Below is written from the folks I received my Empowment Life Coaching training. Enjoy
Empowerment Concepts
Taken from the book Empowerment—The Art of Creating Your Life as You Want It
By David Gershon & Gail Straub
Empowerment – to harness the passion of your heart and the power of your mind and create your fullest expression of being human.
Creating vision for your life – It is vital to direct our gaze away from our problems and inabilities. To create an inspired life vision we must develop an acute awareness of the possibilities that lie within us. Until we do this, our potential remains dormant. It is necessary to learn to transform limiting beliefs and behavior patterns, as well as how to overcome difficult life situations and problems, not as ends in themselves but as a part of the process of self-creation. It is shifting our basic attitude toward life from problem-solving to vision-creating. It requires us to let go of the deep problem-oriented programming of our culture and accept the belief that we can and will create the life we want.
Reasons why we don’t have what we want –
• We are not yet clear about what we want, or
• We have not yet learned the proper methods of creating it.
The Growing Edge – the soft new edge of life that is just becoming. Human beings who are vital and alive are full of vitality and always thrusting out in new directions. The part of our being where this new growth is occurring is our growing edge. It’s that place in who we are that is just coming into existence. The growing edge is the point that our ever-evolving self is moving toward next.
As you work on your growing edge, there are a variety of feelings you may experience: fear, a deep sense of well-being, pain, discomfort, exhilaration. This is all part of the process. Understanding that growth is a totally individual process liberates us from that all-too-pervasive human foible of judging ourselves in relation to someone else or some preconceived notion of how we should be. To grow is to be alive, and to be on the growing edge is to experience life in its most dynamic state, that of becoming.
Shaping Your World - Our thoughts and beliefs create everything that happens in our life. What manifests in our life is a direct result of the thoughts that we are affirming. Nothing happens in our life without a preexisting belief that brings that thing to pass. Although this sounds simple, it is a complex process. We are generally not aware of what we believe. The vast majority of the beliefs that we are manifesting are unconscious and unfortunately many of them are self-limiting. Most of our pain, fear, and suffering are caused by these unconscious, unexamined, self-limiting beliefs.
Mental Clearing – The process of examining and transforming these limiting beliefs is what we call mental clearing. To be able to create the new we must first clear out the old. We can’t effectively manifest a new belief if we are simultaneously holding on to an old, entrenched belief that opposed this new idea. One of the mistakes made by people working with the manifestation principles is to think that all that is required of them is to affirm what they want and it will happen. They don’t realize they must first clear from their mind the self-limiting beliefs. What manifests is what we really believe, not what we would like to believe. Until our self-limiting beliefs are made conscious and transformed, they will continue to get in the way and inhibit our ability to create what we want. We must create space in order for the new to come in. Yet is it difficult to let go of the familiar and safe.
The Principle of Vision – We are most willing to release old beliefs, emotional pain, and other baggage when we have a clear vision of what we will replace it with. The clearer the vision, the more we will be attracted to it, and the less we will need to hold on to self-limiting beliefs. In order to create anything you must have a vision of what it is you want to manifest. The more definite and clear the vision, the more definite and clear the manifestation. Creating a vision for your life requires a willingness to explore and discover what’s important to you, not somebody else.
The Three Principles of Manifestation –
• The Principle of Creative Thought: What we believe is what we create.
• The Principle of Mental Clearing: We must clear out self-limiting beliefs before we can manifest new beliefs.
• The Principle of Vision: In order to manifest, we must have a clear vision of what we want to create.
The Technique of Manifestation – You must be aware of where you want to direct your mental attention and learn how to do it with skill. You must become conscious of the manifesting process rather than continuing to unconsciously manifest things you don’t want. Your mind is a piece of fertile land. Whether cultivated or neglected, something will grow. There are two aspects to manifesting. First you must create a potent mental seed, which consists of a directed thought called an affirmation and a specific image called a visualization. Then you need to cultivate and nourish this mental seed so that it grows to fruition—this is called the energizing process.
Affirmation – The Seed Thought – An affirmation is a statement affirming what you want in your life. It is an articulation of the new belief you are creating. To be effective it needs to be:
1. Written down – The act of writing down an affirmation begins the process of making your intangible thought more concrete. You begin to experience the seed idea more sensually as you write it and see it. The process of putting a wish into sentence form demands that you be clear about what you want.
