Affirmations - A Tool in Your Kit to Beat Depression

An affirmation is a statement that you repeat to yourself. At one point or another, you may have used them intentionally or accidentally. You woke up in the morning, leap out of bed and proclaim, "I feel superb". That's a positive affirmation.

You woke groggily dragging yourself out of beg at first light and moan "I feel crappy". That's a negative affirmation. Both of these statements serve to sustain the emotional state you're in.

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Our self-talk, what we say to our self plays a vital as it directly affects our conscious and subconscious brain. Our self-talk has the ability to alter the state of our brain, get all the info you need here.

Our affirmations works perfectly well to sustain our current emotional state, it can even be used to alter the state of brain. Of course, altering the state of our mind calls for more work, especially if we are going to change how we think and feel, however, if you follow these guidelines, affirmations may become a solid, invaluable tool that will help you to attain a happier and healthier life.

The Basics

A first fundamental rule is that the affirmation should be stated right “in the moment”. Use words like "I am ... " or "I have ... ". Your brain needs to know it is happening now.

Next, the affirmations ought to be stated in a way that confirms what you want is already achieved. Say something like "I'm happy now" works better than saying is "I'm getting happy" or "I will be happy".

Furthermore, the tone of the affirmations ought to be positive. It is more effective to say "I feel safe" instead of saying "I 'm not scared". The latter does the reverse of what you wish. It focuses your brain on the word "scared" and triggers that same feeling. To your brain, it as if the word "not" was not there in the first place.

The affirmations ought to be in your style of language. I read the following affirmation in a book. "Energy, passion, and perfect health are my birthright. I assume these priceless treasures with gratefulness, with the utmost knowledge that as I give out energy, more rushes in."

I completely agree with the fundamental sentiment and ideas in this poetic affirmation. However, the problem here is that I don’t speak or think like this. It will be difficult for my brain to pick up this affirmation as it simply doesn't sound like me.

Still, if this sounds like you, then by all means utilize it. Personally, I can alter the above affirmation and express it in my words if I want to use it. I will say "I deserve to have power, enthusiasm and health. I take on all of life's gifts. The more power I utilize, the more I'll have." This is more related to the way I speak and think.

Your affirmations may include how you'd like to feel: "I feel fantastic, I'm energetic; or I feel safe". It can also include how you'd like your life to be: "I'm a happy individual; I attract positive individuals into my life; “I solve problems or challenges easily”.

An equally effective way to utilize affirmations is to formulate them to counter your damaging self-talk. Whenever you find yourself saying negative things to yourself, formulate an affirmation that counterbalances the damaging effect and begin saying it till you feel differently about yourself.

Take this as an example. Imagine you're working on a task. It doesn’t have to be work related; it may be a personal issue or an interpersonal problem you're attempting to resolve. But despite your best efforts, you can't seem to get the hang of it or maybe you encounter a snag of some sort.

All of a sudden your self-confidence suffers a hit and you find yourself thinking "I can't do this. I bit off more than I can chew. I'm not just smart enough." If you allow this negative self-talk to persevere, it will eventually become your reality and ensure you fail at the task.

A very good way to get rid of such negative thoughts is to create a few positive affirmations. For instance, you could say "I feel confident, I'm a winner, I think clearly and do the right things” I'd repeat each affirmation several times 3 to 4 times during the day until I felt better about myself and about finishing the task.

Since the existence of language humans have utilized affirmations to boost their self-esteem and self-confidence. In recent years they have been used to help us slim down, stop smoking or overcome some other bad habits. We utilize affirmations to alleviate anger, break depression, manage our stress and get over our fears. We utilize affirmations in almost all spheres of our life in all areas of personal growth and self-reformation.

Once you have your affirmations, you can find different ways to utilize them. While saying it, think of what you’re trying to achieve and put a little feeling into it. It is more effective to say it out loud than to repeat it silently. However, if you’re in a situation where saying it out loud may be distracting, do it silently. It’s much better than not executing it at all.

Execute your affirmations right before you sleep as it will keep positive thoughts in your subconscious brain all night.
Equally important is the need to create time to execute your affirmations shortly after you get up as this will help keep you focused all day. It may be during shower or while in the tub.

During the day is also an excellent period to fit in your affirmations 2 or 3 more times. When you fit them in isn't crucial, they most important thing is that they're spaced out during the day. This is based on 2 important principles in psychology.

It has been revealed that our brain learns quickest with what is known as "massed practice". “Massed practice” is when you repeat the same affirmations several times in a row. The problem however is that “massed practice” also triggers quick forgetting. "Spaced practice" involves restating all the affirmations 3 more times throughput the day. “Spaced practice” on the other prompts “slow learning and slow forgetting. A blend of both "massed and spaced" practice presents us the best of both: quick learning and slow forgetting.

A vital point to note in the use of affirmations is that, stating it with feelings adds a different emotional attribute to it. The effect on the brain will be more pronounced compared with affirmations that are devoid of feeling. I have found it very helpful to add visuals to my affirmations.

Visualization increases the effectiveness of the affirmations on your conscious and subconscious brain. This will make your affirmations significantly better.

During one of your affirmation sessions, instead of saying the affirmations shut your eyes and visualize yourself doing exactly what you say in your affirmations.

This visualization adds a different dimension of energy to your affirmations. Repeat your positive affirmations to yourself anytime you catch yourself saying negative self-talk. Begin using positive affirmations right at that moment to combat the negative feeling.

When used effectively, affirmations can be an efficient tool for self-improvement and personal growth. It may help you alleviate your tension, anger, depression and fear. They may even help you give up bad habits or motivate you to lose excess weight. Affirmation can also boost your self-assurance, self-esteem and self-assertiveness.

The challenge for most people is impatience and consistency. They utilize their affirmations on and off for a couple of days after which they drop it because they feel there is no improvement. But the truth is that habits are deeply ingrained and it will definitely take more than one week to overwrite a bad habit or to start seeing results. Execute your affirmations consistently and give it at least a thirty day trial period.

Note that you may need more than 30 days if what you’re attempting to correct is more severe. In certain situations, you may even need more than affirmations to get the changes you desire.

Affirmations are simply one of the many tools of change. Most of us will need more than one tool and more than one month. Still, if you utilized affirmations correctly they are a great tool that can help you to grow and heal.

As you continue to make good use of your affirmations, you will become more conscious of your feelings, thoughts, and actions. You will think positive thoughts that will help you make significant changes in your life.

As you experience these changes, your actions will begin to shift in the direction you're trying to go. This is not the time to give up because you're becoming more adept at controlling your thoughts, feelings and actions.