Put the Positive in Your Affirmation

Uncomfortable labels created by self-criticism and negative self-talk are like old hats – if you don’t like them, don’t wear them.

The most effective way to transform your life is to transform your thoughts.  Positive affirmations quiet negative thought patterns and discipline your mind to shift your perceptions.

Affirmation comes from the Latin word, affirmare, which means “to strengthen.” When you affirm something, you acknowledge its truth.

Positive affirmations focus deliberate intention on a desired outcome. When you declare a positive affirmation, you acknowledge your own strengths and gifts and invite positive results into your reality.

Positive affirmations are always stated in present tense. Affirmations should be personal and specific.

A statement such as “I will ignore self-doubting thoughts and not focus on negative outcomes” invites self-doubt, lack of focus, and negative outcomes. A constructive affirmation such as “Divine ideas flow through me in a river of abundance” invites creative ideas and inspiration.

There is no such thing as empty words. Every thought you have and every word you speak influences your choices, decisions, and actions. You are either moving towards your goals or pushing them away. Positive affirmations (including these potent examples) provide you with opportunities to purge anger, relinquish fear, create your own future, and joyfully experience the enormous potential within you: 

• I am the architect of my life; I use my gifts and talents to build a strong foundation.
• I am grateful and overflowing with joy.
• Compassion and forgiveness flow through me. I am filled with love.
• Creative energy fills me with new and brilliant ideas.
• Rewarding opportunities flow easily and effortlessly to me.
• Obstacles disappear. I am destined for greatness.
• I face today with strength of heart and clarity of mind.
• My heart is tranquil and I am at peace.
• I am courageous and bold. I have within me the power to change the world.

“Research tells us that every thought and emotion creates a chemical reaction because it immediately changes our neurochemicals that affect our mental, physical, and spiritual health,” explained stress expert, Dr. Kathleen Hall, in a Huffington Post interview.

Affirm to yourself the feeling and experience of already reaching your goal.  Examples include “I am a successful and prosperous” and “Lucrative opportunities come to me easily and often.”

When something occurs throughout the course of your day that triggers disappointment or frustration, you may want to criticize or blame yourself or someone else. Positive affirmations empower you to swap negative judgment with encouraging words that restore your optimism. Consequently, “setbacks” become opportunities for learning that lead to success.

Dr. Carmen Harra, clinical psychologist and author of The Eleven Eternal Principles: Accessing the Divine Within, insisted that positive affirmations effectively motivate and excite us because of “their ability to rewire our brains.”  She added, “Much like exercise, they raise the level of feel-good hormones and push our brains to form new clusters of ‘positive thought’ neurons.  In the sequence of thought-speech-action, affirmations play an integral role by breaking patterns of negative thoughts, negative speech, and, in turn, negative actions.”

Positive affirmations are effective because neurons in the brain interpret imagery as reality equivalents. When you visualize something and state your intention in positive terms with positive outcomes, the brain generates an impulse that creates a new neural pathway that prepares you to perform in ways that are consistent to what you imagined.

There is power not only in your declaration of positive statements, but also in the process of writing affirmations and posting them in places where you regularly see them. The practice of putting pen to paper accesses the right brain’s capacity to tap into imagination, inspiration, and innovation. As we write and access the creative energy of the right brain, we open our minds to solutions we may have not ordinarily considered.

“Your life doesn’t just ‘happen.’  Whether you know it or not, it is carefully designed by you,” maintained Stephen Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. ”The choices, after all, are yours. You choose happiness. You choose sadness. You choose decisiveness. You choose ambivalence. You choose success. You choose failure.” He added, “Just remember that every moment, every situation, provides a new choice. And in doing so, it gives you a perfect opportunity to do things differently to produce more positive results.”

What is your favorite positive affirmation?  How has positive affirmation transformed your life?

 

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