Affirmations can be used to reprogram erroneous and unproductive subconscious (or even conscious) belief systems to install new more positive and useful belief systems. They are self-empowering, self-governed, free and always available to us. Most importantly they work quickly and effectively. We can see the foundations of Affirmations in many familiar practices from psychology to religion in various forms.
Affirmations are statements made by the conscious mind that are directed at the subconscious mind. In many ways it is how our intelligent mind can communicate with our primitive mind. Some forms of Affirmations are chanting, prayer and hypnosis.
Affirmations can be (and should be) used anytime you do not need to be thinking off something else such as household chores – dishes, vacuuming, washing etc. The use of affirmations while on ‘auto pilot’ not only serves to improve your positive thinking skills by developing positive belief systems, it also helps you avoid slipping into negative brain chatter when your intelligence is not fully required.
Affirmations are most effective when they are spoken aloud. This is because most of the information programmed into our subconscious minds was spoken aloud to us at some stage in the past and unless it was a mighty powerful statement or a very disturbing experience, it was probably spoken to us repetitively. We can overwrite this information by repeating statements aloud that contradict the old belief system.
A Positive Self-Image
Developing a positive self-image builds confidence and allows us to feel comfortable with who we are and what we are doing in our lives.
Most of the information regarding ourselves on a subconscious level is erroneous and we are often completely unaware of it on a conscious level. Most of the programming was done when we were very young by people who were also operating from erroneous programs instilled in them from their own childhoods and so on and so on.
Subconscious self image presents itself in behaviour that is often self destructive and contrary to the conscious choices we would intelligently make for ourselves. A fast and effective method for the development of positive self image is for a person to make a list of things they wish were true about themselves; in many ways a list of aspirations for their own character.
For instance, in one column on a piece of paper we write all the things we wish were true about ourselves and then in the column beside the required personality trait a corresponding affirmation is inserted.
This method of choosing new beliefs about self image and installing them into our subconscious minds through the self-hypnotic use of Affirmations rather than spending too much time exploring negative patterns, is comparable to creating new programs on our computers and using them to overwrite old useless programs. We don’t always have to know what the old programs are or how they came to be there in order to fix them.
