Affirmations Not Working For You? How To Supercharge Them - Part1
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by: DebbieThomas
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If you have spent any length of time studying Personal Development these days, you must have heard that what you think about is what you will bring about in your reality. If you focus consistently on what you want you will start to really Believe it. When you really Believe it, you will begin to take the appropriate action that will move you closer and closer to what you desire. We often hear that Seeing is Believing, but it's the reverse that is really true. It's called the Law of Attraction and was talked about in the movie 'The Secret.'
Our magnificent brains process and store every single bit of information that we have ever learned or experienced. When it comes to learning new things, the way our brain learns new things is by REPETITION. Think about it. How does an actress master the dialog in a play - repetition. How does an athlete become the best at what they do - repetition. Everything we've learned, from times tables to walking and talking has been learned by repetition. So it would seem reasonable that if you want to teach your brain to believe differently, the way to do it would be by repeating what you now want to believe about yourself and your life.
Great...that makes sense. The more you repeat something, the quicker your subconscious should start to agree with you. So in comes Affirmations. Affirmations are just statements about what you WANT to believe. They are touted by just about every self help expert as the way to 'Fake it til you Make it', and keep that positive attitude, because essentially you are just repeating over and over what you desire to believe.
Well, that still makes sense too, doesn't it. So if we keep on repeating our affirmations diligently, we'll all be fabulously wealthy, right? Should be simple, shouldn't it? Then why aren't we all abundantly wealthy then? Because WE STOP DOING THEM! At least most people stop before they have an chance to take effect. There are two main reasons why this happens:
1. Deep down we don't really believe what we are affirming to ourselves so unless there is instant change, we lose the momentum, and
2. We don't know how to instantly turn things around when we are thrown into a downward spiral when something happens to upset our plans, and we have no anchor to grab onto, so we stop trying, telling ourselves that 'this doesn't work.'
The main reason we don't keep doing daily affirmations, even though we know repetition is the best way to learn is that the affirmations are aimed at changing deep rooted beliefs. It's not the same as changing your nail polish. Most of our beliefs about ourselves were deeply implanted before we were 7 years old. So if you have a deep belief that money is the root of all evil for instance, you can affirm that you are a millionaire all day long and all you will echo back is " Who are you kidding?" it won't take long before the average person gets bored, too busy or out and out frustrated long before the affirmations can start to work.
Now if you did do them every single day without fail, you would eventually see a change, but since you belief systems won't allow you to change instantly, most people give up in frustration way too soon. It's not your fault though, at least not in a conscious way anyway.
Here's the rub. We really are made up of two minds - our conscious mind and our subconscious mind - AKA your ego. Our subconscious mind - the one that runs all the minute parts of you that you have no conscious idea are going on (like oxygen and the right nutrients to every single cell in your body) is really the one who is in charge. It has been operating you just fine all these years and likes you just the way you are - even if that is broke and miserable. It knows that program. So when you consciously start to interfere with its operation of YOU, it takes offense. So you begin out of the blue to affirm that "I am successful and free" and it constantly feeds back "No you're not - are you nuts?" So you try to force the change and it will come back at your with every reason in the book why this is a stupid exercise and a waste of your valuable time. This 'Belief Detective' as I call it will keep you right where you are if you can't get past it, or at least acknowledge what is happening. The great irony in all of this is that it truly believe it is protecting you. Go figure!
So, what you need to do is come up with some way of bypassing your ever present 'Belief Detective'. How do you do that? One way is to make your affirmations into a song. When we sing a song, our subconscious stops being on guard, it's just a song after all. It's called suspending your disbelief, much like you do when you see a movie (Like Never Never Land), and if you can do that, you are half way home. Plus, once you get a song stuck in your head, you usually sing it over and over again on autopilot and not get bored, all the while those affirmations are slipping right in past the guard Think about it and stay tuned for Part 2 where we will talk about how you can instantly change your negative attitude.
About the Author
Debbie Thomas is the creator of AttitudeZapz! Affirmation Jingles. These short, catchy jingles with affirmations built right in will motivate you to keep motivated and focused on your dreams and goals.
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