An affirmation is a positive statement created with the intention of enhancing your life in some way. If used properly they can be an invaluable tool in helping you to reach your highest potential. They are not effective however, if the rest of your day is spent engaging in depreciating thoughts or in negative self-talk.
Most of us have patterns of thought that are so habitual we are not even fully aware of them. In fact we may tell ourselves many times a day that life is unfair, or that we are unsafe, or that we don't deserve to be happy. We may be so unaware of this inner conversation that we don't even call these messages thoughts, they just appear as our reality. If your self-talk is predominantly negative it can quickly lead to feelings of depression, anxiety and insecurity and in short life begins to become a struggle.
In the same way you could say that any areas of your life where you currently feel blocked or are struggling probably hold limiting beliefs for you. So to create something better for yourself, the first step is to be able to shift your attention away from what isn't working and towards what you do want. Then you need to keep going until that new self-image or belief becomes your established inner template.
Here are my 5 top tips to help you come up with some really effective affirmations:
To be really useful, affirmations must be:
1. Specific, accurate & measurable
Make sure that the wording of your affirmation truly states what you want in specific (but not lengthy) terms When I ask people in my workshops what they most want in life, I often hear answers like, "I want to feel better". Whilst this maybe true it is not specific enough for the subconscious mind to be able to take action. So try asking yourself the question "How will I know when I have got what I want. What specifically will have changed?", then base your affirmation on your answer.
2. Personal
Keep your affirmations focused entirely on yourself. You are the only person you can change, so take ownership of your affirmations and begin each one with words such as "I am...", "I have..."
3. Positive
Always use positive language in your affirmations, this is because the subconscious mind cannot process a negative statement without first bringing to mind (and therefore reinforcing) the very thing that is to be avoided.
For example: Did you ever play that game at school when someone said to you "don't think of a white elephant"? What happened?
That's right, you always ended up thinking of the very thing you wanted to avoid, in this case a white elephant! In other words the mind has first of all got to call up the image before it can process the command to dismiss it.
This is really important to understand when we want to make some positive change for ourselves. It's all to easy to say "I won't do this" or "I'm not going to..." but in actual fact all you are doing is focusing your attention on what you actually want to stop doing or avoid.
The trick here is to keep your language completely positive and focus your attention completely on what you do want rather on what you are trying to avoid!
4. Stated in the present tense or even the past tense indicate achievement (not potential achievement)
This is important because you want your mind to know that the change has already happened. If you use the future tense such as "I will..." then what your subconscious mind hears is that you have no intention to achieve the change NOW, and the end result is that it just doesn't bother to take your instruction seriously. So if your affirmation is "I will loose weight," then that weight loss will always remain in the future!
5. Remain balanced and realistic
If you feel uncomfortable with your affirmation because it seems unrealistic and too far removed from how you actually feel in the present, then experiment with words that state your willingness to be, do or have this thing. For example, you could begin by affirming I am willing to..." or "I deserve..."
Here are a few examples to get you going:
• I am guided in making good choices
• The past is over and I release it easily.
• I choose thoughts that make me feel good.
Here are a few more useful hints to help you get the most from this exercise:
• Write your affirmation down, this makes them much harder to ignore, and the act of writing them out gives you another chance to consciously choose the very best for yourself.
• Use your own name within your affirmation so your subconscious mind recognised the authority and authenticity of the affirmation.
• Repeat your affirmation often. On average it is known to take about 21 days of repetition to bring about real change. Affirmations are a powerful tool for doing this.
• Create a routine or ritual for you affirmations, this will help you maintain a daily practice so that you affirmations become firmly imprinted in your mind.
• Make use of all of your senses As well as seeing yourself in a successful situation, imagine what it sounds like, what it feels like and smells like. The more sensory information you can include the more readily your subconscious mind will accept your affirmation as real.
• Feel the emotion. Adding the emotion of success to your visualization will make it even more effective.
• Expect to see or experience the change you desire.
Using affirmation as a tool for change does work. I see evidence of that everyday amongst my clients, but you need to use them, reading this article alone will do little for you; you must take action otherwise it becomes like looking at a map and expecting to arrive at your destination without making the effort to plan the route and actually start the car!
In other words without some effort and commitment on your part your destination will just remain a daydream.
Whatever your next steps in your journey, I wish you well. Remember that the most important step you can take is in recognising the need to change, every step that follows after that gets easier and easier!
Anne Marshall http://www.AnneLesleyMarshall.com is a Clinical Hypnotherapist and Wellness Coach. This article is based on an extract from her popular e-course 'Engaging Your Inner Coach' http://www.enhancingvitality.com/inner-coach.html. She welcomes comments, feedback or questions about her articles or courses and can be contacted directly via her website.
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