Selected by Spirits | Spiritual Awakenings | Spiritual Emergencies | Dark Night of the Soul

Hey, what is up? It's Ross. And we're back with episode two; this is about being selected by spirits, spiritual awakening, spiritual emergency, dark night of the soul initiation by spirits and Bankai.

Selected by Spirits

I've gathered that being selected by spirits is a continuous process. It usually happens earlier on in a person's life where they're picked at birth or shortly after in the earlier ages. Some essence or unique personality stands out, making them attractive to spirits. The other aspect of this is that it's an optional experience.

Spirits' ideas of kindness and compassion are vastly different from the human concept from what I've seen. The reason being is, it's not easy. There's some need for permission for spirits to engage or work with people. So there has to be some trust. And that trust is earned gradually. If it were forced or coerced, people would not be so willing to; I believe that good things could come from it, but because it is optional and you can let it go whenever you want, there's a sense of benefic kindness behind it, even though it might not look that way on the surface to people.

Being selected by spirits is becoming more common because as the world gets sicker, more people have what would be called soul sickness.

I see these people like me having this quote-unquote soul sickness, almost like mushrooms coming in and detoxifying these spaces by digesting the bullshit. Look at the pollution and terror we wage on each other and the planet. This type of behavior is not a sign of the health of a species, but if people meditate on why we're acting this way, there might be a solution. Sharing our experiences to help raise consciousness is the course correction. 

Spirit is looking for people for course correction because some unity between the material world and the spirit world needs to be maintained, and they have more resources to guide things, but they don't have the physical hands to do it.

We have physical hands, but we don't have access to some knowledge. So when we work together with them and with other entities, we get better opportunities, which is why spirit would be looking for people who would be more gifted.  

Spiritual Awakening

A spiritual awakening is a profound experience that helps one understand the relationship to the cosmos. These are very beautiful, but they can have some terrifying elements.

The issue is they can leave people having a false sense of reality because they're looking at the world through rose-colored glasses and begin to miss out on the finer nuances of what it means to be human. 

Spiritual awakenings also offer a sense of power, purpose, sense of mystery, and sense of connectivity. All of the previous concepts culminate into one, transcendence. And by transcendence, I mean superseding your needs and thinking of the good of the collective. Because oftentimes, we want the world to change to our liking. 

Spiritual Emergency

A Spiritual emergency can come from initiation by spirits or part of a natural process. I've had several spiritual emergencies. The most recent one was an unexpected or breached spiritual awakening or download, and I like to use the metaphor of watching Netflix on dial-up as it would probably blow the phone out of the socket.

Some people don't even know what dial-up internet is that may be reading this; these experiences are things that end people up in psych wards, right? There are things that the information that you get is a little bit too much to handle. You don't have the resources to handle it, and you lose your shit, which is not pleasant because then you also have to sort through everything and put Humpty Dumpty back together again, blah blah blah.

These things are rough, which is why I do what I do to help people. But they also include loss of power, paranoia, confusion, irritability, and psychosis.

I'm not violent in those states. There is a lot of aggression and anger in there, which can lead people down bad roads. Also, the confusion can make you make poor choices. It's just not a good place to be, and spiritual emergencies are different from a dark night of the soul, but you can also have them happen simultaneously.

Dark Night of the Soul

It surprised me how quickly I was able to bounce back from it. Still, like Dark Nights of the soul are a heckn' bad time friends, you do not want to go through that and from what I've seen, um you can go through more than one as well, and the best thing to do is buckle up because you can't run from it when it's coming for you.  

You just got to sit there and take it and navigate it wisely, or you can be afraid, but the more fear you have, the more these experiences will mess you up. You want to be somewhat neutral about it anyhow.  

A dark night of the soul is about demoralization, degradation, isolation, emptiness, pain, and fear; this is the thing where like you're on the verge of death. Still, you did not die, and that is almost worse. That is like an insult to injury,

Initiation by spirits

Initiation by spirits, only a fool would want them, and they require grit.

