Positive affirmations are much more than statements that are simply repeated and “believed in.” When you use affirmations in the right way, they can literally transform your life.
If you’ve heard of affirmations and thought they were cheesy, hokey or down right dumb you’ve probably been exposed to pop culture’s take on this important practice.
Positive affirmations are simply a way of taking control of the process that has been happening since you were born.
Affirmations are statements that are repeated on a consistent basis. Over time they shape the way that you think, the way you feel and the way you act. All of these factors contribute to the results that you see in your life.
Whether or not you’ve been practicing affirmations formally, you’ve been experiencing them from the time you were very small. You’ve been exposed to conditioning from your parents, society and your own self for a very long time.
Any time you repeat a statement with feeling and conviction it becomes part of the way you understand the world. Up until this point, you haven’t had control of this process.
These “unconscious” affirmations may have come from messages you received from your parents or your peer group growing up. You internalized these messages and they became part of what you thought about a consistent basis.
For example, you may have been told as a child that you weren’t smart. Over time, you internalized that and it became a negative affirmation for you.
Anytime you experienced an event that made you feel stupid, you’d repeat that negative affirmation. You began to believe that you weren’t smart, and everywhere you went you saw “evidence” to that fact.
However, positive affirmations that you implement yourself can undo the messages you received in the past. There are a few basic keys to writing positive affirmations that can have a major impact on your success:
1. Keep your affirmations in the positive at all times! Even if you want to rid yourself of a habit or a way of thinking, you need to phrase the affirmation in the positive. Instead of stating “I don’t want these bills anymore” you need to find the “opposite” of that statement. Try “Money flows to me endlessly” or “My bank account is always full.”
2. Phrase your affirmations as if they are already occurring in your life. You want to activate thoughts that will lead to your desires being manifested right now…not in the future.
If you state all your affirmations in the future tense (“I want to find a perfect soul mate”) then all your energy will be going toward the future, which will remain out of your grasp. Use “I’m in the process of finding my soul mate” or “I am now attracting my soul mate” instead.
3. If you have trouble staying positive, make a list of things that you don’t want and then start from there. You definitely know what you don’t want! So just use that list as a jumping off point.
4. Don’t try to cram too many things into one affirmation. Keep each one focused on one idea.
Feel free to review and rewrite your affirmations from time to time. Repetition is key to making affirmations work, but affirmations you don’t believe in aren’t effective. Evaluate your feelings after using your affirmations for a week and replace any that you don’t feel good about.