Do you have the feeling affirmations are a waste of time and energy? Maybe you tried them a few times and had no results? Many of us use affirmations regularly, if not daily, to reinforce a lesson or grow an aspect of ourselves, or perhaps simply to surround ourselves with positive energy and love. There is no question, at least in my mind, that affirmations are a wonderful and very powerful tool in growing self-awareness and self-empowerment.
Affirmations are a great way to keep your mind centered on those thoughts that you choose to focus on, and their simple act of repetition is a proven way of wearing away at old habits and undesired thought patterns. However using affirmations, whether found or self-inspired, would be significantly less effective if they were simply words that are repeated, over and over again, without just a few secret ingredients. In truth they are not secret, but the word ‘secret’ sure adds some mystery don’t it?
Here are 10 tips and ingredients that will allow you to juice up your affirmations and experience true results, and the best part is it’s free! A gift from me to you, all the tips I’ve collected, created and learned through my own experiences with the power of affirmations. Simply choose any affirmation you have found or created and go to work on re-creating yourself starting today.
1) Repetition – The key ingredient to any affirmation! Repeating it once or twice or only daily simply will not do. The biggest part of an affirmation’s success is how effective you are at getting the message or desire across to your subconscious. Repeating an affirmation once cannot compete with all daily myriad of messages, commercials, news and useless information seeking to rent space in your head. This approach will not attract significant results, and you will probably quit. Ask yourself how soon you want to change? Is repeating it 100 times a day worth the effort? Practically, I do not set a limit. I simply use every spare thought to affirm, constantly.
2) Consistency – Similar to the suggestion on repetition, consistency in the frequency of repetition and in the content of your affirmations are essential. By consistently repeating your message 100 times a day, or every time you have a spare cycle of brain time, you create a consistent flow of this single message like an unending stream speaking to your subconscious. It’s a great way to get the message across.
3) Using Visualization – Just as with goal setting, visualization can further help express the desire contained in your affirmation. For example, if your affirmation were “I am loved”, you can easily reinforce this message with visualizing yourself in loving surroundings, picturing those that are close to you expressing their love for you in different ways. This is affirming the affirmation! And great technique to bring the meaning of it home.
4) Combining Emotion – If you are able to think about your affirmation, then you surely are able to ‘feel’ about it too. In quiet moments, feel how you would feel by having the quality you are expressing through your affirmation. Imagine feeling that aspect of your new self. This is a powerful tip and greatly increases the intensity of your message. An affirmation is more than repeating words, it is affirming something you already know to be true – feel that way now, as if you already have realized your desire.
5) The 30 Day Rule - For any serious progress to be measured, an affirmation must be used for at least 30 days. Expert’s opinions vary on how long we, as humans, take to learn something new to the point of it being a habit. There are studies that say 21 days are enough and others that fall on either side of this marker. In my personal experience, I always achieve a measurable success with any new tool, within 30 days, or I let it go.
6) Less Is More – Choose only a few, powerful affirmations at a time, as opposed to dozens that you repeat only a few times a day each. Having a few, say 1 – 5 affirmations to focus on for a full 30 days is more than enough. Consider for a minute, that you are introducing additional messages into your everyday life, which will compete with all the other messages surrounding you, for your attention. If you fit the average statistics for North America or Europe, then you are receiving hundreds and thousands of messages a day from TV, newspaper, marketing, Internet and myriad others sources, including your family and friends. For your affirmations to truly work, they must have the chance to get their message through! Stick to a few for a month, try it. If you don’t like it, change it, but at least sincerely try this once and I very much doubt you will be disappointed.
7) Self-Monitoring – After a week or so of repeating the same affirmations again, and again, you may find yourself tempted to change them a little to make them sound interesting, or to choose something else. This is the wrong time to be quitting or changing things, because you are now nearing the point of critical mass, when the message you are bringing to your subconscious is starting to get through. Monitor yourself, stick to your target and pat yourself on the back for doing such a great job. Although the results may be few now, they are on their way!
8) Listening – Your golden key to results? Listening to yourself, listening to your internal dialogue, notice changes in your thoughts and self-speak, notice how you feel, notice changes in how others treat you, however small. Listen for the reward of your hard work.
9) Gratitude – As with all things in life, express gratitude either for achieving the goals of your affirmations, or for growing from the experience of failure. If you take true responsibility for your actions, you will know that any failure in this process, is created by you, but is also completely resolvable by yourself also. A wonderful opportunity either way.
10) Reinvent – Finally, if all the above tips fail to inspire you, or assist you in reaching your desired result – simply reinvent yourself and your affirmations! Truly any process will ultimately work, but these tips, used together will supercharge any affirmation you choose to bring you anything you desire.
Wow! 10 ready-to-go tips to bring your affirmations from the mundane to the profane. I use them everyday and just reading my own tips, makes me want to get started again! Lastly, have fun with this process. Don’t beat yourself up if you forget for a day and most importantly never quit. You are sculpting the most beautiful statue in the universe, and that is You and your life!
Peace & Love,
- Mikel
Affirmations are a great way to keep your mind centered on those thoughts that you choose to focus on, and their simple act of repetition is a proven way of wearing away at old habits and undesired thought patterns. However using affirmations, whether found or self-inspired, would be significantly less effective if they were simply words that are repeated, over and over again, without just a few secret ingredients. In truth they are not secret, but the word ‘secret’ sure adds some mystery don’t it?
