What is it?

Affirmations are statements that can be repeated over and over in your mind to promote positive thinking and build up beliefs in yourself and your capabilities. They reinforce an idea of belief.  In the same way that listening to a song over and over again can bring the tune into your mind after the music has stopped playing, affirmations to yourself can lead you to think in a much more healthy, optimistic way – automatically.

This kind of cognitive technique has parallels with other kinds of spiritual philosophies, such as Buddism and any meditation based religion. Spiritual chants, poetic mantras, or ancient sayings have been used to guide thought for centuries. Affirmations are a modern take on this tradition.

How does it work?

It is useful to compare the learning of affirmations to how we learned language as a child. In the beginning, you listen to words being said over and over and then when you were able, you practised saying the words yourself, again in a repetitive way. Day by day, this listening and repeating builds a vocabulary, leading to fluency in the language, and even thinking in that language.

We are all guilty of saying to ourselves “You can’t do that”, for instance “I can’t draw,” “I can’t run,” “I will never get that job,” or whatever negative thought we have somehow reinforced.  With affirmation, the opposite is the aim: you take a positive statement and repeat that so you can make yourself feel better about yourself and the world around you. This is similar to a “self-fulfilling prophecy.” The more we expect something to happen, the more likely it is to happen.

How to practise this technique:

1. Look at your intentions – identify what it is you want to be in your life, and identify the traits and attitudes you will need in order to get there.

2. Create statements – these statements will program your subconscious so make sure they read and sound like they are already true: e.g. “I accept my body as it is;” “I will be successful at this job”.

3. Be sure they are positive statements – do not focus on what you DON’T want, only what you DO want.

4. Make them realistic – this will make the outcome seem real and achievable.

5. Once you have chosen your statement (or statements) that describe a feeling you would like to experience all the time, or an outcome that you hope to achieve, such as “I will lose weight,” “I am a good person,” or “I can learn from my pain.”  REPEAT these, out loud, or just quietly to yourself, throughout each day for maximum benefit.  Repetition of the affirmation will increase your belief in the statement.

Tips and caveats:

* You don’t have to fully believe your statement. An affirmation is a statement of hope as well as intention.
* Of course, you can’t change the world like this: if you say “It will stop raining” a hundred times, you will never control the weather.    However, you could choose “I can handle all kinds of weather” and make that achievable.
* Use sticky notes around your home and outside environment to remind yourself of the affirmation – on the bathroom mirror, near the telephone, on your car dashboard – so that whatever time of day, you will be prompted back to the positive force of the affirmation and will guide your mind back to its purpose.