These days, if you want to work with affirmations, it’s especially easy to do so on your phone or computer. Although it was never that hard to work with them in analog form–just write the affirmations in your planner or journal! Or hang a sign on your fridge!
If you do work with affirmations, though, here is what I advise:
1. Make them positive, not negative. Don’t say, “I will lose weight this year.” Say, “I am glowing with good health!” Don’t say, “I will stop oversleeping.” Say, “It is easy for me to get up on time.”
2. Make use of what we know about brain science: read, write, and say your affirmations. You can write them in the air with your finger if you like. But the act of writing will help to wire the affirmation into your brain. You may even want to record yourself saying them so you can listen, too.
3. Visualize the results you are trying to achieve, in excruciating detail. Don’t just visualize seeing your results, but also feeling them, and if appropriate, smelling them. Imagine the salt dripping into your eyes as you exercise and work up a sweat, for example, if that is your goal.
4. Track your progress. If you are affirming happiness, keep a gratitude journal. If you are paying off debt, track it in a spreadsheet. If you are making a habit of exercising, or quitting smoking, use an analog or digital habit tracker. You can even just mark the days on the calendar that you kept up with your new habit. Pat yourself on the back for sticking with it!
5. Expect to succeed in achieving your goal.
Extra credit:
6. Get creative, and make a collage or vision board that represents the goal you want to affirm.
7. Come up with a theme song for your affirmation–or maybe even a whole play list!
8. Think of a symbol that represents your affirmation. When you see it, regard that as a thumb’s up for your affirmation from the universe!
Affirm away! I think affirmations can be a powerful and magical tool–if you use them wisely. I’d love to hear about your experience, good or bad, with affirmations–please share them in the comment section below.
*Affirmations pictured here are from the Android app, My Affirmations, available in the Google Play store.
Quiet Mystic 