I know what you are thinking…You have tried affirmations before, but they really don’t work. Sure, for a couple of days, you feel hopeful and even empowered but your affirmations either quickly fall by the wayside, or, maybe you were consistent, but never saw any real results. Trust me when I say that I understand. Been there, done that!
But when I really started to understand what an affirmation is, I began to realize that we actually do affirmations every single day of our lives, and all we have to do is look around ourselves to see that they really DO work.
Everything that we see in our environment is something that we have AFFIRMED because whatever we put our attention on grows. Do you have a loving family? Think of how many times you say, “I love my family.” Are you indispensable at your job? Think of how many times you say, “I don’t know what they would do without me.” Do you have trouble making ends meet? Think of how many times you say, “There is just not enough money to go around.”
So, here is the thing, we think that we are responding to the circumstances of our lives, things that are happening outside of us, with or without our permission. However, it is our very attention to any set of circumstances that holds that circumstance in place. The only person who can choose where YOU will put your attention is YOU. In every situation, we each have the power to place our attention on any part of the situation. It is up to us to CHOOSE where our focus will go. When we realize that we will get more of whatever we are focused on, then we will start choosing to focus on only the things that we want to grow.
The point here is that affirmations absolutely work. Give the right amount of attention to anything, good or bad, and it will show up for you. Your thoughts are like little magnets that go out in search for situations to match itself.
The key is to start practicing affirming the things that you do want in life instead of the things you don’t want in life. In other words, if you are thinking, “I don’t have enough money” 30 times each day, then you want to make sure you are thinking the opposite thought, “Money flows to me in abundance”, way more often than 30 times a day. I know that you may not consciously be thinking, “I don’t have enough money” 30 times a day, but if you don’t have enough money, then that thought is sitting right there. You carry it with you throughout the day and it influences many of the decisions you make each day.
In Part 2 of this article, I want to walk you through how to come up with your affirmations as well as how to start practicing them so that you will actually see real evidence of the power of affirmations.