Affirmations: 4 Tips And The Most Effective Times To Practice Them

Every year I hear more and more about affirmations. I love that. It means people are trying to improve their lives, and perhaps, waking up to the fact that what has been hammered into their heads their whole lives has not been in their best interest. You can’t change. It is what it is. Well, this is how I have always been. That is impossible. You can’t teach an old dog new tricks. I say that is all load of crap. You keep saying stuff like that, and you will manifest those outcomes.

I have good news. Change is possible. We are built to change. We are living organisms. The only constant is change. The problem is that most people don’t, whether it is their conscious choice or not. Comfort and bad habits get us into trouble. I came across a wonderful quote this past year by a missionary named Jackie Pullinger, “God wants us to have soft hearts and hard feet. The trouble with so many of us is that we have hard hearts and soft feet.” People are comfortable in their place and are crippled by grudges and hate. We need to flip that around by being loving, forgiving, and embracing change.

That is where affirmations come into play. Affirmations are a way of tapping into your subconscious through repetition of positive sentences, feelings, and thoughts. What is the subconscious though?

Think of the subconscious as your smart phone’s software that is set to “automatic software updates” that requires no password for the update, and our brains are the hardware or phone. Our subconscious software is constantly being programmed by what we perceive and experience, and we have no idea. This programming is most potent this first 6 years of our lives, but it still happens day after day until we die. We are not consciously hitting that “update” button on the phone that is our brain.

That is what makes deep meditation and affirmations so powerful. It is a way of tapping into the subconscious to reprogram and override those software updates. It is not easy, and it takes a lot of practice. Neuroscience has said that 95% of the brain’s activity is beyond conscious awareness, meaning we do not even realize that 95% of our decisions and emotions are coming from our subconscious programming. Fortunately, more and more people are trying to rebel against their programming and are craving changes in their life. Hopefully, this post will help you. Here are four tips for your affirmations that I have learned through my research.

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1. Short, positive “I am” statements. The fewer the better. Ideally, just start with one per session. I am happy. I am rich. I am good. I am brave. I am blessed. I am unlimited. We do not want to make it too complicated with long sentences. Some people use prayer beads or gemstone bracelets to get a specific number of repetitions in, but that is entirely up to the individual.

2. Visualize your affirmation. Escape to the place where the affirmation has come to fruition. Make your future dream a present fact.

3. Feel your affirmation. This is most important. There have been studies about brain-heart coherence and its effect on the body and the quantum field. What we need to do is open up communication between the brain and the heart. We can start by slowing down our breathing and focusing our attention on our hearts. You can touch your heart physically or just imagine you are breathing through it. Then try and feel the feelings as if your affirmation has already come true. What feelings might those be? Maybe joy, gratitude, care, compassion, or love.

4. Relax The less nerve energy you are expending the better. We want those neurons firing to our brain. Try slowing down your breathing and counting your breaths. Start by counting up to 10 inhalations. Once complete, count up to 10 exhalations and repeat from the top. If you lose your place, then start over with the 10 inhalations. This is a good way of quieting the mind.

Now, when are the most effective times to practice your affirmations? There are no wrong times, but there are specific times when they can be done most effectively. As I mentioned previously, it can be difficult to tap into your subconscious consciously, so what we want to do is practice them when we are on the edge of consciousness. Sort of in that grey area like the moments right before we fall asleep and the moment we open our eyes after we have been sleeping. We are not totally awake, but we are not asleep. We are sort of in a limbo where our consciousness is half submerged in our subconscious. If you want to take it one step further, then you can record yourself saying the affirmations and listen to them first thing in the morning and right before bed too. There’s something about listening to your own voice that helps you visualize.

This takes practice given that we are half asleep, but once we start making a habit of it we can start hacking into our software and filling our minds with what we want and who we want to be.

I hope this post has helped you. Now is the best time to make changes in our lives, so start now and stick with it. It may not be easy initially, but push past that and keep working. We are talking about making changes in your life that can be everlasting and leaving you with a life you have dreamed of and never thought you could have. I wish you the best of luck moving forward.

Let’s live logically and use our brains more!

Jeremy