Energising affirmations

I thought it timely to write about how to energise your affirmations. Before Christmas several people asked how to work with affirmations. Then I noticed that Hay House Publishing has released a new film recounting the life story of Louise L. Hays. Louise is regarded by many as the Queen of Affirmations. Her classic book You Can Heal Your Life has provided inspiration to many people seeking to heal their physical health problems by using affirmations to instil more positive ways of thinking.

Here’s a quick reminder of the basics of creating affirmations:

Make the affirmation relate to the present time rather than a future that may never come. E.g. I have clear skin, rather than I will have clear skin.

Affirm only positive results rather than a negative you wish to be free of. The reason for this is that negative thoughts still draw our attention to that which we’re trying to move away from. ‘I don’t want to hear from my ex-boyfriend’ will still remind you of him, whereas if you were to say ‘I am now with a caring person who makes me laugh’ then you are focussing on qualities that you seek.

Make the affirmation personal to you – you can’t control what other people can have or achieve. E.g. 'I live in a peaceful world' rather than 'Everyone lives in a peaceful world'. The world around you directly affects you and is what you can improve. More importantly, by changing yourself for the better you can have an impact on changing the world.

Work with one or two affirmations at a time so that you can put all your energy into achieving these. Doing too many at once can lead to diluting your focus and could well diminish the impact of your work.

Affirmations work through repetition as you are retraining your mind and bringing it round to believing what you are saying. Aim to believe your affirmation as much as you, for example, confidently know the first line of your postal address.

If you wish to take your affirmations to the next level, then I suggest incorporating EFT into you work. When we first start working with an affirmation it can sound oddly hollow to our ears. How can I believe that âÃ¯Â¿ÂœÃ¯Â¿ÂœI am successfully running a half marathon this yearâÃ¯Â¿ÂœÃ¯Â¿Âœ, when I need to catch my breath half way down the road on my first warm up jog? Success starts in the mind. It's from there that we find our motivation, and break down a larger task into smaller goals which we achieve piecemeal towards the finishing line.

If you find that a host of critical thoughts come up when you start saying your affirmation, accept those words as well-meant help from friends rather than the work of saboteurs. Meet the "honesty" head on with EFT to make your mental focus stronger and release the fear, anger and other negative emotions that come up. By resolving those doubts you make room in your mind to stay on track with your goal. If more doubts come up later on, just tap those out. They may well be different to the ones you first worked on.

This month’s EFT Setups are designed to help you overcome the doubts you may have about your affirmation. For more information on conquering the doubts that accompany affirmations using EFT have a read of this detailed article by the founder of EFT, Gary Craig.

Once you’ve cleared your doubts try some of the following creative ways to play with affirmations and bring a sense of fun to your work:

write down your affirmation and put the piece of paper with it under a glass of drinking water. Leave it for at least an hour. Your water will be empowered energetically with your written intention. Masuro Emoto has pioneered research into the power of words and intention over molecules of water.

Organise reminders of your affirmation to pop up in your electronic calendar software on a regular basis. Every time it comes up take a moment to focus your intention on your goal and then snooze the reminder for it to come up later.

Create own soundtrack of affirmations. I work with brain entrainment meditation CDs from an American company called Centerpointe who have created Holosync. At the 2nd level of the program and above the Holosync meditation music has encoded in it affirmations recorded by yourself to enhance the progress you make. Including my own affirmations in the meditations I do has allowed me to greatly speed up aspects of my personal growth. Alternatively, you could use free opensource software provided by a company called Audacity to layer your own voice recording over music of your choice so that you can sleep with or be out and about with your affirmation(s) being played to you in the background.

Sing your affirmation along to a tune you know and love. I always find myself smiling when I do this!

Print your affirmation out in large coloured font and stick up the pieces of paper around the house. One of my clients started doing this and noticed an immediate sense of comfort in his mindset which was key to him defeating procrastination.

The Healthy in Mind viewpoint: affirmations can help us focus on realising our goals. Release any doubts your affirmation raises, and then allow yourself to play with it for maximum success.

Article Date: Thu, 03 Jan 2008