How to use affirmations for gaining health, happiness and success

Are negative thoughts holding you back from reaching your true potential? Most of us have at least one area of our lives we could improve on using positive thinking. Take control now. Think positive affirmations regularly to retrain your subconscious mind to work for you, not against you.

What are affirmations and what can we use them for?
When is the best time to say affirmations?
How often should we say affirmations?
How do we write affirmations?
How long does it take for affirmations to work?

What are affirmations and what can we use them for?

Affirmations are positive statements we repeat to ourselves regularly. The aim is to implant good quality beliefs into our subconscious mind to become happier, healthier, wealthier etc. We can think, read aloud, listen to or sing affirmations.

What sorts of things can we use affirmations for? We can use them in any area of our lives that we want to improve. Here’s a list of some of them.

• Increase happiness
• Reduce stress, anxiety and other negative feelings
• Improve health and fitness
• Lose weight
• Increase wealth
• Improve our relationships and friendships
• Stop bad habits like smoking
• Achieve more at sport or work
• Help us achieve our goals

Affirmations do not mean we never need to put in the effort to achieve our goals.

Our lives are a result of our genes, plus what we think, believe, say, imagine, do… Combine affirmations with positive behavior and positive philosophies and we are on the road to success. Obviously if we just sit around thinking about success, health and happiness but don’t actually do anything, we won’t achieve much in life.

When is the best time to say affirmations?

We can say or listen to affirmations whenever we like. They are, however, more likely to sink into our subconscious mind and become beliefs when our mind is most open to suggestion. These times are:

• while we meditate or daydream
• as we wake-up in the morning
• as we drift-off to sleep
• under hypnosis

How often should we say affirmations?

Some people might think that if they say affirmations once a day then think destructive thoughts the rest of the day their lives will dramatically improve. Not so. We gravitate towards our dominant thoughts. To achieve a happy, healthy and successful life most of our thoughts need to be constructive not destructive.

As a start, set-aside 10 minutes one or more times a day to read through some affirmations. There are no hard and fast rules, however, about how often to read or listen to them. Do what you feel comfortable with and what fits in with your lifestyle.

It’s important to say them with conviction. You can also record them onto a media player and listen to them in the car, bus, office…

In between putting time aside for affirmations, if you find yourself dwelling on negative thoughts, think “Stop!” as soon as you realize you’re thinking them. Think instead: “This is the old me. I am now getting healthier and healthier, happier and happier (or whatever other affirmations you choose)”. This might be hard at first, but it’s worth putting in the effort to retrain your brain to focus on what you want, because thoughts are creative.

How do we write affirmations?

Write affirmations in the present tense
This is to condition our mind to believe the positive statements are true now, not something that will happen or has happened. This might sound like a minor detail, but it’s important.

Examples:
“I am feeling better” not “I will feel better”.
“The keys to happiness are coming to me now” not “I will find the answers to be happier”.

Write affirmations as positive statements that focus on what you want
Avoid statements with “not”, “don’t”, “won’t”, “can’t” and so on. Also, focus on what you want. If you want to be healthier, focus on health and wellbeing, not illness. If you want to be happier, focus on happiness, rather than sadness and depression, and so on.

Examples:
“I am getting happier and happier” instead of “I’m not sad”.
“I am getting healthier and healthier” rather than “I’m not sick”.
“I am feeling calmer” not “I am less stressed”.

Make affirmations believable
Affirmations will only work if your subconscious mind can believe them. Make sure you word your affirmations so that they are believable and achievable. At the same time don’t limit yourself from achieving your true potential by holding onto old beliefs that have held you back in the past.

Examples:
If you want more money, the affirmation “I attract more and more money into my life” is more reasonable than “I am the richest person in the world”.

“I am finding it easier and easier to eat healthy food and exercise” is better than “I will lose all my excess body weight in 7 days”.

How long does it take for affirmations to work?

An affirmation can be quick to work or it might take a while; it depends on a number of factors such as:

• how often you say it, think it…
• how believable it is
• how much feeling and conviction you put into it
• what it is that you want to achieve

Summary

Say, sing, think or listen to affirmations every day in the areas of your life you’d like to improve. Be careful how you word your affirmations so you can get the best possible results. Look out for the positive changes that happen when the affirmations become beliefs.

written by Nyomi Graef