Affirmations

I've known what affirmations are and how to use them for many years, but it wasn't until I read You Can Heal Your Life, by Louise Hay, that I actually started to use them.

Affirmations are a way of reprogramming your brain. Many of us have negative self-talk going on in our heads. You may berate yourself in your head if you've done something wrong, telling yourself that you are stupid or you can never do anything right. Maybe a parent or other authority figure told you that when you were younger. Or you may tell yourself that you have no willpower and can never lose weight. We don't have to listen to those voices. Instead, we can replace them with positive messages or affirmations.

Even if you don't have a lot of negative self talk going on, affirmations can help you change a pattern or habit in your life.

Eckhart Tolle talks about each of us having a "story" we tell ourselves. Well really it's the ego's story. For example, your story may be that you are the person who takes care of everyone. Or your story is that you are the fat woman with no willpower. Or the victim everyone takes advantage of. Affirmations can help us change our stories.

There are different ways to use affirmations, including repeating them to yourself silently; writing them out repeatedly; saying them out loud while looking in a mirror; and posting them where you can see them. I think saying them out loud and writing them down are two of the most powerful.

Most of the time I repeat them to myself silently. I do it at times where I can get in a rhythm or I'm doing something mindless. I do them when I'm copying, for example. Or walking down the hall. I have just recently started writing them down daily. I think Louise Hay recommends writing them 20 or 30 times. I just fill up a steno pad page with the affirmation, writing it over and over.

You can make up your own affirmation. It just has to be a positive statement and should be in the present tense. For example, if you are trying to lose weight, "I am the perfect weight." Or if you are trying to be a nicer person, "I am kind and considerate to everyone I meet."

Here are some affirmations I like to use for myself. Some are from Louise Hay, others I may have heard or read other places, and some I have made up myself:

• All is well in my world
• I am open to all the abundance in the universe.
• I am healthy and whole in every way and losing weight every day.
• I trust in divine order and release all anxiety and fear.
• I am willing to release the need to be in control.
• I am willing to release the need for excess weight.
• Every day in every way I'm getting better and better.

I just pick one I need to hear right now and use it, or make one up that fits.

Here are a few of the many affirmation resources on the web:

http://www.louisehay.com/affirmation.php

http://www.aplacefortheheart.co.uk/frame.php?sp=/louise_hay/affirmation.htm

http://www.the-benefits-of-positive-thinking.com/louise-hay-affirmations.html

http://www.gems4friends.com/affirmations.html

http://www.vitalaffirmations.com/

http://www.mjbovo.com/Affirmations.htm

What are some of your favorite affirmations?

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