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Positive Affirmations – The Secret to Getting Life Changing Results (2020)
Positive affirmations. Do you use them?
And most Importantly, what does affirmation mean, (positive or otherwise)?
The answers might surprise you.
“There are three main psychological explanations for why self-affirmation is beneficial: First, it’s simply enjoyable to dwell on what we value; second, when we’re feeling threatened by a particular criticism or failure, the technique reminds us of those things we value about ourselves more broadly, that are separate from the threatened aspect; third, by broadening the basis of our self-worth, it can help us regulate pure emotions.” (Christian Jarrett, Science Of Us, 2015, Why Self-Affirmation Works)
Ever wish you could reprogram your mind just as you would a computer? A reboot, of sorts, to get yourself back on track towards desired goals?
It may sound too good to be true, but the truth is, you can! And you do it through the use of positive affirmations.
Before you think this is all just a bunch of new-age mumbo-jumbo, let me assure you that there’s plenty of science to back it up, which we’ll get to a bit later.
“Self-affirmation has been shown to have powerful effects. Research suggests that it can minimize the anxiety, stress, and defensiveness associated with threats to our sense of self while keeping us open to the idea that there is room for improvement.” (Association For Psychological Science, 2012, Enhance Performance)
The Incredible Power Of Positive Affirmations
Simply put, positive affirmations are a process by which you change aspects of your behavior — habits, attitudes, reactions, and even external life events — by training your mind in a positive direction through repetition of your thoughts.
And it works. Really!
How Your Thoughts Shape Your Reality
Think of it this way: Whatever you tell yourself, repeated often enough, becomes your reality. So be careful that the message you repeat is, in fact, a positive one.
Negativity takes you somewhere you definitely don’t want to go. Pessimistic thoughts just end up reaping more of same.
You create your own reality with your thoughts. By using positive affirmations you influence all aspects of your reality with positivity.
Positive affirmations, on the other hand, have the power to change not only your thoughts but also improve your health and well-being.
“Results suggest that deploying self-affirmation inductions alongside persuasive health information has positive effects, promoting message acceptance, intentions to change, and subsequent behavior.” (Epton T, et. al. 2015)
Anything that can improve your health, physically or mentally, is certainly worth doing. I’m sure you agree with that. After all, optimum health is a major area of your focus towards making your life better.
Your Health Mirrors What Your Mind Repeats
But did you know you can also improve other areas of your life outside of your health and well-being?
Through positive self-affirmation, you gain the power to enhance performance. Through hyper-awareness of mistakes you make as you strive to reach your goals.
It’s as though you shine a spotlight on problem areas, helping you change direction when you veer off course.
“I Think I Can” – Remember The Engine That Could?
The little engine that could had this figured out a long time ago. Repeat after me: “I think I can, I think I can.”
yeah, it’s sort of like that.
This little children’s story is proof that the concept of positive affirmations has existed for a very long time, showing up in your life over and over again, starting in childhood.
You just didn’t know what you were seeing.
Just like that little engine, the words and thoughts you send to your subconscious mind have powerful effects. You tend to believe whatever your mind tells you, for better or for worse.
How Astonishingly Positive Messages Reprogram Your Mind
These messages, over time, actually reprogram your brain. Without your conscious awareness, you not only begin to believe them, but your actions reflect accordingly.
“Your subconscious mind accepts as true what you keep saying. It attracts corresponding events and situations into your life. So why not choose only positive statements, in order to get positive results?” (Remez Sasson, Success Consciousness, Power of Affirmations)
This positive affirmation thing is truly powerful stuff, isn’t it?
As your mind becomes attuned to your positive thoughts, you achieve a heightened awareness of opportunities that arise. This allows you to take action to reach your set goals.
Out of nowhere, or so it seems, your mind manifests the objects of your desire and places opportunities for achieving them in your path.
How Positive Affirmations Help You Seize Opportunity
Have you ever started to think about the kind of car you’d like to buy and suddenly, everywhere, you see that car over and over again? It’s as though they’ve suddenly materialized out of thin air.
You think to yourself, “Wow, there are more of these cars around than I realized. Who knew?”
The truth is, the cars were always there. They were just outside your consciousness. Because you weren’t thinking about them, you didn’t see them.
That’s the power of positive thinking in action: Heightened awareness that helps you see opportunities you were missing before.
This awareness is the 1st step in your progress toward getting that car.
“When you say an affirmation over and over again, a couple of things happen. One is that it sends a very clear message to your RAS (Reticular Activating System) that this is important to you. When you do that, it gets busy noticing ways to help you achieve your goals. If ideal weight is your emphasis, you will suddenly begin to see every gym and weight loss product. If money is your goal, investment and earning opportunities will move to the forefront of your awareness. In essence, the affirmation can kick your creativity into high gear.” (Eve Hogan, Spirituality & Health, 2011, How and Why Affirmations Work)
Do Positive Affirmations Always Work?
