How to work with affirmations:
Affirmations are great tools for uncovering how we really feel about a situation. Use them at first to reveal your resistance!

Take a notebook in which you can write on both the left and right hand pages. Starting on the left, write your affirmation. Almost immediately some voice in your head will pop up with “That’s not true!“. Whatever thought comes up, write it on the right side of the page. Then go back and write the affirmation again on the left side. Try to stay open to both voices, the affirmer and the negator. There is no right way to think. Just try to notice what you are thinking, pro and con about the subject. You may find yourself getting very emotional as you reveal your true thoughts to yourself. Remember to breathe.

I am creating a loving and supportive universe. The universe loves and supports me.

I don’t think that affirmations necessarily change our thoughts. Read over your responses to the affirmations and find the thought that causes you the most pain. Transform that thought into the most empowering affirmation you can come up with using most of the same words and wording. Choose to transform that upsetting thought into a very empowering thought for yourself.

For example,
affirmation: The universe loves and supports me.
your thoughts: I feel like I’ll never find the love I need.
your power thought: I find that the love I need is the love I feel.

Don’t worry if your power thought doesn’t quite make sense. Let your mind play with it for awhile. Affirmations should always be worded clearly and affirmatively.
Here are some of my favorites:

It is safe and pleasurable for me to live in my own true power and people respect me for it.

The universe takes my negativity and turns it into something beautiful.

I have all the time in the world.

I serve myself first, and thus I am able to serve humanity.

I always have more than enough.

When I worry about asking for too much it’s because I forget how much I’m worth.

If one of these affirmations struck you as being particularly unlikely then that might be a good one to choose to work on! Some people think that if you just say the affirmation often enough it will happen, but I think affirmations are more useful for finding out what thoughts you are holding onto beneath the surface.

Another way to discover this is to set aside some time and start writing “I forgive myself for…” This can result in pages and pages of “stuff” to work on! Keep writing until you can’t come up with anymore. This also works with “I forgive my mother (father, ex-lover etc.)”.

“I forgive myself for ever thinking I was unforgivable.”

One way to get around the negative feedback on affirmations is to begin each one with, “Wouldn’t it be lovely if…(I am now experiencing total health and well-being)”. This way you can avoid some of the sarcastic commentary in your brain, the part that always has to say, “Now that just isn’t true!”!

“Wouldn’t it be lovely if changing my life was as easy as breathing.”

Affirmations to Grow With

I am my perfect self.
Treating myself like a precious object will make me strong.
Letting go of disempowering behaviors allows everyone around me to be more powerful.

I want to acknowledge myself as a beautiful, creative and loving person who is capable of giving and receiving love and of manifesting a meaningful and abundant life.
A Treatment for Prosperity
Today I accept God’s gift of abundance.
Today everything I am and have is increased.
I identify everything I do with success.
I think affirmatively and with all my prayers I accept abundance.
Whatever I need–whenever I need it, wherever I need it, for as long as I need it–will always be at hand.
I claim that the action of the living Spirit prospers everything I do, increases every good I possess, and brings success to me, and everyone I meet.
Everything I think about and do is animated by the Divine Presence, sustained by the infinite Power, and multiplied by the Divine Goodness.Increasing your wealth is a matter of increasing the quality of your own thoughts – increasing the quality of your thoughts about money, increasing the quality of your thoughts about yourself, and increasing the quality of your thoughts about what you do for money.       -Phil Laut, Money is My Friend