Using affirmations is one of the easiest and most popular methods when it comes to changing yourself. On our way to self-knowledge, we cannot avoid the conscious use of affirmations. After all, an affirmation opens the door for us. It is the starting point on the path to change. In this article, I’m going to show you what affirmations really are. Read until the end where you’ll discover how you could make affirmations work.
What Are Affirmations?
Affirmations are simple, clear, positively worded sentences. Repeatedly pronounced loudly or softly, they serve to supply the subconscious with new information. The aim is to use it to loosen blockages, remove disruptions and outdated, stuck and hindering thought structures and create new positive, liberating, and inspiring thought patterns. Affirmations are among those effective psychological tools that – without having to use additional aids – support our ability to control our behavior in a more systematic and targeted manner. Thus, they make a reliable and at the same time inexpensive contribution to personal development.
Valuable For Every Situation and Age
Experience has shown that affirmations are especially for adults who can benefit from positive affirmations. As adults, we usually look for external confirmation, from the boss and employees, our family, neighbors, and friends – and want to draw attention to ourselves, shine and shine through a great career, status symbols such as cars and houses, vacations, our appearance, and other things. Seek confirmation.
But to be happy and satisfied, you first have to be at peace with yourself. You don’t need outside approval to be a good and valuable person. You also don’t need outside approval to be confident and like yourself.
This love and acceptance have to come from you, from within.
Positive affirmations help you to build exactly this self-love and acceptance. Subscribe to the channel so that you can receive updates about how you can go through life much happier and more relaxed and that how you can no longer get upset so quickly.
Status symbols are suddenly no longer so important to you and you focus on the things that are important and relevant – a healthy, happy, and fulfilled life, good relationships, time with loved ones, hobbies, traveling.
It’s amazing how something as simple as an affirmation, spoken out loud every day, can help you with this.
Personal blockages and restrictions
Every day we think about 50,000 thoughts. Just listen to their daily self-talk; how do they affect you? Do you think more optimistically, critically, with humility, doubts, and/or feelings of guilt, do you think constructively in a current and future-oriented way or the past? If you listen to yourself, you will easily hear her blocks and restrictions. These are the sentences that ensure that you are exactly where you are right now. They determine their daily experience and shape their lives because they reflect their beliefs and attitudes and their beliefs.
Repeatedly heard messages from our childhood
An environment like:
- “Don’t always be so idle!”
- “It’s a shame that you are such a fat child, you have such a beautiful face!”
- “You are always so sloppy!”
- “You don’t move very smoothly! »
- «You’re dreaming again! »
- «You’re going to be all red again! »
- «You are a little princess! »
- «You are the best! »
A child takes over primarily unchecked. For the child, these sentences are usually true. They are stored in the subconscious and shape one’s thoughts, behavior and actions, and self-esteem up to the present in the further course of life. This creates personal limitations that originate in the messages of early childhood.
Do Affirmations Really Work? Beliefs and Behavior Patterns
By consciously, honestly perceiving, and accepting your own beliefs, you can not only recognize which patterns you live by; they can also be transformed into those that help lead a life that one wishes for.
Even Marcus Aurelius (Roman Emperor from 161-180 AD) knew about the power of thoughts: “The happiness of your life depends on the nature of your thoughts,” or ‟A person’s life is what his thoughts make of it.”
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Beliefs and behavior patterns are firmly anchored in our subconscious. If we want to achieve changes in thinking and acting, we have to use the powers of this subconscious. Our expression of will alone will not be enough to achieve the desired goal. The use of positive affirmations supports the change in behavior because it feeds our subconscious with the necessary messages and in this way helps to replace old beliefs and attitudes with new ones.
How Do Affirmations Really Work?
With affirmations, you turn a loving look into yourself. You recognize what is already there and uncover what is buried but has always been there. Regular repetition helps you to adjust your subconscious to a new, positive self-perception.
Your brain cannot tell whether you are experiencing reality or whether the whole thing is an invention of your thoughts. It cannot distinguish between reality and imagination. Therefore: Use this fact and create your external reality from within.
Constant Repetition
‟The constant repetition of affirmations leads to faith when belief has become a deep conviction, things happen.”
So that the real you can come to the fore, you need the willingness to tackle the existing problem and to accept the resulting change process.
