Affirmations!

Affirmations!

Affirmations are simply statements that we make to

ourselves; it's our self-talk. You use

affirmations all the time, whether you're doing so

intentionally or unintentionally. 

If you make a mistake and you think to yourself, 

"I'm always making mistakes, I never do anything right",

you've just made a negative affirmation. 

If instead you make a mistake and you think to

yourself, "That's OK, I have the ability to correct 

this", you've just made a positive affirmation.

Your self-talk has an enormous impact on your

conscious and subconscious minds. By repeating

positive affirmations you can reprogram your

thought patterns. 

Creating new thought patterns will allow you to begin 

to change your underlying beliefs and the way that 

you think and feel about yourself, others, and your 

place in the world. 

In this way, you can improve your life dramatically

through the use of daily positive affirmations.

Choosing Your Affirmations

Shakti Gawain, author of Creative Visualization,

offers the following advice for choosing your

affirmations:

o Always phrase your affirmations in the present

tense, as if it already exists. Say "I enjoy being

at my ideal weight" instead of saying "I will

reach my ideal weight."

o Affirm what you want, not what you don't want.

Instead of saying "I am no longer a

procrastinator", say "I always get things done on

time."

o Don't simply go through your affirmations by

rote; add positive feelings and emotions to your

affirmations.

o Choose affirmations that feel right for you. If

you come across an affirmation that you like but

you would feel more comfortable changing a couple

of words, go right ahead.

Use Three Different Pronouns

A technique that you can apply to make your

affirmations more effective is to write down the

same affirmation using different pronouns. 

For example, if you want to affirm that you're

surrounded by positive people who want the best

for you, you can write down the following three

affirmations (in this example your name is Joan):

o I am surrounded by positive people who want the

best for me.

o Joan, you are surrounded by positive people who

want the best for you.

o Joan is surrounded by positive people who want

the best for her.

When you say affirmations in the second and third

person it's as if someone else is talking to you

or about you. 

Your internal critic is less apt to interject a negative 

comment if it thinks someone else is making these 

positive affirmations about you.

Affirmations Can Be General or Specific

Affirmations can be general or they can be very

specific. Some examples of general affirmations

are the following:

o Abundance is all around me.

o Abundance is my birthright.

o There is more than enough for all.

Use general affirmations to "set the stage". Once

you've established clear, well-defined goals for

yourself you can create specific affirmations to

help keep you focused on your goals and to

strengthen your belief in your ability to reach

your goals. 

For example, if your goal is to lose 10 pounds in the 

next three months by exercising, your affirmations 

could be the following:

o I now jog for 40 minutes, 4 times a week.

o Jogging helps me to lose weight and makes me

healthy and fit.

o I am now lifting weights 3 times a week.

o I enjoy going to the gym and lifting weights.

o I am getting excellent results from jogging and

weight lifting, and it shows.

o Every day I am getting fitter and fitter.

o I now weigh X amount of pounds (your target

weight).

o People comment on how much thinner I am and how

good I look.

You Have to Be Able to Believe Your Affirmations

Whenever you choose to change anything in your

life, you're choosing to move out of your present

comfort zone. 

We should always strive to grow and expand our definition 

of ourselves and of what we are capable of. 

However, you have to make sure that your affirmations 

are not so far off from where you are at the moment 

that there's no way you can get yourself to believe what 

you're affirming.

If you don't believe the affirmations you're

saying to yourself, then you need to start with a

less ambitious affirmation and gradually make your

affirmations bigger and bigger. 

For example, if you currently make $3,000.00 a month, 

it may be difficult for you to believe "I am now making

$50,000.00 a month". 

However, you can probably believe the following affirmation: 

"I am now making $4,500.00, or more, a month". As you move

forward and begin to see results you can progressively 

increase this number until you do feel comfortable affirming 

that you make over half a million dollars a year.

Repeat Your Affirmations Often

There is much power in repetition. Positive

affirmations are not something that you do once in

a while, instead, you should expose your mind to

the affirmations that you choose for yourself as

often as possible. 

In the words of Robert Collier: "Constant repetition 

carries conviction."

Write down your affirmations and place them where

you can refer to them often (you can even carry

them around in your wallet). 

You can say them out loud to yourself every morning when 

you wake up and at night before going to bed, or you can set

aside a few minutes each day to scribble them on a

sheet of paper several times to help reinforce the

message in your mind.

Taping the affirmations in your own voice and

listening to the tape while you're relaxing-or,

even better, meditating-- has had extraordinary

effects for countless people. 

Louise Hay, author of the International bestseller "You Can 

Heal Your Life", recommends that you sing or chant your

affirmations. 

Some people leave a CD with positive

affirmations playing softly in the background

while they sleep at night.

In addition, there are several programs that allow

affirmations to flash on and off on your computer

screen unobtrusively, helping to program these

affirmations into your subconscious.

Affirmation Bath

Practitioners who offer healing workshops often

use a technique called "affirmation bath".

Basically, several people stand around one person

and they all begin saying positive affirmations

directed toward that person. 

The person is "engulfed" by positive messages 

from others. You can try this technique if you can 

find several like-minded people to participate in this 

exercise with you.

Release Any Negative Feelings That Arise

Negative feelings can act as self-imposed stop

signs to getting what you want in life. If you

feel any discomfort, self-doubt, fear, anger, and

so on when saying your affirmations, you need to

let go or release these negative feelings. 

One way to do this is by using the Sedona Method. 

As stated before, you have to add positive feelings

and emotions to your affirmations, and if negative

feelings are getting in the way, you need to be

able to let go of them.

Your self-talk can either prevent you from getting

what you want in life, or it can be a powerful

catalyst for creating the life you've always

wanted. 

Create a daily practice of using positive

affirmations to help motivate, support, and

inspire you to go after your dreams.

Article by EitanSharir.com

#affirmations #self_development #mind_power #auto-suggestion