Affirmations are powerful tools you can use to help you live the life you’ve always dreamed of.
What are affirmations?
Well, they’re positive statements that you say out loud on a regular basis. The goal is to re-program your subconscious mind so you can remove any negative thoughts that prevent you from living your dreams.
Affirmations work by overwriting negative thoughts, which are stored in your subconscious, with positive ones.
The Benefits of Affirmations
We all have mental recordings repeating again and again in our mind. Most of them come from childhood and have been directing our actions for years. Unfortunately, many of these old recordings are constantly feeding our mind negative information.
These negative recordings don’t always come from direct statements from people, but they tend to be general theories we’ve come to believe about our situation or ourselves.
If our parents always cautioned us about strangers, for example, we may have the mindset that sees the world as a dangerous place. If we came from a family without much money, we may have limiting beliefs about our finances that prevent us from attaining or keeping wealth.
The good news is you can override these destructive messages using the power of affirmations! Affirmations can reinforce good behaviors and change ones that need changing. To make those changes, you need to create affirmations you can identify with so they can help you improve.
Keep these key points in mind to create effective affirmations:
1. An affirmation must be in the present tense.
Your subconscious doesn’t have the ability to accept a promise of future behavior. “I will eat healthy foods” doesn’t give your subconscious a timeline or deadline to perform your promise to yourself.
Instead, state your affirmation as though it’s a behavior you already exhibit. “I always make healthy food choices” is a present tense statement your subconscious can accept as a fact.
2. For affirmations to work properly, they must be stated in the first person.
In other words, don’t create an affirmation saying, “You must eat healthy foods.” In order for your affirmation to matter to your subconscious, it must be personal and use the word “I.”
“I will choose healthy foods every time I eat” is a personal statement your subconscious can apply to your own behavior.
3. Finally, an affirmation must be stated in a positive manner.
“I must stop eating junk food” sends your mind a distorted message; it interprets the same as “I eat junk food.” This type of statement will lead you in the opposite direction of your goal!
Instead, “I choose fresh, healthy snacks when I am hungry” is a positive statement telling your mind the exact desired behavior.
How To Use Affirmations
Begin using affirmations by choosing a few short, clear statements about the things you’d like to see happen in your life.
Try some of these:
- I enjoy exercising every day.
- I love eating nutritious fresh foods in healthy portions.
- When I am free from the desire to smoke, I breathe clean, fresh air.
- I have everything I need to be content and happy today.
You can write your affirmations on note cards and keep them with you in your purse or wallet. Whenever you have a few moments to spare, take them out and read them aloud.
State the affirmations in a clear, firm voice with a smile on your face as you say them. This will help you become more aware of the positive vibrations of the affirmations, allowing them easier access to your subconscious mind.
Using affirmations on a daily basis is a terrific way to boost the positives in your life. Start using this powerful tool today to bring the changes you most desire into your world.