Tips for Writing Your Own Affirmations

by

Cathy Chapman, Ph.D.

Affirmations are simple positive statements you make which reinforce something in your life. These statements can be about what you would like to have, such as riches and fame, or the type of person you would like to be, such as loving or assertive. You can always go to your favorite search engine and find affirmations particular to your situation. The best, however, are those you develop for yourself.

Here is a simple process in which you can do this.

Identify What You Want

Many people believe this is very easy. You may think you want riches, but you would really like security. When you say you want success, you may actually desire parental approval.

To discover what you truly want in life keep repeating the same question. That question is, "And what will that get me?"

For instance, you say you want a particular type of house in a specific neighborhood. Ask the above question. An answer might be, "It'll prove I'm successful." Now asked the question again. This time you might say, "People will notice me." Repeat the process. You might get, "People will look up to me." Keep doing this until you get a sort of ah-ha internal experience. Then you know this is truly what you want.

Develop Your Positive Statement

Now that you know your true desire put it in a positive statement using present tense. An example, "My family notices my success and congratulates me." If you follow the process above, this affirmation will be exactly what it is that you truly want. Yes, you may still have that house in mind, but that comes later in the process.

If you get your house, but don't get what you truly want, you will still feel dissatisfied and empty. The key is to uncover your deepest yearnings. When those are fulfilled you will experience joy and completion.

Identify How You Will Know You Have What You Most Want

This process actually works with your subconscious mind. It is your subconscious mind which silently guides and directs you by means of what it believes you want to happen in your life. Your subconscious mind is concrete, not abstract. You have to tell it what you mean by what you say. This is where that house you have your eye on comes in.

How will you know when you have achieved your desire? List three things you will see in your life when the statement, "My family notices my success and congratulates me" is fulfilled. This is where you identify things such as, "I have a house with four bedrooms and three bathrooms built to my specifications on an acre of land next to the water," "My children attend an elite private school and are at the top of their class," or "My income after taxes is $250,000 per year."

Once you have the three things you will see in your life which proves your success, get in touch with how it will feel, what people will say about you, and everything else involved in your achievement. Write it all down.

Anchoring It In

The last step is to use your affirmation while keeping in mind those marks of achievement. Do that now. Now touch your thumb to one of your fingers as an anchor to what it is you desire. Throughout the day repeat that statement of achievement keeping in mind the images, words and feelings which accompany it.

Just repeating this statement over and over will do very little. You need to bring with you the visual, auditory and kinesthetic experiences which accompany your accomplishment.

About the Author:

Cathy Chapman, PhD, LCSW has her doctorate in Mind-Body Psychology. She assists people in achieving their dreams of health, wealth and abundance. Her blog provides you with thoughts and tools for growth and success. Subscribe to her blog at http://www.cathychapmanphd.com and receive your free gift "7 Methods for a Practically Impenetrable Immune System."

Cathy says this about herself:

"My primary background is in spirituality, psychotherapy and mind-body psychology. I've been a therapist for 35 + years with almost all those years helping people heal using prayer and spirituality. The last 20 years have been devoted to expanding my tools to assist in healing through energy healing such as BodyTalk, PSYCH-K, encodements and Soul Healing.

Since I have an active mind with many interests, I also help people move beyond their fears and limiting beliefs in their business as well as their personal life. I have studied marketing for the last 15 years as well as copywriting. I write plr in the mind-body health area.

Since I left the convent in 1996, my spirituality has expanded into what some call New Age or metaphysics. It was the mysticism of Catholicism which moved me into the mysticism of the New Age.

I write in the areas of personal development, energy healing, spirituality, marketing, copywriting and business development.

I am at a stage in my life I only do things which are fun and interesting. Yes, I pay my taxes, but I rejoice I have an income. Life is good. I want to show others how to heal, change limiting beliefs and attain their dreams."

Good Habits

If I asked you to tell me about your habits, how would you respond?  Would you talk about smoking, drinking too much, snacking between meals?  Or would you refer to your daily practice of yoga, meditation, or affirmations?

Most people think of habits as something bad, and it is true most of us probably do have bad habits.  But the reality is that we also have lots of good habits.  And we can create more good habits if we really want to do so.

If you want to change something in your life, the way to do so is to create a new habit.  If you are afflicted or know someone with the smoking habit, or even addicted to hard drugs, you will know just how powerful a habit can be.  So use that power!  Decide what it is you want to change, work out what you need to do that is different in order to effect that change, then establish it as a habit.

I have already mentioned three great habits from which we could all benefit and which will have a fundamental affect on our lives if we make them an integral part of our life - yoga, meditation and affirmations.  Maybe you will choose to establish one or more of these as a habit.  Or maybe you will find something different - something that resonates with you and that you know you would really love to make it a part of your life.  Take your time and make sure you have found something really good - something that can really be "you".

Having found what it is you want to do, the next step is to make it a habit.  How exactly can you do this?

In his classic book "Psycho Cybernetics", Maxwell Maltz informs us that the same action repeated regularly 21 times becomes a habit. This could be something you will do every day, in which case in three weeks you will have established it as a habit.  Maybe it is something you will do every working day, in which case your habit will be established in a month.  Or perhaps you will do it once a week, in which case you will have a new positive habit in around five months.

