100 Paths

Earlier this year, I met a tarot reader who also doubles up as a Bach-flower therapist. It was all very mystic the way we met, and I don’t even remember her name now. Though I don’t usually go for astrology and other ‘forecasts’ (I enjoy making up my future as I go along), in this instance, I went ahead with a strange sense of purpose. And I think it was all for my own good. As everything is.

She suggested I write daily affirmations to myself in a rather interesting order: 9 times with the right hand, 3 times with the left, and repeat this twice more. So, in all, I’d end up writing 27 times with the right hand and 9 times with the left, alternately.

The affirmation she originally asked me to write was: “I willingly release all chains of suppression and fear within me and allow LIGHT to enter my existence.” I kept an open mind about the exercise, as I do about a lot of other self-improvement activities in my life, and wrote down the affirmation in full faith, every day, no matter how long it took. Within a couple of weeks, however, I became uncomfortable about using negative terms – ‘chains’, ‘suppression’, ‘fear’. From my study of hypnotherapy, I have learnt that the subconscious doesn’t understand the rules of grammar; it merely picks up on the images and thoughts you keep projecting, and gives you more of them.

You remember how schoolteachers used to make errant children write down 100 times, “I will not talk in class”? Except they should have made them write the positive version of it: “I will be quiet in class” for better results! 🙂

So I decided to change my affirmation, and make it something more positive, like “I am free, fearless and confident. I allow LIGHT to guide my existence,” or something similar. I was flexible in the phrase I used, changing when I felt the urge to change. I wrote half-an-hour a day, five to six times a week. (These days, due to a Krishna phase I’m going through, the affirmation is: “I am fearless, energetic, enthusiastic and in control. I joyfully offer my life to Krishna.”)

It’s been almost three months now, and the experiment is working. I really am feeling fearless and more confident, enthusiastic about life, and in control of my destiny. Whenever something unexpected happens – happy or sad, frustrating or serendipitous – I now instinctively think, “This one’s for you, Krishna.” It detaches me emotionally from the unfavourable events, and makes the joyous ones all the more sublime. A bonus is that it’s got my writing muscles back to shape after years of typing on a keyboard. An indispensable skill for a journalist!

It’s all the power of the mind, really. I’ve just tapped one corner of it!