What You Need to Know to Make Affirmations Work for You

Have you said your affirmations every day, done so for weeks and months, and have been less than enthused with the results? You are not alone in your plight; many people have difficulty making affirmations work for them.

Don’t let that deter you though. Once you fully understand what makes affirmations a powerful tool, you will soon see the results you have been hoping for.

Here’s what you’ll learn in this guide:

• Why affirmations are an important tool

• What the affirmative prayer is

• How to use Cosmic Ordering

• How to use visualization to up your affirmation game

• What mantras are and how to use them effectively

• And so much more!

01 | The Basics

Most of our thoughts are said to be sub-conscious, meaning we are not aware of them. Affirmations can then be used to make your sub-conscious thoughts conscious.

Affirmations help you become aware of your thoughts. If you start making conscious favorable thoughts, you become more aware of the damaging ones, which limit their impact. Thus, essentially, you can produce what you think about.

Over time, affirmations overwrite any limiting or damaging beliefs you might have about yourself. The negative thoughts are substituted instead with ones that instill self-confidence, self-belief, positivity, ambitiousness, and more.

Eventually, the affirmations begin to sink in - the repetitive and favorable self-talk will be able to work its magic. Utilizing advantageous affirmations puts you in the driver's seat of your mind and lets you flood it with information that will change you for the better.

02 | The Affirmative Prayer

Affirmative prayer is a sort of prayer or a metaphysical process that's centered on a favorable outcome instead of a negative situation.

For instance, someone experiencing some form of illness would focus the prayer on the wanted state of perfect health and affirm this as though it already occurred instead of identifying the illness and asking for help to do away with it.

Five Steps to Affirmative Prayer:

1. Acknowledgment: You want to remind yourself of the nature of life/Higher Power/spirit. If, for instance, you used to believe that The Higher Power was angry and vengeful, now is the time to remind yourself of the bigger truth. Remind yourself of the lawful and loving nature of The Higher Power.

2. Uniting: Remind yourself that you come from life/spirit/The Higher Power. If The Higher Power exists and is everything good and fantastic, but you're on the outside looking in, why even bother to pray? Remind yourself that The Higher Power is the source and Creator of everything, including you, and including your wants.

3. Actualization: understand that life already is the thing or experience you want. If you are able to want it, imagine it, and picture it, then it must exist in the brain. Otherwise, where did you get the thought? Remember, the beginning premise of this is, there exists a central unity.

There's no place other than the brain to get your idea. For an effective prayer, you want to continue contemplating that you deserve happiness, that's when the realization comes. When you open your eyes, your desire might not be sitting on the floor in front of you, but don't be duped... Your brain is already at work making it happen.

If doubts come up, and they more than likely will, don't ignore them. Face them! Speak the truth about what you fear and what feelings it invokes. For instance, if you feel that you might never be able to afford a new automobile, you could say, "I have this desire and along with it everything I need to let the power flow through me, manifesting my desire."

4. Grace: understand that what you desire is yours. It's crucial to be thankful because it acknowledges already having gotten what you want. The Higher Power doesn't need your gratitude, but, to be fully aligned with the laws of the universe, you have to feel the feeling of gratitude. This is the "already having gotten" attitude that adds fuel to the fire of your affirmative prayer.

5. Relinquish: and so it is. When finished, your brain should feel at peace, free, fearless, and watchful for signs of your desire. Allow the law to work through you and make your desire physical truth.

03 | Cosmic Ordering

Your cosmic order will only come to fruition when you feel you deserve it. Love yourself and trust that you deserve your order, and the universe is more likely to grant it.

A key point to remember is that we will only get what we trust is conceivable. If you do not believe your order is possible, it has less chance of occurring. For instance, some individuals don't think it's possible they could ever win the lottery yet do it every week without fail. Someplace inside them, there is a block, and therefore it can never become a truth.

If you trust you deserve it and, crucially, believe it's conceivable, then it may happen. But, it's crucial to listen to your inner guide. There's no point ordering things you don't trust may happen as, by centering on your orders not happening, you're in effect wiping out your order.

So begin by ordering things you do think may happen and, when you get the hang of it, aim higher.

