How to Use Affirmations

Affirmations are sayings used to focus energy, promote growth, and diminish negativity.  Think of them as handles to help you over blockades and levers to move obstacles.  They are easy to use, and they can achieve remarkable effects. However, they’re also easy to misuse and then they don’t work.  Here are some tips on how to use affirmations properly.

Making the Most of Affirmations

1) An affirmation should be clear. It must state its purpose in a way you understand (and the Universe will understand, too).  Vague affirmations don’t work well and may have undesired effects.

2) An affirmation should be concise and memorable. If you can’t remember it, you won’t be able to use it as effectively.   A short rhyme may make an affirmation easier to memorize.

3) An affirmation should be positive. Negative markers such as “no” or “not” tend to get lost, which means that negative sayings can backfire.  Learn to rephrase ideas in a positive direction: “No fear” could become “Banish fear” and “I don’t want to be poor” could become “I attract prosperity.”

Corollary: If you feel compelled to think negative things, use ones that don’t work.  For instance, replace “I suck at math” with “Math is not my forte.” What happens when the Universe fails to hear the negative?  ”Math is ### my forte.”

4) An affirmation should be plausible. If you don’t believe it, then it won’t work for you.  Many materials about affirmations fail to account for this, so be careful with it.  If you don’t believe “The Earth is healthy,” then that won’t direct your energy toward helping the Earth.  Consider expressions of progress, such as “My actions help make the Earth healthier.”

What You Can Do With Affirmations

Affirmations let you change the pattern of your thoughts and emotions. Since actions and crafted objects begin as ideas, changing ideas is very powerful.  You can use affirmations in many different ways.

Affirmations can strengthen a positive emotion or a good habit.  You might use one to concentrate on unconditional love or to support your commitment of walking to work.

Affirmations can diminish a negative emotion or weaken a bad habit.  This is useful for calming yourself in a crisis or quitting smoking.

If there is a bad saying that repeats in your head — some fool thing that somebody once said to you, that you can’t get rid of and makes you miserable — then pick an opposing affirmation that says something good. Use it to replace the bad one.  You are stronger than an echo in your head; shout it down.  For an excellent essay on negative sayings, read “Our Mental Playlist.”

If someone you love has a habit of saying negative things, choose a positive affirmation (or as many as necessary) and say that to counter the negativity. Say it out loud if possible, or silently if necessary.

Some people like to choose an affirmation that they repeat every morning and/or evening.  This helps frame the day.

Another option is to write your affirmations on notecards and post them where you’ll see them as you move through the day.  You might even turn a favorite affirmation into a craft project and hang it on the wall!

Affirmations are all over cyberspace.  If you use Twitter, affirmations make terrific tweets and tend to be very popular.  You can share them with your friends this way.  LiveJournal and some other blog services have quote-a-day subscriptions available in various flavors.  Of course, you can also post your own affirmations to your blog.

Sources for Affirmations

Many resources exist for finding or creating affirmations.  Collections of quotations, prayer books, and short poems can all provide inspiration.  You can even take quotes from a favorite book or TV show.  Here are a few to get you started:

• “Some Thoughts on Peace”
• “Earth Quotes”
• “Affirmations for Self-Love”
• “Famous Activist Quotes”
• “Motivational and Inspirational Quotes Collection”
• “Example Affirmations”
• World Prayers (multiple faiths)
• Free Affirmation Cards (online, random shuffle)
• Affirmation Cards (various hardcopy decks)
• Zazzle Positive Affirmations (assorted products & quotes)
• Affirmation Techniques
• Cross-Stitch Alphabets & Sayings