This post may contain affiliate links which means I may earn a small commission if you make a purchase. This is at no extra cost to you. I only ever recommend products and services that I love and that I think you will love too.
I’m pleased to welcome Alicia to The Little Blog Of Positivity. Alicia has 4 simple steps for us to create and use positive affirmations for success with our goals. Over to you Alicia.
Positive affirmations can be very powerful when used regularly. I started using positive affirmations every day about a year ago. Before then I only used affirmations when I was super stressed and feeling anxiety. I used them because they calmed me down and made me feel more grounded.
After doing more research I realized how powerful affirmations can be if used the right way. If you want to discover how to find and use affirmations to meet your goals, you’re in the right place!
What Are Affirmations
Affirmations are short statements that affirm something to be true about yourself or your life. The statements are about a perceived or desired reality.
An example of an affirmation is: “I am a strong and confident public speaker”.
Even if I don’t truly believe that I am a strong and confident public speaker, I can trick my mind into thinking I am.
This will create confidence in my abilities and affect my ability to publicly speak. On the latter, if you continuously say to yourself, “I am a terrible public speaker”, that belief will be strengthened. And your wish is your command!
As you can see, an affirmation can be either positive or negative.
In fact, out of the thousands of thoughts we have each day, most of them are negative. They contain worry, stress, doubt, and fear.
We tend to bash at our confidence, self-image, and abilities all the time!
Sadly, these thoughts are often running on autopilot, which makes it that much more dangerous to your wellbeing. These negative affirmations can cause confidence issues that can create anxiety, stress, and even depressive symptoms.
Photo by Milan Popovic from Unsplash
As you start to use affirmations, you will open the realm of mindfulness.
Practising mindfulness will allow you to recognize these negative thoughts more often and stop them. Using positive affirmations is a form of mindfulness and is a great first step towards practising it. But just being mindful is not enough, you have to know how to use them.
How To Use Positive Affirmations
You are a product of your thoughts and experiences. And these thoughts affect both your conscious and unconscious mind. We own the ability to re-program the mind to think in the way we want it to.
Related Post: Power Of Your Subconscious Mind: How To Overcome Limiting Beliefs
For example, if someone tells you your fat or stupid day after day, you will sadly start believing it.
Even if you are as thin as a rail!
Because our minds (especially our subconscious mind) can be easily fooled.
Positive affirmations work in the same way. The mind doesn’t know what is real and what is fantasy. When we open our mind, we can trick it or rewire it to believe whatever we want.
To use affirmations, you will need to say them aloud and with confidence. As you say them, truly focus on the words. Believe them to be true, visualize yourself doing it.
Use the words as fuel or energy that you are omitting out into the universe. Say the chosen statements aloud at least once a day, twice is better.
Focus on the affirmation and truly believe it to be true.
If you’re asking yourself what the affirmations should say, you’re in luck! There are so many affirmations you can find on the internet, but these weren’t specially created for you. If you want to learn how to find and use positive affirmations for success, you will need to custom make them with intention.
How To Discover and Use Affirmations for Success
Finding affirmations that are meaningful and impact your life is the key to success.
Discovering the right affirmations that help you meet your goals will require commitment and belief.
I have created this 4-step process as a starting point on how to find and use positive affirmations for successfully achieving your goals.
Your ability to rewire your thinking and actually change behavior will rely on how deeply you go through this process.
Photo by Green Chameleon on Unsplash
1. Write down problem areas in your life.
Do you struggle with body image or weight loss? Do you want to be happier and less stressed? Make more money? Do you want to handle conflict and stress differently?
Go through your life and find areas that you want to work on. These are going to be your affirmation goals.
Get a piece of paper out and write these affirmation goals down on the top of the page. Leave space under each one so you can follow the next steps.
For your first time, it may be best to just choose one affirmation goal at first until you get used to the process. Once you have it down you can go back and address the other topics on your list.
