A major concept in western and eastern spirituality is that our thoughts create our reality. Positive thoughts frame our reality in a good light and bring more positivity to us. On the other hand, negative thoughts attract more negative experiences to us. Your behavior is a result of your thinking. It’s like that famous saying, “if you believe you can’t, you can’t and if you believe you can, you can.” When you think negative thoughts or if you’re hard on yourself, you tend to take actions that are aligned with those thoughts. In other words, if you tell yourself you can’t do something then you won’t put in the 100% effort. That is why it is important to reframe our negative thoughts into positive thoughts. The benefit of positive affirmations is that, over time, it will reframe our thinking for us. However, affirmations only work when they are personal to you. That’s why it is important to create your own affirmations like I will show you in this article
1. Identify your goals
Before you can get to writing your affirmations, we need to have a vision of the end goal first. Identify your goals before you can create your affirmations. Try to have a well rounded goal list that includes topics from career, relationships, health, etc. This goal doesn’t have to be something physical, it could even be a feeling you want to embody. For example, you can have goals like “have self esteem” or “get that new job” or “have confidence”. Journal on the following questions or make a mental note if you need more guidance:
- What about your current situation would you like to change?
- What matters most to you?
- What gives your happiness? Are you doing what makes you happy?
- Where do your insecurities lie? What situations gives you anxiety?
- What you do have negative thoughts
2. Frame your affirmations positively
In this universe, you attract the energy you give out. If you have negative energy (through the form of thoughts) you attract more negativity into your life. Positive framing is a big benefit of repeating affirmations. Instead of saying “I’m not scared of rollercoasters” say “I love rollercoasters”. Instead of saying “I’m not scared of taking risks” say “I have the courage to take risks”
- Don’t focus on the negative aspects of your goals
- Don’t use negative wording like “not” or “no”
- Focus on what you want, not what you don’t want
When it comes to affirmations, the wording is not really that important. What’s important is the feeling the affirmation gives you when you repeat it. Take the affirmation, “I’m not scared of heights”. Immediately your mind thinks of heights and the feeling associated is fear. It’s important to make sure your affirmation gives you a positive feeling.
3. Use present tense and an active voice
When creating your own affirmations, make sure to write them in present tense. It’s as if you already are living the life you are trying to manifest. Don’t say “I will become pretty” say “I am pretty”. Don’t focus on the future and assume your affirmation is already yours.
4. Keep your affirmations specific and realistic
As you’re creating your affirmations, make them specific and somewhat realistic. Try to keep them short and concise so that they are easily repeatable. Adding specifics will let your affirmations come true faster. There’s a big difference between “I have a job” and “I have a writing job”. In order to remove confusion and attract the best in your life, try to be as specific as you can while still being concise.
Your affirmation doesn’t have to be realistic as long as you wholeheartedly believe it will happen. It’s better to have a less intense affirmation that you believe will come true rather than an affirmation that is far fetched. It’s hard to remove doubt from your conscious mind. Repeating an affirmation with doubt might send even more doubt than what you already have.
5. Repeat your affirmations regularly
In order to reframe your thinking and your thoughts repetition is key. Your subconscious controls your reality. However, you conscious mind is what you are thinking every day days. All of those random thoughts, the anxiety comes from your conscious mind. In order for this new reframing to reflect in your physical world, these affirmations need to send to your subconscious mind. The way you repeat your affirmations is very important in order to be able to results quickly. If you just repeat them daily, that might not be enough because you are only using your conscious mind.
- Repeat affirmations right when you wake up or right before you fall asleep as that is when your subconscious mind is the most present
- Put your affirmations around your room or your home so you’ll be able to see the affirmations randomly throughout the day (you can even set an affirmation as your phone wallpaper! (link to you pinterest board))
- Say your affirmations out loud rather than in your mind or write your affirmations in your journal
