I love positive affirmations but I’ve come to see them as a reinforcement of positive thoughts and not as a tool to erase stressful thoughts.
What Are Positive Affirmations?
Positive affirmations are positive statements that you repeat to yourself over and over to change your blue print by changing the way you think so you can change your behavioural pattern.
These statements are written down or said out loud as though they’re happening in the present moment.
How Positive Affirmations Work
The blue print of our behaviour is stored in the subconscious mind, which records and stores all events and experiences we’ve had since childhood.
Every time we experience an event the subconscious mind sifts through our past experiences and sees how we’ve behaved in the past and, to save time, tells the conscious mind to behave the same way whenever we’re faced with the same situation again.
Positive affirmations reprogram the subconscious mind to sift through information in a different manner, in order to get different results.
It’s almost like reprogramming a computer (that’s what the mind is) to play different games or run different software.
Affirmations are always recited or written as though they are happening in the present moment because the subconscious mind has no concept of time.
If you say you’ll be something or somewhere, the mind will constantly delay the event to some future date that never arrives.
The best way to do affirmations is in front of a mirror or by writing them down every day.
For example: if you have self-esteem issues you can create an affirmation to help you become more confident by telling yourself:
In time you’ll notice that you actually do become more confident every day because the subconscious mind will start to sift through information differently so that you become aware of your virtues.
Why Affirmations Don’t Always Work
1. You have to say them everyday
They take a long time to work - you need to say them with emotion and you have to believe that the things you’re affirming are true, which is difficult to master if you have deep depths of despair of depression. They don’t change negative thoughts
If you really want to change negative thoughts and beliefs you have to confront them by questioning their validity or through meditation.
Affirmations don’t erase the old thoughts or question their validity, they’re just positive thoughts you add to the mix, so you always have to affirm the new thoughts and fight the old ones.
It’s like writing a new code without erasing the old code, which makes for an interesting (ish) software
2. You can’t affirm everything
We think so many thoughts, positive and negative, in a day; you can’t affirm all of them every day for a month.
When you’re going through hell, how do you know which thought is the one that’s causing you the most stress?
This was something I struggled with for years, because I was dealing with family issues, money issues, relationship issues and self-esteem issues at the same time, I had like 20 affirmations at a time, so doing affirmations actually took time and work on my part.
If you do affirmations, I suggest 7 affirmations for 30 days morning and evening.
I like 7 because it signifies completion (again this is all personal preference. Do what feels right for you).
Have you used affirmations before?
Have they worked for you?
Let me know in the comments section below...
