Affirmations: Make Them Work for You

We’ve all heard of affirmations – they are little phrases that, if we think over and over, will help us achieve some goal (feeling better, greater financial abundance, success in an endeavor, etc.)

How do affirmations work?

Well, our conscious and subconscious minds are always at work. Studies show that our conscious minds think about 65,000 thoughts per day – that’s about one thought per waking second. That’s a lot of thoughts.

Unfortunately, for most of us about 45,000 of those thoughts are habitual negative thoughts that drag us down. The good news is that if we change our thoughts, we can change our lives – vastly for the better.

When we think more positively, we not only SEE the positive in any given situation, we CREATE more positive situations to see!!

Affirmations are, at the most basic level, negative-thought-replacers – each positive affirmation can replace a negative thought.

That’s the simplified version of what is going on, but there’s more to it than that.

First, our subconscious weighs in on every thought we have and decided if it “believes” that thought.

So, what is “belief”? We believe what we think habitually and regularly and comfortably.

So, if you’ve been thinking something negative over and over again to yourself so long that it has gotten comfortable, even if it is demonstrably untrue, it is still a belief that your subconscious holds.

And, if you start interjecting thoughts that are very different from these beliefs of your subconscious, then they won’t feel comfortable right away. You might have to work your way from where you are to where you want to be.

For instance, perhaps you have been thinking some version of the thought, “I don’t have enough money.” Little things and big throughout the day may trigger that thought. You see an expensive item you’d like to have, you may think, “I don’t have enough money.” It is time to pay the bills, you may think, “I don’t have enough money.” You see something on the news about the economy or retirement, you may think, “I don’t have enough money.” You pick up your wallet, “I don’t have enough money.” And so it goes throughout the day.

You may have said this sentence to yourself enough times that you deeply believe it to be the truth. Now you get a raise at work, you may still think, “I don’t have enough money” – just because you are so used to viewing money that way now.

So, you hear about affirmations and positive thinking and decide to give it a try. You really go for it. You try thinking, “I have a million dollars that i can spend as i please.” you think about all the things you’d buy with that million dollars, and you even have some fun with it. You draw pictures. You clip things from magazines. You say that phrase again and again. You imagine ways the money could come into your experience.

The problem is – a big part of you just doesn’t believe it yet. You tried to go from “I don’t have enough money” to “I have a million dollars” in one swoop. Now, don’t get me wrong, there are some people who can make that kind of leap, but there are many more of us who need to take some interim steps, who need to “raise our vibration” when it comes to money before we can truly believe our million dollar affirmations.

There are many ways to bridge this gap.

To be effective, they must have these three key components:

1. Start where you ARE with your emotions and your beliefs.
2. Lift you up, bit by bit to where you want to be in your beliefs and emotions.
3. Must be applied with consistency over time.

Start by asking yourself, “What makes ME feel better NOW?” Happy music? Meditating? Looking at a sunset or a beautiful flower? Playing with a child? Going for a walk? Patting your dog or cat? The more things you know about what makes YOU feel better, and the more of those things you incorporate into your use of affirmations, the better.

So, if for instance you feel uplifted by positive music and going for a run, you could prepare a recording with a mix of some of your favorite upbeat songs and reflections on uplifting things (like flowers) and positive affirmations. You could put these on a CD or MP3 player and take off on a run.

Since you have chosen several components that you already know make you feel better and combine that with doing things that make you feel better, you are going to feel better. Then, you add in the positive thoughts and the specific affirmations that relate to your goals. You will make great leaps and bounds in your ability to believe the possibility of your goals when you combine the thoughts with things that make you feel good.

Be consistent. Just doing an affirmation one time is a start, but to see a major shift, you must stick with the program.

Work yourself into a better-feeling place and it will be easier and easier to believe your million-dollar affirmations.