What is Affirmation? Why is Affirmation Important? What benefits will I get from repeating sentences that are not true?
In my Blog about Dandapani, I had written in brief about Affirmation. I thought of explaining a bit more and dive into this topic which I believe is very important.
Already mentioned in my earlier blog how I use affirmation and is now a part of my morning routine.
It is important to mention here that I will be discussing on only Positive Affirmations and Not Negative Affirmations.
Affirmations – What?
Affirmations is nothing but self-talk. We all have done it, consciously or sub-consciously. Whether facing a difficult situation or going into one.
If we are making Positive Affirmations, we are hopeful of a positive outcome of an event. Unconsciously, if we are making Negative Affirmation, we have a gut feeling that the result will not be favorable.
I was first introduced to the concept of Affirmation during ePaD, a course run by Unnati. Shyam Sir explained why Affirmations are a set of words, often lies, that we say to ourselves with an expectation that these become true.
Science & Affirmation
What Affirmation really does is, it makes your mind into believing your positive statements. Your mind starts to think that whatever you are saying is true and that in turn improves your mental makeup.
According to research, regularly practicing Affirmation activates those areas of the brain which are called reward centers. These are the same reward centers that get activated when we get a prize or win a contest.
It means, if spoken with emotion, affirmations can trick your mind into believing that you received a reward.
Many studies like these have shown how Affirmations help in relieving pain or maintaining balance in the face of difficult situations.
Affirmation Benefits
Science has shown how Affirmation has boosted Positive Self-Esteem, helped decrease stress, move from limiting mindset to a growth mindset & led to overall improvement in outlook towards life.
I have personally seen how I was able to remove mental blocks that I had made for myself simply by repeating those statements, again and again, every morning. Must confess, its still a work in progress. What I can truly say about myself is the mental peace that affirmation has brought to me is profound.
I have also seen how things have started to fall in place and how I was able to achieve goals that looked far fetched. Of course, my efforts would have helped me but I am very sure Affirmations did help me get into that zone which lead to achievement of my goals.
Challenges in Affirmations
Initially when I started to do Affirmations, I expected it to deliver overnight. Doesnt work that way. Affirmation depends on a lot of things one of which is Emotions.
Affirmation might not be useful when you are overcoming any mental blocks that are deep rooted. If you have any negative affirmations that might be arising from a bad childhood, it might resist the changes that are desired through positive affirmations.
Deeply rooted and irrevocably true beliefs that have a strong emotion attached to it might be difficult to overcome.
Then it is just a battle between the two and you end up not earning the benefits from positive affirmations. The conflict created between these two affirmations has a great effect on the well being of the person.
My Experience with Affirmations
My Morning Routine has an inbuilt Positive Affirmation practice that I religiously follow everyday. Initially, I did Affirmations simply because I had heard a lot about its power and I wanted to give it a try.
So I framed my Affirmation statements that encompassed each area of my life i.e. Body, Mind, Soul, Career, Family, Society, Relationships. Since the list was long, it actually took a lot of my time. I noticed that the Affirmations have started to get monotonous which is when I decided to look up on youtube how others use Affirmation.
I got to know that Affirmations in itself becomes powerful when they are spoken with emotion. It should invoke emotion for it to become effective.
I also shortened my list of Affirmations bringing the number down to 2 statements that are most important to me. I practice these 2 Affirmations everyday:
I have a Healthy Mind and a Fit Body
All my Dreams turn into Reality
Endnote
Affirmation are a Powerful Tool to overcome barriers and help you maintain a positive outlook. Consistently doing an affirmation practice with a strong feeling will go a long way in realizing your goals.
I have personally benefited from using Affirmations in my life. Affirmations have helped me in my business life (Implementing Systems & Processes, Forming a stable team, Improving Customer Relationships) & personal life (Fit Body, Healthy Mind).
If you are inspired by this article to practice Affirmation, I would strongly suggest you to start it today. You can start small and then build on it. You can either do it early in the morning or late in the night just before bed.
Thank you for reading this article. I would be very pleased if you could share this article with all your friends / family members who might be inspired by this article.
~RG~
P.S.
- Affirmations – Positive Psychology
- Health Shots