AFFIRMATIONS

First of all you might be thinking what even is an affirmation anyway? To affirm something to yourself is to declare it to yourself. I think of it as every time I start with 'I' I am affirming something to myself. Whether it be I can't, I won't, I am (insert some negative self doubts after them) or I have, I need. All of these are from a lack mentality. When you repeat these negative affirmations to yourself over an over, they turn into a belief. You are listening to your thoughts and the more you have them the more you believe them. Once you have those beliefs you start living that story. One that you probably don't want. We speak our story into existence, what if you could start a new chapter right now? A whole new book even!

I don't think a lot of people really notice how much they repeat certain thoughts. But if you do, see it as a blessing. Because once you find the problem you can find a solution.

When I learnt about affirmations I decided to give it a try. I printed out some positive morning ones I found online. I still have this same picture as my background on my tablet. I learnt that it was good to surround yourself with them so that you would read them more often. I even set alarms on my phone that would come up with positive affirmations throughout the day. The key is to really feel it when you say the affirmation. If I was at work I wouldn't do them out loud. But in my head I was still giving it my all! But if you can bring yourself to say them in the mirror to yourself that's powerful! You see it in movies an it seems funny but if u give it a go I swear it will get you pumped for your day!!

These are the exact morning affirmations i found on Pinterest to get me started!

So I did this for a while but slowly got out the habit. I tried printing off loads of lil 'I am.. ..' with the plan of putting them round the house.....they are still in a lil pile in my bedroom, all good intentions ey!

I am constantly learning about the brain and how we work. It really does listen to what we say. Do you know the quote. If you say you can you can, if you say you can't you can't? Something like whatever you say, you're correct.

So anyway I decided I wanted to implement affirmations into my daily routine again because I was only saying positive things as and when I thought about it and I really felt my mood slipping. The difference from when I was new into self development all excited sticking to a morning and night routine to doing bits here and there wasn't helping my mindset at all. This time I wanted it to stick so I planned to make my own set of personalised affirmations. Not just ones I thought I wanted or needed to say but the ones that could really change my life. I knew it had the potential to make a big impact.

I started out by siting and writing out all the bad things I said to myself, I went through situations in my head and thought about what I might be thinking at that time. To be honest it did shock me a bit how mean I was to myself. Considering I know this stuff works an thought I'd done quite well with changing my negative thought patterns.

Once it was all on paper I was able to group them. Some were about my beliefs about money, some about my capabilities, my body. I targeted each group an thought about how I could reverse it into a positive statement.

Some of the negative things were repeated in different ways so I was able to make 1 good affirmation out of a few bad ones. It felt great getting the new ones written out like I was deleting the old programming and about to install the complete opposite.

I started saying these with real feeling behind it morning and night. Well truthfully I lost the bit of paper for about a week then started it but hey I was finally on track woo! No joke within about 3 days I started feeling more awake in the mornings, excited and ready for my day. I've always said I'm not a morning person and find I'm more productive at night but that just doesn't fit with my life. I need my sleep lol. So one of my biggest and best affirmations is 'I am a morning person' I was amazed at how different I felt just by not saying I wasn't a morning person.

The key with personalised affirmations is your using your own words and phases things that mean something to you. It may not make sense to the next person or mean something completely different to them.

I carried on with these for about 2/3 weeks till guess what the piece of paper went missing, OK I'm not the tidiest person in the world and I live with an 8 yr old boy things move around a lot!

Anyway the first couple nights I thought I could remember them an recite them anyway an I think I did pretty well but that got less and less. Whilst the hopes of finding them were high its been about 2 weeks now and I've had so many 'tidy ups' and not found them. In this time I have noticed a significant change in my mindset. I didn't realise how well the affirmations were working and how good I was feeling. I guess I kinda took it for granted an was just enjoying feeling good. Depression is something I've had to deal with for a long time, those low moods and negative thoughts are so draining. When your in that place it makes you feel like you can't even say the positive things or maybe even write them to begin with. But I urge you to try if any of this resonates with you.

Even if you don't believe the positive as you write it down, you just know intelligently what that would be for you if it were true.

Once you have these and start to read them repeatedly (I'd recommend at least once a day.) Your brain will start to notice them as a pattern and believe them, just like with the bad things you may have thought. Once that belief is there you will start really feel a difference. You may feel happier, people may comment you seem chirpier. You may notice more opportunities and be open to them. For whatever it is you wanted to change you will see things starting to emerge.

You may like me have to stop start to notice the difference and feel what they can really do for you. But imagine just 2 minutes a day saying some lovely things about yourself. Is that too much to ask to see if it would change your life? How much of an impact could you really make? I would like to add though I mentioned earlier about being conscious of the things you say to yourself. Once your in this journey make sure you continue to do that. Each time you notice a 'negative thought you can repeat to yourself a few positive ones you've made and cancel it out. See it as a game. Once one pops up shoot it down with your power of positivity!!

Smiling now as I write this as I need to take my own advice! I know it helps and I really don't enjoy slipping back into feeling crappy and not enjoying life. So who's with me? I am starting the process again! I'd love to hear in the comments if you use affirmations or are conscious of your thoughts. Until next time xxxx Xxxx