I listen to them as a meditation, I keep the word “you”.  Repeating each affirmation five times solidifies the meaning in your mind.  Five is the number of “getting things done”.

I asked my guides if affirmations work.  They responded that affirmations are simply mantras.  In a recent blog, I gave this explanation of a mantra.

Mantra repetition simply means  repeating a sentence or group of words that have a phonetic significance. 

Mantra is intrinsically related to sound. Mantra is sound, and sound is reverberating in everything in this universe. When water flows, the gurgling sound it makes, is mantra. When wind blows through the trees, the  rustling sound it produces is mantra.  When we walk on the earth, our footsteps produce sound, and that too is mantra. 

Many eastern mantras are repeated 100 times at a sitting.  Imagine the change in your body, mind, and spirit if you repeated the above affirmations 100 times a day.  Why not try it? Start with five repetitions of each affirmation, and see what change happens for you.  Let me know the results.

Many blessings,

Judy

The Sound of OM

Before Covid I was teaching a beginner’s meditation class, and as part of the workshop, explained the concept of the word/sound “OM” to the participants.  Then we did some experiential learning with the sound, both with only me saying the sound, and then with all of us saying the sound.

Students felt the vibration from the sound whether I did it or whether they did it. And, they were profoundly moved!

 

Picture of OM from omgayatri.com

'ॐ' is a kind of shortcut of the word 'ओम' in DevaNagari and other Indic scripts – from omgayatri.com

 

 

Here is part of a slide that I presented on “OM”.  

Mantra repetition simply means  repeating a sentence or group of words that have a phonetic significance. 

Mantra is intrinsically related to sound. Mantra is sound, and sound is reverberating in everything in this universe. When water flows, the gurgling sound it makes, is mantra. When wind blows through the trees, the  rustling sound it produces is mantra.  When we walk on the earth, our footsteps produce sound, and that too is mantra. 

According to ancient Indian belief  in the beginning there was sound, which  reverberated as Om and from that sound everything came into existence.

I believe that the sound OM, pronounced A-U-M and strung out (Pronunciation: aaaaauuuuummmmm), really is the the sound of Divine creation.  I have seen people chant this for a while, and then suddenly break out in hard sobbing, because, through the chant, they have been reconnected to The Divine, and the person feels an incredible blessing and release.  I know that when I have an issue that I can not seem to move with other tools, that I can generally move it within ten minutes by using the OM chant.

 

OM or Aum is a Sanskrit root word or seed-sound symbolizing the creative divine intelligence which creates ands sustains all things: It is also known as the cosmic vibratory intelligent word of God that sustains all the created universes. Aum of the Vedas became the sacred word Hum of the Tibetans; Amin of the Moslems; and Amen of the Egyptians Greeks, Romans, Jews and Christians. OM symbol  and info from www.astrogems.com

One of the stories that I shared in the workshop was about using OM out in Nature. Quite a few years ago, before our park got so busy, my husband, Roger, and I walked out in the park almost every evening during the summer.  Often, we would find a big log beside the river sub-channel, and sit and OM.  Often while we sat there chanting, the beavers would bring their supper of sticks, and come and sit on the river bank, close to where we were sitting, and chow down and listen to the concert.  When we were done, they would swim off.  The beaver’s actions told me that they, too, enjoy the sound of The Divine.

If you have never tried to say the sound “OM”, I invite you to try it now.  Try it several times a day.  It is a wonderful pick-me-up!

Many Blessings,

Judy

Mother Duck Trusts

 

    This picture is a random picture of a duck and a grate, and is not part of the story below.

 

To finish off this week of blogs, I am writing up one more story.

Years and years ago, one of my friends sent me the coolest story of a duck trusting her instincts and going to a policeman for help to save her babies.  This Mother Duck is a shining example of faith, of extreme love for her young, of the way Nature is changing with all of her children, and it is simply a great story about having the spirit to survive regardless of the obstacles.  Animals and birds are like humans, our future survival depends on the survival of our children.  And this Mother Duck has it right!  The story below originally appeared in the Vancouver Sun back in 2008.  I loved the story so much that I kept the clipping.

Judy  (Send me any interesting animal stories and I will include them!  email - lightstationwisdom@gmail.com)

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Mother duck's 'bird brain' saves ducklings  
She grabs police officer by pant leg to lead him to her brood trapped under grate  
Nicholas Read Vancouver Sun

*********************************************** 

Ray Peterson, Special to the Sun / Mother duck shows police officer where her ducklings fell through a grate into a sewer underneath the Granville Street Bridge.

Don't mention 'bird brains' to Ray Petersen, because after what happened this week, he won't hear a word of it. 

Petersen, a community police officer for Granville Downtown South, was walking in the 1500-block Granville Street (directly under the Granville Bridge) Wednesday morning when a duck came up and grabbed him by the pant leg. Then it started waddling around him and quacking. 

'I thought it was a bit goofy, so I shoved it away,' Petersen said in an interview. 

But the duck, a female (he thinks it was a mallard), wasn't about to give up that easily. Making sure she still had Petersen's eye, she waddled up the road about 20 metres and lay on a storm sewer grate. 

Petersen watched and thought nothing of it. 

'But when I started walking again, she did the same thing. She ran around and grabbed me again.' 

It became obvious to him then that something was up. 

So when she waddled off to the sewer grate a second time, Petersen decided to follow. 

'I went up to where the duck was lying and saw eight little babies in the water below. They had fallen down between the grates.' 

So Petersen took action. He phoned police Sergeant Randy Kellens, who arrived at the scene and, in turn, got in touch with two more constables. 

'When they came down, the duck ran around them as well, quacking. Then she lay down on the grate,' Petersen said. 

While Kellens looked over into the grate, the duck sat on the curb and watched. 

Then the two constables, John Schilling and Allison Hill, marshalled a tow truck that lifted the grate out of position, allowing the eight ducklings to be rescued one by one with a vegetable strainer. 

'While we were doing this, the mother duck just lay there and watched,' Petersen says. 

Once the ducklings were safe, however, she set about marching them down to False Creek, where they jumped into the water. 

Kellens followed them to make sure they were all right, but elected to remain on shore. 

The experience has changed Petersen's mind about ducks. He thinks they're a lot smarter than he used to. 

And while he never ate duck before, he says he wouldn't dream of it now.

*****************************

Many blessings,

Judy