The Way Affirmations Work

July 28th, 2011 by Lifestyle Therapy - Susan Leigh

We all talk to ourselves constantly. Internal chatter may give us a running commentary about what we're doing, berate us when things go wrong, give us encouragement when we need it. Often though, many of us speak more harshly to ourselves than we ever would to another person. We may call ourselves stupid, be critical of our efforts, forget to give ourselves praise or recognition.

Let's have a look at the importance of affirmations and how they can help us in our lives. Let's look at the way affirmations work:

- Affirmations are phrases and words that we repeat and as such reinforce patterns in our way of thinking and responding to life. Some affirmations may be negative and have a destructive, confidence-sapping effect on us. Hypnotherapy can help us recognise how we talk to ourselves, where the voices and words originated and identify any negative phrases as belonging to another person, perhaps a parent or teacher. When we recognise the negative way that we've been talking to ourselves we can identify it as belonging to the past and let it go as being irrelevant to the person we are today.

- We can then start to appreciate the value of becoming more positive in our internal dialogue. Affirmations help us to establish a positive mindset. By repeating a desired positive intent or outcome we modify our thought patterns from a negative perspective into a more positive way of thinking. Hypnotherapy often uses positive affirmations as a way of healing negative thinking. We can then appreciate the value and relevance of the things that have happened in our life, respect the lessons, experience and skills acquired along the way and move forward more positively into the future.

- Repetition of certain phrases establishes a more focussed mindset. We need to use reasonable and realistic phrases, but by introducing positive affirmations into our daily life we can change a down beat outlook into one that starts to believe in a better future for ourselves. Objectives become clearer as we start to verbalize them to ourselves. By becoming positive we start to believe that more things are possible, feasible, and then, ultimately probable.

- Internal talk emanates from us in the form of mood, demeanour, stance and body language. When we are down and depressed we will give off negative energy. Conversely positive internal talk generates a more upbeat mood, a positive posture and is more engaged in the outside world. Other people are more attracted to someone with a positive, enthusiastic aura.

- Writing out our affirmations and positioning them in prominent places, perhaps on the bathroom mirror, fridge, cupboard doors, as our computer screen saver, keeps those phrases in regular view and able to be regularly reinforced. We see those messages, sometimes without even realising it and they support the confidence boosting sessions and the positive outlook that we are working to achieve.

- Realistic affirmations facilitate positive change in our lives. Becoming more mindful of how we talk to ourselves, introducing healthy, forward-thinking goals and objectives and starting to see them as viable and achievable can improve our quality of life and enable us to become stronger and more successful. Quality affirmations work to enhance our life.