Affirmations

A very simple way to alleviate anxious feelings, panic or depression is to use positive affirmations. When we are nervous or feeling down in the dumps, it's often caused by our minds replaying the same negative, bad thought. Like a broken record, we tell ourselves things like, "I can't do this," "I am never going to feel better," or, "I hate myself."

If you imagine the brain as a film that records a thought, you can see how negative thoughts can wreak havoc on the mind. The more you repeat something bad, the deeper the thought will be ingrained in your head, making it hard for you not to believe it or to change it.

Students are taught to repeat something at least seventeen straight times correctly to learn it. Repetition ingrains an idea, a fact, or an image in our mind. Even smell and touch can be repetitively learned. And if it only takes a little over a dozen repetitions, it's no doubt that the hundreds of times per day you repeat a negative thought will make you believe what you're saying.

To overcome negativity and reclaim your peace of mind, fight negative repetition with positive repetition. Write down a list of five or ten positive affirmations that you can repeat to yourself over and over, not seventeen times, but seventeen-hundred times.

You are simply replacing the negative indentions on the film in your brain with positive indentions. If your negative indentions are deep, it will take a lot more positive repetition to replace them, but you can be sure that the deeper your positive indentions go, the more powerful they will be until they are just as powerful, or even more powerful, than the original negative thought.

Tips to using positive affirmations to your advantage:

1. Find out what your negative thoughts are saying, and then replace them with an opposite positive thought.

If you often tell yourself that you can't do something, write down: I can do this anytime I want.

Say it with feeling, with vigor-like you mean it-and in time you will believe it just as much as you once believed its negative opposite.

2. Write down your new positive affirmation on a flash card or piece of paper, and read it each day, ten or twenty times. Don't ever miss a day, and when you read the affirmation, don't read it without feeling. Try to imagine a situation where you can use the affirmation when you read it, and imagine yourself doing what you're telling yourself you can do.

Adding visualization with your new affirmation will strengthen its effect and help you faster.

And writing down the affirmation will help you remember to read it, and add concrete structure to what would otherwise be just a thought floating around in your head. Writing it down creates a sense of realness. The same can be said about written goals, which is why so many successful people set goals for themselves, not in their heads, but on paper.

3. Whenever you begin repeating negative thoughts, break out your sheet of positive affirmations and read over them. By combating negativity when it takes place, you can fight its influence over you, stopping it short of getting the best of your mood.

You should always repeat the list of affirmations several times at close to the same time each and every day-at bedtime or when you wake up-but don't be afraid to go over the list at any time during the day if you need it. It's a tool to help you, much like medication, meditation, or exercise.

And if you need any help beginning, start now by telling yourself this will work. Affirmations work, and they work well. Use them and good luck.

Last Edited 8th May 2008