You’ve probably heard that affirmations can help you be more motivated and successful in meeting your goals. I’m a huge fan of affirmations – as you can tell by all the articles here on the site – but did you know that there are some ways you can supercharge your affirmations to make them even more powerful, even transformative?
Say you want to lose weight and get fit. If your affirmation is “I will lose weight and go to the gym every day,” how does that make you feel? There’s a heaviness in the energy of that statement that’s not very motivating and that doesn’t encourage you to act. It focuses on the negative aspects of your goal (the need to lose weight and the obligation to go to the gym) and pushes the goal out into an indefinite future.
Instead of staying with the heaviness and the negative, I want to empower you to use these five steps to turn your affirmations into powerhouse tools – positive, high energy and motivating!
Powerhouse Tip 1: Make your affirmations active
Using active verbs keeps your energy upbeat and your focus in the present moment. So now your affirmation starts “I am [positive verb] ” and there’s so much more power in the statement. An affirmation is a statement of what IS – treat it like it’s not a possibility, but a REALITY!
Powerhouse Tip 2: Include Positive Emotions
Think of how you want to feel – how you WILL feel – when you reach your goal. Are you happy? Proud of yourself? Relaxed? Grateful? Invoke those emotions as you are saying our affirmation out loud – bring them into your mind, heart and spirit, and associate the positive emotion with the affirmation. When you say it, FEEL it. Make sure your affirmation makes you feel good when you say it out loud.
Powerhouse Tip 3: Keep it Short
Make your affirmations brief and memorable – a punchy, short sentence instead of a thoughtful paragraph. We need thoughtful paragraphs in our lives, but not as affirmations. Concise, focused statements are easier to remember, and they’ll also be easier to fit into your already busy life. Repetition is important to tapping into the impact of affirmations – count on repeating them consistently for at least 30 days to start reaping the benefits.
Powerhouse Tip 4: Stay in the Present
Your affirmation should always be phrased in the present tense. Make sure you use “I am” rather than “I will” statements. When you start using affirmations, part of your mind may think at the same time you are stating the affirmation out loud “Are you kidding?” or “You’re not there yet” – tell that inner voice to SHUT UP and just keep going. You have to make the present tense announcement that you ARE what you want to be. That implants the principle in your mind, and there’s a part of our brains that doesn’t know the difference between the truth and a lie. Whatever it hears us say in our OWN VOICE it sets about making it true. That’s why what we say to ourselves about ourselves has such impact.
Powerhouse Tip 5: Keep it Positive
Focus on what you want, not what you don’t want. Consider this – repeating what you DON’T want over and over again embeds that negative thought, that turning away, into your mind. That part of your brain that makes things happen then decides that because you’re repeating this negative statement over and over again, you really WANT that to happen. Don’t emphasize the negative and what you want to let GO of, concentrate and emphasize the GOOD THINGS – the benefits that you want in your life. Think of the positive result you want to achieve and give the neutral and the negative NO ENERGY.
Powerhouse Tip 6: Switch up Your Affirmations
Have a look at your current affirmations (or ones you want to start using) and see if they are working as well as they could be. Do they resonate with you? Do you feel resistance in your body when you say them, like a tightening of your gut, a stiffening of your shoulders, or a tenseness in your muscles that indicates you’re resisting the statement? Are you frowning when you say your affirmations? Your expression CAN have an effect on your voice and how your words come out.
If you look at yourself when you say your affirmations and your expression is one of boredom or seeming like you’re being forced to say them, that will also show up in your voice and in the way the affirmation lands in your mind.
Instead of “I will lose weight and go to the gym every day,” let’s make it something that will make you feel good – for instance:
“I am enjoying getting slimmer and fitter every day.”
“I am feeling stronger and healthier by choosing a healthier lifestyle.”
“I am joyfully and easily helping my body to get stronger and slimmer every day.”
Play around with the words until they feel right for you and resonate with you. Just keep your affirmation in the present, focused on what you want and what feels good. If your affirmation makes you smile, lifts your spirits, encourages and empowers you, it’s a good one!
Repeat your affirmations at least three times a day, for a minimum of 30 days, before tossing it out or changing it – give yourself the gift of time and consistency. The investment of time in an affirmation – even if you change it around after the initial period – is worth it. YOU are worth the time it takes to learn to use affirmations, and you’re worth the power they’ll bring you in manifesting the life you want.
