What affirmations are not
Can you make yourself healthy by telling yourself that you´re healthy? This is a BIG question and not easy to answer.
We are talking about affirmations. Let´s make clear what affirmations are not: If you repeat a sentence over and over, that´s not an affirmation. It´s repeating words. Totally different.
Affirmations give your thoughts a new direction
Let´s take a look at the deeper meaning of an affirmation to get clear about this. What an affirmation should do for you is giving your mind and your thoughts a new direction.
This is easy to understand. Every day we think hundreds and thousands of thoughts, we are thinking all the time. And most of the time, our thoughts go in a similar direction. If our thoughts go into the same direction all the time, this is what we call a belief.
There are helpful beliefs that we have about our lives, for example, the belief that the sun will rise the next day. The belief that we can sit on something that looks like a chair. Definitely helpful in our daily lives.
What we want to talk about here are the beliefs we´ve got about ourselves. Because these are the most defining beliefs for our lives.
How did we form these beliefs?
We formed them by experience in early childhood. We are seeing ourselves in the way that our environment reflects us. I am the funny one, I am the pretty one, I am the helpful one. Or I am the bad one, I am the ugly one, I am the outcast.
The first ones we would call positive beliefs, the second one negative beliefs. But what they have both in common is that they are limiting beliefs.
Let´s take for example the belief that I am the funny one. Sounds great, but what about the days when I don´t feel like being funny? What is the alternative?
Or let´s take the example of I am the pretty one. What if I get ill and lose my hair? What about my identity as the pretty one now?
Using affirmations with an intention
So the trick is to use an affirmation to acknowledge where we are now. Then define the direction we want to choose in our lives. This would be: I love being funny and I´m fine when I´m not. I love being pretty and I´m fine when I´m not.
This is our intention: Acknowledging - moving on. No ignoring and no limitation.
What is your constructive affirmation?
