About the present, not the future: Your unconscious mind treats each statement about the present as something over which it has full control. In contrast, it treats each statement about the future as something over which it has no control. In other words, your unconscious mind operates in the present.
As if it were true, even if it is false today: Every time that you read an affirmation to yourself, you are incrementally strengthening in your unconscious mind the belief expressed by that affirmation. Given that your unconscious mind cannot distinguish between fact and fiction, you can read to yourself an affirmation that is not true today with the assurance that eventually your unconscious mind will align your life with that affirmation such that eventually the affirmation is true. In other words, an affirmation need not be true when written or read, but repeated reading of the affirmation increases the likelihood that eventually it will be true.
With specificity: Specific statements have a stronger impact than vague, general statements have on your unconscious mind. For example, “I am a five-hour marathoner.” is more valuable than “I am a fast marathoner.” as an affirmation.
How many affirmations should I have?
The number of affirmations that you have related to your endurance running or walking depends totally on you. Some people prefer to have just a few affirmations. Other people like to have lots of affirmations, including many that are re-worded versions of other affirmations.
Where should I be when I am composing my affirmations?
You should compose your affirmations at a computer in a quiet, private location. You may want to play some inspiring or gentle music while writing them. A few minutes of meditation before beginning could help your writing, too.
Ideally, each affirmation should feel as if it were an expression of your best self — as if your “higher self” were telling you what it believes you are capable of being, doing, or experiencing.
If you are stumped when you initially sit down to type affirmations into your computer, then give yourself a goal to carry around a pen and small notebook so that you record several affirmation ideas as you go about your daily life. You eventually should have enough ideas in your notebook to produce several affirmations when you return to your computer.
What are some examples of affirmations for endurance runners or walkers?
Here are examples of affirmations that are correctly worded for an endurance runner or walker:
“I always breathe aerobically when I run.”
“I shave at least one minute off my personal record in every marathon that I run.”
“I eat exactly what I need for each walk.”
“I give myself permission to run my own race.”
“I stop for water precisely when necessary at water stops while walking my half marathon.”
Why should I record my affirmations to a computer?
Typing your affirmations into a computer document gives you three benefits over handwriting them:
Typing them on a computer lets you craft them easily. The ease of editing text with a computer ensures that you can craft affirmations that are “just right” for you to repeat many times to yourself over the coming days, weeks, and months.
Typing them on a computer lets you update them easily. Having your affirmations in a computer document means that you can refine them easily to suit you better as your needs or goals change but without having to re-write your entire list of affirmations.
Typing them on a computer lets you print them in different sizes. This gives you the flexibility to make a single-page list for scheduled reviews, larger printouts of affirmations for in-your-face display in your bedroom, bathroom, or office, and a wallet-size, laminated list for on-the-go review whenever you have downtime.
How should I read my affirmations?
Always read them as if you believe them, even if they are not yet(!) true.
Always read them with an emotional intensity that will capture the attention and imagination of your unconscious mind.
Read them aloud if at all possible.
Even if you are only reading them silently in your mind, vary from session to session your pace (from a fast-talker to a slow-talker), your pitch or accent (your own voice, the voice of a favorite actor, etc.), and your volume (from a whisper to a gentle shout) — to avoid boredom and to stimulate your unconscious mind in multiple ways with the same affirmations.
When and how often should I read my affirmations?
Plan to read your affirmations several times a day but at least twice a day:
As part of a morning ritual in which you use several LOA methods to prepare you for the day ahead;
Later in the day — and perhaps as you retire to bed — to reinforce them.
If you work at home, reading your affirmations aloud during your workday may be no problem. If you work in an office, in a retail store, in a warehouse, in a factory, or otherwise with other people in your workplace, then consider using your automobile or a secluded outdoor area as your “sound booth” in which you read your affirmations aloud.
What else can I do with my affirmations besides reading them to myself?
Post individual affirmations throughout your home, in your car, or in your office so that you see and unconsciously absorb them even though you do not consciously and deliberately read them.
Record yourself saying your affirmations, mix that voice recording with different background, instrumental songs that are suitable for the targeted periods for playback (such as for running, for stretching, or for winding down at the end of the day), and play the appropriate mixed recordings at least twice a day — such as while training for an endurance race, while driving, while in the shower, or while completing indoor or outdoor chores.
Kirk Mahoney, Ph.D., loves to walk and run, and his SpryFeet.com website provides practical research for runners and walkers. By going to http://www.SpryFeet.com/Reports/, you can get his FREE “Pace Tables for Runners and Walkers” special report, letting you look up paces needed to complete several different race distances within given durations and for different micro-level-pacing methods.
(c) Copyright – Kirk Mahoney, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.
Affirmations are simply statements that we make to ourselves; it’s our self-talk. You use affirmations all the time, whether you’re doing so intentionally or unintentionally. If you make a mistake and you think to yourself, “I’m always making mistakes, I never do anything right”, you’ve just made a negative affirmation. If instead you make a mistake and you think to yourself, “That’s OK, I have the ability to correct this”, you’ve just made a positive affirmation.
