What are Affirmations?
Every thought you think every word you say is an affirmation All of our self-talk or inner dialogue is a stream of affirmations. We are continually affirming subconsciously with our words and thoughts and this flow of affirmations is creating our life experience in every moment. Our beliefs are just learned thought patterns that we have developed since childhood, many of these work well for us, but others may now be working against us, they are dysfunctional and may be sabotaging us from achieving what we believe we want. Every affirmation we think or say is a reflection of our inner truth or beliefs. It is important to realize that many of these "inner truths" may not actually be true for us now or may be based on invalid or inappropriate impressions we constructed as children, which if examined as an adult can be exposed as inappropriate.
Our subconscious uses the behaviour patterns we have learned to automatically respond and react to many everyday events in our life. This is essential to our survival, we need to be able to respond quickly to events around us which would be impossible if we had to re-examine every aspect of things every time something simple happens. Our learned responses and thought patterns enable us to automatically respond to circumstances quickly and easily. Problems arise however, if at an early stage some of the foundation beliefs on which many of the others are built were formed from a skewed perspective, maybe the strategy was appropriate for a perceived difficult circumstance, however often such beliefs are totally inappropriate for succeeding in the real world as adults.
You can use "Positive Affirmations", which are usually short positive statements targeted at a specific subconscious set of beliefs, to challenge and undermine negative beliefs and to replace them with positive self-nurturing beliefs. It is a kind of "brainwashing" only you get to choose which negative beliefs to wash away. The way these statements are constructed is extremely important. Later I will show you how to construct you own affirmations. It is important to remember of course that everything we say and think is a positive affirmation, using positive affirmation statements forces us to keep focussed on our inner goals and reminds us to think consciously about our words and thoughts and to modify them to reflect our positive affirmation.
Do affirmations work
YES! Affirmations really work. You will be hard pushed to find any self help program anywhere that does not include affirmations, even the ones that appear to pooh-pooh affirmations include them under some slightly different guise. And the reason for this is, they work. The more determined you are to make your changes, the more you are prepared to accept change and let go of the past, the better they will work for you.
Why affirmations work
By choosing to think and say positive affirmations as true, the subconscious is forced into one of two reactions - avoidance or reappraisal. The bigger the issue the bigger the gap between the positive affirmation and the perceived inner truth and the more likely that one is going to experience resistance. This is where the subconscious finds it easier to stay with its perceived inner truth and avoid the challenge using any means at its disposal to avoid examining the issue. You will recognise this reaction by a strong negative feeling inside as you state the positive affirmations. Equally if your experience a sense of joy and well being, your mind is instinctively responding to something it believes to be true. When you get this emotion, you know your affirmations are working!
Continually repeating affirmations with conviction and passion will chip away at even the strongest resistance. However there are a number of additional techniques you can use that will super-charge your affirmations and magnify their effectiveness many fold. I will outline these techniques for you later. Once the resistance is broken, your subconscious is able to re-examine the core belief and patterns you have been working on. The effect can be startling and things can change very quickly as the dysfunctional beliefs get identified and replaced by your own new inner truth. Depending on how deep into your consciousness these beliefs lay, every other learned pattern and belief that relied on the original belief as a premise, becomes unfounded. The subconscious has to re-examine them all, this can lead to a period of introspection. If you find yourself experiencing serious resistance or have identified an area of trauma in your life, I strongly urge you to seek professional support, the journey you are embarking on will release you from the past but having proper support around you as you go through the process will make it so much easier.
Because affirmations actually reprogram your thought patterns, they change the way you think and feel about things, and because you have replaced dysfunctional beliefs with your own new positive beliefs, positive change comes easily and naturally. This will start to reflect in your external life, you will start to experience seismic changes for the better in many aspects of your life.
How quickly do affirmations work
From day one, there will be affirmations you love and enjoy saying, these affirmations are likely to be very effective for you and you are likely to start experience changes almost immediately. Others will feel very negative, almost like a big lie, this indicates resistance and these areas may take longer to impact. How quickly you can resolve an issue like this is like asking how long is a piece of string. It depends on the issue, how deeply the belief is held and how determined you are to bring about change in that area of your life, the latter being perhaps the most important of all. If you are truly ready and want to make changes, the quicker those changes will come for you. People have made cognitive changes in their beliefs almost instantaneously, once you are prepared to embrace and accept a change and you believe it to be right for you from your very heart, then that change will happen. So it is not really a question of time, more a question of how accepting of change you can be.
Our free affirmation program uses affirmations extensively to target negative thought patterns, it runs for a minimum three months during which time if you have done everything we would definitely expect you to have started experiencing positive changes.
However, you should be under no illusion that by embarking on this process you are starting a journey for your lifetime. As you see and experience the techniques working for yourself will be driven to explore your inner-self further and other techniques. As you make your changes in one aspect of your life, other issues will pop up that you may want to deal with. The joy is, you would now have the knowledge and skill to deal with these issues effectively.
Will Affirmations help me?
Yes. No matter what aspect of life you're dealing with or who you are, affirmations will not only make you feel better about yourself and your life. But if used correctly, they can manifest real change in your life. Changing the way you think, reprogramming your mind and removing the old negative beliefs that have been sabotaging you again and again throughout your life. They can enable you to achieve the life you've always wanted for yourself!
Why doesn't everyone use Affirmations?
