Powerful positive affirmations are one of the best tools that you can use to create a meaningful, successful, and fulfilling life.
Many people have developed powerful affirmations that bring about change in their behaviors and circumstances. When you deliberately use positive affirmations the effect on your life will not only be powerful, but you will have a much higher chance of achieving your goals.
If you want to make sure that your positive affirmations work for you, you’ll want to use these 22 tips for the most success.
Hello and welcome to Fearlessly Holistic.
My name is Irma and I want to share my journey to improved health by eating whole foods, moving my body and eliminating stress as much as possible.
It is my hope to inspire you to make daily changes. Why? Because eating fresh, seasonal food, getting some sunshine, and purging unhelpful thinking is the best way to increase longevity. But you do not want just a long life.
You want a quality long life.
My blog posts are my opinion and the results of things that I have tried that either worked for me or didn’t. My opinions are for informational purposes only and are not intended as medical advice. Medical advice should always be obtained from a qualified medical professional for any health conditions or symptoms associated with them. As well, there may be affiliate links in this post. Read more here.
4 Simple Steps for Making Positive Affirmations Work for You
1. Start with Daily Affirmations
Start your journey to manifesting all your desires with daily affirmations.
Daily affirmations are statements that describe your goals in their completed states.
You improve your physical health with regular physical exercises, so you should be using daily affirmations as a mental exercise for your mind, as well as your perception.
When you repeat your positive affirmations daily, and you believe in them, you can start to create a positive change in your life.
2. Visualization
Positive affirmations are much more effective when you use them with dynamic visualization.
Combining your affirmations with visualization techniques is a great way to speed up your manifestations. Instead of merely writing your affirmations down and repeating them out loud, you should also visualize the outcome that you want to see.
Not only do visual images motivate you and make you feel the changes, but they can also prepare you mentally for the challenges that you will need to overcome during the process of achieving your goals.
3.Write Positive Sentences
In your high school English class, you were taught the difference between affirmative, negative, and interrogative sentences.
Stop using negative sentences, like “I no longer suffer from migraines,” and consciously convert them into positive affirmations, like “I live a pain-free life.”
When you try to conceive a negative statement or thought in your mind, you have to convert it to a positive statement if you want it to be effective.
4. Include Emotions
Powerful and effective affirmations must include content, positivity, and emotion.
- Content is describing the specific outcome that you are hoping to achieve
- Positivity provides for the elimination of negative vibrations.
- Emotion is what gets to the heart of how you feel about the outcome you’re hoping to achieve.
If you want more powerful affirmations, you have to include all of these elements.
Affirmations can program your mind and can be a powerful tool for changing your mood, state of mind, and for manifesting a change in your life.
5 Steps for Writing Your Powerful Affirmation Statement
Too many of us go about our days with negative thoughts bouncing around in our heads.
Unfortunately, when we think like this, our mood, confidence, and outlook on life can become negative as well.
The problems with negative thoughts are they can end up becoming self-fulfilling prophecies. They can end up talking us into believing we aren’t good enough, which ultimately results in our personal lives being dragged down.
If we can deliberately use positive thoughts about ourselves instead, the effect can be just as powerful.
1. Think About What You Want to Change
Everyone has something in their life that they would like to change.
Do you wish you could have more patience?
Or is it that you want to be more productive at work?
Consider several areas or behaviors that you would like to work on in your life and write them down. Think about what changes you want in your life over the next 12 months, like a better relationship with a sibling or a better job at your work.
If you are not sure what to work on, choose one affirmation for each of these areas of your life:
- Personal relationships
- Finances
- Career
- Health
- Fun & recreation
You want to make sure that they are compatible with your core values and those things that matter to you.
This will keep you motivated to achieve them.
2. Make Sure They’re Credible and Achievable
Your affirmation must be based on a realistic assessment of the facts. You need to keep the feasible and realistic because affirmations aren’t magic spells.
In other words, it is pointless to create affirmations where you want a famous person to be in your life. The other person may have different plans.
If you can’t believe that you will achieve what you are stating, then it is highly unlikely that it will make an impact on your life.
3. Turn Negatives Into Positives
If you struggle with negative self-talk, take the time to write down the persistent thoughts and beliefs that are bothering you.
Then write an affirmation that is the opposite of that belief.
For example, if you always think that you aren’t talented enough to move ahead in your career, turn it around and write an affirmation like, “I am an experienced and skilled professional.”
4. Write Your Affirmation in the Present Tense
For your affirmation to be effective, you have to write it in the present tense, as if it is already happening to you.
