Affirmations
Positive affirmations are now used extensively by many people in an attempt to improve their lives, and indeed, they can be quite effective. It is possible, however, to improve their effectiveness. Affirmations are short phrases that are said over and over to yourself. They work because, with enough repetition, they eventually make their way into your unconscious mind, and become a “habit.” If this sounds strange to you, it’s actually nothing new in your life. It has been going on almost since you were born. The only problem is that throughout your life most of the thoughts that have been fed to your unconscious mind were negative. In particular, it was going on when you were young and it is the thing that is primarily responsible for your personality and outlook on life – in short, whether you are optimistic or pessimistic.
The biggest problem for most people is that many of their “naturally occurring” affirmations contain phrases such as “can’t do,” impossible,” beyond me,” and so on. In other words they are negative. Positive affirmations are an attempt to “repair” the damage that has been done.
Let’s look briefly at the usual positive affirmation approach. The idea is to select a short phrase and say it to yourself until it gets into your unconscious mind. Of course you need several things along with this if you want it to work. They are:
Let’s turn now to one of the more popular affirmations, “I am happy.” Everyone wants to be happy (and many people are not), so it’s easy to understand why this one would be so popular. We’ll begin with an experiment. Start by saying “I am happy” to yourself over and over throughout the day, keeping the above 7 steps in mind. Do it for about two weeks, then sit back and access the results. Are you happier? If you have done it properly you should be somewhat happier, but you may not be satisfied with the results. Something may seem to be missing.
What are you happy about? Why should you be happy? These are questions that should be addressed in your affirmation, even if you thoroughly believe it.
A variation that addresses this is as follows. (And I believe it will increase your happiness faster than the previous procedure, although you will still have to apply the things in the list of seven.) Again, let’s assume we are concentrating on the affirmation “I am happy.”
Procedure:
Write down a list of everything that is positive in your life. Things such as: your health, your shape, your financial situation, your family, your home, your friends, and so on. Ignore everything that is negative; keep them off your list. Don’t worry if your life isn’t very positive; everyone has some positive things they are proud of.
Read through your list and think about each of the things on it, and as you do, make up an affirmation such as, “I am lucky.” “I’m the luckiest person I know because of what I have.” Later you can use “I am happy because of the things I have.” There may be many negative things in your life but try your best to ignore them. The important thing is to make sure you believe your affirmation.
At the same time begin to visualize all the things that are positive in your life. Visualization is critical because the brain can’t distinguish between a vivid visualization and the real thing.
Expand on the visualization. Add in details, see yourself as happy. Visualize a happy occasion; at the same time continue the affirmations.
Let the feeling that this generates flow through your body. Nourish it. Let your enthusiasm grow, along with your optimism. Remember: Positive self-talk + a positive feeling+ enthusiasm and high optimism = success.
Of particular importance during the visualizations, act and feel as if your goal has already been achieved. It’s not something you want in the future; you have already achieved it
Finally, if you are looking for something specific within the overall topic (in this case “happiness”), gradually add it in.
After a couple of weeks, sit back again and analyze the results. Compare them to those of the simple affirmation “I am happy.” I’m sure you will find that you feel happier this time, even if you never mentioned the word “happy” in your affirmations This variation works better because the questions I posed earlier are addressed and the simple affirmations are supplemented with vivid visualizations.
This approach can be used with any affirmation. Other common affirmations are: “I have self-confidence.” “I am calm and relaxed at all times.” “I can accomplish anything I put my mind to.”
The third one appears to be in the future tense, but it can be thought of as the present tense, since it is something you want to do now. Let’s consider it.
Again, start by listing all the positive things you have accomplished over the years, and the things you are good at. Look over the list. Gloat a little; feel good about it, then make up an affirmation and use it. then begin visualizing yourself accomplishing them, and gradually add in your new goal, treating it as if it has already been accomplished.