They do! It has been demonstrated that nearly 90% of our thoughts are negative, no wonder we find ourselves struggling. Each negative thought or word is a negative affirmation and these nasty little beasts can be even more powerful than positive affirmations because we often find them easier to accept. It is these negative thoughts that feed and validate our negative internal beliefs. Under this kind of negative bombardment most people simply do not have the strength to break free of their negative thoughts and become hopelessly locked into their own (usually false) negative beliefs.
Positive affirmations are designed to challenge those negative beliefs and start to stem the flow of negative thoughts and words that seek to validate them. Affirmations are more than just repeating words. It is a whole process of becoming aware of your thoughts and words in everyday life, choosing to think and project happy positive thoughts. The more you can consciously inject the spirit of you affirmations into your daily thoughts and words, the quicker they will work for you.
How to create your own affirmations
Start by taking some time to think about areas in your life you would like to improve and how you might want your life to be. It is worth taking some time over this process. Write the most important ones down in a list.
Now look at each item on the list and write out a few positive statements for each. They must be positive and in the present tense, focus on what you dowant, not on what you don't want.
For example if my list of things that were important to me included...
"A fulfilling job"
My affirmation might look like this
�I have a wonderful job that fulfils me on many levels�
Creating your own affirmations is the perfect way to get the right affirmations for you. If have included a few further samples below, as well as links to some affirmation lists (above). These should give you a good idea on how they should look and feel. If you sign up to the AffirmIt! program you will receive very specialised affirmations that are designed to tackle specific issues as you commence and progress through the process. For example, in the early stages, some of the affirmations you will receive will be "releasing" in nature, these are designed to assist you in overcoming any initial resistance to the process. Here is an example of a very simple releasing affirmation.
"I am ready and willing to release the past, now"
If you would like to see a few affirmation examples and have a bit of fun try out our "affirmation cards", you select your own affirmation from an online pack of affirmation cards!
Supercharging Affirmations
As I have said earlier, there are other techniques you can use that can super-charge the effectiveness of your affirmations. I will outline a few here briefly, if you are interested in really making your affirmations work and want even more details, this area is extensively covered in the the Basic Affirmation eGuide which you can download for free.
Affirmation Mirror work
Perhaps the most powerful way of using affirmations is to state them whilst looking in the mirror. Some of the most important messages you have received have been from people looking you straight in the eye. By looking yourself in the eye as you state your affirmation you magnify the importance of the message to yourself.
Written Affirmations
A great way of keeping your affirmation at the forefront of your mind is to write them down, leave notes or cards around so that you notice them throughout the day. The AffirmIt! program uses mobile technology to text powerful messages to you with the goal of keeping your mind focussed on your intention. Another idea is to write your affirmation down many times (10-20), this helps imprint it on your mind.
Say Affirmations with Passion
Say your affirmations with passion, the higher your emotional state as you say them, the more effective they are.
Sing or Chant Affirmations
One of the most effective ways to use affirmations is to sing them! The mind is much more accepting of affirmation messages when they are sung. If you have ever attended a Louise Hay "Heal your life Workshop", this technique is used extensively. Personally, I love them! If you want to listen to one click here.
Subliminal Affirmations
There are a number of techniques that attempt to by-pass the conscious mind and its resistance by transmitting the affirmations to you subliminally. There are a number of CD's available that include subliminal affirmations, the trouble with this technology is that it often comes unsupported and people expect it to simply work without doing anything for themselves. There is however a very powerful technique known as an "affirmation bath". This is often used in workshops because it requires several people sitting around a person making positive statements about them. An Affirmation bath is a truly amazing experience, the multiple voices, coming from multiple directions, often simultaneously simply overwhelm the minds ability to resist what is being said and the positive affirmations slip straight through to the subconscious. It is normally impossible to experience this unless you can get a group of like minded people together or you attend a workshop. To enable you to experience this technique, we have included an "affirmation bath" on our affirmation CD, "Heartfelt - Affirmations to Release the Past".
Example Affirmations
Affirmations for Health
- Every Cell in my body vibrates with energy and health
- Loving myself heals my life. I nourish my mind, body and soul
- My body heals quickly and easily
Affirmations for Abundance
- I prosper wherever I turn and I know that I deserve prosperity of all kinds
- The more grateful I am, the more reasons I find to be grateful
- I pay my bills with love as I know abundance flows freely through me.
Affirmations for Love
- I know that I deserve Love and accept it now
- I give out Love and it is returned to me multiplied
- I rejoice in the Love I encounter everyday
Affirmations for Romance
- I have a wonderful partner and we are both happy and at peace
- I release any desperation and allow love to find me
- I attract only healthy relationships
Affirmations for Weight Loss
- I am the perfect weight for me
- I choose to make positive healthy choices for myself
- I choose to exercise regularly
Affirmations for Self Esteem
- When I believe in myself, so do others
- I express my needs and feelings
- I am my own unique self - special, creative and wonderful
Affirmations for Peace and Harmony
- All my relationships are loving and harmonious
- I am at peace
- I trust in the process of life
Affirmations for Joy and Happiness
- Life is a joy filled with delightful surprises
- My life is a joy filled with love, fun and friendship all I need do is stop all criticism, forgive, relax and be open.
- I choose love, joy and freedom, open my heart and allow wonderful things to flow into my life.
