Affirmations are wonderful because it is much better to speak positively than to speak negatively. But the universe is not responding to your words; it responds to your vibration, and your vibration is being indicated to you by the way you feel. If you don’t believe what you are saying, your vibration hasn’t shifted, so nothing changes for you. The key to affirmations is to work yourself into a place where you really feel it. We have never talked about this before anywhere, but a very good application of an affirmation would be to affirm your way up the emotional scale. Start with an affirmation of where you are emotionally, then keep reaching for a better feeling thought.