Scott Desgrosseilliers

Affirmations

Affirmations are a powerful but often misunderstood tool for manifestation.  The popularity of the movie “The Secret” has people running around with the idea that if they think “I want a new Maserati automobile” they are going to have one show up in their garage the next day.  Unfortunately that is not how it works.  Correctly performed affirmations are a key tool to trigger the universe to offer you options and opportunities.  But you still have to take them!  I’d like to shed some light on what I have learned about what works and doesn’t work when creating and using affirmations.

Affirmations are the next step after you have figured out your goals.  It is mentally programming your thoughts to dwell upon things for the purpose of experiencing them.  The Law of Attraction states that what we think about we attract.  An affirmation is an acknowledgement of this law, and the choice to use it for your benefit, rather than subconsciously having it work on your life without your input. 

The correct wording of your affirmations is important.  The law of attraction is going to start drawing on the universe exactly what you think.  A common beginner mistake is to word their affirmations in a futuristic context.  “I want to have more money”.  This is a fatal affirmation flaw.  You are telling the universe that you want to experience “wanting more money”, which you probably already are experiencing, the feeling of want, and thus the point of the affirmation in the first place!  Never write an affirmation with “want”, “need”, “wish to have”, because that is exactly what you will experience, that feeling of not having attained what you are attempting to affirm into your life.

I felt I had the wording of an affirmation all figured out after grasping the previous paragraph.  I didn’t.  You also need to take into account that your affirmation has to be believable to your mind.  Waking up every morning, saying “I am richer than Warren Buffett and Bill Gates combined”, and then smugly walking off to your job as the fry cook at Burger King;  That’s a recipe for an unfulfilled affirmation.  Look at an improved but still viable option when choosing your affirmation.  As a Burger King fry cook, you may have a goal (I hope) of a better job that is more fulfilling, better pay, or perhaps work for yourself.  And of course there is no reason your goal can’t be more money than Bill Gates.  Your mind is probably going to doubt it when your affirmation is “I have more money than Bill Gates”.  However, “my job pays me $1,000 a week and I enjoy it” is something that is a reachable step from the fry cook job.  I had some grandiose affirmations, that while I still have as goals, I am using daily affirmations that help me achieve great things that are more buyable to my mind.

Now, imagine you have an affirmation of “I make $100,000 a year”.  You affirm this every day, you visualize it, you take action, you get this great-paying job.  Then, you find out you work 14 hour days and most weekends.  Gross!  I know that I am not looking to spend every waking hour at any job.  How can your affirmations provide an insurance policy against this?  For every affirmation, include the phrase “in an easy and relaxed manner, and a healthy and positive way” at the end of the affirmation statement.  I had read this a few times in the past and it finally clicked in for me about a month ago.  “Easy and relaxed manner” sounds very, very nice.

Many affirmation techniques and advice touch on thankfulness.  It is said to be thankful for what you are about to receive.  This is another tricky concept.  Why am I thankful when it hasn’t occurred yet?  How do I express thanks when something obviously hasn’t happened?  Expressing thankfulness in advance is a way to help convince your mind that something is going to occur.  You are using your mind on your mind…trippy.  When writing an affirmation, I put “I am thankful that” in front of each affirmation to help cement this in my mind each day.

I have a goal of leading meditation workshops.  Over the course of my affirmation education, I have gone through the following versions of an affirmation for this goal-
“I want to lead meditation workshops”
“I lead meditation workshops”
“I lead meditation workshops all over the world”
“I am now leading meditation workshops all over the world”
And finally, correctly, “I am thankful that I am now creating meditation and spirituality workshops that I lead globally, in an easy and relaxed manner, and a healthy and positive way”. 

Remember that affirmations are the gateway to achieving what you have identified that you want to create in your life.  When creating affirmations, correct wording is essential to successful manifestation.

Swimming with Dolphins

It was always on my life list to swim with dolphins.  I really wasn’t sure why, I just knew that I wanted to check the experience out. While in Playa del Carmen Mexico the opportunity arose to spend an hour in a pool with dolphins.  I was not disappointed.

Swimming with dolphins was on my life list.  I had visions of being boated out into the middle of the ocean, where a posse of friendly dolphins were hanging out, waiting for people to jump overboard to hang out with.  This couldn’t be further from the truth.  We had our swimming with dolphin experience at Delphinius, a highly organized and controlled environment.  The dolphins at Delphinius are trained to the point they act like a more intelligent version of a dog.  Anything “wild” that occurred was merely a well-orchestrated trained maneuver.  This did not diminish the experience, but it was worth noting that we were in a dolphin zoo of some kind.

My first interaction occurred with 2 dolphins.  I laid out in the pool while they swam up under my feet and propped me up in the air.  I was then pushed along the water’s surface across the length of the pool.  Their noses felt like the ends of a hockey sticks with a lot of tape on them that was then smoothed down, if that makes any sense.  Near the end of the pool the dolphins simply dove down and I belly-flopped into the water.   Each person in our group of four received the dolphin push across the water, and then we moved to a different part of the pool for the rest of our activities.

The four of us spread out in the water and our dolphin kept roaming around between us.  Female dolphins appear to share a characteristic with their fellow female humans – they like a LOT of attention.  The dolphin would continually swim around us so we could pet it.  The skin of the dolphin felt like an inner tube.  The flexibility and control the dolphin had over its body was impressive.  She would pass by all of us, contort her body and suddenly be headed right back towards us on her back so she could get a belly rub…like most dogs would prefer.  The dolphin was also very talkative.  Their voices will not win any awards however, the dolphin voice is a shrill muted scream.  It sounds like a cross between a seagull getting a rock thrown at it with the cadence and irritating factor of squeaky bed rails thrown in for good measure.  The dolphin liked to chatter in this sound, and then splash us repeatedly, she was having a lot of fun at our expense.