Yeah, you have to have a little bit of something else to make it, though, because I don't know what the funk I just experienced going through all of that. Still, I don't want to go through it again um. Still, I do know that whatever the funk I went through, it was going to help me be a stronger person requires heart; you have to have a heart too, because if you do not have something that you can rely on that is meaningful, like a way to get you through there, you're fucking cashed, you're done!
This process requires principles, so you have to have principles in and initiation by spirit because it's like the upside-down; everything is wonky. Even the rules have somewhat reversed, and if you don't have a general compass of how to be a good person and know right from wrong, you can very quickly put yourself in circumstances that can lead to real consequences. 

And hurt or harm a lot of people and then lastly don't fail, you don't want to fail the initiation by spirits because if you do, you're gonna wish that you just never did. Um, and I'm just going to leave it at that, right? I don't think I need to unpack that anymore.

Bankai

 Bankai is achieving a level of inner mastery that visibly manifests into the material world. This concept comes from bleach um, which is an anime that I enjoy, and we'll be talking about bleach as we go more through the podcast. Still, I think there is this potential for manifesting dreams into the real world and achieving inner mastery in this pursuit. When we're able to craft our imagination and these experiences in meaningful and powerful ways, we can begin to create physical changes in our lives, and I'm evidence of that.

If you look at my life where it was five years ago to where it is now, my life is vastly different and um. At the same time, I'm still somebody who has mental health issues and doesn't have their life together fully, my life is vastly different, and it's like a refined form of spiritual pressure.  

So this is, you know, the pits coming anyhow, you jump in, you're going for the ability to manifest your dreams, or you're willing to die like trying to manifest your dreams, it is refining power. So many people in the modern witchcraft movement or whatever the hell you want to call it to focus solely on power, but they don't understand that power doesn't mean shit if you're not using it effectively.

This process is refining power to a precision point. So you can use it for specific things. You don't need to use a lot of magic to make things effective. You could use a bit of magic in the right places at the right times, and subtlety is your friend.

In regards to magic, in my personal opinion, and I say this after being like the most extra bitch ever. So, keep that in mind. It's ok to have a moon shot but keep a lot of your manifestations tangible to build up your confidence. And then also You're better off staying small and unnoticed with your magickal workings. 

Are you going to look around and find out? Um, the universe loves brave people. The universe does not like cowards much. And let's see. Quick note others' journeys await, and other trips await. You'll have your unique take on what these words mean in your experience; all of this stuff is just reference, not gospel, and they say that, like keep in mind all of these things I'm sharing are just ideas in my own experience.

I'm not trying to dictate your experiences; I just hope that you find something useful from this and that you can use it to grow and move forward with this process. One of my theories is the universe is educating us, the universe might be having fun with us, or the universe is learning, so why do I think it's like this? 

Because the universe is trying to learn or teach, or it's just having fun and working with us because it's infinite.

And what else would it do to recapitulate? Certain people are selected by spirits and undergo a series of experiences, but choice matters, and it's a test of your soul and character. So again, spirits can select people, um, take them through this awakening process; there are some challenges there, and it's meant to bring out the best in you, and if you don't meet the grade, they're fine letting you be fodder.

In the next episode, which will be two weeks from now, we will be talking about spirituality, tuning into the natural power of the universe. Magic is learning to channel it. So we're going to start separating spirituality and magic, and then in episode four will probably go full magic or something like that.

I'm not too sure, still getting recalibrated after being out of the psych ward and with all of that said, we will chat again soon, have a great day.

Establishing the egregore and updating old ideas

Hey, what is up? Episode one, wow, doing this again. So some of you don't know me; most of you probably don't know me. My name is Ross Cessna. I used to host a podcast called the spiritual phoenix podcast. That's how I got started in all of this. I started it five years ago on the day um doing this one to correct some of the mistakes that I made and how I presented the first one and do some things differently and build a community around it.

So maybe I should start with saying what I want to do with this podcast first off, then explain who I am and do somewhat of a backstory, and then describe some of the paths forward with everything.

It's not going to be super dull; I'm going to make it fun, don't worry.

The show intends to be upon the following premises, magic psy-phenomenon and forces beyond our comprehension are real and interact with people regularly and just to like break this down with some like regular vernacular too.

Think about it this way. We are humans. We know for a fact that we can't tune into 99% of reality because of the limits of our perception. It's statistically impossible that there are no forces beyond our comprehension. So that means that there's a lot of shit going on that we don't know.