The law of attraction – like draws in like. If you could change your frequency, you could change your life. Why is it that we duplicate patterns and draw the same sort of friends or lovers? Some individuals think that we give out a vibration that magnetically draws others in on a like vibration.

Our vibration is neutral – it doesn't understand what is good or bad for us, so if we believe all men are unfaithful, all jobs lead nowhere, or we'll constantly be poor, we may attract those experiences. The media is forever flooding us with fear and bad news altogether out of proportion to reality. How can we shift our minds to trust in the positive?

Consciously practice being non-judgmental and compassionate. Be conscious of your inner dialogue. If somebody succeeds or wins, what is your response? Embrace the uniqueness of other people and their viewpoints.

It's crucial to be aware of the energy you put out, as it is like a calling signal or lighthouse, drawing in the same vibration. If you get jealous or mad, if you're petty or judgmental, you'll likely call in others who mimic this energy. We frequently have different rules for ourselves than other people.

The world is your oyster, so it's crucial to discover what it is you really want as that other old cliché ‘be careful what you ask for’ has never been more relevant.

04 | Creative Visualization

Creative visualization is the procedure of utilizing your imagination in an integrated way, to produce what you wish in your life.

The procedure for visualization is really simple:

Get relaxed; utilize your imagination to produce compelling images, sounds, and feelings of getting what you wish; repeat!

If you continue to center on your target regularly - adding firm emotion - you'll be surprised to see your goals "turn up" in your life- frequently by unexplainable coincidences or simply by gradual betterment.

The better you get at visualizing, the quicker you'll begin producing the life you wish.

Creative visualization is basically a technique to help you produce what you truly wish - whether that's more love, peace, fulfillment, self-expression, cash... or anything else!

On the surface, it's great to get more of the things you wish. Without doubt. However, visualization goes deeper than that, much deeper.

Essentially, effective visualization involves exploring - and shifting- your deepest attitudes towards life.

You may become happier, more relaxed, more centered, mentally secure, more peaceful... and a whole lot more.

So, concisely, the answer to "why visualize?" is: because you'll get more of what you wish, but you'll likewise feel more favorable about life in general.

The best way to begin visualization is to spend a couple of minutes before you go to bed, or just after you wake up, imagining - in as much detail as you may muster - what you wish in your life.

The secret key to visualization success is to bring forth the same favorable emotions you'd get if your dreams had already been achieved.

05 | Mantras

Before beginning, let’s discuss a few details about chanting. There are 2 languages for chants sung in the Indian tradition: Sanskrit and Gurmukhi.

Sanskrit is the language of Hindu chanting and is utilized by most yogic traditions except Kundalini Yoga, which is taken from the Sikh tradition and has chanting sung in the Gurmukhi language.

Chanting commonly involves repeating a mantra or a prayer. “Man” means mind and “tra” means across, so a mantra is something that's repeatedly crossing your brain to help control your thoughts whilst meditating.

You're giving your hyperactive brain something to play with so that it can become calm. You are able to likewise interpret the word to mean a phrase that helps you to cross over the mind to get to your heart.

Repeating these words aloud has a particular effect on the body. As you state the mantra, your tongue is hitting meridian points on the top of the upper palate of the mouth, which impacts the energies going to other glands like the hypothalamus, the pineal, and the pituitary.

By arousing these meridian points, you're physically producing the effect of relaxation and a modified state of consciousness.

When you first begin, don’t worry about your pronunciation, and don’t fret about hitting the correct notes. All of this will come with time. Chanting involves so much repeating, that you’ll pick things up sooner or later.

It may be useful to look up the words of the mantra because some of the time the sounds are so foreign to the average westerner that your brain can get a bit confused.

The most crucial thing in chanting is your heart. Open it up wide. Ride the sound current like a wave. Feel the infinite divine right here, right now, and within you.

06 | Achieving a Positive Mindset

Positive affirmations are simply a type of self-talk. This will help you reach whatever goals you have set for yourself. They may in reality switch your thoughts, resulting from negative self-talk to those more powerful positive thoughts.

Remember to continue repeating the statement (whatever you really believe you are able to attain) and give the negative thoughts space to be without trying to block it out. When you begin thinking of something negative, turn the phrase around so that it becomes a statement that encourages growth instead of stagnation.