To do this, the first thing you need to do is:
- Honestly listen to yourself and find out where your potentials and weak points are.
- Affirm what you want, not what you don’t want. What do you want to be, do and have?
Ask yourself the following questions:
- Who am I – with all my characteristics?
- Who and what do I want to be?
- What feelings do I want to draw into my life?
“I AM” is the most powerful and creative statement in the universe. Whatever you think and whatever you say, the corresponding experience is brought to you after the words “I am,” Muhammad Ali said.
Formulate in the present
Not in the future or the past. Your subconscious always lives in the here and now. As you emotionally relive past crises over and over again, your subconscious believes that this situation is real every time.
Be positive
When I say, “don’t imagine a blue daisy” – what happens? The blue daisy appears figurative in your head. Your brain has a hard time processing words like “not” or “none.”It cannot think negatively. So they are ignored. Only in the second attempt does your brain tinker with the actual meaning? But then it’s already too late. Because the first thought is already manifested. So the blue daisy.
Write down a maximum of 10 affirmations. Pay attention to your feelings as you read your affirmations. Do your phrases feel right? If not, you have probably built-in interference words or resistances. Find a coherent formulation.
Be Brave and Use Flowery Language
Create pictures that inspire you. Affirm concrete results. For example: What exactly does it mean for you to be brave? What exactly do you have to do to have courage? Let us know your thoughts about this in the comment section down below.
What feelings does the affirmation trigger? Imagine that what you have said is already your reality. How does that feel? Let a feeling of deep gratitude arise within you and link the affirmation to as many positive feelings as you can. The more attractive, believable, and realistic your affirmation is for you, the more likely it will be fulfilled.
When Affirmations Don’t Work?
1. Trying to achieve too much too quickly
Affirmations are extremely helpful in breaking down limiting beliefs and building confidence. However, if you try to change too much at once, you run the risk of getting stuck. For example, instead of saying straight away: “I love my body”, start with “It’s okay to love and accept my body.” Remember that many of your existing beliefs are old, very deeply established thought patterns and they may take time to change. Your chances of success are much greater if you take one step at a time rather than trying to get the result you want with just one jump.
2. Trying to believe the unbelievable
Some affirmations won’t work because they’re just too unrealistic. For example, if you currently earn 20,000 euros a year, please do not create an affirmation like “I make 1,000,000 euros a year” because that is just too far out of reach. In repeating such an affirmation, your mind would create resistance. In this case, it would be better to formulate that you want to increase your current income by, for example, 20 percent in the next year, or you choose a goal that is only slightly larger, such as earning an additional 3,000 euros in the next year. The limits of affirmations are always where the improbable or even the miraculous should come true. The sudden lottery wins, the new car that happens to be in front of the door, or the dream partner who accidentally gets lost and rings the doorbell.
3. Inconsistent action
You need to use your affirmations consistently and proactively for them to work! Forming new habits is challenging. Be very consistent or you will likely lose interest due to a lack of results.
4. Too little patience
It would be great if you recited an affirmation a few times and everything around you would be changed as if by magic … but we know that won’t happen. So please don’t expect miracles; it is important to be realistic. Remember that affirmation can only improve your beliefs and motivate you. She won’t take action for you.
The Best Time For Affirmations
Are you still asking yourself: “Do affirmations really work?” Well, by now you should already know the answer, so now let’s discuss about timing. The best times for affirming are shortly before falling asleep and shortly after waking up, as this is where the connection between conscious and subconscious is most intense.
Read each point aloud. Don’t just think. If you don’t want to get on your partner’s mind at five in the morning, record and listen to your affirmations with your smartphone. If you feel like you have to say the phrase multiple times, say it multiple times. Let it sink deep.
1. Don’t give up right away
Repeat your affirmations for 30 days. During this time you program your subconscious from everything that should no longer be in your life to everything that the future brings you. Repeat them whenever you have the time and leisure, for example when walking, taking a shower, driving a car. You can also make a small notepad.
2. Let your affirmations live
The only constant in the universe is changing. Your affirmations will change over time. A few no longer fit, a few more are added. Renew or delete your affirmation if you notice that the sentence no longer feels right after a certain time or it just doesn’t flow as the others do. Trust that you are doing everything right in affirmation training. Your feeling is the best compass!