Learning to integrate these experiences into mainstream culture is imperative to the well-being of the individual and the species, long-term survival.

That's a big statement there. But I think that's incredibly true also, right? Because more and more people are having these experiences.

These experiences seem to be ways to facilitate growth and change and expand the individual. And because our current system views people having these experiences as a mental health crisis is because they don't fit into the modern framework of materialism, it's an issue, and that's the next point.

Some individuals, often problematic and troubled, are selected by spirits and put into a life of hardship that often leads to a life-altering crisis. Some of us are chosen to go through these processes to help shepherd other people Through this process. With so many people wakening up, we don't need teachers or gurus.

Some people go that route, but it's not supposed to be; it's more like a fellow traveler. And then this crisis often brings about psychic changes and a series of events that, while unique to the individual, fit into archetypal themes. What that means is there's this overlying or underlying theme that can unify all these different experiences despite the experience occurring in a way that makes sense to the individual.

It's hard to describe, but maybe the right people get what I'm saying, right. Some of the ways that the universe or whatever this, these other forces are expressing themselves in ways that seem batshit crazy to most people. Still, they're legitimately something there in some instances, and mental illness is also real.So deciphering the two can be challenging.

Sharing these experiences with others in a safe and supportive environment can be critical to maintaining a state of mental well-being. As somebody who has had these experiences and then was put in the mental health system, and I was told not to trust many useful things, that was just as disorienting as believing what wasn't real.

Learning how to process that and integrate these experiences in a way where you're grounded and still able to function is super important.

Having a podcast in a community that offers a platform for voices of experiencers is necessary and something that I am uniquely suited to do.

Here's why okay, so for me, a lot of my earlier podcast was me documenting my journey of getting my life back together after this substantial spiritual awakening spiritual emergency that completely devastated my entire being right.

The whole podcast is really structured on that, and it begins with me entering 12 step recovery and working on myself and like going through the entire emotional process of becoming a better person, fixing myself, healing, growing, expanding, and then learning how to integrate magic in how working on spiritual stuff increased my magic ability.

And while there was a lot of good information and that earlier stuff that I put out, many of the perspectives need to be corrected, not because they were necessarily wrong, they didn't have the whole picture, and there's a broader context that I had missed. One of the main things for me that has shifted is over the years, I've left 12 step recovery, I began using CBD hemp, and then I've recently integrated medical marijuana back into my life. It has been fundamentally life-changing and how much it has helped me. And it made me realize what I had initially used it.

And that's one of the reasons why doing this podcast again is crucial to me because I want to address that aspect of that part of the journey and say that I was wrong in many ways. I presented some of that information incorrectly. There is an appropriate way to use marijuana. And I did mention that at times, but there were times when I was a dick about things to um, and I needed to correct myself on that and have some humility about it.

Additionally, other ideas need to be unpacked and expanded more, and those things need to be fixed just for my well-being and to clear up some of my thoughts on stuff.

And then lastly, I have actually done support groups and have learned so much about healing and the intersection of personal healing, magic spirituality, and all of these things that it would be unfair of me not to offer these back to the community.

And while initially, this is going to be the show is going to be more about correcting some of the old issues and catching people who listen to the old show up on what I'm doing now and explaining more about my personal practice, and building up a system of metaphysics. So we have a common understanding of what I'm talking about.

Once we do that, I want to start getting authors and guests and things on um and talking about their experiences. Still, I do want to also maintain some of the ways that I did the original show. A key component was just riffing off the top of my head about certain topics and ideas that come up and like having a good time doing it and not being super pressured or committed to it, but making it fun. This time, though, I plan to get the community involved in making it about you.

This whole show isn't for me anymore; while the work is never done, I've done my shit and have little things to attend. The show is to share that experience help other people find their way, not to tell them what to do. Because I am not a guru, I have authority over my experience, and even that's questionable at times. I can't tell you where to go.

That's the thing about this experience that I think most people miss, and this is one of the things that religion does a great disservice to people because it tells people that there's this one way, but there are as many ways as there are people and you have to unlock your own path, but because of these archetypal themes, we can share this in language and find commonality and find ways to navigate it.