Get in the correct mindset, grin, laugh, become that successful individual in your mind. Utilize those powerful favorable affirmations to tell your mind what you will do, then your subconscious will impact your positive state.

Positive self-talk (positive affirmations) done repeatedly will drive you to an elevated standard of personal growth.

These are powerful statements that you are now able to use during your self-talk. You'll need to begin thinking as though they have already occurred in your life. This is a vital factor, think like this is something that has already happened in the present, now, not tomorrow, next week or next month, now.

Do you really know what you want? You have to figure this out, whether it's your goal, your ambitions, or even a wish. These positive affirmations have to come directly from you and not anybody else in order to be effective.

You have to be clear about the actions you want to take (whatever you tell yourself that you are able to and will do), then begin taking action toward achieving this goal. Do not let any negativity get in your way. Remember to repeat those positive affirmations whenever possible, as many as possible, for as long as it takes. If you don’t have a clear direction, you will find it harder to bring your dreams to fruition.

If you’re struggling, I’ve been there, and I can tell you firsthand that it’ll get better if you keep progressing forward. Don’t give up and be patient with yourself.

07 | Writing Affirmations

You might think it a bit unnecessary to include a section on helping individuals to compose their own favorable affirmations.

Having stated that, I do have suggestions that you might wish to consider when composing your affirmations. Affirmations that are not only favorable in intent but written by yourself with your circumstances and desires in mind.

To effectively move your life positively and successfully forward, try to begin by listing and defining the precise reasons why you wish to compile and implement your own personalized affirmations in the first place.

While it’s much easier and simpler to utilize affirmations generically written by somebody else, in all truthfulness, affirmations created by yourself are typically more personal which has a greater effect than their counterparts.

To help illustrate this point, I'll provide a fictitious example of a girl named Emily. Emily experienced what she may only describe as bullying from one of her co-workers, whom we'll call Joe, leaving Emily feeling more and more depressed, bitter, and mad.

Along with other actions, Emily decided to introduce affirmations into her day-to-day routine, hoping these statements would help strengthen and increase her confidence and self-esteem.

Below are examples of the favorable affirmations that Emily thought about; the first is merely a pre-written generic affirmation and the second was carefully and mindfully written by herself.

While both are appropriately useful, the second affirmation written by Emily is more individualized and tailored towards her particular issue and problem, so understandably more effective.

I will not permit bullies to come into the sacred space of my soul.

Example of a personalized self-penned affirmation

I will not allow Joe to manipulate, bully or disrespect me. I'll remain calm, strong, and resilient at all times.

As you may see, the self-written affirmation is more personalized, specifically mentioning Emily's bully by name, along with how Emily is wishing to react.

While it might be tempting to write something damaging about the individuals or issues causing you distress, such as Joe in Emily's example, this would change the purpose of the self-empowering exercise into something rather damaging.

While Emily mentioned Joe in our affirmation, Emily is merely self-affirming how she would personally like to respond and react and not wishing harm or negativity toward Joe as this would be harmful and unloving.

08 | Using Affirmations

Affirmations may help you alter harmful behaviors or achieve goals, and they may likewise help undo the damage caused by damaging scripts, those things which we repeatedly tell ourselves (or which other people repeatedly tell us) that contribute to a damaging self-perception. Affirmations are simple to create and utilize, but you'll need the dedication to make them work.

Consider your positive attributes. Scrutinize yourself by making an inventory of your best qualities, abilities, or any other attribute. Are you caring? Put it down. Are you a hard worker? Make note of it. Write every quality down in a short sentence, beginning with "I" and utilizing the present tense: "I am kind," for instance, or "I'm generous."

These statements are affirmations of who you are. We seldom center on those things that we truly like about ourselves, instead deciding to linger on things we'd like to change. An inventory will help you break that cycle, and utilizing these affirmations to help you appreciate who you are will present you with the confidence you need to accept your affirmations of whom you wish to be.

Consider what damaging scripts you wish to counteract, or what positive goals you hope to achieve. Affirmations may be highly useful to counteract the damaging perceptions you have developed.

