Sunday, July 19, 2009



OLD PAIRS OF SHOES – Part I
~ An Odyssey Into Attitudes and Beliefs

Attitudes and beliefs are like an old pair of shoes that may feel comfortable but are actually worn out. What keeps some people healthy, active and alert? From my perspective, it is to have an open mind without walls. Old attitudes and beliefs are walls that keep us from experiencing new and exciting opportunities.
One has only to look around our community, our country and the world to note how beliefs and attitudes determine people's lives. One of the major beliefs or attitudes is lack. One only has to listen to the words another person says. Here are a few of the old worn-out statements:
* I (we) can't afford it.
* I (we) don't have enough money.
* It costs too much.
* Money doesn't grow on trees.
* The price is out of my reach.
All one has to do is search one's memory for similar statements of beliefs.

Changing one's beliefs or attitudes is like putting on a new pair of shoes that fit beautifully once we have broken them in. One might ask how do I hold on to my new attitude or belief. This is where the power of affirmations comes in. An affirmation is not positive thinking. We can attempt to think positive all we want, however the opposite of positive is a negative. To affirm is to make the statement firm, which means that no negative can enter. It also means to maintain that it is true.

In 1979, I began reading The Dynamic Laws of Prosperity by Catherine Ponder. This book helped me to begin to unravel the attitudes and beliefs that I had once held sacred. Since that time, I have created my own affirmations and they change from time to time. Since I am writing about lack, I have affirmed that I always have plenty. A favorite affirmation of mine is, "I always have lavish increasing income for my use." I came upon the word lavish when I read in one of my many books a blurb about a U.S. physicist who as a teenager was living almost in poverty. His dream was to become a physicist and he began affirming, "I always have a steady lavish income." He went to college on a scholarship and later became a noted physicist. I do not recall his name; however, he was born in the late 1800's.

Religions can keep us in bondage to someone else's beliefs. Being a retired minister of Divine Science and having studied the Judeo-Christian bibles, I came to the understanding that much of it adopted from ancient Egyptian credos gives us profound statements such as "As a man/woman thinketh, so it is." Another statement is "It is done unto you as you believe." These two statements go hand-in-hand with quantum physics. There have been experiments showing that the results of an experiment can be altered by whoever is viewing it. It is called the Observer Effect. We are our own Observer. This passage in the Book of Job applies to each of, "For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me." Our fears send out a frequency that brings to us the thing we fear.

I have also learned from Catherine Ponder and others that it is recommended to write an affirmation 15 times in order to get it accepted by the brain. I keep a small notebook where I will write an affirmation 15 times each time an idea comes to me. There are many ideas regarding the use of an affirmation. One is to draw a symbol or something to represent the idea of what is wanted on a card and look at it often at night upon retiring, in the morning upon arising and also during the day. Our brains have been programmed by our old outmoded beliefs and we now have to retrain the brain.

I have also learned by changing my belief and attitude, I do not think that my lavish income has to come from a certain source. My belief has since turned into a knowing. Knowing to me indicates acceptance. Our outmoded attitudes and beliefs are simply weeds in the garden of our mind. We can pluck them out at any moment and when they want to grow again, we can pluck them out. I liken this to Gandalf standing on the bridge and told the orcs, "You cannot pass." The orcs represent our unwanted thoughts, beliefs and attitudes. We can be our own Gandalf.

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