Affirmations - Real Deep Dive - Deane Vipond

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Affirmations – Real Deep Dive

The word itself tends to emotionally polarise people like no other. Generally, it creates either a feeling of positive energy or one of throw me right now off the nearest cliff. For the latter, this often hails from a previous poor experience or deep belief – both usually either not being suitable for the individual (and they really don’t work for some people) or them being jammed down ones throat from others insisting they have all the answers – who themselves really have no idea what they are doing, and themselves then later failing with their own goal aspirations. Most...

The reality is, we all use affirmations (positive and negative) pretty much all day long – both internally (self-dialogue) and spoken. Self-statements as ‘positive affirmations’ are one of our strongest tools to influence our subconscious. Talking to ourselves carries responsibility which can significantly impact our future behaviour, and our view on the world. When we are in-tune with our Sub, we open the door to experiencing more interesting observations. And when we do, it’s not unreasonable to expect more. And we do, fuelling thought perhaps toward the idea of a ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ – that more things follow from what we think will follow. Even thinking that ‘things will work out’ has a funny way of playing out. There are no hard and fast rules for using affirmations – though there are specific suggestions proven to provide faster and more productive results. Often this is a journey to find out what works best individually. What follows is a frame of reference for their use and some of the pitfalls, and it really does provide power at your fingertips, even for something as brutal as to manage gas lighters. To unlock the subconscious mind, or to improve self-talk, is sometimes more than just ‘think and be’. The devil is in the detail, as they say.

Experience (as research) shows that poor habits align to poor outcomes. Positive statements (whether true or not, and when used in an effective manner) are more beneficial than not and simply turning a negative thought into a positive thought can have a more substantial influence than we might imagine. It’s discovering what and how and when to think positively that can be a little tricky, and in the articles and tutorial content we spell out how it’s best orchestrated and why for some the thought of affirmations would rather have them vomit into a soup bowl for breakfast!

Affirmation structure

We can expedite the effectiveness of ‘having already achieved an outcome’ using some surprisingly simple tools, which we have already identified; self-talk, repetition, tone, visualisation, and managing both internal and external environmental influences. Our subconscious soaks in all inputs as if real, and the simple phrasing of an affirmation can be the answer to get things on track. It might be something as simple as identifying within an affirmation words or phrases to which encourages the opposite achievement to that desired, for example ‘I will not drink beer and try harder to get up in the morning to go to the gym’ could be better replaced with ‘I love being healthy’. The simplicity of this second alternative might be hard to comprehend, but anyone desiring to drink less beer, and get to the gym more will have a monumentally better chance of success using the second affirmation here. Additionally, there are significant spin-off benefits contained in the second affirmation, despite it only being a few words, and which in the end hastens the speed toward personal growth.

The bottom line here is affirmations simply don’t work for everyone. Nonetheless, even the biggest sceptics can get more out of life by a deeper consideration, even if they already know they will never work for them. Whether a fan of affirmations or not, there are techniques to alternatively ‘massage the mind’ to achieve great outcomes. In many respects, talking to yourself has never been more awesome, and whether individuals realise it or not, affirmations form part of everyday life, in more ways than one could imagine.