Affirmations may likewise help you accomplish particular goals, like losing weight or quitting smoking. Make a list of your objectives or the harmful self-perceptions you wish to alter.

Prioritize your list of things to work on. You might find that you have a lot of goals or that you need a lot of counter-scripts. It's best, however, to focus on a few affirmations at a time, so select those that are most crucial or most urgent and work with those first.

Once you see betterment in those areas or achieve those goals, you may develop new affirmations for additional items on your list.

Write your affirmations, then add others to influence your conduct in the future. The affirmations you'll utilize to influence future changes should begin with "I" and be short, clear, and positive.

Match up some of your favorable attributes with your goals. Which of the favorable qualities that you affirmed earlier will help you accomplish the goals you have set?

If you're quitting smoking, for instance, you might need willpower or courage, or you might need to reflect on the fact that you're a hard worker or that you care about your loved ones. Choose 2 or 3 of these affirmations to support your goal-oriented affirmations.

Make your affirmations visible so you may utilize them. Make a point of writing your affirmations in a journal or diary every morning when you get up and every night before you turn in. Repeat the affirmations to yourself at these times, as well. Ideally, your affirmations should be the first thing you think of when you get up and the last before you turn in.

Meditate on your affirmations. Say and repeat the words, and consider what the words mean to you; consider your ideal future and try to feel the emotions that the affirmations bring up.

Leave reminder cards in assorted places. Utilize 3X5 index cards or sticky notes to write your affirmations (one per card).

Make numerous cards for each affirmation, and then leave these cards where you'll see them: place one where you sit at the kitchen table, tape one to your car’s steering wheel, slip one inside your desk drawer, or stick one to your PC monitor, etc.

Every time you see the card, read it and consider what it means.

Carry your affirmations with you. Create a list of your affirmations and put it in your pocket or purse. If you need a pick-me-up, or if you discover yourself about to waver from your goals, take out your affirmations and read them.

09 | Advantages and Disadvantages

Positive affirmations or positive self-talk may benefit not only yourself but likewise other individuals that you interact with. They are able to switch negative thoughts from damaging experiences and alter them so they promote growth and healing. It relies on the principle that you may only become successful if you tell yourself “I can do that” rather than saying, “I can't do that.”

Positive affirmations has an effect on the physical but also the emotional well-being of an individual. Because of this, experts have always advised individuals to start their day with good and positive thoughts and words.

Starting the day right would extend the vibrant feeling throughout the day and even have a multiplier effect on all other aspects of your life.

Our thoughts, self-talk, and affirmations, both positive and negative, become self-fulfilling prophesies more often than not. Your actions and effort are influenced by what you're thinking, so if you think you'll fail at something, you likely will. Likewise, if you think you'll succeed, you likely will.

Most individuals don't realize that it is actually possible to choose to think more positively. The consequences of such a choice are that your consequences are the ones you consciously want.

Utilize POSITIVE WORDS in your affirmations instead of utilizing words that serve to remind you of something you wish to eradicate. Producing affirmations in the positive is much more effective.

DON’T say and think, “I'm not shy” or “I'm not insecure”.

Rather SAY and THINK, “I'm outgoing” or “I'm secure” or “I'm confident”.

When writing an affirmation, ask yourself what is it that you fundamentally want. Then compose the affirmation based on your answer to this question, instead of focusing and constructing your affirmation on what you don't want.

Again, your actions and effort are influenced by your thinking, self-talk, and affirmations. Focusing on being outgoing, secure, and confident is much more likely to bring about the results you want than using an affirmation that veers toward what you hope to overcome (in that instance avoid the words “shy” and “insecure”).

A different example - if you want to feel confident about making a speech, SAY and THINK “I'm a confident and articulate public speaker” instead of saying, I'm not anxious about public speaking and I don't falter over my words.” In that instance, steer clear of framing your affirmation in the negative by quashing the words “anxious” and “falter”.

Positive affirmations are an incredible tool when you are able to frame them in a manner that doesn't inadvertently create unwanted results.

While aiming for a realistic goal, utilizing the present tense and meaningful words, the challenges that have defeated you in the past can effectively then be tackled.

If you wish to live a more fulfilling life, it's time to start implementing well-considered affirmations into your daily routine.