Um, it's going to be an enjoyable experience. I've learned so much about presenting information and interviewing guests. I think we're going to have a really good time.

I want to have community members on the show and learn about your experiences. There is already a system of events and a membership system, so we can get involved and have online meetups. We can do some super fun stuff, and I'm looking forward to it. It's going to be a blast, and I look forward to going on this adventure with you.

With all of that said, I'm not going to take up any more of your time, I will be back in two weeks, and I think we're going to unpack what's going on with the magical system and maybe some stuff like that anyhow chat soon.

How to visualize and visualization tips

You visualize every day. Unfortunately, it's probably not in your favor. By default, human beings have a negative bias, meaning we're more likely to think of adverse outcomes. Desiring to avoid our perceived threats can change our behaviors and bring our fears to life. What's even more concerning is that this confirmation can further validate negative beliefs, and a feedback loop of self-destruction ensues.

If our thoughts create our actions, if we could better control our thoughts, we could better manage our actions. Unforatuenaly, most of our mind is subconscious and operating on its own volition. So in truth, you can never really control your mind. However, what you can do is learn to consciously leverage the Hypnogogoic state, a natural part of the human experience, for your advantage. 

Understanding the hypnogogic state

In simple terms, the hypnogogic state is a liminal state of awareness between wakefulness and sleep. While the consciousness is transitioning from its waking state to sleep, it becomes increasingly malleable to new information. Meaning if you learn to work with this state of consciousness, you can improve your life areas.

How do you enter the hypnogogic state?

Now, this probably sounds challenging and like something hard to learn. It's not. I share a process on my youtube channel that can help you practice. When you dedicate time every day, you'd be surprised what you can accomplish. However, you can also google Yoga Nidra.

What is Yoga Nidra?

Yoga Nidra, or psychic sleep, is a branch of yoga focused on entertaining and sustaining a hypnogogic like state while in a guided meditation. Before modern sciences understanding the mind or the potential in this state of consciousness, ancient yogis used this state to plant new habits and philosophies into their consciousness.

We aren't doing that practice exactly.

I mention Yoga Nidra, not in an appropriative way but more as a reference for established practices with similar concepts to help you better build your unique understanding. Ultimately, every system works best when calibrated to your preferences; I'm just offering you an established template as a reference to develop the necessary skills before you embark on your evolving visualization practice

How do you start to visualize?

Before visualizing, you need to take time and think of what excites you. While you can work on imagining more than one scenario, it's best to start small and build up from there. I'd suggest honing in on one tangible thing you'd like to manifest to begin. Next, you'll need to unpack how it would feel to accomplish or experience your objective. 

Feel the completion

Think of the feelings you would associate with something you'd like to manifest. Let's say you want to write a best-selling book; how would that feel? You'd probably feel accomplished, proud, excited, and maybe even ambitious about your next project! 

You've likely experienced the emotions associated with achieving your goals at some point in your life. So you know how they feel. Now all you have to do is draw to mind that feeling when you enter a meditative state. Don't worry; I'll outline a practice at the end.

See your life with your completed goal.

Professional boxers and fighters have successfully predicted when they score winning punches in fights by visualizing the outcome. However, when they are doing this, they generally aren't thinking of the physical winning punch. They are thinking of what happens after.

The surge of excitement knowing the fight is over, the ref confirming the win, and final the seal of approval from the crowd's roar. They can see the camera's flashing, the undulation of a packed house of people, and their opponent receiving medical attention. They can feel the incredible sensation of cold water entering a parched mouth and taste the coppery flavor of blood. My point being, successful visualization is about absorbing and expressing the background details of your objective as much as if not more than the actual objective itself.

Get granular

You want to break your objective down into a series of parts. Let's view it as internal processes and external processes.

• Internal processes include thoughts, feelings, emotions, sensations, etc.

• External processes include other people's reactions, sounds, sights, etc.

When you visualize things, you want to trick your mind into thinking you're living that scenario. When you consider the events of our lives contain both internal and external processes, you realize how vital they are to successful visualization. 

Putting it all into action

Let's run through a quick exercise to give you all the information you need to start your experimentation with visualization.

