Affirmations
Probably many of you have already tried using affirmations. Probably for some of you these attempts ended in total failure and now you are convinced, that affirmations do not work.
Does positive thinking make any sense?
It certainly does, but you should know how to use them!
What are affirmations?
Affirmations are positive thoughts about yourself - your life, health, possessions, professional work, relationships. Affirmations help you overcome your own fears and make the most of your abilities. They reevaluate your value system, help you formulate new goals, and prepare you for future experiences. Although in many publications you can read that it is not important whether you believe in spoken affirmations or not, because the subconscious always takes them for granted, I strongly disagree with this statement - An affirmation that is not supported by faith is devoid of any power. I'm sure many of you have experienced this in time - that's why, when using affirmations, you felt a violent inner opposition, and the affirmations themselves turned out to be ineffective.
Ineffective affirmations
Continuous repetition of learned rules against which we feel internal opposition is pointless. In order for affirmations to be successful, there must be an unwavering belief behind them. The emotional dimension of an affirmation cannot be overlooked - the moment it hits fertile ground, the moment you feel it is yours, it gains immense power. Otherwise, affirmations really make no sense at all. If, by mechanically repeating affirmations, you try to suppress your true thoughts and feelings, you will never achieve the desired result, i.e. an improvement in the quality of life.
Blocking feelings leads at most to disappointment, depressive states, and can cause somatic diseases. It is extremely important, therefore, to give yourself permission to experience all feelings freely, to let them flow through the mind. Feelings in themselves are neither good nor bad, they are just a form of mental energy. Don't be afraid to feel what you feel! Rather than feelings, focus on the thoughts that accompany them - as you are about to see, it is the thoughts because they have a direct impact on your state of mind.
Negative thinking
Behind your feelings there are always some thoughts, beliefs, prejudices.
Many of these you acquired in childhood - we all unconsciously take on the beliefs of our parents and other significant people in our lives. If our internal programming is saturated with negativism, we cannot live life to the fullest. We machinically repeat learned and mostly false thought patterns without even questioning them. This programmed negativism influences all our choices, blocks the dormant possibilities within us, inhibits our development. If the level of your inner negativism is high, you deprive yourself of the chance for happiness - you unconsciously make decisions that are unfavorable to you, you don't believe in your own abilities, you don't even know you have them, you are completely out of control of your life. This is how most of us live - unconsciously driven by subconscious fears and anxieties, lack of faith, doubt, resignation.
How do affirmations work?
By changing internal negative thoughts, you can effectively transform your life. In fact, the power is not in the affirmations, but in you. The job of affirmations is to help you believe in yourself, discover your capabilities and bring out the best in you. If you overcome negative thinking, you will begin to unconsciously choose such actions and make such decisions that will lead you to the affirmed goal. Your belief that what you affirm is possible will make it a reality.
There is no metaphysics here - you create your reality. Affirmations will not make something suddenly appear to you, but they will make you attract it to you through your faith-saturated actions. If you want the world to be better, become better yourself. If you begin to love, accept yourself and constantly expect all that is good, it will begin to appear in your life. What is inside always manifests itself on the outside.
How to use affirmations?
In order for affirmations to fall on the right ground, your first step must be to recognize all your negative thoughts and make a conscious decision about what you really want to believe and what you would be better off giving up. You must choose how you want to perceive yourself and the world around you, and fill those beliefs with deep faith. To do this, use the following exercise.
Work with affirmations
This exercise will bring out all your pushed negative beliefs and thoughts into the subconscious. Only by confronting them honestly can you take back their power.
1. Choose any affirmation and write it down on the left side of a piece of paper. Repeat it several times in your mind and try to feel it. e.g. I deserve love, success and happiness.
2. It is likely that a strong inner objection will arise in you - do not stop the stream of negative thoughts, but let them flow freely, writing them all on the left side of the sheet of paper. e.g. I am not fit for anything, I do not deserve love, I can not achieve anything.
3.Repeat writing out affirmations and negative thoughts until you have exhausted their flow. It may take you a long time, but do not rush, write spontaneously and honestly.
4. Now look at the right side of the sheet - these are your demons that poison you every day, preventing you from leading the life you truly deserve - you, as a full-fledged human being. Each of these negative thoughts will be the target of your future work on yourself. Take responsibility for your negative thoughts and feelings - this is what you (consciously or unconsciously)
you have chosen to believe. It's likely that many of them are other people's opinions, completely outdated and inconsistent with reality, and that you've been carrying around for many years.
Decide whether you still want to believe them, or whether you want to finally regain control of your life and choose what is good for you. Remember that the truth about you is what you choose to believe!
5. choose the most dominant of the negative thoughts and create your own affirmations based on them. e.g. I am ugly ----I am a wonderful, valuable woman.
I am exactly the way I should be, I accept myself. Say them all several times - you will probably feel much weaker internal resistance than before. This is because, in the light of your awareness, the power of negative thoughts has significantly diminished. Being able to choose a new, conscious way of thinking will give birth to your faith and desire to develop further. Affirmations will cease to be mechanically spoken, meaningless words, and will become a new truth about you and your life. You will begin to feel better, you will begin to accept yourself, and with practice, this feeling will steadily deepen. This way of using affirmations allows you to effectively work on your personality and identify all your inner negativity. Affirmations help you discover what you have deeply hidden from yourself and perhaps completely you have pushed out of consciousness.
Sometimes the truth can be too painful - if this is also the case with you, be sure to seek professional help for professional help. Insightful psychotherapy will help you free yourself from the burden you have carried for years.
How to formulate affirmations?
Always formulate affirmations in the present tense, e.g. I am (instead of I will be), I have (instead of I will have), etc. Affirmations should contain a positive message, e.g. I am healthy (instead of: I am not sick), etc. Try to practice affirmations every day. Use your willpower to find time every day to work on yourself. It doesn't matter whether you choose to repeat them out loud or quietly, or whether you might want to write them down. Look for the way that works most powerfully for you.
Whenever you get a stream of negative thoughts (not just when practicing affirmations), don't stop them, but look at them carefully. Decide whether you want them to be the truth about you. If not, work on them with affirmations.
You will certainly notice that some affirmations will affect you more strongly, seeming more important than others. Try to write them all down and surround yourself with them, so that you stay in touch with them throughout the day - write them down in your cell phone, on your mirror, next to your computer - where they will be easily seen.
Remember - affirmations will be most effective when you combine them with well-defined goals, an unwavering belief that you can achieve them, and a daily effort to achieve them.