2. Stated in the Positive – Most of us have a tendency to approach growth as a process of overcoming problems as opposed to a process of creating something we want. When we affirm what we don’t want (“I’m no longer going to be afraid of my boss.”) we are actually putting energy into it and nourishing it with our mental attention (the fear is reinforced). When you affirm positive thoughts, you begin the process of manifesting the thing you desire.
3. Succinct - The more to the point and articulate your affirmation, the easier you can focus on it. Avoid making the affirmation wordy. A common mistake is combining several related issues into one statement. This weakens the power of the affirmation for it is much easier to concentrate on one idea at a time than on several. (“I easily express myself with my boss.”) An affirmation should not be an essay. It may start out as one, but is must be whittled down to the essentials.
4. Specific - If the affirmation is specific, you will be able to create clear results in your life. If you do not know what you want, ask, “What is important to me?” and focus on the specifics that you do know. There are no mistakes. What comes back to you is simply feedback that helps you refine your understanding of what you value in life. It is important to remember that you are creating your life every time you think a thought. The only difference is that now you are doing it with awareness.
5. Magnetic – Make your affirmation as attractive as possible. Use adjectives that you find exciting and enlivening. The more the language of the affirmation evokes deep feelings within you, the more you’ll be able to put your full energy behind it. The greater the passion in an affirmation the more it will command your attention and belief. (For someone whose growing edge is improving his/her appearance, “My appearance delights me and makes me proud to be alive.” as opposed to “I am a nice-looking person who is always well dressed and attractive.”)
6. Stated as if it Already Exists - The affirmation will manifest in the time frame that you create in your mind. If you want the seed thought to come o fruition now, you must state it in the present tense. If you state your affirmation as something that will happen in the future, it will always be in the future. (“I am” and “I have” acknowledge that the mental seed is planted and can now grow. On the other hand, “I will” or “I hope” keeps the seed dormant as a future possibility.) We need to see the future in our mind as if it already exists. Don’t worry for the moment about not knowing how you will get from here to there. Remember, what we hold in our thoughts is what we create, whether or not we know the means by which the manifestation will happen.
7. Include You in It – Use “I,” “me,” your name, or any other method of allowing you to personally identify with the affirmation. (“I have an abundant life.” vs. “The universe is abundant.”)
8. About Changes for Yourself, Not Others – Human nature being what it is, we often look at others as the cause of problems we might have with them instead of looking at ourselves. The primary thing we do in fact always have control over is our attitude and behavior. The most effective and enduring way to change a situation is to change yourself.
9. Kept on the Growing Edge to Avoid Sabotage - The affirmation must appear to be within the realm of possibility for you to accept it into your consciousness. If it is an unrealistically large stretch from where you are now, you will subconsciously throw up resistances. The affirmation can’t be such a stretch that you sabotage it with resistance. However, it has to be enough of a stretch to excite you to want to create it.
Visualization – The Seed Image – A visualization is a mental image or picture of what you want to create in your life. Some people find that they are more attracted to images than words because an image is more emotionally appealing. Others feel more comfortable working with the words of an affirmation because words can convey an idea more specifically. Affirmation and Visualization used in tandem create the best results.
Until you can visualize something as being possible, the thing cannot begin to manifest. You must see the possibility clearly in order to move toward it. To have the greatest power to manifest, your visualization should:
1. Evoke Feeling – When you see your mental picture you feel so excited that you want to bring it into your life immediately. The more emotionally appealing the picture, the more enthusiasm you will have to create it.
2. Use a Single Image – Create a simple mental picture which is meaningful to you, something that creates a “moment in time.” Consider what is important to you, abstract the meaning from your thoughts, then find a single image that contains that meaning, a single instant that embodies all the thoughts and feelings. Whatever the image, it should succinctly sum up all the meanings of that desire for you.
3. Include You in the Image – See yourself happily enjoying whatever it is that you have mentally created. Allow yourself to feel the satisfaction and fulfillment of your accomplishment.
4. Be Literal or Metaphoric – Sometimes you will want to create an image that is an exact replication of something you want to bring into your life. At other times, you may be more drawn to using metaphor.
5. Be Physically Depicted – Like the affirmation, the act of expressing your visualization on paper begins to make it come alive physically. This has nothing to do with artistic ability. Stick figures and line drawings are totally satisfactory. Add color to your drawing. If you aren’t inclined to draw, cut pictures from magazines or use photographs. That main thing is to do whatever allows the visualization to come alive for you. Also, you might physically act out the visualization. This brings your affirmation into your body and further enlivens it.
