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July/August 2003 Living Now
Creating Abundance in Your Life

by Michele LeBien

I learned about the power of affirmations ten years ago. I remember spending many months creating, writing and repeating affirmations of what I wanted in my life. Some of the things I asked for manifested, but most did not. This left me feeling very frustrated and confused. I couldn’t understand why affirmations seemed to work for some people but not for others – particularly not for me!

The breakthrough for me was when I realized that our thoughts, emotions and will-power work together to create the reality we experience. We can affirm all we want, but if our emotions and will power are going against our thoughts, we will manifest a mere fraction of what we truly want.

Thoughts help us focus on what we want. Language is a powerful creative tool. It allows us to explore different scenarios before we create them – to think through solutions before we implement them. And once we have chosen a goal or a course of action, language allows us to create an affirmation of what we want. Our affirmations help us stay focused on our goals. When the air around us gets thick with fog, our affirmations act like bright lighthouses, reminding us again and again of where we want to go.

Emotions energize our thoughts. Most of us energize our thoughts with fear-based emotions. We hate and resent the current apartment we live in, so we start affirming, "I now live in a beautiful new home." While our thoughts are affirming this new reality, our emotions are reflecting our current situation – we feel angry and resentful. Thus, our affirmation, "I now live in a beautiful new home" gets carried out on the waves of anger and resentment. This is counter-productive. It is like eating an apple followed by five donuts and then wondering why we aren’t losing any weight.

Love is the most powerful energizer in the world. If you really want to manifest something fast in your life, love it into being. When you affirm, "I now live in a beautiful new home," feel how much you would LOVE to be in this new home. Love your current home – bless it for providing you with a roof over your head. Imagine your current home being occupied by someone who will love and appreciate it. Then see yourself in your new, beautiful home and lose yourself in your love for this new home. If you can do this, you will manifest that new home very quickly.

Our will power gives us the intention and commitment to manifest our goals. It is our will power that pushes us to stick with our affirmations even when our outer world seems to contradict them. It is our will power that says, "No!" to thoughts of doubt and fear and, "yes!" to the thoughts we wish to create. And it is our will power that tells our emotions to walk away from resentment and to start focusing on the love that is in our life right now.

It is we who control the flow of abundance into our lives. It is we who say, "No more! Stop!" And it is we who give up too quickly. When we ask God for help and then walk away before it shows up, we are like the guest at a restaurant who orders his meal and when it doesn’t show up in five minutes, storms out in anger and bitterness – "I trusted that restaurant to feed me and look what it did! It totally ignored me! I’ll never go back to that restaurant again." 20 minutes later, the chef walks out with a beautifully prepared meal. When he realizes the guest has left, he waits for someone else to claim it. Sure enough, another man steps up and asks if he can have the meal. The chef smiles and hands it over.

This happens all the time. God plants an idea in our head, but we don’t put in the work required to make it happen or we give up too quickly. Eventually, someone else comes along, picks up our idea and grows it to its fullest glory. We are aghast. We are angry. We feel betrayed. That was MY idea, we say. How dare they? Perhaps we even sue them!

Such behavior does not become a Child of God. Instead of cursing that person, bless them and send them prayers of love and thanksgiving. Realize that if they can succeed, so can you. That if God was willing to work through them to create a miracle, God is willing to work through you. All you have to do is say, "Yes, God, yes!" And soon another idea will be presented to you.

This time, don’t hesitate to do the work necessary on the physical plane to bring it into full form. Do what needs to be done and love it into being. It will grow and grow in ways you could have never imagined. Until one day, you will look at all the wonders that God has manifested through you and realize you are so full of God’s grace that you don’t have any more room in your heart for bitterness, jealousy or resentment. You will realize that you are free.

Michele LeBien is an Intuitive, Inspirational Speaker and Seminar Leader. Her topics include Public Speaking, Creating Money and Leadership. She can be contacted at mlebien@msn.com