Many of us carry around the pain of years of self-defeating thought patterns. We have created a wound that never has a chance to heal because we come back and inflict the same damage over and over again. I have struggled with this for years, and it has probably been the single biggest road block in my personal development.

Personal affirmations are the antidote to this kind of negative thinking. Simply stated, personal affirmations are positive statements about who we are and our value to the world. They can be used to help us stop smoking, lose weight, or overcome fear and anxiety. Most importantly, affirmations can help us transform the way we perceive ourselves, and that is the most powerful transformation of all.

Developing Affirming Statements

1. Affirming statements need to be in the present tense. If you start out by saying “I will become” instead of “I am”, your subconscious always sees your goal as somewhere out there in the future. Present tense informs your mind that this is something that is happening now, and now is the only time you have.
2. You should frame your affirmations in positive language. For example “I am wealthy and successful” instead of “I am not a poor loser”. Experiments with affirming statements shows that the mind skips the “not”, and just internalizes “I am a poor loser”. Positive language leads in positive directions, and will begin to change the way you see yourself and the world.
3. Your affirmations need to be written in language you are comfortable with. I don’t use flowery, poetic language every day, so I write short, to the point affirmations that I can remember easily. If you are more in tune with the poetic, write your affirmations in a more poetic style.

Internalizing Your Statements

Once you have developed a good set of affirming statements, you need some strategies to help you turn those statements into new thoughts. Consistently applying these methods will help your mind grab onto the new patterns and create new habits of thought that will change you from the inside out.

• Read your affirmations out loud whenever possible. The more senses we involve in any learning experience, the quicker we assimilate the new information.
• Put some feeling into it. Thoughts with powerful emotions attached become a part of our minds faster than bland, emotionless statements.
• Visualize. See yourself in your mind as the person you are becoming with each affirming statement. Build images in your mind involving your whole being, and tap into the transforming power of visualization that top athletes have used for years.
• Review day and night. Spend time first thing in the morning going over your statements to get the day started right. Read them at night before you go to bed to give your subconscious mind something positive to chew on while you are sleeping.
• Lather, Rinse, Repeat. Go over your affirming statements throughout the day to give yourself a little boost. Repitition over time is the best way to cement information into your brain and build new habits of thought.

Resistance and Patience

As you start to change the way you talk to yourself, you will experience resistance. It will show up as a tightness in your gut or chest, maybe even elevated heart rate and a slight ringing in your ears. Trust me, this is normal. Your heart and mind are heavily scripted in very negative language. This new way of thinking and being will feel uncomfortable at first. Don’t fight the feelings of discomfort, accept that they are there and a part of what you will experience to bring positive change into your life.

If you have spent years verbally abusing yourself, you may have an unexpectedly strong initial response. Remember that you have a deep injury in your heart, and it isn’t going to heal overnight. Be kind and gentle with yourself. It is part of the healing process, and will deepen the compassion you have for yourself and others.

Lasting change will not come after one or two weeks of living with these new thoughts. We’ve spent years bathing ourselves with negative thoughts, we need to devote some significant time to building a new foundation for a new way of living. A good rule of thumb is that it takes 30 days of consistent practice to develop a new habit. Give yourself at least one full month to create a new habit that will have more impact than any other single change you could make in your life.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 5th, 2007 at 2:44 pm and is filed under Self Image, thought, transformation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed, bookmark the Permalink in your Browser, leave a response, or trackback from your own site.