I wanted to write a post about the power of affirmations and how to effectively use them for weight loss and improving your health. I feel I have mastered most of my weight and health issues and want to share my success with you.
But as I started digging deeper into the power of affirmations, I realized that I need to use affirmations in many other areas of my life.
Unless you are perfectly content with the status quo, affirmations are a powerful tool to change yourself for the better. In this case, the teacher (me), needs to learn the skill that is being taught, so let’s do this together.
Let’s follow these steps to create powerful affirmations to improve your health and life! You will learn…
- What affirmations are
- Why we should use affirmations
- How to effectively create them
- How to implement them
After you’ve read this post, I’d love to hear from you. If you’ve learned something, let me know what was the most helpful. Maybe you would even like to share what affirmations you are using and what kind of an impact it has made in your life. We would all benefit by hearing your story.
What Are Affirmations?
Whether you realize it or not, we all create our own reality in life by the words we speak and the thoughts we think. Affirmations are the expression of our thoughts, words and actions.
An affirmation is a statement that asserts the existence or truth of something. Words that you use when you talk to yourself or others are affirmations.
You might be saying to yourself, “I am overweight and losing weight is really hard”. Then there is a very good chance that you are heavier than you wish to be. If you hold that thought and image consistently, you behave in ways consistent with that belief and then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
If you really want to lose weight and be healthier, you must have positive self-talk. Think about how you want to look and say something like:
“I am healthy, energetic, and at my ideal weight”.
This is the kind of self-fulfilling prophecy you want to see happen!
Why Use Affirmations?
Affirmative statements go beyond the reality of the present into the creation of the future through the words used in the present. Affirmations are effective tools for developing new positive habits and overcoming challenges. Olympic and professional athletes, successful entrepreneurs, any really super successful person uses them to create what they dream of. And you can too.
Words express our thoughts and ideas and gain strength by repetitions. [bctt tweet=”Focus your attention with belief and desire on an affirmation and you energize it. ” username=”@AudreyWeidman”] You are literally thinking something into being!
With affirmations you can develop various skills, improve your concentration, increase your self-confidence and improve your motivation.
If we adopt a positive attitude, we attract and discover other positive things in our surrounding world, and therefore become even more positive. Now that is the kind of path I want to be on! And I bet you do too.
Become aware of your thoughts and speech patterns. After many repetitions, your subconscious begins to accept them as reality. If you catch yourself saying something negative, cancel that thought and turn it around it with a positive affirmation.
How to effectively create powerful affirmations to improve your health and life
I am recommending 10 guidelines you can use to create powerful affirmations for yourself.
1. Start affirmations with “I am”. When we use those two words, it says to our subconscious brain, “I will be” and takes it as a command.
“I am an effective and powerful leader in my company.”
2. Affirm the positive. Choose words to positively reflect what you desire. Focus on choice and health. The subconscious loves to have choice.
“I look and feel great and choose healthy foods and habits for vibrant health”.
The fear of deprivation can set into motion the exact activity (e.g. overeating) that you wish to discontinue. How many times have you been on a “diet” only to start craving the forbidden foods more than ever? Instead of saying “I am sticking to my diet”, change it to
“I am vibrant, energetic, and at my ideal weight.”
3. Use action words. Getting, achieving, creating – a verb with “ing”. These action words link to an image of a remembered activity. The more clearly that you see the action in your mind, the more impact that affirmation will be.
“I am leading my team with passion and inspire them every day”.
4. Be specific. Become really clear on what it is you are affirming, so that your brain and the universe know exactly what to create for you. The amount, the time, a measureable specific should be included.
“I am reaching at least 1,000 new people per month via the internet”.
5. Evoke emotions. Use words that are charged with a strong emotional response in you.
“I am cheerfully choosing food that supports my healthy body.”
6. Make it short. They need to be easy to remember and easy to repeat throughout the day
“I am a magnet for health”
7. Write in the present tense, not the future. Communicate to your mind that you believe what you want has already happened. This isn’t lying to yourself: it acknowledges that everything is first created in your mind before your goal can be manifested. Imagine your goal being achieved and your dreams realized. Then everything in your subconscious wants to reorganize itself to become consistent with that statement and the shift begins.
“I am loving the way my body moves and feels”.
8. Express yourself. Choose your words to exactly describe to yourself the state you desire. Words like happily, gratefully, excitedly, lovingly, etc. Use words that flow naturally and that ring true for you. Our inner child likes the musicality of rhyme and it is easy to remember and internalize.
“Every day and in every way, I am getting better, better and better.”
“I am living the life of my dreams, riches flow to me in multiple streams.”
9. Be realistic. What you decide to think, what you decide to constantly affirm, will determine your actions. Your mind needs to know that what you are saying has the potential of coming true. If you don’t believe it when you say it, or it doesn’t resonate with you then you won’t get very far. Stretch out of your comfort zone, but stay in the realm of possibility.
“I am celebrating that I have helped over 1,000 people improve their health this year”.
10. An Attitude of Gratitude Phrase your affirmations in a celebratory tone. What would it feel like if those goals and d reams came true? Write from that place. And remember to count your blessings and be grateful. You might even want to keep a gratitude journal. When you appreciate what you have done, then you will attract more to yourself.
“I am grateful I have vibrant health with no need for prescription medicine”.
How To Implement Affirmations
Affirmations can be done silently, spoken aloud, written down, or even sung or chanted. It is best to say them when you are in a relaxed mental state like when you first wake up or right before you go to bed. You can say them to yourself in the mirror and watch your belief grow.
If you become aware that you are repeating habitual, negative thoughts, say an affirmation to yourself a few times right then and there to negate the old thought pattern.
I have started by creating about 10 affirmations that I am working on. I have printed them out and keep them on my nightstand. If I travel, I take them with me. Each morning and each night I go through the stack of cards, one at a time, read the card, close my eyes, and see the completion of that goal in its perfect desired state for about 15 seconds. I open my eyes and repeat the process with the next card. Then I follow-up with a 10-15 meditation. Not a bad investment of time to positively affect the course of your life, right?
“I am beautiful. I am loved. I am vibrantly alive”.
Now Over to You:
If you’ve read this far, you’ve made my day. I’d love to know your thoughts. If you’d like to receive some beautiful weight loss affirmation that you can print out for your own use, click here and I will send them to you.
For more information on affirmations and visualization I recommend the following books:
Shakti Gawain Creative Visualization
Jack Canfield Chicken Soup For The Soul
Tony Robbins Unleash The Power Within