AFFIRMATION: The Creation of Resistance

By John Maerz BA LMT

     Having written a recent article about affirmations in relation to abundance I would like to go a bit deeper into the dynamics of affirmation. The contemporary accepted belief in the new age crowd is that if we state a quality or desire to ourselves enough times it will somehow manifest itself based on the force of our intentions. On first observation this may seem reasonable but under the scrutiny of a deeper investigation this may not work the way we think. To proceed it is, first, necessary to describe the actions of three of our universal laws; the Law of Rhythm, the Law of Polarity and the Law of Gender. 

     First, the universe seeks to rebalance itself. If we pour a liquid into a bowl it fills it evenly across its surface. There are no peaks or valleys; just an even surface. If we pour a bucket of sand onto the floor it will create a pile that is even on all sides much like a cone. According to Isaac Newton for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction; the universe’s attempt to rebalance. We see and feel life through movement. That movement occurs between opposing poles much like the pendulum of the clock. If the clock didn’t have the mechanism to perpetuate the swing the distance it covered would become shorter and shorter until it stopped. This is entropy; the natural inclination of matter to neutralize movement; to bring it back to its inert state.  It is our life and essence that perpetuates this swing. The Law of Rhythm says that all motion in the universe proceeds in cycles moving from one condition, to its opposite and back again over and over and that the measure of the swing to right will be equal to the measure of to the swing left. Light moves toward dark and dark moves toward light. Up will move toward down. Down will move toward up. This is the natural rhythm of the universe; attempting to neutralize or rebalance what seems to be out of balance and to return matter to its original state; inert.

     Second, whatever quality we perceive in our physical, mental or emotional world will always have a polar opposite. Hot will always be balanced with cold. Light will always be balanced with dark. Forward will always be balanced with reverse. Joy will be balanced with sadness. Struggle will be balanced with ease. The Law of Polarity says that whatever we perceive in our existence will be countered with a quality that enables the perception of the other.  To know what hot is can only be perceived if we have experienced cold. To know what pleasure is we must have experienced pain. When one quality is absent from our perception the other is not possible. The intensity of the experience is determined by “distance” between the opposites as with the Law of Rhythm; the measure to the right equals the measure to the left. Hence, the more pain we’ve felt the more joy we’re capable of. The darker it’s been the more light we can conceive of.

     The third law is the Law of Gender which states that every polarity has a relative male and female in the form of active and receptive. These qualities or energies will, also, seek to rebalance or neutralize themselves. Those who give attract those who receive. Those who are frugal attract those who are generous. Those who are extroverts attract those who are introverts. One is an active energy and the other is a receptive one. One distributes. One collects. In this opposites attract yet they are of the same polarity or balance. If one person is frugal, the one they attract will be generous. The common tie here is the issue of resources not the discrimination between who’s the giver or receiver. Essentially, people with issues with resources will attract others with the same issues. How this plays out will be determined by who the collector is and who the distributor is. Depending on the circumstances these tendencies can switch back and forth. Depending on the person, some qualities may be of a collective energy and others may be of a distributive type. Each person has the capacity for both and will be a blend of their own unique combinations. Either way they will be a reflective mix of male and female; active and receptive exemplifying the Law of Gender.

     The most important contributor to what we believe is our direct experience. To experience gives us a feeling of connectedness much more than hearsay or anything that we have read. If we have tasted something its effects reach us more than they would verbally or mentally because we sense and react to them on many different levels. There is a tactile or texture perception. There is a flavor and smell perception. We establish a pairing of the stimuli with the surroundings, the company we are in and the emotional and physical state we are in at the time. Our belief in what we have experienced becomes “tangibly” grounded in many different modes of perception. It produces a depth and fullness absent from simply talking or hearing about the experience.  In a sense we can say that we feel the experience more fully. If, for example, we participate in a social activity in which we feel as if we have failed in some way, there are many modes within us that add to the “imprint” of that experience. These include our feelings and reactions to the environment, feelings we perceive from others, our physical state (warm, cold, tense, hungry, etc.) and our emotional state (energized, depressed, focused, grounded, chaotic, etc.). All these factors combine to give fullness to the experience and a “reason” for the validity of what we believe. If someone attempts to comfort us with words saying that the experience should not be perceived as a “failure,” we balance what they say against the fullness of what we have experienced ourselves. Our judgment, invariably, contradicts what we’re told unless our trust in them has more fullness, and therefore, more validity, than the circumstance just experienced. If we, repeatedly, attempt to convince ourselves that the experience was a success by telling ourselves that it was, our underlying feeling, perceived from the experience, will still maintain dominance in our judgment. We can tell ourselves anything we want about our character or experience but if it disagrees with what we believe as valid we will never accept it as true.  This is the major reason why repeating an affirmation of what we would like to believe about ourselves can’t manifest unless we’ve had a direct experience that confirms it as so. The affirmation is only a mental repetition. How can it have the fullness that a direct experience provides? If we are as poor as a church mouse and all of our experience serves to confirm that, no amount of mental or verbal repetition could ever possibly create a belief that we are rich and have “abundance.”

