Here’s another subject that is kind of linked the previous post about the Law of  Attraction. What I want to discuss is affirmations. What are affirmations you may ask? The word itself is defined as “a declaration that something is true” or in the New Age sense, simply the practice of positive thinking. So when people talk about practicing their affirmations, they are referring to the practice of saying positive declarations to themselves in the hope that the words they repeat will somehow come true for them.

But does any of this actually work and if so, how?

Well let’s deal with the theory behind it first. It is believed that it is possible influence the subconscious part of our minds with thoughts and utterances, if the thoughts or words it is presented with are repeated often enough. As human beings we tend to let thoughts of the more negative kind, worries, fears, anger etc. whirl around our minds in a constant inner conversation. Because this inner chatter is constant, and negative, it begins to get embedded in our subconscious as real and the truth, which in turn affects our actions and opinions.

Because the subconscious mind makes no distinction between a “good” thought or a “bad” one, it will diligently accept what it is fed, and gets to work try to align these words and thoughts into a reality for the person saying or thinking them. As you can see, it is very important, if this is the case, to be careful of what the subconscious is exposed to, as it will carry out this process of  “thought alignment” whether you want it to or not. It is very powerful in this respect.

Most of the thoughts formed through thinking we are not even aware we have made, which makes it all the more important to learn how to control our thoughts. Things we hear and see outside our control often determine what we think about, limiting our freedom of thought. Only through learning techniques that teach us to consciously choose words and phrases that we want our subconscious minds to receive and get to work on, can we bring about change in the ways we think and act, creating new circumstances and situations in our lives (see Law of Attraction).

The way this is done is through the repetition of certain phrases and are called Affirmations. They are repeated on a regular daily basis at certain times and (after 20-30 days apparently) sink into the subconscious ready for it to manifest their intentions.

The affirmations have to be said with heartfelt feeling and true belief (ie. with as much feeling as the negative stuff has) or the subconscious won’t accept them as real. The phrases and words also need to be totally unambiguous, by which I mean they must have no conflicting words or contradictory messages. Straight to the point simplicity is the key.

As for whether they work or not I don’t know. Some say they do and others not. Its probably very much down to the individual and the extent to which they use the techniques correctly and their faith in them. All I can say is that they sure seen to work all too easily for creating negative realities, so I see absolutely no reason why they should not work in the reverse sense just as effectively. I will suggest some useful positive affirmations in a future post.