If you are faced with a challenge in your life what do you think or say to yourself? Maybe some of these examples come to your mind:“I can’t do this”
“I do not have the confidence to do this”
“I do not have the skills to do this”
“I am failing in my job”
“I will never achieve this goal”
“I am not smart enough to do this”
Do any of these examples strike a chord with you? If they do then it is OK because this training is for you.
We all experience negative thoughts about our ability to do something from time to time. With some people the experience happens far too often. So how do you overcome this and push forward to get the task done?
Convert The Negatives Into Positives
Negative thoughts really do affect your state of mind. You probably don’t realize it, but when you experience negative thoughts from your self-talk it will put a huge dent in your confidence and change your outlook to a negative one. A negative thought spiral is also highly likely to put you in a bad mood as well.
The best way to escape from this negative thinking is to instill a powerful set of positive thoughts about yourself and your capabilities. This will have the total opposite effect of negative thinking and will empower you to tackle anything – no matter if you have done it before or not.
What Are Positive Affirmations?
An affirmation is a positive statement that you repeat to yourself over and over. By stating positive affirmations regularly, you can change the way that you think about yourself and overcome any negative thoughts that you experience.
To make positive affirmations really work for you it is essential that you have total belief in them.
A lot of people believe that stating affirmations regularly is a waste of time. They see them as just expressing “hope” and some would even say that it is all “wishful thinking”. But affirmations do work, and they will help you if you approach them in the right way.
If you work out regularly then you are repeating actions to improve your fitness and overall health. You know that this works as you have seen the results. Well, affirmations are exercises for your mind. The more that you repeat them with belief, the more they will change your outlook on life to a more positive one.
Most of us have limiting beliefs stored in our subconscious minds that we formed a long time ago. Every time that we act on these limiting beliefs then we strengthen them. So, for example, if you have a limiting belief about not being able to speak in public then all the time that you avoid public speaking you are strengthening your limiting belief.
It makes sense doesn’t it?
Your brain is like a computer. Over the years you program it through your experiences. If you were told many times in your life that you were “useless” and you “would never amount to anything” then this gets stored in your subconscious mind as a limiting belief.
The good news is that just like a computer you can re-program your mind to hold empowering beliefs about yourself such as you can do anything and that you are very confident. Positive affirmations are a powerful way to achieve this re-programming.
You can use positive affirmations to:
Give your self-esteem a boost
Change your life in a positive way
Provide you with daily motivation
When you first start to use positive affirmations, they will help to neutralize any negative thoughts you have about yourself. Then as you keep persevering with your affirmations, they will start to erode limiting beliefs and replace these with empowering beliefs.
Are positive affirmations a miracle? No certainly not. It is going to take continual effort on your part to make positive affirmations work for you. But reciting your affirmations each day with belief is not really hard work is it?
Affirmations Are Backed By Science
There is scientific evidence to show that the regular practice of reciting positive affirmations with belief can help people to transform their lives for the better long-term. The continual practice of reciting affirmations changes how a person thinks and feels about themselves.
Well established psychological theory supports this reasoning. There have been a number of studies that show that a person can keep their self-integrity intact by affirming every day that they believe in themselves and their capabilities. Everything that the person recites to themselves must be positive of course.
There are three psychological theories that support the concept of positive affirmations. These provide us with the understanding of how they work and why they are so effective. You need to understand these so that it will inspire you to get started with and keep up your daily positive affirmations.
The Self-Identity Theory
This is all about maintaining a global narrative about yourself. With this narrative you have good morals, are flexible and able to adapt to changing circumstances around you. A self-identity is not the same as having a rigid self-concept.
You do not view yourself in a fixed way as your self-identity is flexible and you can adopt a variety of different roles and identities in your life. This is good because it means that you can see different aspects of your life as positive and are able to adapt to change a lot easier.
Adequate And Competent Theory
By using positive affirmations, you are not looking to be perfect, excellent, or exceptional. It may disappoint you to hear this but please keep on going to understand this fully. To make positive affirmations work for you all you need is to be adequate and competent in the areas of your life that you value the most.
For example, if you have certain morals (which you should) then it is fine if you are adequate and competent with these. The same goes for the good that you do for others and your level of flexibility.
Does this mean that you cannot excel at something through the use of positive affirmations?
Absolutely not! It just means that you will benefit from continual positive affirmations if you are already adequate and competent in your key life areas.
Self-Integrity Theory
This theory is all about maintaining your self-integrity through your actions so that you receive credit and praise when you deserve it. It is important that you understand this as it will affect your beliefs about your positive affirmations.
For example, you don’t use an affirmation such as “I have the confidence to tackle anything” just because you want to receive credit and be praised for this. You use this affirmation because you want to demonstrate to the world that you do have the confidence to tackle anything through your actions. When you do this, you will deserve any praise that you receive.
In the next video we will discuss the benefits of positive affirmations…