Writing in the present tense helps your subconscious to believe that the statement is true. Your brain will work towards making it reality if it believes that it is supposed to be happening right now, today.
As you practice these affirmations, you will start to see things appear in your life that will help move you towards your desired outcome.
For example, if you want to improve finances, you will suddenly get a great deal on an oil change or a discount coupon that is larger than normal.
Do not discount these small, random occurrences…they are helping you shift your reality towards something better.
5. Say it With Emotion
When your affirmations carry the emotional weight, they will be more effective.
You have to want this change to happen, so the statements that you choose to repeat should be something that is meaningful to you.
For example, if you are worried about a new project that you have to complete, you can repeat to yourself, “I am incredibly excited to take on a new challenge.”
Repeating positive affirmations regularly can help you overcome negative thoughts and help you manifest all your desires. Follow these five simple steps, and you’ll have powerful statements that you can use daily.
5 Steps for Making Powerful Positive Affirmations Work for You
The powerful technique of affirmations has helped thousands of people obtain everything they desire.
Many people practice positive affirmations daily, but not everyone manages to benefit. Sometimes that is because the person does not really believe that they can get the result. Or there is no emotion behind the affirmation.
Affirmations work a lot like visualization and setting goals. If you practice affirmations but aren’t enjoying the results, then you are probably missing a step.
1. You Must Feel It
Many people don’t see results from their daily affirmations because they are merely doing it for the sake of doing it. They aren’t associating any emotions or feelings with their affirmations.
If you want your affirmations to work for you, then you have to include positive feeling words in your affirmations.
I use something called a “vibrational ladder”.
What you need to do to create your own ladder is to think back to a time when you were full of joy, like graduation or winning a prize. Close your eyes and think about how you felt at that time; try to feel the joy again.
Try to hold that good feeling for as long as you can; realistically it will only be a second or two.
This is the first rung on the ladder.
Think on another memory of joy or happiness, which will be rung #2. Try to string the two together, so you have happy memory #1 and then #2 in succession.
Keeping digging for happy memories that give you a second or two of good feelings and keep stringing them together.
Your goal is to climb higher and higher on this ladder of happy feeling.
When you are basking in these happy feelings, try to pull in a visual of your goal or dream life scenario.
The happy feelings will help your brain to believe that your goal is real and will help you be happy, because you are using these joyful feelings to bolster your dream.
Dream life vision + happy feelings = achievable affirmation.
When you can feel the emotions, your affirmations will become much more powerful and effective. Using the vibrational ladder can help make visualization more effective (see below on visualization).
2. Repetition is Key
It is important to practice them every day if you want to make them real; you can’t just do it once and then forget about it.
It takes practice to re-wire your thinking and to show your brain that you are interested in making these thoughts into your reality.
Just like it takes practice to learn the alphabet, or to ride a bike or to drive, it is important to repeat affirmations often enough that they are no longer statements, but a reality in your life.
If you repeat something often enough, it becomes habit and you no longer have to think about it…it’s now your reality.
3. Turn Your Affirmations Into Your Habit
If you want to get the most out of your positive affirmations, you have to turn the practice into a habit.
This means that you should repeat your statements at the same time every day.
The best times to practice your affirmations is:
- First thing in the morning as a positive start to your day.
- As well, you can repeat your affirmations before you go to sleep.
Repeating your affirmations right before you go to sleep at night helps your subconscious mind continue to work on what you want in your life.
4. Belief That it Will Happen
Most people will do their affirmations, but they don’t believe that they are going to get what they desire.
Use the vibrational ladder and repetition to build belief in your affirmations.
If you repeat one affirmation every day for 21 days, you will start to lose your fears that it can never happen.
You will just wake up one day thinking “sure, this could actually happen”.
As you keep practicing, you will start to recognize things in your life lining up with your new belief and it will keep getting easier to believe your affirmations.
Your beliefs define your action, and when you believe that you are going to achieve it, you will do whatever it takes to get it.
5. Commit and Take Action
If you want your affirmations to work for you, then you have to put in your commitment to achieving what you want.
If you want to have a slim body, then you have to be committed to that outcome.
Watch for opportunities to overcome negative programming, like wanting to cheat on your diet or eat unhealthy foods.
Tell your brain that you only eat healthy foods or that going for a walk every day will make you happy.
Keep at it and eventually your brain will stop pestering you with thoughts of cheat foods and instead will encourage you to walk more often!
Making your affirmations to work for you means that you have to be determined that they will.
