Affirmations. Do they work or are they just a bunch of words that hippy loving vegetarians use? I get asked this all the time, as a 1:1 balance session with me sometimes incorporates affirmations to reprogram your cellular memory as part of your homework. Yes. But do they work? Well when my friend Jess* kept lamenting she could never find a guy, and sure enough her affirmations manifested her (lonely) reality for many years.
What most us need to get our head around is that we are already using affirmations within the chatter we have with ourselves because a lot of our self-talk seems to be negative. “I can’t believe I forgot my keys again”, “How pathetic was I last night”, “I must seem so desperate right now”, “I can’t believe how dumb I was” “Who’s gonna love me now?” are just a few of the very common ones that circulate around our periphery.
Louise Hay, author of ‘You Can Heal Your Life’ was able to put her philosophies into practice when she was diagnosed with cancer. She considered the alternatives to surgery and drugs, and instead developed an intensive program of affirmations, visualization, nutritional cleansing, and psychotherapy. Within six months, she was completely healed of cancer.
The subconscious mind is like your computer. It takes an input, processes it and gives an output. It does not think by itself. It does not distinguish between good and bad. If we put garbage in a computer we get garbage as output.
In order to change your beliefs and create a new reality, you have to bombard your subconscious mind with thoughts of your desire. Here are some tips :
Keep your sentences simple
Be specific and use few words. Our insecure thoughts are complex enough.
Use the present tense
Speak of your strength, desire, reality, and manifestation like you already have it
Use positive phrases
If negative self talk manifested your grim reality, positive talk will make your dreams come true
Repeat them out loud
Get used to hearing the words come out of your mouth. When it comes time for you to assert yourself in a scenario that used to be disempowering, you don’t want the sound to emanate a pipsqueak. You want to express yourself assertively and confidently.
On the way to work, I once practiced my new boundary with a former boss that I had found difficult to work with at the time. When I got to work, I found that my entire body language had changed, as there been such an incredible shift in my energy. The dynamic between us shifted without me even needing to say anything.
Initially, I was disappointed that I didn’t get to use my new empowering phrases, but soon realised that there were a few bullies in my life at that time that I was able to assert my newfound boundaries with. That’s the thing with affirmations – like a classic fashion piece, they too can be timeless.
* not her real name. Example applies to a few people in my life. Not just girls. What about you? What do you catch yourself lamenting? Is this something that you’ve shifted recently?
Right on Patty.