There is one caveat to bear in mind, however, when it comes to whether or not practicing positive self-affirmations will work for you. And that is, the thoughts you repeat to yourself, and the goals attached to them, pretty much have to be ones you already desire.
If someone is forcing you to make changes that misalign with your goals, you’ll likely reap far fewer benefits through positive self-talk. It won’t feel real. It’ll feel forced.
Frankly, you’ll resent the intrusion.
Let Your Heart’s Desire Lead Your Thoughts
But as long as your practice follows your heart’s desire and your strong wish for positive change, the benefits will likely astound you.
Just be sure no one is breathing down your neck, expecting you to follow his or her game plan. Give these unwelcome busybodies the old heave-ho.
“There is evidence that when people self-affirm, they boost their cognitive resources. They have more mental energy to complete tasks after self affirmation,” says Arielle Silverman, graduate student in social psychology at the University of Colorado Boulder.” (Clay Evans, Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine, 2013, Self-Affirmation Works If Not Coerced)
Celebrities Who Do Affirmations
To lend more credence to the idea that practicing daily affirmation works lets. Consider the many celebrities, athletes, and other well-known people who have adopted its use.
- Oprah Winfrey: She began tapping into the power of positive affirmation at a young age, no doubt totally unawares. As a child, seeing the hard life endured by her grandmother, she repeatedly told herself, “My life won’t be like this. My life won’t be like this. It will be better.” Her mind became programmed to succeed, and succeed, she did.
- Will Smith: “In my mind, I’ve always been an A-list Hollywood superstar. Y’all just didn’t know yet.” So says Smith, speaking about how he saw himself in the future. And an A-list Hollywood superstar is, of course, just what Smith is today. Coincidence? I think not. His life followed the path on which his mind placed him.
These well-known celebrities are among the most recognized for their adherence to positive self-talk. But make no mistake. They are not alone.
In fact, I’d venture to say that every person who reaches a high level of success taps into the power of positive thinking, whether they realize it or not.
It Sounds Good, But What’s The Proof?
So as I promised earlier, here’s where we’ll begin to delve more deeply into the science behind positive affirmations and why they work.
The fact is, plenty of scientific studies exist that strongly suggest, if not prove, when we practice daily affirmations over time.
For example, in one study, it showed that with just 15 minutes a day of positive statement repetition, people who were plagued with a heightened fear of rejection and lack of confidence, found their confidence increased and their fears diminished.
According to this Scientific Study. A greater ability to problem-solve and tap into creativity, thereby reducing associated stressors, comes with the daily practice of positive thinking as well.
“Participants with chronic stress were given a self-affirmations exercise and then had to complete 30 difficult problem-solving tasks under time pressure in front of an evaluator. It was discovered that individuals who received the self-affirmations exercise outperformed individuals in the control group.” (Steve Handel, The Emotion Machine, 2013, Science of Self-Affirmations)
Change Your Mind, Change Your Life (& Health)
And as one might expect, any time you’re able to reprogram your thoughts in a positive way, your general health and well-being are vastly improved as well.
It’s well known that stress has very adverse effects on our health, for example, such as the release of cortisol, the stress hormone.
Cortisol has the power to create all manner of health issues such as weight gain, junk food craving, and interrupted sleep. Who needs that in their life?
“People under high stress can foster better problem-solving simply by taking a moment beforehand to think about something that is important to them,” Creswell said. “It’s an easy-to-use and portable strategy you can roll out before you enter that high-pressure performance situation.” (Benefits of Self-Affirmation, 2013, Carnegie Mellon University)
So in a sense, the practice of positive affirmation can also easily be called healing affirmations.
“Our thoughts have a direct connection to our direct level of health. Thoughts make a chemical. If you have happy thoughts then you’re producing chemicals that make you feel happy. It you have negative thoughts, angry thoughts or insecure thoughts, those thoughts make chemicals to make you feel how you’re thinking. There is sound evidence that our thoughts do matter. We always replace those old patterns with a greater ideal of ourselves. If rehearsed mentally, we will grow new circuits in the brain, the platform in which we stand on to execute a new level of self.” (Komarraju Venkata Vinay, Affirmative Thinking, 2010, Science of Affirmation Proof)
It Truly Is A Feel-Good Practice
Positive thinking and affirmation certainly qualify as a feel-good practice. Improving your ability to problem-solve, boost creativity, and even enjoy a greater sense of social acceptance all give rise to a higher sense of self-worth.
And what feels better than high self-worth, I ask you.
