Affirmations
September 10th, 2006Affirmations are statements you make to yourself to bring about a certain outcome or to alter your way of thinking. The use of affirmations dates back thousands of years. They are a specific form of autosuggestion. People use positive affirmations to change the conditions of their lives, they can be used effectively to cure addictions, overcome depression, lose weight, find the perfect partner and help cure almost any illness. The right use of affirmations is a wonderful tool for personal development and they can be incorporated into your life easily and effortlessly.
Most people unknowingly use affirmations every day of their lives. Unfortunately in the busy and often stressful world we live in, affirmations tend to creep into our thoughts with the wrong intention and can, over the long term, cause all manner of heartache. Let me give you an example: Jenny wakes up in the morning when her alarm goes off, the first thing she says to herself is, I hate getting up in the morning, she falls back asleep again, later when she wakes again she says, I always oversleep my alarm. She gets out of bed and goes to the fridge to get out some milk and says, I always forget to buy milk, after her shower she gets dressed and races for the bus and says, I always miss the bus. When she does finally arrive at work she says, I am always late for work. Jenny has only just started her day but already she has made 5 affirmations to herself. That is 5 negative affirmations and the biggest problem with the affirmations Jenny has made is she believes them and when you believe something, your subconscious mind makes it happen. Over time these things happen to Jenny so often she simply accepts it, when in fact she is the one and only person responsible for these events happening to her. The good news for Jenny is, if she simply changes her negative affirmations to positive affirmations she will change her circumstances and therefore improve her life.
To achieve the best results you want your affirmation to begin to affect your thoughts immediately, not at some time in the future. So the best way to word your affirmations is to state them in the present tense, not in the future tense. Say, I am confident now, do not say, I will be confident, by saying you will be confident means you will be confident in the future but not right now. By stating, I am confident now, you immediately put the idea into your subconscious that you are confident right now and your subconscious mind will go to work on that thought and make it happen.
While keeping your affirmation in the present sense it is also crucial to use the right wording so as to keep your thoughts targeted in the direction of your goal. For example: Say, I am happy everyday. Do not say, I am not depressed. The subconscious mind focuses on the words you use within the affirmation, so if you use the word, depressed, your mind picks up on that word and brings more of that to you. With the affirmation, I am happy everyday, the key words are, happy, and, everyday, so it is quite easy to understand how the constant repetition of these words running through you mind would have a positive outcome on the way you feel each day.
Another tip when composing your positive affirmations is to speak in your own voice. If you repeat affirmations that are long and wordy and perhaps use words within your affirmation that you personally would not use in your day to day speech, do not use them in you affirmations. For example: With supreme confidence and charm, I radiate positive energy to all and in return, people gravitate towards me. This affirmation is ok if you talk that way but I would suggest keep your affirmations simple and easier to repeat. For Example: I feel good about myself and others are drawn to me, it is a simple version of the longer affirmation but still has the same effect. Ultimately, the words have to mean something to you, if you believe what you are saying, the intention behind the positive affirmation will manifest for you much quicker. If you choose an affirmation that you do not believe, the thing you are affirming will not come into your experience. The simpler the wording, the easier it will be to impress your subconscious and when your subconscious mind accepts the idea it will immediately begin to execute your request.
The more often you repeat your affirmation the quicker you will get your results. Repetition is probably the most important ingredient in firmly implanting positive affirmations in your subconscious mind. It is so important that even if you may have doubts about your affirmation working, the incessant and constant saturation of the affirmation on your subconscious mind often brings fabulous results.
While repeating your affirmations, a great way to further shorten the time it takes to achieve success is to hold the image of your desired outcome in your mind. When you can see the end result clearly in your mind, the thought energy from the words combined with the energy from the image in your mind makes things happen that much quicker.
Check out the article on creative visualization to learn how to use affirmations with visualization to achieve super fast results.
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March 14th, 2007 at 3:39 pm
Hello John,
Can you help me? I am trying to locate research that would tell me the minimum number of times per hour an affirmation needs to be repeated in order to be effective. This for scholarly research that I am doing. Do you know of published research or do you know of an expert that I could contact for an opinion?
Very sincerely,
Judith Balian
August 22nd, 2007 at 1:48 am
[…] life and instead try to stay focused on what you do want or keep your thoughts positive. Repeating affirmations to yourself can help to replace the negative thoughts that seem to continually pop up in your […]