Affirmations are bridges from current to future present (as self-optimizing motivational-belief patterns)
This is not going to be where I tell you how important affirmations are, where you’re supposed to replace negative thoughts with positive ones. You already know what affirmations are supposed to do, but I don’t like the (hippy dippy) way I’ve seen them or their benefits explained or described.
Affirmations are a way to organize your thoughts around an intention to give yourself the highest chance of bringing it about in your reality. Since everything we do influences our subconscious into forming our reality, affirmations replace any doubt that may have otherwise colored your perception on a particular desire you have and allows you to consciously step back and re-frame all your ideas about that desire into a statement that fits you personally and works for you to believe in, to set yourself up for success in that endeavor, desire or activity.
Winging it vs. Keeping yourself on track
Without affirmations, people can be successful more due to a lack of innate doubt, a high self esteem or self confidence, and strong vision they hold which acts like a compass taking them toward the reality they want. For many people though, intents and desires (like New Year’s resolutions) tend to fade in their original strength and become haphazard, lacking in the initial strong belief they had when they originally got the motivation to go after it. Without a self-directed, self-organizing technique like an affirmation, your thoughts can easily slide into negativity, or at the very least be colored in a negative vibe or perception at some depth of your neural activity relating to the topic, something you absolutely can’t have if you are to realize the fruition of your goal or desire within any reasonable (the most efficient) time frame.
So since most of us have not completely leg to, unblocked, freed or otherwise optimized out all internal negativity/self-doubt, affirmations help us trigger our raw motivational power with a fixed verbal phrases we can easily process, believe and hold on to. They set you straight, make you believe in yourself, and reclaim the motivation needed to keep pushing. Affirmations put you back at the wheel of the ship, to keep your mind anchored to your goals and dreams (to continue our sailing analogy), or specific outcomes you’re wanting to get after. It also focuses you in a totally positive way because YOU choose the affirmation that best fits your current circumstances or level you perceive you are at.
Your brain generates the affirmation that most closely reflects:
- Your current state
- What you reasonably can believe you can expect to achieve
- A goal or new state that energizes and stretches your abilities enough to be motivated
As bridges from present to future present reality, or the mechanics of goal-realization
Affirmations are like the day-to-day implementation of the mindset you need to have to work at the monthly, quarterly and/or yearly goals you’ve set out for yourself. They can apply to anything, althought I prefer an awareness of how broad or narrowly in context the affirmation is being applied to. This is partly based on the number of goals you set during a given time frame (which should be few per long-ish time period to avoid spreading your efforts too thinly, say 3 per day, week, month, and year).
You can write and edit a few affirmations per goal or project you’re working on, to state the progress or completion of the goal. This I believe has a way of connecting the goal to your reality, which gives rise to the focusing your actions toward the realization of the new goal or state. Obviously, it’s important to visualize the thoughts, feelings, purpose of having attained the goal itself, but affirmations keep you grounded in present reality with a connection to the new state already attained. It puts you “in process of” completion and drives your actions toward it. Again, because our brain always self-optimizes actions toward a result. Affirmations allow you to self-direct this activity toward a goal stated as progress is being made toawrd it or it having been accomplished, in the present.
Affirmations and ego/raw motivation
I believe affirmations are tied to some integral part of the ego, hope, self esteem, all or some of the basic human desires of self growth, which, when you cut straight to them, there is no negativity. Almost like this sense is triggered due to social influence around the start of a new year, when we truly believe in our own capacity for change and growth. Sadly, this declines over time as we see that the same responsibilities and patterns are there, every day, controlling us if we don’t do something different and start controlling them to give us what we want (new years resolution goal).
So we can reorient to this state of self growth and intentional purity by developing a mental technique of stopping ourselves when we feel doubt around some topic. Stated in the present, this will create a sort of springboard, re-energizing us to move forward in the most efficient way to get closer to success. Think of it like a software you instill in your mind, the same way it is recommended to replace a negative thought with a positive one, affirmations take a step higher, a broader retuning of your base intent toward your truest most meaningful desires. Write them down and revisit them along with your goals, to ensure you’re making progress on the projects you set out to help you reach those goals.
Not only do they serve to replace negative thoughts with positive ones, they reorient you toward larger life purposes, they remind you to strongly believe in yourself, especially the more progress you make, whether its with weight loss, doing better at work, putting more effort into family time, or developing a skill or hobby you want to turn into extra income.
To find out more of what I’m talking about, read Creating Money by Sanaya Roman and Duane Packer
tl;dr – When you feel any doubt or frustration about a goal or project, stop, review your original goal, and mentally generate a phrase that describes the very next end result you want and can expect to attain in a reasonably short time period in terms of already having attained it. Write it down, adjust when needed, and stay mindful of it.