Practice your affirmations daily, with feeling and emotion, and you’ll be amazed at how quickly your desires are manifested.
5 Tips for Successful Powerful Affirmations
Affirmations can be an incredibly powerful tool to help you manifest all your desires.
The key to finding success with your positive affirmations is to have an unshakeable confidence that what you are stating will happen. Here are five more tips that you can use to take your success with affirmations to the next level.
1. Be Specific
The more specific your positive affirmations are to the final outcome you want, the more real it will become, and the more believable it is.
Just like when you are setting your goals, you need to inform your Reticular Activating System what it is you want to achieve.
You need to aim to be as specific as possible.
2. Use Active Visualization
It isn’t enough to merely read your affirmations off of a card and then quickly move onto the next one.
You have to visualize the affirmations. Visualize your dream life as often as you can, adding in as much detail as possible.
As well, you can combine visualization with the vibrational ladder to improve the outcome.
Suppose you want to go on a tropical vacation.
Imagine reclining on a beach chair with a view of the ocean. Think about the smell of the ocean, the feeling of the sand on your feet, or sipping an icy drink.
What does the drink taste like?
Who served it to you?
What time of day is it?
Imagine what it is really like to be on this vacation.
Day dream as much as you can to make it feel real. How will you feel? Happy? Relaxed? Anxious about going parasailing later in the day?
Use the vibrational ladder to feel happy feelings and combine them with visualizing your dream holiday.
Keep practicing this daily and when you end up on your vacay it will be like your life has always been this way, because you have been practicing it.
3. Utilize Audio Motivation
Music can be a potent tool to use with your affirmations.
When you read your affirmations, consider listening to some motivational, stirring, or upbeat music. Listening to music can help to stir up the feelings inside you.
It is your feelings that generate the internal vibrations that will ultimately move you closer to your desires.
4. Use Images
Take the time to overlay your affirmations over some appropriate background pictures.
If you aren’t skilled in Photoshop, you can just look at relevant images after you’ve read your statements out loud.Try making a Vision Board of photos of your dream life.
When you look at images that are congruent with your affirmations, it will generate some excitement.
This excitement will get your vibrating in a positive way that will help you attract your desired outcome.
5. Believe That They’ve Already Been Achieved
You always want to state your affirmations in the present tense.
For example, instead of saying, “I will lose weight by the end of the month,” say “I’ve reached my ideal weight with ease.”
With your brain, if you say “I want to lose weight,” your brain hears the words “I want” and will leave you in a constant state of wanting.
Affirmations can work for you when done correctly. Use whatever combination of these tips to create a workable affirmation practice for yourself.
3 Mistakes People Make In Their Affirmations
Affirmations can be an incredibly powerful tool that you can use to help you achieve your life’s desires. Thousands of people use positive affirmations to obtain success and realize their dreams.
However, there are just as many who practice affirmations but never see results.
This might be because they are not using them correctly. Here are three common mistakes that people make and I am guilty of all of them! But I figured out a system for myself, and you can as well.
1. Giving Up Too Early
With affirmations, consistency is incredibly important.
Once you get started with your practice, the repetition has a lasting effect that will continue to build upon itself.
Repeating your affirmations daily make it much easier to maintain. Plus, every time you say the statement you significantly magnify the results.
The mistake that many people make is that they give up the process entirely too early.
When you give up too soon, you don’t give the affirmations enough time to set into your subconscious.
2. Using a Different Affirmation Each Day
Using a different affirmation every day is like trying to work on a dozen various projects at once. Since each project requires your energy and attention, you can’t help but shift your focus and effort from project to project.
If you want to see results right away, then you have to focus on just one affirmation at a time for each of the 5 areas you want to improve: personal growth, fun & recreation, health & fitness, finances, and career goals.
Choose one affirmation for each of these areas and repeat it daily until you start to see results, or when it is time to advance to the next step.
When it comes to affirmations, it is all about focus.
When you are a child learning the alphabet, you learn each letter in succession. You don’t jump from A to K to R and then back to B.
You go step by step, building on each thing you master.
To make your affirmations effective, you have to use the same affirmation daily for at least 30 days. Then move to the next one.
3. Lack of Attention Mastery
If you’ve been using positive affirmations for a while and have yet to achieve results, and you’ve tried everything else, it could mean that you aren’t entirely focusing your attention on the affirmation.
The reality is that most people have incredibly short attention spans. Life is busy and there is a lot going on for most people.
To make your statements work for you, you have to master your attention span, which only comes with practice.
By practicing your positive affirmations daily, you can learn how to master your attention.
