Affirmations as part of your well-being strategy

Words demonstrate beliefs, doubts, and mindset. The unconscious mind, in which habits and beliefs are created and held, is extremely literal.   Repeated thoughts and statements of ‘I am….’ whether good or bad, especially at emotional times, are easily accepted as true - they 'affirm' the experience. This creates belief, and the mind will look for evidence of its ‘truth’, attracting people and events to recreate it: a self fulfilling prophecy.

Positive affirmations have long been used to try to re-programme the unconscious mind.   Since you can only think one thought at a time, it makes sense that it's good 'think positive'.  Which is great, if you can monitor every thought. 

There's another issue here.  If you feel unhappy, but affirm ‘I am happy’ it can be difficult to accept.  The conscious mind says ‘that statement isn’t true’, or ‘this won’t work for me’.    You end up fighting your unconscious habits of thought, and although some people can focus and visualise enough to make this work, many people find it too difficult and give up or feel that they have failed in some way when it doesn't work.  After all, psychologists tell us we average 65,000 thoughts a day, how can we possibly pay attention all the time? 

Fortunately, I have discovered (I'd say created but it's a big universe) a better way.

Try replacing 'I am happy' with ‘I love being happy’.  However you happen to feel when you say it, 'I love being happy' is still true - you can't honestly say you don't want to be happy!   The simple change from using the present tense (I am) to the eternal now (being) allows the mind to accept the statement, the conflict stops. Using the word love naturally strengthens the process by bringing a powerful emotion that is worth a hundred times a bland thought.     When you say 'I love being happy' it directs your thoughts to memories of happiness, of possible futures of happiness.  You relax.  You are likely to connect with feelings of happiness, even if only for a moment.  The more you do it, the quicker the positive spiral builds.

This pattern works with lots of lovely options:

I love being........                              I love feeling..........

I love having.......                             I love understanding.......

I love creating.......                           I love attracting............

WHAT YOU PAY ATTENTION TO, GROWS!  Creating anything begins with loving and valuing it. This makes a space and begins to attract it into your life.   

The universe reflects back your thoughts and beliefs - what are you sending out?

I've had a wonderful time combining this simple idea with some beautiful photographs I've taken over the last few years.   Sets of related affirmations (about topics such as self-esteem, perspective, abundance, fun etc) with one photo to each page has grown into an e-book, each page available as a laminated poster or on a T-shirt.   These options will be gradually added to the site.  In the meantime, here's a sample (only in jpg for now, PDF to come).  Enjoy.

Image and words copyright Jen Tiller 2008