By Trishna Paitnaik
"Embrace the glorious mess that you are." -- Elizabeth Gilbert
Affirmations (implies statements said with confidence about a perceived truth) have helped thousands of people make notable changes in their lives. But they don't work for everyone. How can one person see success using this tool, while another sees no results?
An affirmation can work as it has the ability to program your mind into believing the stated concept. This is because the mind does not understand the difference between what is real and what is fantasy. When you watch a movie, you start to laugh or cry, your mind empathizes with the characters on the screen even though it is completely fictional.
There are both positive and negative types of affirmations. Many of us can remember being told that we don’t have the ability to do something. These unwholesome statements can stay with us in the conscious or unconscious mind, which we then reinforce by default throughout our lives.
If a noxious belief is deeply rooted in our unconscious mind, then it has the ability to overrule a positive affirmation, even if we aren't aware of it. This is why, for many people, affirmations don't work. Their afflicted thought patterns are so strong that they diminish the effect of the positive statement.
So how can we add more value and vigor to an affirmation, so that it has the power to
conquest over our negative thinking?
Why Positive Affirmations Are Relevant During Childhood
We create our belief systems in childhood. The power of our belief functions as our base for our whole life. This means that we go through our adult life trying to experience situations that coincide with the beliefs in our childhood. This means we are tied up to the limitations of our beliefs, depending on what we have experienced in our childhood. The negative thoughts stay with us, even when we don’t realize and they become negative beliefs.
When it comes to raising the next generation, this is why it is important to help children build a strong belief system with a positive attitude towards life. In this way, we generationcan help our children inculcate healthy values and positive beliefs which will allow them to gain confidence and self-respect.
Work on the following tools to help imbibe affirmations:
Find an emotional connection. Do find an affirmation that sticks the cord emotionally and you can feel confident saying it out loud.
Form a habit. Invest in a daily journal to develop a habit of repeating the affirmation at least twice a day, once in the morning after waking up and once before going to bed.
Practice and practice. You will find that affirmations are one of the most effective ways to rewire the subconscious mind. So practice your way through them. It helps one refocus and get that annoying, insistent negativity out the way so that one can get back on track with achieving goals.
Incorporate self-love. By practicing affirmations you develop an increase in self-love and positivity that helps in recovering from any emotional teeter quickly. There is more grounding when you validate yourself through personal affirmations. So please practice the same!
15 Uplifting Affirmations
1. I will focus on acquiring knowledge as that is power.
2. I am accepting of myself and my abilities to learn and engage in something new always.
3. I will always create a way/mode for learning.
4. I will concentrate on each and every skill I need.
5. I will let go of any negative thoughts and replace them with positive ones by having a good night’s sleep.
6. I will engage in nature/outdoor activities to enhance my focus and concentration.
7. I will reduce my screen time.
8. I will increase my aptitude when learning and writing anything.
9. I will increase my memory and holistic well-being by having nutritious and wholesome meals and exercising daily.
10. I will seek to smile through all the adversities and convert them to opportunities.
11. I will enhance my imagination by making books my best friend.
12. I will learn to cultivate an innovative way of thinking by socializing with peers.
13. I will work on my reading and writing skills by inculcating and enrolling in various mediums of learning.
14. I will always sleep early and rise early to concentrate well.
15. I will shower myself with compliments when I learn, create and acquire something new.
How Affirming Phrases Can Build Focus
Affirmations are reminders to your unconscious mind to stay focused on your goals and to come up with solutions to ongoing challenges and obstacles that might get in the way. Affirmations do create higher vibrations leading towards happiness, joy, appreciation, and gratitude then magnetize people, resources, and opportunities in helping you achieve your goals.
Whether you know it or not, you are always using affirmations by default but usually not ones that will bring you what you really want!
How Do Affirmations Work for All?
When you engage in positive affirmations over a period of time, you make stronger neural connections and chemical pathways. These changes in the brain are referred to as "neuroplasticity".
In brief, we have realized that "neuroplasticity", the ongoing remodeling of brain structure and function, takes place throughout life. It can be affected by life experiences, genetics, biological agents, behaviors, and thought patterns.
Benefits of Positive Affirmations for One and All
We all have certain long-term goals in life we want to achieve that may seem out of reach, and we may be hesitant to take even that first step. Certainly, affirmations are helpful in such situations. They improve our self-confidence and ability to overcome impediments.
Positive self-talk allows us to deal with even immediate mental and physical health concerns too. For example, affirmations are very helpful for depression and anxiety, which often come with repeated negative thoughts reinforcing the difficult emotions. Adding a positive mantra to your daily routine can work for anybody as you don’t have to believe that it’s true at first.
Simply just say it, and the brain plus emotional benefits will follow. And you know what turns out to be even more powerful? It is when you combine the power of affirmations with personal growth tools to amplify this work! Then, you have two congruent tools working to reprogram your subconscious mind at the same time!
"What you think, you become. What you feel, you attract. What you imagine, you create." -- Buddha
All photos courtesy of Canva
About the Author:
Trishna Patnaik, BSc (Life Sciences) and MBA (Marketing) by qualification but an artist by choice. A self-taught artist based in Mumbai, Trishna has been practicing art for over 14 years. After she had a professional stint in various reputed corporates, she realized that she wanted to do something more meaningful. She found her true calling in her passion, painting.
Trishna is now a full-time professional painter pursuing her passion to create and explore to the fullest. She says, "it’s a road less traveled but a journey that I look forward to everyday." Trishna also conducts painting workshops across Mumbai and other metropolitan cities of India.
Trishna is an art therapist and healer. She works with clients on a one-on-one basis in Mumbai.
Trishna fancies the art of creative writing and is dappling her hands in that too, to soak in the experience and have an engagement with readers, wanderers, and thinkers.
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