The Power of Positive Affirmations

When your mind creates thoughts that are inconsistent with your experiences, habits, attitudes and beliefs, you experience mental pressure (cognitive dissonance). The subconscious pushes back in an effort to maintain system equilibrium… So how can you overcome these forces that work to maintain the status quo? One way is through positive affirmations….

An affirmation is a declaration that something is true…When tagged with emotions, affirmations create strong, new neural circuits. These new circuits have the capacity to alter old, unwanted behaviors in favor of new, desired behaviors…

By visualizing something repeatedly, we stimulate our subconscious to search for neural circuits that will evoke behaviors to bring about the very thing we have visualized. Positive results from practicing affirmations come from our natural urge to reduce the cognitive dissonance that is created when we compare current reality with the future state we want to achieve…

The three-step affirmation-visualization process that will drive new neural circuit development is:

1. Craft an affirmation that you will repeat mentally.
2. Visualize an image of the way the world will look as viewed from your own eyes when the affirmed fact is a reality.
3. Recall simultaneously an event that triggered positive emotions in order to chemically tag the new neural circuit formed by the affirmation and the visualized image.

The affirmation-visualization process has enormous power. Some of the results you can expect include:

a. Secure the quality of life you want by activating existing neural circuits to change your behavior and relationships with others.
b. Neutralize unwanted emotions, eliminate limiting attitudes and beliefs.
c. Condition your brain to detect information in your environment that is of special importance to you.
d. Solve problems by utilizing subconscious processes.

To be highly effective, the words of affirmation need to follow six basic guidelines:

1. Be Personal
2. Be Positive
3. Use Present Tense
4. Express Positive Emotion
5. Be Realistic
6. Be Specific

EXAMPLES
I know peace.
I am connected to all that is good.
I seek to help others.
I project a positive attitude on life.
I am confident.
I am free of fear.
I am patient.
I am humble.
My days are filled with joy and wonder.
I am happy.
I avoid retaliation.
I avoid argument.
I trust in Love, the Holy Spirit of the Universe
I am bathed in the sunlight of the Spirit.
I am inspired by presence of the Holy Spirit in my life.
With help from Love, the Holy Spirit, I can manage my life.
I am a beautiful child of the Holy Spirit
I am Love-centered.
I seek to act in the Spirit of Love
I seek connection with the will of the Holy Spirit.
I am growing along spiritual lines.
I project an attitude of gratitude.
I forgive myself.
I like myself.
I learn from my mistakes
I am grateful to be alive.
I have an open mind.

Based on material from Liberating Greatness