Here are 10 tips and ingredients that will allow you to juice up your affirmations and experience true results, and the best part is it’s free! A gift from me to you, all the tips I’ve collected, created and learned through my own experiences with the power of affirmations. Simply choose any affirmation you have found or created and go to work on re-creating yourself starting today.
1) Repetition – The key ingredient to any affirmation! Repeating it once or twice or only daily simply will not do. The biggest part of an affirmation’s success is how effective you are at getting the message or desire across to your subconscious. Repeating an affirmation once cannot compete with all daily myriad of messages, commercials, news and useless information seeking to rent space in your head. This approach will not attract significant results, and you will probably quit. Ask yourself how soon you want to change? Is repeating it 100 times a day worth the effort? Practically, I do not set a limit. I simply use every spare thought to affirm, constantly.
2) Consistency – Similar to the suggestion on repetition, consistency in the frequency of repetition and in the content of your affirmations are essential. By consistently repeating your message 100 times a day, or every time you have a spare cycle of brain time, you create a consistent flow of this single message like an unending stream speaking to your subconscious. It’s a great way to get the message across.
3) Using Visualization – Just as with goal setting, visualization can further help express the desire contained in your affirmation. For example, if your affirmation were “I am loved”, you can easily reinforce this message with visualizing yourself in loving surroundings, picturing those that are close to you expressing their love for you in different ways. This is affirming the affirmation! And great technique to bring the meaning of it home.
4) Combining Emotion – If you are able to think about your affirmation, then you surely are able to ‘feel’ about it too. In quiet moments, feel how you would feel by having the quality you are expressing through your affirmation. Imagine feeling that aspect of your new self. This is a powerful tip and greatly increases the intensity of your message. An affirmation is more than repeating words, it is affirming something you already know to be true – feel that way now, as if you already have realized your desire.
5) The 30 Day Rule - For any serious progress to be measured, an affirmation must be used for at least 30 days. Expert’s opinions vary on how long we, as humans, take to learn something new to the point of it being a habit. There are studies that say 21 days are enough and others that fall on either side of this marker. In my personal experience, I always achieve a measurable success with any new tool, within 30 days, or I let it go.
6) Less Is More – Choose only a few, powerful affirmations at a time, as opposed to dozens that you repeat only a few times a day each. Having a few, say 1 – 5 affirmations to focus on for a full 30 days is more than enough. Consider for a minute, that you are introducing additional messages into your everyday life, which will compete with all the other messages surrounding you, for your attention. If you fit the average statistics for North America or Europe, then you are receiving hundreds and thousands of messages a day from TV, newspaper, marketing, Internet and myriad others sources, including your family and friends. For your affirmations to truly work, they must have the chance to get their message through! Stick to a few for a month, try it. If you don’t like it, change it, but at least sincerely try this once and I very much doubt you will be disappointed.
7) Self-Monitoring – After a week or so of repeating the same affirmations again, and again, you may find yourself tempted to change them a little to make them sound interesting, or to choose something else. This is the wrong time to be quitting or changing things, because you are now nearing the point of critical mass, when the message you are bringing to your subconscious is starting to get through. Monitor yourself, stick to your target and pat yourself on the back for doing such a great job. Although the results may be few now, they are on their way!
8) Listening – Your golden key to results? Listening to yourself, listening to your internal dialogue, notice changes in your thoughts and self-speak, notice how you feel, notice changes in how others treat you, however small. Listen for the reward of your hard work.
9) Gratitude – As with all things in life, express gratitude either for achieving the goals of your affirmations, or for growing from the experience of failure. If you take true responsibility for your actions, you will know that any failure in this process, is created by you, but is also completely resolvable by yourself also. A wonderful opportunity either way.
10) Reinvent – Finally, if all the above tips fail to inspire you, or assist you in reaching your desired result – simply reinvent yourself and your affirmations! Truly any process will ultimately work, but these tips, used together will supercharge any affirmation you choose to bring you anything you desire.
Wow! 10 ready-to-go tips to bring your affirmations from the mundane to the profane. I use them everyday and just reading my own tips, makes me want to get started again! Lastly, have fun with this process. Don’t beat yourself up if you forget for a day and most importantly never quit. You are sculpting the most beautiful statue in the universe, and that is You and your life!
Peace & Love,
- Mikel
4 inspired comments:
Love the blog brother, yes affirmations play a big part in my life and have done for about ten years. They certainly are a very powerful tool to use in manifesting.
I used to place my favorite affirmations around my house eg, printing them on a nice picture and pinning them to doors, I even had some on the back of the toilet door. Keep up the great work brother. Many blessings Domonique.
http://www.ascensiongateway.com/
I have to agree. I have only started using affirmations in a serioius way over the last few months - but what a difference they have made. Courtesy of a friend, I was given the benefit of most of these tips early in the process and can certainly vouch for there effectiveness.
The blog is a delight. I visit every few days and know that the time will be well spent - your articles are insightful and inspiring and you are a master at publishing just what I need to read when I need it. Thanks Mikel.
Domonique,
Thanks for you kind words. Enjoy the rest of your trip.
Peace,
-Mikel
anonymous,
You sound like a friend of mine? Then again we all connected anyway, so you are welcome and thank you for your kind words.
May your path be light.
Peace,
-Mikel
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