In your first 21 repetitions be absolutely ruthless.  No matter what happens, tell yourself you MUST perform this action.  No excuses accepted.  Certainly do not fall into the trap of telling yourself it is ok to miss it one time and then do double (e.g. spend twice as much time) the next time.  If you do this you will be setting yourself up to fail.

But if something DOES happen which makes it impossible for you to do it, don't stress out.  This is another reason so many people fail, as they falter at the first hurdle.  Accept the situation, and just move on.  You have missed one repetition, so it just means it will take you slightly longer, that is all.  Don't let it happen too often, but also don't let it de-rail your plan to establish this good habit.

Once you have the 21 repetitions under your belt you have established your good habit.  You now do not have to be quite so ruthless.  If there is a good reason for missing one day (or one weekend, or one month, etc) then you can relax and accept that reason - because now you know that it is a habit, and the next time around you will still automatically be ready to do it.  Keep an eye on it, as habits can still be broken, but it should certainly no longer be the struggle you probably found it took in the first 21 repetitions.

Also, once you have established your new habit, look for another one.  Maybe you would like to learn a new language for example, or develop some other skill.  Make this the next good habit you will establish.  Not by replacing the first one, but by adding to it.  Keep doing this.  As each new skill, personality change, good practice etc becomes a habit for you, add another one.  Do this until you have established 21 new habits.  Why 21?  Because now you have established a habit of creating success habits - and you will have become unstoppable!

If you would like a copy of the book "Psycho Cybernetics" you can obtain one here:

http://tiny.cc/psycho-cybernetics

Law of Attraction is as real as gravity

by

Joe Vitale

You’ve probably heard about and maybe even practiced the “Law of Attraction” to bring better things into your life. 

It’s one of our brain’s most natural and powerful talents. Countless people all over the world have used this “law” to attract wealth and abundance to themselves and the people they love.

So why have so many more tried and failed?

The #1 question we ask when it fails to work for us is...

“If Attraction is actually a ‘law,’ then why won’t it work for me as automatically and effortlessly as gravity does? Why would you have to do anything to make it work?”

Well, the truth is that just like gravity, the Law of Attraction IS always working. You don’t need to do anything to make it “work”…

You just have to do something if you want to harness it and make it work for you. 

It took Isaac Newton and an apple falling off a tree to make us “aware” of gravity, and look at it with awareness and intent. And then it still took a few hundred years until we figured out how to fly. 

Well, the Law of Attraction is similar. All along, it’s been a force in your life. 

So why do so many people struggle to attract money? Struggle to bring abundance and happiness into their lives, when the Law of Attraction is all around them?

The fact is, if the Law of Attraction works all the time, and your own results fall short… then the difference must be in you. 

If you state an intention, and it doesn’t work, there’s a part of you that’s fighting with another part of yourself. 

You’ve probably heard the saying that we only use a small fraction of our brains. Well, 80 to 90 percent of our thinking is unconscious. 

We are like conscious icebergs with most of our thoughts happening beneath the water line, out of our awareness.

What this means is that what you consciously think isn’t anywhere near as important as what your unconscious mind thinks.

So when your intentions fail to manifest, all too often it’s because there’s an unconscious conflict of beliefs deep down. A conflict that may have been buried there since childhood. 

Some experts call these “counter-intentions,” and until you get “clear” of these hidden mental snags attracting the things you want in life is going to be very difficult. 

It’s like trying to drive a car with one foot flooring the gas and the other foot pumping the brake pedal. 

However, when you discover the simple process of eliminating this blocked thinking from your mind, it’s as if the flood gates are flung wide open and all the abundance you’ve been concentrating on and waiting for is suddenly “cleared for landing”.

See exactly how it works in this just released video that explains the new research and how people are now using the Law of Attraction more powerfully than ever before. The video is free (of course), available at the link below.

Watch now!

Groundhog Day

In the comedy film "Groundhog Day", Bill Murray plays a man who gets a second chance to achieve what he wants in life.  No, let's re-write that.  Not a second chance, nor a third, nor a fourth - but dozens and dozens of chances.  Every morning he finds it is the same day and he can repeat what he did "yesterday" but ironing out all the mistakes.  Eventually he becomes a brilliant pianist, medical expert, counsellor, and, of course (this is Hollywood, after all) gets the girl of his dreams.

I love that film, and if you will excuse the irony I watch it again and again.  Not just because I think it is a brilliant comedy, but because I love a couple of the messages that come through loud and clear:

1 It is never too late to try again.

2 There is always time to achieve whatever it is you want to achieve.

In the film, of course, there is a magical element - the fact that the same day keeps repeating.  None of us has that luxury unfortunately.  Well, not quite.  But in a sense we do have that luxury.  I don't know how many more days you have, and nor do you, but for most of us it is a very large number.  I fully expect to have several thousand more days in which I can work on my goals.  I might not get them all, but I probably will.  That gives me several thousand chances.  More than enough!  But at the same time, I know today could be my last day on earth, so I should live it as though it really IS my last day.

Have a good think about exactly what it is that you want to achieve.  When you know what that is, begin the exercise by knowing that you can achieve it.  Then break it down into small, bite-sized goals.  And for each goal, write down what you need to do in order to reach it.  Now all you have to do is find some time each day to work on achieving those goals.  If you have thousands of days to get there, even a very small chunk of the day will be enough.  I am sure you can find that very small chunk of time.

So get going right now.  Create your own Groundhog Day and reach out to achieve those goals!