RETURNING TO
AFFIRMING
Recently I have been feeling
that it has become necessary to return to my practice of making daily
affirmations, something that during the past year of so I have to admit has
fallen by the wayside and has only been done as and when I thought about it.
So for those of us out there
who have not used affirmations before or who have dropped out of the practice
here are a few short tips to help you get started again.
For a daily affirmation practice
Decide on the affirmations you are going to use – there are literally hundreds (and maybe even
thousands) to choose from or you can create your own (a lot of people choose to
create their own because that way it is personal to them)
Choose a quiet place – a place where you are unlikely to be disturbed during
the time that you are going through your affirmations
Decide if you are going to use music – my own preference has always been to choose some
gentle music
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 programme 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.
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 lie, 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 and you
will start to experience seismic changes for the better in many areas 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.
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.
Will
Affirmations help me?
Yes. No matter what aspect of life you are 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 have 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 things 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 they 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 do
want, not on what you don't want.
For example if my list of things that were important to me included...
Wanting a fulfilling job
Then my affirmation might read:-
“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.
Here is an example of a very simple releasing affirmation.
"I am ready and willing to release the past,
now"
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,
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.
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!
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.
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.
So there we have a short insight
into the use of affirmations and for anyone who lives in the North
Devon area who is reading this blog I will be facilitating some SUBLIMINAL
AFFIRMATION sessions during the coming months and I will be posting the details on the blog once
the arrangements have been finalised.
* Credit must be given to the work of Louise Hay that forms the basis of this post
* Credit must be given to the work of Louise Hay that forms the basis of this post
ooo000ooo
The (slightly) larger 2020 Workbook is now available!
To order a copy of the new book please navigate to the Shopping Page
Business Developer / Coach Emma Kersey said this about the 2018 Workbook
"Sorry I didn't get round to fully utilizing the e-book but please know that just reading it helped massively........... just needed a push and the book did that so thank you"
ooo000ooo
About Dave I am a coach; speaker; radio presenter and founder of The Blue Sky Company. I am also a therapist and my therapy work includes music therapy; crystal therapy and Reiki. Currently I am studying towards a Diploma in Mindfulness
If you would like to know more about the blog or my therapy work etc, then please email me.
Follow the link to join our Facebook page Under Blue Skies this page is host to a group of like - minded people (affectionately knows as "the tribe").
By way of a thank you for their continued support Tribe Members regularly receive exclusive content that I do not post anywhere else as well as advanced information about forthcoming projects and events.
By way of a thank you for their continued support Tribe Members regularly receive exclusive content that I do not post anywhere else as well as advanced information about forthcoming projects and events.
So it would also be fantastic if you would spread the word about the blog, the tribe etc. to your friends and family.
LINKS
Website:
Wytchwynd Photography
Pinterest:
To subscribe to the blog please go over to the right hand side of this page and click the button that says “Follow”. Once you do that you will be added to our list of subscribers.
Feel free to share this and other posts with your friends and associates
Inspirational Phrases
In addition to the above I send out a daily email containing an Inspirational Phrase.
To ensure that we comply with the relevant regulations this is a subscription only service and to be included please send an email using “add me” as the subject to:-
Once you have subscribed the phrases will be delivered to your mail box every day at no cost to you whatsoever.
Have a fantastic day, live a life of Passion and Power.
And above all
Don't Predict The Future - CREATE IT!
No comments:
Post a Comment