2. Reveal the negative beliefs associated with that topic.
Now that you’ve identified your affirmation goals, its time to get to the root of that topic. Since you chose this area, chances are 100% that you have negative thoughts, beliefs and struggles toward it.
In order to rewire your brain, you have to reveal those negative thoughts and beliefs and discover why they exist. Getting to the root of the problem is an important step that is often missed. And it’s one of the key reasons why affirmations don’t always work for everyone.
Finding these reasons can be difficult, as many of these thoughts and beliefs will live in your subconscious mind.
Dig deep.
Find the reason why you feel that way about yourself. It could be something your mom told you as a kid or even an experience you had in childhood.
Try your best to find a reason why. Once you have them, write them down on your paper under that topic.
3. Re-write the negative thoughts or beliefs with a positive one.
Now that you’ve revealed the negative thoughts and beliefs that you want to change, its time to replace the bad with the good!
Take each negative affirmation or belief and turn it into a positive one! It’s important to note that you should always phrase the affirmations as if you already have it.
For example, let’s say you are having a hard time losing weight, and want to eat less sugar. Instead of saying, “I want to eat less sugar: you will say “I will eat less sugar”. Go through this process for each area you want to start using affirmations for. Make at least 10 positive affirmations per area.
4. Use the positive affirmations every day!
This is the most important step. Without this step, you will not be able to truly bring change to your life.
In order to use affirmations effectively, they must be said aloud every single day!
Choose a time and space that works for you. I do my affirmations in the shower and on my drive to work.
Say the affirmations with conviction. You must truly believe the phrases for them to start to re-wire your brain. For a faster change say them twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening.
The time needed to start feeling change is different for everyone. I would say the affirmations for a minimum of 30 days, then choose to re-create or tweak them.
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez from Unsplash
Summary
Affirmations are short statements that affirm something to be true about yourself or your life. The statements are about a perceived or desired reality.
Affirmations, when used regularly, are a powerful mindful based exercise that can change your thinking and behavior.
Learning how to discover and use affirmations to meet your goals can be a powerful and rewarding process.
Your ability to rewire your thinking and actual change behavior will rely on how deeply you go through these 4 steps.
To recap, the first is writing down an area that you want to work on in life. This could be weight loss, anxiety, parenting, etc.
The next step is to reveal the negative beliefs associated with that area in your life. Revealing the root of that belief will deepen your connection with it and allow you to get rid of that belief easier.
Then, replace the negative belief with the positive, desired belief. This is the process of creating the affirmations.
Lastly, say the affirmations daily out loud and with conviction.
Use the positive affirmations for at least 30 days in a row. If you follow these steps, you will be able to rewire your brain and reach your goals!
Cheers to living your best life!
Alicia is the founder and author of Down To Earth Vitality, a wellness blog focusing on a natural lifestyle that promotes mental and spiritual self-love.
Her studies in Psychology and experience in the wellness industry has motivated her to share lifestyle choices that lead to heath, happiness, and abundance.
She lives on the beautiful Central Coast of California with her husband and dog.
Olivier
As strange as it sounds, but intention might be the only real tool we have to make our way through this world. It is the thing that keeps us on track.
So how to we keep our intention unwavering on the same goal? Through positive affirmations!
That is how we slowly put our lives back on track.
Excellent overview btw!
Alison
Thanks Olivier, glad you enjoyed the post 🙂
Chloe Chats
I like the idea of writing down negative affirmations and then writing the positive affirmations next to it on how you can change those around! I definitely need to use the word ‘will’ more than ‘want’ when I’m thinking about the things that I want to change in my life. Great post!!
Chloe xx
Alison
Thanks Chloe, I’m sure those little changes will get you exactly what you want in life!
Tanvi
I love how you broke this down. So simple and easy to follow 🙂
Katrina
I love using affirmations to help clear out limiting beliefs, great post.
Jeannie
this is what we needed everyday self love self affirmation I like that its necessary to write things down so we can reflect with the words we want us to achieve
Alison
So true 🙂