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I’ve been using affirmations for years and majority of the time without any positive result.  The affirmations that are playing in the background in my mind, without any conscious help from me seemed to be the only ones consistently working and producing results (negative that is)

But consciously repeating affirmations have been very disappointing to me.

One famous affirmation is “I love myself!” I’ve repeated this affirmation hundreds of times daily without any result showing for it.

What is your mother tongue?

You maybe fluent in English but what is your mother tongue? Try repeating the affirmations in your mother tongue and see if that makes more impact.

What language do you think in?

Even if you speak English, you have to find out what language you think in. What language do you dream in? I think and dream in English so it’s much better but there have been instances where these English affirmations had no effect on me.

What language was used when you were a child?

A lot of our negative self talk is basically just a repetition of what adults around us used to say when we were kids. If adults told you that you were no good, that you were lazy, that’s what you’ll notice yourself affirming to yourself subconsciously.

In order to effectively overcome those negative affirmations, you have to find out when it all started. By that you should be able to find out in what language were they spoken to you. That’s the language you want to use to combat those negative affirmations.

Even if you speak English fluently and even think and dream in English now, language that was used when you were a child has a very strong affect on you.

Do these words even mean anything to you?

Affirmations such as “I love myself”, “I love everything about myself”, “I forgive myself”, “I approve of myself” did not produce any kind of emotion in me. I kept repeating them over and over but nothing happened.

I even tried repeating these affirmations in my mother tongue but still nothing.

Louise Hay gives examples of people starting to use affirmation (while looking at themselves in the mirror) “I approve of myself” and how they got so upset that they started crying, some of them threw the mirrors away, some of them yelled and screamed and ran out! I would be ecstatic if I had emotions like those. It would mean that I’m getting somewhere.

Why was that?

I finally realized it was because the words such as “love”, “forgive”, “approve” do not hold any meaning to me. I was brought up in a culture where these words are taboo, they’re just not used, or they’re just used so commonly that they lose their meaning.

I might as well be affirming in Chinese because that’s what these words were to me.

So, I tried using words such as “I like everything I do”, “I like everything about myself” and now I was able to feel a little bit which was still infinitesimally more than before!

Before repeating any affirmations just ask yourself if what you are affirming even has any meaning to you. If it doesn’t, like in my case, then find out what would work, what evokes any kind of emotion in you that is similar in nature. Emotions could be negative or positive, doesn’t matter, as long as there is some feeling evoked by using those words

I’ve had to do a lot of experimentation on every single affirmation. I repeat it with feelings and strong emotions and in different languages to find out what works better for me.

So, don’t give up on just yet. There are challenges with affirmations but if done properly they can be very rewarding indeed!

I am sure everyone has heard about affirmations at one point or another in their life. Just like I am sure everyone has tried to use affirmations as well. How many were actually successful with them is quite another thing though!

Affirmations

According to webster.com, an affirmation is:

- an act of affirming

- a positive assertion

Basically to affirm means to say something with positive conviction.

I think a lot of misunderstanding would be laid to rest if people actually find the real meaning of an affirmation. By that I mean that I would have saved a lot of time if I had actually done that!

We are using affirmations all day long anyways. The negative statements that we keep repeating in our minds about ourselves and others are nothing but affirmations, just negative affirmations.

Auto suggestion

From the beginning of time people have been telling us the benefits of auto suggestion. If we tell ourselves something over and over again, we’re going to end up believing it.  No matter what it is.

That little statement is sooooo powerful that it’s unbelievable! We can actually change our beliefs about anything and anyone using auto suggestion. We can literally change our life around using auto suggestion!

It depends a lot also on how we use affirmations. Do we just say the words? That will have minimal if any effect on us. More emotions we can engage while repeating affirmations, faster we’ll actually notice them making a difference.

I have soooo much to write about it that I don’t know where to begin and what to write or in what order to write. It’s quite possible that somethings might be repeated more than once as well.

How to use affirmations?

Most important thing to remember in using affirmations is that you must believe them when you’re repeating them. Initially, the first time you say something to yourself  you may not believe it. For example, if you say “I am good at cooking!”. Initially, you may laugh at this, that is if you’re a bad cook right now!

What you do is keep repeating this statement to yourself! Out loud! Sing it, write it down, repeat it but keep at it until you get a little feeling of belief inside of you.  I don’t mean do this during the day or over a few days. I mean at one time keep repeating it until you feel like you can be a good cook or that you are a good cook. Sometimes you’ll get that feeling after repeating an affirmation one time and sometimes it could be after several hundred times.

After you get that feeling, that positive feeling towards the affirmation, now you can let it go.  Now repeat this again the next day, or twice a day or however many times. Most important thing is not to ever just say the words out loud without reaching the point of believing in that affirmation.

Now if you just do that for a few days, again depends on how faithfully you do this it could be a few days to a few weeks but you’ll actually start to really believe that you are a good cook.

Now what?

If you have done it properly not only are you going to believe that you’re a great cook but you will actually be one. What happens if you’re affirming a statement is that you get excited about it, inspired ideas keep coming in your mind and if you were to take action on those inspired ideas you’ll notice yourself improving.

Now it becomes a positive cycle. More you affirm with conviction, more inspired ideas you get and more you act on those ideas, better you get and thus taking you to what you have been affirming and that “I am good at cooking!”