     Verbal and mental repetition of our desires not only lacks the experience needed to substantiate a belief in their validity, but, it creates a conflict that saps us of the energy needed to pursue and experience what would. As an example, if, on some level, we have chosen to believe, due to past experience, that we are without the confidence that we need to be comfortable we may choose to affirm that we have those confidences. So, as the accepted new age belief encourages us, we repeatedly affirm to ourselves something like, “I am confident in everything that I do.” In doing so we must be reminded that the Law of Polarity states that whatever we perceive in our existence will be countered, in equal measure, with a quality that enables the manifestation and perception of its opposite. We should also be aware that the need to focus on being confident comes from an already present feeling asserting that we are not. The act of affirming that we are only serves to construct and activate an opposition to what we already believe. Additionally, the feeling that we are not is powerfully validated by our past experience on many more levels than just the mental. As we attempt to maintain and increase a consistent intensity for what we do want, created through polarity is an equally consistent increasing of intensity of what we don’t want. So, like the Chinese puzzle, the harder we pull the tighter it gets. The augmented intensity now moves the pendulum in a wider swing than it initially did. In this we have created an amplified internal tension between feeling confident (the Collector) and not feeling confident (the Distributor). The Collector-Distributor polarity exemplifies the Law of Gender (receptive versus active). Essentially, we have told ourselves something that contradicts what our experience has led us to believe. So our mental self (affirmation) is working against our feeling self (experience). This, effectively, locks up the energy that would, otherwise, be available for other activities. In choosing to assert that this confidence will be consistent we further compound the resistive tension. According to the Law of Rhythm the life energy (our focus) is what creates movement and, therefore, must oscillate between one polarity and the other (confident and not confident). Our intention to make this quality consistent contradicts the natural law of ebb and flow. The old adage “And this too shall pass” has tremendous symbolism concerning, both, what we don’t want and what we do. So, by focusing on what we do want we intensify what it is that we don’t. This is exemplified by the Chinese perspective saying “to focus on your ‘enemy’ gives them power” and also gives credence to western saying “What we resist will persist.”  

     So, what do we do if focusing on either polarity increases the opposition in an expanding conflict gobbling up energy? We do what great arbitrators have done. When the conflict gets too heated with too much personal investment they redirect the energy away from the polarizing situation to another, less volatile, perspective of the same issue. They focus on another situation of common interest between arguing parties. Where and how would we do that within ourselves? Well, the issue above is deadlocked on a confidence issue. The key is to focus on another situation where we do have some confidence and work on growing that feeling. Generally, people with “general” low confidence feel so because they have nothing to feel invested in that brings out self worth; no hobbies, no skills, no reinforcing experience, etc. Remember, it’s the experience that gives credibility to the belief. To feel confident must come from an experience. All we have to do, then, is develop experience in an area that we have a potential to excel. How, you say? If we have a lack of confidence dealing in general social situations but we have a liking for an activity that we can do fairly well in that could “branch out” into social encounters, we invest energy and time there. For example, if we have a talent in archery we might put time into developing those skills. In time we would meet others with the same love and talent for the activity and slowly build a rapport and self-confidence with them, socially, due to the common interest. The confidence we develop there, gained through experience, would, naturally, transfer to other social circumstances. This newly developed confidence in something we do well diminishes the need for personal validation in other situations because we have acquired what we need from an experience “free” of conflicting polarities.

     If our affirmation is one that contradicts an existing condition, it is more likely to produce resistance than one that does not. In an affirmation that applies to new circumstances, even if the issue is the same, there is less or no preexisting resistance to tie up the energy or impede the flow. In this way energy will flow much more easily. Hence, we will be much more likely to succeed in creating our vision.

     The next time you have a circumstance that makes you feel like you’re pushing “up hill,” take a deeper look to see where that same goal can be affirmed through another mode or path. It doesn’t have to be difficult to assure value. Go with the flow and be open to other options.