There were a few other tricks with multiple dolphins jumping over us.  The dolphins were smart enough to not only jump out and over us by fifteen to twenty feet, but they all held different poses for the camera at the height of their jump.   I can’t imagine how the trainers figured out to teach them to arch their backs differently based on their position in the jump. 

If you like affectionate dogs and the ocean water, you will love swimming with dolphins.  The playful nature and great sense of humor that our dolphin had made it a memorable experience.

OTI - Optical Tequila Illusion

Spending a week at an all-inclusive resort caused me to notice a previously unobserved phenomenon – the Optical Tequila Illusion.  The Optical Tequila Illusion, or OTI if you will, is the condition that occurs when you have been drinking tequila at a moderate pace for the entire day without a break of any kind.  No water, no coffee, and no activities that can break your tequila rhythm.  A happy and content haze comes over you, mild but comforting, that causes you to notice things that you didn’t recognize previously.  OTI is perhaps best understood with some examples:

“That guy by the pool appears to have a Nacho Libre wrestling mask on while putting an innocent bystander into a headlock.” While at the pool one day a guy appeared wearing a wrestling mask he had picked up in town.  He was also riding the tequila train.  He walked around the pool putting people in headlocks and getting his picture taken, screaming “I love tequila”.  This was not an illusion, but actually happened, because I have a picture with myself headlocked.

“Every table in this restaurant appears to be a treehouse.”  After a comfortable day sipping tequila by the pool (this was every day all week), we went into downtown Playa Del Carmen.  Our wanderings led us to a restaurant called Playasia, which was a sushi joint that was built around a colossal tree.  You would sit in these mammoth treehouses covered in Christmas lights.  I have a receipt from Playasia, so this was not an OTI but did indeed occur.

“That half-rat half-hamster just took a pull off my margarita.”  This was an illusion, although there were several huge half-rat things that waddled around the pool without a care.

“I have somehow got a tan.”  I cannot determine if this actually happened or not.  I have spent my entire life pale.  Any tanning attempts have been met with crisped skin that goes from pale red to itching to peeling to white.  This trip was dedicated to being in the sun at all times.  I may have achieved a slight hue of pink.

“The angry mega-tan guy just berated someone for smoking because it was bad for his health.”  There was a guy who setup at 9am by the pool each day and took a personal baby oil bath.  You could see him glisten as you approached the pool after breakfast.  He is doing his best to catch skin cancer.  However, if anyone dared to put out a pack of cigarettes near him, he would fly off the handle about smoking next to him.  I figured this was an illusion because he would get belligerent at an all-inclusive while everyone else was having the time of their lives.  It wasn’t.

“I seem to recall something about this thing called a cell phone.”  I turned my cell phone on once during the trip.  I had a number of anxious texts from Mark about the cable being out.  Relaxing by the pool after many margaritas, Mark’s cable situation could not be more hilarious.  I spent 5 minutes texting instructions to him and then turned my phone off.  I didn’t turn it on again until I was at the airport going home.  Keeping the cell phone off contributed to the happiness of the week.

When winter brings its miserable chill, it is best to escape out of town as often as possible.  Warm comforting hazes can do wonders.  A great diversion is to generate an OTI for yourself. 

Vision Board

A downfall of the information age is the flood of news that serves to distract and preoccupy everybody.  Well intentioned plans to spend an hour or even a day doing something productive can be sidetracked in the maze of internet clicking on the drama of the day.  I find a great way to have a focused and productive day is to make sure it gets off to a good start.  This is not easy to accomplish, I need a lot of reminders to keep from getting distracted by the internet, email, or online euchre.  That is why I have a vision board displayed prominently on my dresser.

A vision board is a tool to help keep you visually on track with your goals.  After you have identified what you are passionate about, turned those passions into goals, turned the goals into affirmations, and turned those affirmations into a written plan, the next step is to keep moving along the written plan.  A vision board encompasses the end game of all your goal achievements.  When you wake up in the morning and see your vision board, it is another way to jar your mind to take steps towards achieving what is on your vision board.

Vision Boards are very easy to create.  Get a cork board and some push pins.  Go to Google and start image searching your passion test results and goals.  Download and print out the image search results that best embody the life you envision when you have achieved that passion test result or goal.  Repeat these until you are satisfied that the images printed out match your ideal life.  Pin the pictures onto the cork board and display it somewhere you cannot miss it each morning.  That is all there is to vision board creation.

I don’t’ get very excited about crafting.  In fact, I have only made crafts when ordered to do so by an overeager home economics teacher.  But I found vision board creation to be a lot of fun.  For my goal of writing a New York Times best seller, I printed out the current New York Time Best Selling List.  I then typed out my book title and name, along with a description of the book, and pasted it over the number one selling book.  For my goal of leading spirituality workshops, I printed out the current Hay House conference website (Hay House is the leading spirituality conference holder).  I pasted my picture on the page displaying highlighted workshop presenters.

I found this made my goals seem more real.  It is a vivid display of the end result of the goals.  When your subconscious mind can visualize and accept the end result of your goals, it starts to help prod your conscious mind into action.  Then your conscious mind takes steps to help get to the vision board result.

If you find yourself lamenting yet another day without progress on things you care about, cook up a vision board.  It will get you excited and re-focused on your goals.  Vision Boards are another tool in the battle with your mind to stay focused on what you want to get out of life.