Affirmations
While the mystical benefits of mantra repetition have been expounded for millennia, affirmations may be a more useful method of engaging the conscious mind. Not only in keeping it busy as in the story of the genie but even more importantly, affirmations are a highly effective way of programming the subconscious mind, since we affirm in our own language something that we can actually understand as opposed to something ancient and foreign and outside of our conscious understanding.
To be successful an affirmation should always have the following properties:
1) It should be stated in the positive; a positive affirmation is what you want to happen such as “I am healthy”, stay away from affirming what you don’t want. The mind for reasons unknown does not interpret well statements such as “I am not sick”. For some reason the not in the affirmation gets dropped and instead the mind hears “I am sick”.
2) Affirmations should be short and simple. Long drawn-out statements that are a page long are ineffective because they won’t be repeated often enough and the key to affirmation success is constant repetition.
3) When possible design your affirmation so that they rhyme. This I believe is one of the most powerful ways to make an affirmation successful. I discovered this technique myself, it has worked wonders in my own life and in the lives of others, whom I have taught it to, I even wrote a book about it called Chants. For a whole book of these gems get my book Chants. Here are a few for you to begin using right now:
My mood is good, I’m feeling great, I’m eating healthy and losing weight.
I eat the foods I know I should, because of that I’m feeling good.
I love to workout at the gym, I love to run, lift weights and swim.
I love to sit and meditate, each time I do it, I feel great
I exercise and I feel good, I do the things I know I should.
My muscle tone is looking great, I’m eating healthy and lifting weights.
I have energy and drive; I feel very much alive.
I can do it, I’m a winner, day by day I’m getting thinner.
There is something about the rhyming quality of these chants that allow them to more easily imbed their positive messages into the subconscious mind.