Affirmative attitude is our ability to say "yes" to the flow of life which carries us to greater creative expression and to our highest good. I came to this definition as I thought about the practice of affirmations. This statement clears out many mistakes which we need to avoid.

To affirm means "to make firm". But what do we make firm? First of all, our alignment with the Universal Flow. One of the fundamental truths about life is that it never stands still. It is always on the move, and our highest goal is to move along with it. However, if we believe that our good is fixed, if we associate our happiness with the particular set of things, circumstances, and relationships, we are in danger to become out of sync with the flow. It is highly possible for us to become mentally stiff and rigid, and in this case affirmations would only complicate the issue.

Affirmations don't make anything either real of true, no matter how strong is our desire. But they adjust us to the Truth and the Reality - which are greater than our limited experiences - and they do it exceedingly well.

It takes courage to practice affirmations, especially in the beginning. It takes courage to declare, for example, "I am God's love in expression". The voice of our ego immediately will tell us that it is not so, that we are hypocrites. "How dare you! You've been so unloving in the past. Why don't you just admit that you are a poor sinner and beg God for mercy? Why don't you ask God to give you love?"

Why does ego behaves in such a manner? It is closely tied with our life experiences. It was formed and shaped by them. Ego attempts to hold on to our negative or limited self-image, because this is the only way for it to stay in control. Real freedom from bondage comes to us when we realize that our identity is greater than our ego. When we deny our ego and its claims, we find ourselves as we truly are.

Don't listen to accusations or intimidations of your ego, because they can hardly move you forward. For personal growth to happen, we need to look above and beyond all we've known about ourselves from our experiences, to the untapped divine potential within. We also need to see ourselves as creators of our life.

For so long we view ourselves as created beings. Not only we were supposedly created by God - we were also placed in social and cultural settings which determined our thoughts, feelings, and behavior patterns. We carried within ourselves DNA which programmed our biological development.

It is not my intention to discuss how much of all that is true. But I would recommend, for practical purposes, to forget all these factors and to think of ourselves in terms of absolute freedom of creative self-expression. So often people use deterministic ideas to justify their unwillingness to develop their will, imagination, intuition, and other facilities. Let us not be among them.

The fact is, we don't know limits of our unfoldment. But we surely can become adventurous enough to explore them. Let us say "yes" to our desires for greater knowledge and greater expression. When it comes to our particular circumstances, we may use them as the starting point of our eternal journey.

There are many affirmations for all occasions available in spiritual books - and in my own "Daily Affirmations" mailing list. Yet they aren't magic formulas. They are instruments of changing consciousness. There is no need to stay attached to particular phrases. If we understand the philosophy of affirmative thinking, we can create and modify our own affirmations in the process of our adjustment to the Universal Flow.