Place inspiring affirmations and quotes throughout your home, work space, vehicle, bags or anywhere else you can find a place for a post-it note. By doing so, you learn these phrases so that the unconscious mind begins to automatically associate an affirmation or quote wherever you are without consciously reading it.
I had Owen Water's gratitude affirmation in my medicine cabinet from apartment to apartment, and then at my first house. So, that was a good 8-10 years. At first I had to take the time to say the words out loud. Eventually I could look at the blue post-it and the words poured in my mind effortlessly. We had our bathrooms renovated, so I threw away my raggedy gratitude affirmation paper and haven't replaced it. On a conscious level many times when I open the new medicine cabinet, I visualize where that paper was, and begin to recite the words. It makes me wonder on an unconscious level how often my mind is reciting it when I'm in the throws of moving quickly in the mornings, with the kids at night brushing their teeth, or even potty training. Such a simple way to re-pattern the brain to bring in what we need the most through words.
Setting Healthy Boundaries / Protection
Affirmations
"Breathing in, I calm my body and mind. Breathing out I smile.
Dwelling in the present moment. I know this is the only moment."
~ Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Buddhist monk, teacher, author, poet, peace activist
"Within my aura of protective energy, all negativity is neutralized completely."
~ Mudras: for Healing and Transformation by Joseph & Lilian Le Page (Svasti Mudra)
Quote
"Love yourself enough to set boundaries.
Your time and energy are precious.
You get to choose how you use it.
You teach people how to treat you by deciding what you will and won't accept."
~ Anna Taylor, musician, singer-songwriter with cerebral palsy
Gratitude
Affirmation
I am grateful for life,
And all that I love
I am grateful for the Earth
And the sun up above
I am grateful for my spirit
And my inner being
For the one that I express
And the joy of this feeling
~ Owen Waters, spiritual metaphysics teacher
Quotes
"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity... It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow."
~ Melody Beattie, self-help author
"Gratitude is when memory is stored in the heart and not in the mind."
~ Lionel Hampton, American musician, composer, and actor
"At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us."
~ Albert Schweitzer, German/French theologist
Love
"Love is a state of Being. Your love is not outside; it is deep within you.
You can never lose it, and it cannot leave you."
"Underneath your outer form, you are connected with something so vast, so immeasurable and sacred, that it cannot be conceived or spoken of - yet I am speaking of it now. I am speaking of it not to give you something to believe in but to show you how you can know it for yourself."
"All that you ever have to deal with, cope with, in real life - as opposed to imaginary mind projections - is this moment."
"Observe the rhythm of your breathing; feel the air flowing in and out, feel the life energy inside your body. Allow everything to be, within and without. Allow the "isness" of all things. Move deeply into the Now."
"To be free of time is to be free of the psychological need of past for your identity and future for your fulfillment. It represents the most profound transformation of consciousness that you can imagine."
"Since resistance is inseparable from the mind, relinquishment of resistance - surrender - is the end of the mind as your master, the impostor pretending to be "you." The realm of Being, which had been obscured by the mind, then opens up. Suddenly, a great stillness arises within you, an unfathomable sense of peace. And within that peace, there is great joy. Ans within that joy, there is love."
"As long as the egoic mind is running your life, you cannot truly be at ease; you cannot be at peace or fulfilled expect for brief intervals when you obtained what you wanted, when a craving has been fulfilled. Since the ego is a derived sense of self, it needs to identify with external things. It needs to be both defended and fed constantly."
"Die to the past every moment. You don't need it. Only refer to it when it is absolutely relevant to the present. Feel the power of this moment and the fullness of Being."
"There is nothing wrong with striving to improve your life situation. You can improve your life situation, but you cannot improve your life. Life is primary. Life is your deepest inner Being. It is already whole, complete, perfect."
"When you create a problem, you create pain. All it takes is a simple choice, a simple decision: no matter what happens, I will create no more pain for myself. I will create no more problems. Although it is a simple choice, it is also very radical."
"You cannot think about presence. Understanding presence is being present. Try an experiment. Close your eyes and say to yourself: 'I wonder what my next thought is going to be.' then become very alert and wait for the next thought. Be like a cat watching a mouse hole. What thought is going to come out of the mouse hole?"
"As soon as your habitual state changes from being out of the body and trapped in your mind to being in the body and present in the Now, your physical body will feel lighter, clearer, more alive."
~ Eckhart Tolle from The Power of Now