• Think of three small, tangible goals you'd like to manifest.

• Out of the three things, which one is the most plausible in your life now? 

• If you did accomplish it, how would that feel?

• What thoughts would be going through your head?

• What would your life look like during this manifestation?

• Who else would be there with you?

Repeat regularly

Once you've got a clear picture of how accomplishing your goal would feel and look, it's time to put it into practice. If I'm honest, you're going to get the best results if you do this at least once a day for at least 30 days. The absolute minimum I would suggest would be doing it every other day for 30 days. Eventually, it will be easier to create the thoughts and feelings associated with your objective, don't worry or feel rushed. 

More to come on this topic in the future.

I've barely scratched the surface on this topic, but I feel confident that this article offers enough information to serve as a starting point. My primary intent is to create a general outline of my methodology and off it free of charge to people looking for this type of information. Once I accomplish the broad foundation, I can expand on the original concepts further. 

Optimism is a spell

Positive thinking has to be one of the most cliches, misunderstood, and beat to death concepts in all of spirituality. However, it's threadbare for a reason; there is some truth to the foundational idea, but the current approach misses the true power.

I was recently taking a members course by Gordon White of the Rune Soup podcast, and he mentioned the idea that optimism was a spell. The idea instantly began turning in my brain about how much more potent of a concept this was than the watered-down hermeticism of LOA. 

Before we dig into the topic, I must explain something; just thinking positive, happy thoughts is not enough. You can't spiritually bypass your way through life with saccharine sweet rose-colored glasses. At some point, you have to stop and swallow the bitter pill of reality if you want to make any meaningful impact. 

The first thing is accepting that you don't see the world as it is. You see the world how you THINK it is. That's a pretty big distinction. However, learning to be the observer of your thoughts is one of the oldest meditative principles known to man. Unless you can accept you're living in a fantasy world, you're doomed to stay stuck. But that first big bite of reality after the curtain drops and you're revealed in your rawest form isn't pleasant. It's downright painful. However, that's where the utility of optimism being a spell comes in.

Perks of optimism as a spell

• It doesn't negate the reality.

• Science can verify the impact.

• It means we can utilize it.

It doesn't negate reality like the law of attraction.

Unlike the positive thinking of LOA, optimism doesn't imply avoiding the truth, merely looking for the best possible aspect of current reality. It's the mental equivalent of learning to turn lemons into lemonade. Likewise, finding the best in a bad situation doesn't mean you don't acknowledge the bad or address it or live in fear of speaking of it; it means saying welp, that was shit, but at least I learned a lesson. 

Science can verify the impact.

I'm not going to bring up all the research; you can do the footwork yourself. So instead, I'll mention something that I take to be common knowledge, the placebo effect. If you're not familiar with this term, this is when an unsuspecting individual takes an inert substance, and they receive similar benefits to active medication. Western medicine has broadly accepted this as a fact of life, but there are obvious limits.

What does this mean on a personal level?

How you think about the situations in your life impacts your physical body, or in even more direct terms, your thoughts impact reality. However, if we accept that thoughts can make us well and create positive changes to physical reality, the opposite must also be true; they can make us ill and create unpleasant changes in the material world. Understanding this means that a strategy is needed to maximize the benefit and minimize the challenges.

How to use optimism as a spell

First things first, you've got to get honest about your circumstances. If your life is fucked up, you're working a dead-end job, you are in a dead-end relationship, or you're just a loser in general, say it. The new age concept of spiritually bypassing reality for the sake of avoiding crushing your feelings doesn't help you or anyone. So take the sting and then get on to the medicine. Remember, many other people have been in shit relationships, worked shit jobs, and been total losers but turned themselves around, so can you.

Next, you have to open up to the idea that things can change. You don't have to believe that things WILL change, just that they CAN. Maintaining this distinction from the law of attraction helps reduce the likelihood of falling into a delusional relationship with reality. Getting lost in confirmation bias and not looking at facts in a grounded way can lead to some pretty disastrous results. Let the evidence speak for itself, and don't deny what the data is telling you.*

*There is an intuitive aspect to this process, but it's nuanced and best discovered by yourself. Sometimes you have to step out on faith and the discernment needed to make wise choices when these times arises from an honest assessment of reality, not rose-colored glasses.

