Positive Affirmations
What is an ‘Affirmation’?
I see an affirmation to be a tool to help change the negative talk that goes on in our mind. This voice is the one that tells us things like; ‘being afraid is good’, ‘You’re not pretty enough’ and ‘You will never get that promotion you are not smart enough’ and so on.
Now we know in our hearts that this is just nonsense but for some reason we will believe the negative talk. A quote from Susan Jeffers frames this quite nicely – “There is an automatic assumption that negative is realistic and positive is unrealistic”.
The below is her summary of what an Affirmation is:
“An affirmation is not just a sentence; it represents a way of life…a way of seeing, feeling, believing, and acting. It helps transport us from the weakest part of who we are to the most powerful part of who we are.”
Next time you hear that negative talk in your mind why not challenge it and say ‘Why not’ and ‘What if it happened’.
How do Affirmations work?
As stated in the dictionary, to ‘Affirm’ something is a declaration for it to be true. When the affirmation is repeated regularly and meaningfully, your intention is declared to yourself and the universe as the absolute truth.
We also have in our brains a section called the Reticular Activating System (RAS); this controls what we give our attention to. The RAS is the doorway which nearly all information enters the brain. This excludes Smells, as they travel straight to the emotional area of the brain.
The RAS acts like a bodyguard and search function to the brain. It filters the incoming information and measures it with; how stimulated you are, your needs, desires, goals and interests, then decides if it should keep the information coming in and what you should pay attention too. By repeating a sentence over and over again this sends a crystal clear message to your RAS that this is significant to you and starts focusing your attention onto it.
There are many guide lines but mostly I found that Affirmations are recommended to be repeated daily for 28 days to 42 days to start changing your psyche and thought pattern.
In the beginning I found that I was saying the sentences but didn’t believe the words however the more I repeated the more I could feel an internal shift. There are key positive words that will resonate with you; these are unique to you based on your value system and experiences. I found that recognising these key positive words and creating affirmations around them helped in the believing process and speed things up.
So why not give it a go and write your own personal Affirmation or start using one that found its way to you.
"You were born with the creative power of the universe at the tip of your tongue." Mildred Hinckley
