Guiding Light: Positive Affirmations

About Positive Affirmations

What is a Positive Affirmation?

A positive affirmation is a statement that you tell to yourself. It is a form of positive self-talk that can make you feel better through association of the words, thus creating a Positive Mental Attitude (PMA). Positive affirmations are quite powerful (from a holistic point of view, ie Mind, Body & Spirit) and they have many benefits. Positive affirmations work on every level- physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. When a positive affirmation is said over and over again, it will train the mind to believe what it is being told. The subconscious mind holds many belief systems that we have acquired throughout the lifespan. We don’t always re-examine and evaluate our belief systems but to do so is vital for growth and learning. Some of our beliefs serve us very well while others are self-limiting. Some beliefs change and flow as we move through life while others stay fixed. Sometimes we change our beliefs naturally without much effort, while others are harder to change because of the time or intensity it has taken to form the belief. The mind will generally believe what is told if it is being told often enough, and especially if it is not in the habit of questioning everything it is told.

What influences the mind?

It is a good idea to get into the habit of discernment, ie question everything you are told. Become more aware of what your mind is being told in everyday life, what you are observing, the conversations you have with others etc. It is most important though to be aware of what it is that you are telling yourself. A good rule of thumb is to ask yourself “would I employ someone to be with me 24hrs a day repeating to me what I am telling myself?” Have a think about the beliefs you hold, what statements do you think about yourself and life? Do they sound like “I really deserve good things.” “I love myself so much.” Or do they sound more like “Im not good enough” “Bad things always happen to me.” How self-aware are you? What statements should you be telling yourself? What kind of beliefs are you affirming to yourself on a continuous basis? You are the biggest influence on yourself and your thoughts are the one thing that you can take control of with some practice.

Think of the mind as being a computer system that takes in information, processes it, stores it and believes what it is told. Think of the spirit or life-force being the driving force behind the mind. Think of every cell within the body as having its own memory that sends information to the mind. Think of your emotions as being the messengers to tell you what you are thinking about. Think of the mind sending signals to the body to do its job. Think of your memories as being old movies that rerun.

Mainstream medicine and society have recently realised the importance of minding our minds, looking after our mental health, and developing a PMA (positive mental attitude). It is important to note though that we should not be pressurising ourselves to become positive about everything in life. Negative thoughts and emotions are part of who we are and are an important guidance tool to help us work with ourselves and the world in general. Awareness is the key.

Reprogramming the mind

There are numerous therapies and tools to change something within the subconscious mind and thought patterns, like Hypnotherapy, Integrated Energy Therapy, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy. However using positive affirmations can be a powerful way to reprogramme the mind if used correctly. Scientists have proven that our DNA can be reprogrammed using words and frequencies. Our minds are constantly busy, working and `talking`, either processing the boundless information and data being brought in continuously throughout the day or it is telling ourselves what has happened, what might happen in the future, what we think of ourselves and others, what others think of us, the list goes on.. Meditation is one of the most powerful ways to train the `monkey mind` and using positive affirmations within meditation while the brainwaves are at their most receptive is a sure way to change the thought processes.

A simple example of a positive affirmation is, if a person is lacking in self-confidence, and they use the affirmation “I love and approve of myself” their mind will eventually start to believe it and self-confidence will increase. A term for this is `self-fulfilling prophecy`, or more generally known as brain-washing!

When the mind is told something over and again (by a child or parent or others or self) then it will eventually believe it. A child who is consistently told by a parent “You always do that wrong” will grow up to believe that they always do that particular thing wrong. And likewise if they are told “You are good at learning new things” and encouraged to try again or do it differently or practice, then they will be able to do it right, and the child will grow to have more confidence in their own abilities. This is the foundation for `positive parenting`, however it is just as important to give a child the skill of creating their own positive affirmations in order that they can learn how to independently influence their own minds in a positive way.

The mind and body working together.

Our thoughts are energy waves that can be measured- (beta, alpha, theta and delta brainwaves). Physiologically, a positive affirmation will make changes to the neurological pathways and change the memory at cellular/DNA level. There is plenty of research for this. The cells that make up the whole body are continuously communicating with each other and receiving `instructions` at a neurological/hormonal level from the `computer` brain. Every cell also has a memory and stored info. The body runs itself holistically like a well-oiled engine as long as the person feeds it with the right fuel, exercise, loving emotions and thoughts & words.

Researchers, Doctors and Health-care workers are now agreeing with complimentary therapists that physical dis-ease in the body is not only caused by poor diet, lack of exercise, free radicals etc, but also by mental and emotional factors, all under the term `stress`. There has also been an increase in chronic conditions including undiagnosed chronic pain that are a result of chronic stress and unhealthy lifestyles. Pain Management Clinics run by the Southern Trust are now promoting the use of Meditation, Mindfulness and Positive Mental Attitude alongside healthy diet and exercise. One of the main recent discoveries around chronic pain is that it is caused by a neurological pathway malfunction or pain memory, as opposed to pain continuous inflammatory response from an injury.

There is no doubting the power of the mind over the body, the placebo effect alone gives weight to this. Many therapists and spiritual gurus will advocate that if you heal the mind then the body will heal. Louise L. Hay is a respected practitioner who recommends positive affirmations for healing physical dis-ease. Louise has helped thousands of people to heal from every type of dis-ease including cancer and Aids through positive affirmations combined with a healthy diet and exercise. In her bestselling book “You Can Heal Your Life” Louise L Hay maintains that 90 to 95% of physical dis-ease can be traced to a particular emotional state or mental thought pattern. Louise also highlights the particular emotional/mental state that has caused a particular physical dis-ease in the body. For example, the ears represent the capacity to hear. Ear problems would indicate that there is something going on that the person does not want to hear, or they have unreleased anger about hearing something. Repeating the positive affirmation “I listen with love to the pleasant and the good” will counteract the ear problem mentally, emotionally and physiologically.

How to use positive affirmations

The most important aspect of saying an affirmation is repetition. Repeating them over and over as often as possible is vital in changing the neural imprint.

There are different ways of repeating affirmations, including: saying them inside your head, saying them out loud (more powerful), saying them into a mirror (even more power), writing them down (where traditional school lines originated), reading them, writing one out and sticking it on the wall or beside a mirror for the mind to take in subliminally. Recording an affirmation and then playing it back (especially while sleeping during the Delta sleep stage) is an excellent way, however always replace “I” or “me” with “you” during a recording. Using an affirmation during meditation is extremely powerful, as this is when the brainwaves enter the Alpha and Theta stage of deep relaxation. It is advisable to stick to one or two affirmations at a time, and to repeat them at least one hundred times a day! The results are always worth it. The more difficult an affirmation is to say, the more it is needed!

The spiritual aspect of positive affirmations is where the magic is. When a person closes their eyes and asks a box of random affirmations to tell them what they need to know, they will pull out the exact right affirmation that they need to say at that time. Within energy science and quantum physics, like attracts like, therefore this is the magical power of a persons energy working at its best!

There is no such thing as coincidence, and picking an affirmation at random is excellent for gaining self-awareness, and is especially useful for parents to gain insight into anything troubling a child.