“Previous research has also supported the feel-good habit of self-affirmation. Studies show it can help improve problem solving under stress, boost well-being and increases self-compassion and pro-social behaviors.” (Lindsey Holmes, The Huffington Post, 2015, Self-Affirmations Boost Performance)
“… recent research shows that using positive mantras can decrease stress and improve performance on challenging tasks. And they may even help you make healthier decisions.” (Melissa Walker, Yahoo.com, 2014, Surprising Science of Self-Affirmations)
Positive Affirmations & Our DNA
There’s even evidence that alteration of our very DNA occurs through the practice of positive affirmation. This concept is truly mind-boggling. It’s almost in the realm of science fiction — except it appears to be true.
In Russia, scientists have discovered an ability to influence and reprogram our DNA just through words and frequencies.
How is this possible?
I mean, it’s easy to accept that we can reprogram our minds through repetition of thought, but change our DNA? Surely not.
Well, don’t be too quick to dismiss the idea.
This same Russian study discusses how only 10% of our DNA handles protein building, such as for our skin, muscles, and organs. The rest, a whopping 90%, is considered “junk DNA.”
But since nature is unlikely to create anything resembling “junk,” there must be a use for that other 90% of our DNA.
Turns out, there is.
Junk That’s Not Junk
What researchers found is that this “junk DNA” mirrors and is guided by the same rules as our human verbal language.
And therein lies the key to the relationship between our DNA and how it’s affected by our positive affirmations.
“Esoteric and spiritual teachers have known for ages that our body is programmable by language, words and thought. At last this has now been scientifically proven and explained.” (Maya Mendoza, Zen Lama, 2013, DNA Reprogrammed Through Words)
If we can influence and even alter our DNA by the words and thoughts we repeat to ourselves, clearly, you want those ideas to take the form of positive affirmations.
I cannot emphasize that point enough.
Because undoubtedly the opposite is also true. Repetition of negative thoughts has the same power to alter our DNA but in a much less desirable fashion.
Perish the thought!
It’s Easier Than You Think To Make Positive Changes
And the best part is, learning the art of positive thinking doesn’t have to take tons of time or require talents beyond your ability.
You can greatly enhance your life! Improve your chances of reaching your goals and find greater happiness. While at the same time, experience less stress. With just a short 10-to 15-minute practice per day.
It’s so much easier than you think. Here are some simple concepts to get you started.
- Choose up to 10 affirmations to inspire you:
Be sure they firmly align with your desires.
- Pick a quiet place to practice:
The ability to focus on your thoughts becomes easier when you’re free of distractions and interruptions.
- Decide on an area you’d like to improve in your life:
The more clearly defined and relevant it is to you, the better. Maybe you want to lose weight or feel more confident. Then use phrases like:
- “I can do it.”
- “I have the power to make things happen.”
- I am strong and capable. I will succeed.
- Set your habit.
Use a reminder of some sort to let you know it’s time for your affirmation practice. Especially at first, you’ll need a bit of nudging until your habit is formed and set in place. Don’t leave it up to chance. Set a time, use a reminder, and stop whatever else you’re doing at the appointed time.
- Be consistent:
Commit to practicing daily. Steady repetition is what makes the practice work.
- Make use of tools:
To help you on the path to self-improvement through positive affirmations, it’s helpful to listen to positive affirmations. Affirmations audio downloads are simple to use and convenient for both seasoned practitioners as well as newbies.
Audio downloads are super easy and convenient to use for self improvement.
Positive Affirmations For Success
As you can probably tell, adopting a practice of daily positive affirmations costs little to nothing in either time or money, both of which are so often in short supply. It’s easy to fit into your busy life, resulting in tremendous dividends.
“It seems like we can change neural activity using this simple intervention and it does relate to behavior change down the road. Self-affirmation is a cheap, scalable intervention…and it turns out to have huge effects for a relatively low investment.” (Kim Krisberg, ScienceBlogs.com, 2015, Self-Affirmation Targets The Brain)
Imagine What Can Be
Hopefully, you now understand why the practice of positive thinking or positive affirmations can impact your life in surprisingly favorable ways.
When you consider the possibilities of achieving the life you desire through the simple act of daily affirmation, it may seem almost too Good to be true. But as we’ve discussed at great length, proof that it’s possible, even probable, is abundant.
What life changes would you like to make? What areas are holding you back?
-
- A desire for better health?
- A wish to earn a higher income?
- A yearning for a better job?
- A desire for more confidence?
- A longing to banish or reduce stress?
- A desire to achieve greater creativity?
- A hope of developing better social skills?
There Are No Limits On What Can Be
These visions for improvement in your life represent only a fraction of what’s within your power to change. And positive affirmations are one of your best tools to make those changes happen.
Better still; practicing positive thinking is wholly within your control.
You already know that you can’t alter things outside of your control.
When it comes to your behavior, habits, indeed your quality of life, however, you hold the reins squarely in your hands.
And honestly, that power has always existed within you.
You just never knew it until now.
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