Lastly, it would help if you had a willingness to consistently re-enchant your world with optimism. Forewarning, it can get exhausting, and it's arguably more work than the Law of Attraction, at least initially. The reason being the LOA only focuses on love and light. I'm asking you to feel the world kicking the shit out of you, find the lesson while it's happening, and smile while doing it. The only thing that keeps you going sometimes is the fuck you attitude of not letting the universe break your spirit.

Shit happens

Optimism as a spell acknowledges that you aren't responsible for everything that happens to you. Still, you do have control over what those events mean to you. On the other hand, LOA makes your thoughts, words, beliefs the cornerstone of every problem you have. Now look, I'm all about taking responsibility for your mistakes and your life but telling myself I didn't get an outcome I wanted because I had doubt or negative self-talk about a situation is bullshit. Those things may cause issues at times, but there are other forces at play in the universe than me, and sometimes, there is no valid reason for why things happen; sometimes, shit happens. 

Turning trash into treasure

Life will shit on you at times. Ignoring that fact can make you miss a lot of lessons and growth. The advantage of optimism is you can say, "well, life just kicked the shit out of me, but what was the lesson in that shit show." You don't have to go through the cognitive gymnastics of neurotically agonizing over every word to keep the law of attraction from bringing bullshit to your door. You say how you feel and invest your energy into moving forward.

Closing Thoughts

Law of Attraction is a good set of metaphysical training wheels that can show you the power of your mind. However, at some point, you may want to upgrade your paradigm. Using optimism as a spell helps center you between the truth of the moment and the hopes of a better outcome. It gives you a clear target to work towards instead of living life from the rearview mirror. In the years ahead, we will need both clear-headed discernment and to heavily enchant optimism.

How to use affirmations for a happier life

Words are spells, and thoughts are things. However, most of us fail to recognize that truth. The human mind has a negative bias, and without some intentional pushback, we end up casting binding spells on ourselves. While this may sound like the ravings of an unsound mind, I invite you to suspend your disbelief for a few minutes and step into a world weirder than you might imagine. 

Words are magic

Chances are you've heard the magical phrase, "abracadabra." It's become a cliche term used by stage magicians the world over. However, it's unlikely that you know its origin or meaning. Abracadabra is an ancient Aramaic word meaning "I create as I speak." So what?

As I mentioned in the opening paragraph, the human mind has a negative bias. "The negative bias is our tendency not only to register negative stimuli more readily but also to dwell on these events." Additionally, the more we entertain specific ways of thinking, the stronger our mind is wired to think in similar ways. Meaning, unless you're consciously combating your biology, you likely have some unhelpful ways of thinking about the world.

Science Fact, Not Science Fiction

At first glance, it's easy to dismiss the saying "I create as I speak." Saying you're a millionaire doesn't magically make a million dollars appear in your bank account. If this were the case, I likely wouldn't be writing this article; I'd probably traveling the world. The truth of this statement is so subtle it's easy to miss.

How we speak reflects how we think and how we think impacts how we perceive life. Let me give you an example.

You start your day late for work because you overslept. In the process of rushing out the door, you stub your toe and accidentally spill your coffee on your shirt. Now you've got to change your shirt, making you even later. By this point, you and most people are already writing off the whole day as a bad day. In reality, it's just a few unfortunate moments, but we've opted into seeing it as an entire day down the tubes. 

While that may be an incredibly benign example, consider the implications of applying that thinking to significant periods of our lives in general or even yourself as a person. The consequences could be pretty dire.

Negative Cognitions

At the time of this writing, I've been in therapy for almost five years. Much of that time has focused on correcting negative cognitions. A negative cognition is a maladaptive self-assessment or negative belief developed from negative or traumatic life experience(s). These beliefs are the conclusions that we have about ourselves based upon our memories. Many of these from in your childhood then eventually become self-fulfilling prophecies. Sometimes we even unintentionally reinforce them with self-destructive patterns.

Here are some examples that I've dealt with personally.

