The core principles across multiple printable pages.
Quick-Start Cheat Sheets
The Game of Life and How to Play It
Apply the Teaching
Quick-Start Cheat Sheets for The Game of Life and How to Play It
The Game of Life - Quick-Start Cheat Sheets
Life has rules - Shinn identified them in 1925. This fast-scan reference puts the law of nonresistance, casting the burden, the power of the spoken word, and the law of supply on one printable sheet so the principles are visible when you need them most.
Inside the Cheat Sheets
One page per core principle
Your word is your wand
Every statement you speak is an instruction to the subconscious, which processes language literally and organises experience to confirm it.
What you resist persists
Resistance - anger at a situation, fear of a person, determined opposition to a circumstance - locks your body into the stress response and keeps your attention fixed on the thing you are fighting.
Casting the burden
The formal release practice Shinn describes - speaking a declaration that assigns the problem to Divine Intelligence - is a signal of safety to the body.
The law of nonresistance is active, not passive
The most misread principle in the book.
Under grace, not under law
One of Shinn's most practical distinctions.
Divine Design - your perfect self-expression
Shinn teaches that there is a unique place only you can fill and work only you can do - and that aligning with this design removes the friction that drains most people's energy.
The Method
CBT, NLP and somatic principles built into every line
Every line on the cheat sheets is written in NLP presupposition structure - language that treats the principle as already true rather than something to aspire toward. This is not a stylistic choice; it is a functional one. The subconscious mind processes language that presupposes reality more readily than language that frames it as a goal. “Your attention filter is already working for you” lands differently than “try to change your attention filter.”
The layout applies CBT chunking principles: each principle sits in its own distinct block so the brain processes it as a discrete unit rather than as part of an undifferentiated wall of text. Cluttered reference material is processed as noise. Clean, spaced, visually distinct content is processed as signal. The design decisions are functional, not decorative.
Printed and placed visibly, the cheat sheets work as environmental priming - a principle from somatic psychology. What you see repeatedly, without actively reading, shapes your default perceptual set. A cheat sheet pinned above your desk works not only when you read it deliberately but when your peripheral vision catches it during ordinary work. The subconscious is always receiving.
Why we built it this way
We applied NLP presupposition structure, CBT cognitive restructuring, and body-calming practices to The Game of Life. The goal was to make Shinn's spoken word practice actually reach the level where it can do its work - which requires starting from a place of calm rather than desperation. You cannot speak your way into a new belief while your body is in a state of alarm. The body has to settle first.
The workbooks and cheat sheets below are built on that premise. Each tool combines Shinn's affirmation structures with the body preparation that makes them effective - beginning with settling the system, then moving into the spoken word practice from a calm, open state rather than from anxiety. That is the difference between affirmations as wishful thinking and affirmations as something that actually rewires the pattern.
How to Use It
Three uses that actually work
- 1
Print and pin visibly
Pin the pages where you will see them without actively looking - above your desk, on the kitchen wall, beside the mirror. Peripheral exposure is the mechanism. You do not need to read it every day; you need it in your visual field.
- 2
Scan before a decision or challenge
Before a difficult conversation, a business decision, or a moment when the old pattern is likely to activate - read one principle deliberately. A 90-second scan primes the attentional filter before it is tested.
- 3
Use as a nightly anchor
The pre-sleep window is the subconscious's most receptive state. Reading one principle immediately before sleep is the highest-leverage moment in the day for impressing a new pattern. Two minutes - one principle, read slowly, felt rather than just processed.
Worth knowing
This is a reference tool, not a practice system
The cheat sheets give you the principles in a scannable, always-available format. They will not give you thirty days of structured daily practice - that is what the workbook is built for. If you want the 30-day practice system, it is here.
Who This Is For
You'll get the most from this if…
- ✓You love affirmations but suspect you are saying them wrong - and your results confirm it
- ✓You want to understand the psychology behind Shinn's spoken word practice, not just the spiritual claim
- ✓You are navigating a specific challenge - money, love, career - and want targeted affirmations that work
- ✓You feel like you are fighting life rather than working with it, and want to understand the law of nonresistance
- ✓You are drawn to Shinn's warmth and practical faith but want the modern mechanism explained
- ✓You want a daily spoken word practice with real structure, not just phrases to repeat
Complete the Practice
Complete the The Game of Life and How to Play It practice
30-Day Challenge Workbook
Build the teaching into 30 days of structured daily practice.
Habit Tracker & Goal Planner
Track the micro-habits that compound into lasting change.
52-Week Daily Affirmation Calendar
52 weeks of daily affirmations - one for every day from May 2026 to April 2027.
Affirmation Card Deck
52 cards to carry the teaching into every part of your day.
The Toolkit
All five products for this work in one discounted bundle. Save 30%.
Annotated Edition
Christie L. Russell's annotated edition with neuroscience and NLP commentary.
About the Work
The Game of Life and How to Play It - New Thought, 1871-1940
Shinn's most famous work, framing life as a game with discoverable rules. She teaches that the spoken word, backed by faith and right action, activates spiritual law to produce tangible results.
The Science Behind It
Shinn's 'power of the spoken word' is not mystical - it's a form of linguistic priming. NLP formalised this as the presupposition principle: the brain treats spoken statements as instructions and organises experience to confirm them. Her affirmations work specifically when structured as already-accomplished facts because the subconscious processes language literally, without the qualifications the conscious mind adds. The 'fearlessness' she emphasised maps to what modern therapy calls acting from the window of tolerance - making decisions from a regulated nervous system rather than from fear or avoidance.
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