Florence Scovel Shinn: The Game of Life and 18 of Her Affirmations
Florence Scovel Shinn (1871 to 1940) was an American illustrator who became one of the most loved New Thought teachers. Her book The Game of Life and How to Play It (1925) opens with a famous line: "Most people consider life a battle, but it is not a battle, it is a game." Her rule for the game: what you send out in word and feeling comes back to you. Below are 18 of her affirmations, in her own words.
Key takeaways
Florence Scovel Shinn (1871 to 1940) was an American illustrator and New Thought teacher.
Her book The Game of Life and How to Play It came out in 1925.
Her rule: what you send out in word and feeling comes back to you.
Pick one of her lines and say it until it feels true.
Who was Florence Scovel Shinn?
Florence Scovel was born in 1871 in Camden, New Jersey. She became an illustrator in New York, drawing for Harper's magazine and for novels like Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch, and married the painter Everett Shinn. Later she turned to spiritual teaching, holding talks in New York and helping people with what she called "the spoken word." She died in 1940.
Her books are The Game of Life and How to Play It (1925), Your Word Is Your Wand (1928), The Secret Door to Success (1940) and The Power of the Spoken Word, published after her death. They are short, full of real stories from the people she helped, and still read around the world.
What The Game of Life teaches
Shinn saw life as a game of giving and receiving: "whatever man sends out in word or deed, will return to him." Send out love and love returns; send out fear and fear returns. That is the law of attraction in her own language.
She taught that your words are powerful, because the subconscious takes them literally, so you should speak only what you want to see. She asked for the "divine selection," the right thing, "by divine right," and added that it should come "under grace in a perfect way." And she trusted intuition: "never violate a hunch."
18 affirmations by Florence Scovel Shinn
- Infinite Spirit, open the way for great abundance for me. I am an irresistible magnet for all that belongs to me by divine right.
- Infinite Spirit, open the way for the Divine Design of my life to manifest; let the genius within me now be released; let me see clearly the perfect plan.
- Infinite Spirit, give me a definite lead, reveal to me my perfect self-expression.
- Infinite Spirit, open the way for my right home, my right friend, my right position. I give thanks it now manifests under grace in a perfect way.
- Infinite Spirit, open the way for my immediate supply, let all that is mine by divine right now reach me, in great avalanches of abundance.
- Infinite Spirit, reveal to me the way, let me know if there is anything for me to do.
- Thy will be done this day! Today is a day of completion; I give thanks for this perfect day, miracle shall follow miracle and wonders shall never cease.
- I have a wonderful work, in a wonderful way, I give wonderful service, for wonderful pay!
- I am always under direct inspiration; I make right decisions, quickly.
- I am one with Infinite Intelligence. I know everything I should know.
- Every man is a golden link in the chain of my good.
- There is no separation in Divine Mind, therefore, I cannot be separated from the love and companionship which are mine by divine right.
- I cast this burden of resentment on the Christ within, and I go free, to be loving, harmonious and happy.
- I put this situation in the hands of Infinite Love and Wisdom.
- I am fully equipped for the Divine Plan of my life.
- I desire only that which God desires for me.
- I now thank God the Giver for God the Gift.
- Divine order is established in my mind, body and affairs.
What "Infinite Spirit, open the way" means
Many of Shinn's affirmations begin with "Infinite Spirit," her name for God or the universe. "Open the way" means: clear the path and show me the door. So when you say "Infinite Spirit, open the way for my right home," you are asking the universe to lead you to the home that is right for you, then trusting it to show you how. She always asked for what was hers "by divine right," never for something that belonged to someone else.
How to use her affirmations
The lines on this page are her words from The Game of Life. A few she first spoke for a client are set in the first person, the way her readers say them today.
Pick one that fits what you want right now and say it often, calmly and with feeling. Shinn's clients repeated their words again and again until they believed them, and then acted on the hunches that came. Write your chosen line where you will see it, say it before sleep, and add "I give thanks" at the end, as she did. For a ready-made practice, repeating one line on loop works beautifully with her words.
Florence Scovel Shinn and Neville Goddard
Shinn taught in New York in the 1920s and 1930s, in the same New Thought world as Neville Goddard. Both believed that imagination and inner speech shape your life. Shinn put the weight on the spoken word; Neville on the feeling of the wish fulfilled. Readers who love one usually love the other.
Tips for using Florence Scovel Shinn's affirmations
Choose one and stay with it
Her clients repeated one statement until it felt true. One line said often beats many said once.
Say it out loud
She believed in the power of the spoken word. Speak your line, even softly.
Act on the hunch
After you ask, notice the small nudges that come. "Never violate a hunch," she wrote. Those nudges are what many people now call signs from the universe.
Use your own word for the divine
If "God" or "Christ" does not feel like yours, say "the universe" or "Infinite Spirit." The feeling matters most.
Florence Scovel Shinn: frequently asked questions
Florence Scovel Shinn (1871 to 1940) was an American illustrator and New Thought teacher from New Jersey who lived and taught in New York. She wrote The Game of Life and How to Play It (1925) and Your Word Is Your Wand (1928), among others.