Your self-talk has an enormous impact on your conscious and subconscious minds. By repeating positive affirmations you can reprogram your thought patterns. Creating new thought patterns will allow you to begin to change your underlying beliefs and the way that you think and feel about yourself, others, and your place in the world. In this way, you can improve your life dramatically through the use of daily positive affirmations.
Choosing Your Affirmations
Shakti Gawain, author of Creative Visualization, offers the following advice for choosing your affirmations:
o Always phrase your affirmations in the present tense, as if it already exists. Say “I enjoy being at my ideal weight” instead of saying “I will reach my ideal weight.”
o Affirm what you want, not what you don’t want. Instead of saying “I am no longer a procrastinator”, say “I always get things done on time.”
o Don’t simply go through your affirmations by rote; add positive feelings and emotions to your affirmations.
o Choose affirmations that feel right for you. If you come across an affirmation that you like but you would feel more comfortable changing a couple of words, go right ahead.
Use Three Different Pronouns
A technique that you can apply to make your affirmations more effective is to write down the same affirmation using different pronouns. For example, if you want to affirm that you’re surrounded by positive people who want the best for you, you can write down the following three affirmations (in this example your name is Joan):
o I am surrounded by positive people who want the best for me.
o Joan, you are surrounded by positive people who want the best for you.
o Joan is surrounded by positive people who want the best for her.
When you say affirmations in the second and third person it’s as if someone else is talking to you or about you. Your internal critic is less apt to interject a negative comment if it thinks someone else is making these positive affirmations about you.
Affirmations Can Be General or Specific
Affirmations can be general or they can be very specific. Some examples of general affirmations are the following:
o Abundance is all around me.
o Abundance is my birthright.
o There is more than enough for all.
Use general affirmations to “set the stage”. Once you’ve established clear, well-defined goals for yourself you can create specific affirmations to help keep you focused on your goals and to strengthen your belief in your ability to reach your goals. For example, if your goal is to lose 10 pounds in the next three months by exercising, your affirmations could be the following:
o I now jog for 40 minutes, 4 times a week.
o Jogging helps me to lose weight and makes me healthy and fit.
o I am now lifting weights 3 times a week.
o I enjoy going to the gym and lifting weights.
o I am getting excellent results from jogging and weight lifting, and it shows.
o Every day I am getting fitter and fitter.
o I now weigh X amount of pounds (your target weight).
o People comment on how much thinner I am and how good I look.
You Have to Be Able to Believe Your Affirmations
Whenever you choose to change anything in your life, you’re choosing to move out of your present comfort zone. We should always strive to grow and expand our definition of ourselves and of what we are capable of. However, you have to make sure that your affirmations are not so far off from where you are at the moment that there’s no way you can get yourself to believe what you’re affirming.
If you don’t believe the affirmations you’re saying to yourself, then you need to start with a less ambitious affirmation and gradually make your affirmations bigger and bigger. For example, if you currently make $3,000.00 a month, it may be difficult for you to believe “I am now making $50,000.00 a month”. However, you can probably believe the following affirmation: “I am now making $4,500.00, or more, a month”. As you move forward and begin to see results you can progressively increase this number until you do feel comfortable affirming that you make over half a million dollars a year.
Repeat Your Affirmations Often
There is much power in repetition. Positive affirmations are not something that you do once in a while, instead, you should expose your mind to the affirmations that you choose for yourself as often as possible. In the words of Robert Collier: “Constant repetition carries conviction.”
Write down your affirmations and place them where you can refer to them often (you can even carry them around in your wallet). You can say them out loud to yourself every morning when you wake up and at night before going to bed, or you can set aside a few minutes each day to scribble them on a sheet of paper several times to help reinforce the message in your mind.
Taping the affirmations in your own voice and listening to the tape while you’re relaxing-or, even better, meditating– has had extraordinary effects for countless people. Louise Hay, author of the International bestseller “You Can Heal Your Life”, recommends that you sing or chant your affirmations. Some people leave a CD with positive affirmations playing softly in the background while they sleep at night.
In addition, there are several programs that allow affirmations to flash on and off on your computer screen unobtrusively, helping to program these affirmations into your subconscious.
Affirmation Bath
Practitioners who offer healing workshops often use a technique called “affirmation bath”. Basically, several people stand around one person and they all begin saying positive affirmations directed toward that person. The person is “engulfed” by positive messages from others. You can try this technique if you can find several like-minded people to participate in this exercise with you.
Release Any Negative Feelings That Arise
Negative feelings can act as self-imposed stop signs to getting what you want in life. If you feel any discomfort, self-doubt, fear, anger, and so on when saying your affirmations, you need to let go or release these negative feelings. One way to do this is by using the Sedona Method. As stated before, you have to add positive feelings and emotions to your affirmations, and if negative feelings are getting in the way, you need to be able to let go of them.
Your self-talk can either prevent you from getting what you want in life, or it can be a powerful catalyst for creating the life you’ve always wanted. Create a daily practice of using positive affirmations to help motivate, support, and inspire you to go after your dreams.
Written by Marelisa Fábrega who blogs at http://abundance-blog.marelisa-online.com