• I am not loveable

• I am worthless

• I am ugly

• I cannot be trusted

• I cannot trust myself

• It's not ok to show my emotions

• I don't belong

• I should have known better

If words are spells, which I believe them to be, then negative cognitions are black magick or curses. While some may have malicious roots, most arise from an absent-minded statement that sticks with us. They could initially come from a family member, teacher, friend, or lover, but we continually recast the magick every time we utter the phrase in our heads.   

Breaking Black Magick

While this may receive some pushback, it's my experience that black magick's only real power is your belief in it. When we stop finding those things to be accurate, they stop having the ability to impact us. However, disbelief in long-held truths is a process that requires consistent effort. Remember, by default; the human mind perceives situations negatively; negative cognitions add some extra resistance to rewiring your brain. Thankfully, we can make space to start to reprogram how we think about ourselves.

The Power of Thought

After rigorous testing, science has widely accepted the placebo effect as a reality. What is the Placebo effect? The phenomenon of people receiving benefits from otherwise inactive substances through belief alone. While generally applied to the medical field, the actual impact of belief impacting reality is equally viable in most avenues, especially thought. 

Healing with words

Affirmations are essentially short phrases that offer emotional support or encouragement. While grasped upon by the New Age to questionable ends, you can leverage this practice for profound self-healing. However, just as your negative cognitions didn't develop overnight, affirmations will take time to work. Additionally, words themselves are just a starting point, but we'll look at that in a moment; for now, let's create affirmations from my negative cognitions.

• I am not loveable = I am loveable

• I am worthless = I am worthy

• I am ugly = I am attractive

• I cannot be trusted = I am trustworthy

• I cannot trust myself = I can listen to myself

• It's not ok to show my emotions = I can express myself

• I don't belong = I belong

• I should have known better = I am learning; mistakes are part of that process

Thoughts follow actions

I'd love to tell you that uttering affirmations alone would be enough, but they aren't. They offer support, but they don't have much sustainability unless we start changing the behaviors associated with our negative cognitions. Remember, negative cognitions often also condition a set of self-destructive behaviors, which will continually create situations to reinforce our old beliefs unless corrected.

Defining our Intent

The secret ingredient to affirmations is positive self-esteem. I get it; this may seem a bridge too far, which is why I'm discussing this in the context of magick and not traditional therapy. An indispensable aspect of magick is intent.

“Intent is not a thought, or an object, or a wish. Intent is what can make a man succeed when his thoughts tell him that he is defeated. It operates in spite of the warrior’s indulgence. Intent is what makes him invulnerable. Intent is what sends a shaman through a wall, through space, to infinity.”

— Carlos Castañeda

No particaption trophies

I can’t hold your hand and tell you everything will be alright because I respect you too much to lie to you. There are some things in life that unless we face them, will have serious negative impacts on our lives. That said, I do empathize with the impossible gap between negative self-image and generating self-respect. I had to cross it myself and I know the struggle. However, I don't do you any favors by telling you that it's easy; in my experience, it's been the hardest thing I've ever done. As toxic as the old concept of picking yourself by the bootstraps can be, sometimes you have to make yourself do the impossible. Thankfully, I'm not going to leave you empty-handed, and I can share what I've had to do. 

1) Why do you want to change your self-talk?

Feeling better about yourself is a great start, but you will need a more significant reason when the inevitable roadblock comes up. My reasoning for wanting to change how I thought about myself was to help others. I'd suggest finding a purpose that puts you in direct service to other people.

2) Practice Gratitude

This statement can sound like a sucker punch when your life is shit. However, I'm not asking you to bask in your suffering; I'm asking you to focus on maybe the one or two things that are going right in your life. If you can't find one or two things, think harder.

3) Do Esteemable Things

Most of us lack self-esteem because we aren't living in ways that make us feel good. However, there is a big world out there that is in dire need of help. Getting up off your ass and doing something good for someone else can have a significant head change, especially if you train yourself to do nice things without being asked and without telling another person.

In Closing

Words matter, and how you talk to yourself and think about yourself will impact your life. However, you cannot expect to make any lasting changes to your life so long as you continue to perpetuate the behaviors that feed into your old thought patterns. We live in a biological, psychological, and sociological world. They are interconnected systems and create lasting change; we need to work on all three areas actively.