When you can learn how to master your attention, you will start to master your manifestations.
If you haven’t had success with your daily affirmations yet, don’t worry, you just have to make a few simple changes to your daily practice.
Avoid the mistakes listed above, and you’ll quickly find success with using affirmations to achieve everything you desire.
*Note*: It is also imperative that you try different practices to make your affirmations work for you.
I watched a video that said that all you have to do is put affirmations on sticky notes around your home; every time you look at them your subconscious will pick up on it and go to work making it reality.
That did not work for me.
I have to write mine out daily, and say them out loud while I write, to overcome my negative programming. When I practiced writing out affirmations daily, things changed for me.
I also do EFT (emotional freedom technique aka tapping) to help me break mental blocks. Watching Brad Yates videos helped me learn how to phrase my goals into effective affirmations.
EFT looks weird, I admit, but it has worked miracles in my life. It helps me root out unhelpful thinking, process why it happened, and eliminate leftover emotional attachments. win-win.
My Journey with Affirmations
It took me a while to learn how to use affirmations effectively in my own life. I still have affirmations on small recipe cards taped up around my home.
But the way that has had the most impact is to choose 5 affirmations per week and to write them out every day in a journal. I do re-use affirmations and have some favorites on a rotation, because they are helping me the most.
If you have mental blocks about why you cannot seem to get the results that you want in your life:
- Figure out which area is your biggest priority to change i.e. health, finances, career etc.
- Determine what the bottom line is (“I am healthy” or “I always have more than enough money”)
- Create a short, concise affirmation that accurately describe what you want (this takes practice, but you can do it!)
- Keep using those affirmations until you have a breakthrough with that issue.
I had some financial problems from not paying attention to what was going on around me during a bad time. I was totally stressed, dealing with grief from my father’s passing, and I moved and changed jobs.
When the dust settled, I had money problems.
I used the affirmation “I always have more than enough money to live my life the way I want”.
At first, I did not believe it. But I persisted because I had a Louise Hay cd in my car and I listened to her affirmations every time I had to drive somewhere. It gave me hope.
To help myself believe the affirmation, I kept a $20 bill stashed in my car.
I put it there so that if the gang from work wanted to go for wings on the day before payday, like they always seemed to want to, I could go.
And not feel like a poor person because I could not scrape up 20 bucks for wings and drink or two.
It helped me to feel like “I was normal”, and that my situation would not be like this forever.
And I wanted to feel like my affirmation was true, at least in part. I mean, I always had enough cash for Thursday wings.
Soon enough, I exchanged the $20 for $50.
It might seem crazy that I kept $50 in my car, but no one but me knew it was in there except me.
Trading in that 20 dollar bill for 50 gave me a pretty good feeling, which I used for my vibrational ladder.
I am not telling you this because I want you stashing money in your car.
I kept the 20 bucks in my car because I would be going to the pub right after work. I needed the cash to be where I could get to it for that situation. That was part of my life.
Do not do things like this if your life does not warrant them.
As well, and this is important to the story, I learned how to spend money.
I know that sounds ridiculous…who doesn’t know how to spend money? But I had very little money to spend during those days, and I had to spend it wisely.
No weird impulse purchases. No crap that I did not need.
One thing successful people do differently is that they buy assets, not stuff. They spend their money on things they can sell later.
That was a real eye-opener for me. I wanted to learn how to become better at managing my money.
I read a book called “31 Days of Living Well, Spending Zero“, which helped me learn how to prioritize my spending. I did not buy food until the food I already had was used up and the freezer almost empty.
I stopped pro-actively over-buying when food was on sale.
I broke the habit of over-spending, but it took months to do it.
Then when I received a lump-sum of money, I did not run out spend it all in month like I would have before. It just sat in my bank account like that $20 bucks sat in my car.
While we are learning about what we really want in our dream lives, we need to take other steps to get to the point where our dreams fit into our reality.
You cannot become wealthy if you have bad spending habits.
The two do not go together. Same with health…you cannot become healthy while still eating unhealthy food.
Combine affirmations with actively working on improving parts of your life.
Make room for your dreams to fit into your reality.
Conclusion
I thought affirmations were just another woo-woo subject until I started using them effectively in my own life. I think they are making me a better person, which in turn is creating a better life for me.
And clearly I have a lot to say on the subject!
Holistic approaches never just address symptoms of specific health problems, but instead aim to return or keep the patient in a state of balanced health between mind, body, and spirit. Holism targets overall wellness, and when we are well, we only get better with age.
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Until next time, here’s to our health!
-Irma