How To Choose and Use Affirmations For Maximum Effectiveness!

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March 2, 2019

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Affirmations work.

We use them constantly in self-talk/our thoughts and in the words we use to communicate every day.

95% of our thoughts are repetitive. This means we are ALWAYS affirming.

Science recognizes the valuable data that your words convey. We can learn how the words people use are related to every facet of their lives, including health. Researchers are now using Twitter language to determine mortality rates of heart disease and other common health concerns.

Where do your words and thoughts come from?

The words your parents (caretakers) used, especially the words they used with you, to you, and about you, set the tone for how you chose your own words (and thoughts). This all happened on a subconscious level so you didn’t have a lot of choice because what 5 year old is aware of their subconscious mind?

Now that you’re older (and wiser) you can choose your words, and you can even choose your thoughts.

The good news is you don’t need a complete overhaul of your entire vocabulary to make BIG CHANGES!

For you over-thinkers, you don’t need to dissect your thoughts and meticulously sort them into positive or negative categories. A thought is a thought- it either serves you or not.

Change your thoughts. Change your words. Change your life: Here’s how…

STEP ONE:

Choose a simple affirmation phrase that you can repeat like a bad song stuck in your head. Repeat everyday. Any time. All day. Even better…put your phrase to a tune…a really annoying one. I don’t know the science behind songs I loathe and why THOSE are the ones that get stuck in my head. I guess I’ll never know, but in the meantime, I have learned that an easy-to-repeat (and memorize) simple affirmation phrase is all you need to get the ball rolling…and wake up your subconscious mind.

(This has been my personal affirmation for many months now because a lot of my anxiety and the work I need to do on myself involves health. I chose it because it’s simple and it’s how I want to feel.)

You better believe it is set to a really annoying sing-song tune too.

You can also use your simple affirmation as a mantra in meditation. This affirmation has helped me automatically eat intuitively for my health and has helped me become less anxious about health in general.

You may say this sounds too simple, but how complicated are the 95% of your thoughts anyway? I’m sure they’re not Einstein’s theory of relativity and yet it’s those “simple” thoughts that are the ones you literally become…that you act upon…and the ones that reflect your life most accurately. 

The goal with the simple affirmation you decide to use is to make it automatic. Automatic thoughts are the ones we live. Soon enough this affirmation enters your subconscious. Remember: Simple + Repetitive = Automatic.

When I use the word, automatic, I’m using it to say…that’s when you don’t have to consciously think about it anymore and it becomes less and less of a struggle (or unnatural).

You’ll know it’s become automatic when you’re picking out bananas at the store and it suddenly pops up in your head! I’ve been known to drive down the street “singing” my affirmation tune.

STEP TWO:

Find an affirmation that feels good when you read it. It needs to feel like you’re 6yrs old again and someone just asked you what you want for Christmas or if you had $10 million what would you do with it?

This is an affirmation you can indulge in. Why? Because the imagination engages the subconscious. Imagine if this affirmation spoke the truth, how does it feel? What does your life look like? What do you look like?

Once you choose this extra special affirmation (Pinterest has some beautiful ones) sit down with it from time to time and engage your imagination. Make sure it coincides with the same theme as your simple affirmation.

(This is an example of a fancier version of my simple affirmation above- using the same “health” theme.)

STEP THREE:   

Choose about 10 affirmations focused on the same theme (health, love, financial abundance, happiness,  etc). Write them down on a piece of paper or note them in your phone. Read those affirmations once a day in between your regular routines. Brush your teeth and read aloud 😉

(For a complete list of affirmations, please see The Ultimate List of Affirmations and Power Thoughts)

It really only takes adding one thought to change a big aspect of your life and even how you think.

Think of these ten affirmations as your own personal assistants. They work for you! You have the privilege of telling them what to do because at first they don’t know…they don’t even know you that well, but you’ll become real close the more you get to know them and they’re always there for you.

The purpose of using the three approaches I’ve outlined here is to really impress upon your subconscious that this new thought is here to stay and now it can make new connections in your brain that positively affect you.

How does one thought change your life?

Just for a moment, think about what your subconscious is saying, how it’s reorganizing itself when you introduce a new thought/affirmation that is getting repeated as often as your usual thoughts.

Whaaaat! Something different? The subconscious operates on autopilot. Perhaps it begins questioning some of your other topics of mindless mind-chatter too. Maybe you have to actually think a little longer and review your other thoughts. Good!

All new thoughts and affirmations begin on a conscious level then the more they are repeated, sink into your subconscious, beginning to change your behavior.

I remember the exact day I realized affirmations work. I had been using my health affirmations and suddenly I was doing chores and sweeping my floor when a thought popped in my head- one that would never have before, especially while doing chores: “I’m so grateful I can do these chores. I have a body that is able to do them. How cool!”

I had nothing in my affirmations about being grateful and yet because I had been recognizing my “good health”, I was grateful for being able to do chores and many other things as well.

You may think and believe that you have numerous negative thoughts or issues that you’d like to remedy, but you don’t.

What that thought above showed me was that negative thoughts could indeed change AUTOMATICALLY. It is a trickle-down effect.

You’ll see that cleaning up just one thought with affirmations starts to change other thoughts…changing your life!

Remember: Simple + Repetitive = Automatic.

Peace and Be Well,

Laura