How Positive Affirmation Can Produce Beneficial Change

By Kenneth L. Johnson


You've read all the self-help books: Attitude is everything! Change your perspective! Have a positive outlook! Can these ideas really change your future? And if so, how? In my childhood and adolescence, I was skeptical. Let's fact it, if my brother was born without being able to walk, how could my attitude or outlook change anything?As I got older I continued to reflect on a youth seemingly filled with disappointments and doubts. In talking to my friends and family, I realized I wasn't alone, we've all experienced them. Then, I started taking a good, long look at myself and my feelings. I realized that my deepest feelings were the ones guiding me forward, challenging me to reach to the depth of what I was able to feel - happy or sad. In the end, these feelings allowed me to explore all dimensions of my being.

The task before us then is to become aware of the background beliefs and affirmations we're running, challenge their validity for us today and if they no longer serve our well-being, eliminate and replace them with positive thought patterns that will help us make our goals. Many of the goals women have in today's society are still a challenge to achieve - even thought the women's liberation movement is now several decades along, women still face the pressures of discrimination, balancing home and career, and a workplace environment still skewed to favor our complimentary sex. So, to give ourselves the best possible advantage on our paths to accomplishment, we must take the time to tailor our mental/emotional/spiritual disciplines to suit our needs and not the perceptions of society - the difference between practicing generalized positive affirmations from a list you find on the internet and customized, positive affirmations for women designed by yourself for your unique situation, is that by customizing your affirmations you are actively taking responsibility for the results you get and addressing the issues that have created scarcity or pain of some nature - you are reclaiming your power from what you decided had authority over you.

Since all of our inner conversation and that entire self-talk are streams of affirmations, we continually create our own experience based on the subconscious flow of those words and thoughts. Some of these thought patterns we have developed must have worked well for us since childhood but many of them are sabotaging us from getting what we really want. Remember that, what we think is the reflection of our inner beliefs and many of them are based on inappropriate impressions we have created as children. These behavioral patterns are used by our subconscious to quickly and easily respond to everyday events which is essential to our survival.

How? Simply affirm that is already here.Creating Affirmations.The key to the success of an affirmation is its potential or the potentiality of your creative thought. The laws of the universe will respond then not to your asking for what you wish, but rather your affirmation that it is already here. Look at these statements:

I am a big fan of using affirmation to effect personal change. I believe that by choosing to think positive affirmations, it will be easier for my mind to respond to something I believe to be true. Although I know how it works, I still find it astonishing that something this simple can create a dramatic effect in my life. It is nothing short of remarkable but by simply saying short sentences over and over again, you can produce positive change. But, don't let the simple technique fool you into thinking that they cannot work for you.

Challenge old beliefs. A great deal of the beliefs we have that cause our issues of low self-esteem, lack of self-confidence and helplessness are the results of our early childhood interactions with our parents - beliefs we developed as a five-year old may have been effective at keeping us safe and secure as small children, but that same belief held by an adult can result in a lack of confidence or responsibility for our own happiness, to ask for what we want or be able to say no to others. Unattended, out-worn beliefs that hang around long after their expiry date are responsible for enormous pain and regret; learn to identify them and weed them out of your mind to make room for new, empowering one.

For women, challenging some of the old cultural/tribal beliefs is particularly revealing and empowering as it affects change not only within ourselves, but also has a trickle down effect for new generations. As we challenge, release and replace old limiting beliefs about the roles women were historically assigned to play, we live and teach the new beliefs to those that come after us. For example, a tribal belief within my family and heritage was that the men were the breadwinners and the women were the housekeepers... for a woman to be happy, she had to find and marry "a good man" who would provide her with security, a nice home and a certain level of comfort; and in exchange, she would raise the kids, cook, clean and manage the household. This formula is great if that's what you want; however, in this family, a lesbian career woman with no interest in raising children would experience a certain amount of conflict between the traditional family beliefs and her personal desires.The payoff in challenging old beliefs is that we discover that it is our power of decision that liberates us from the restrictions of the past and it is our power of decision now that creates a new future to our liking. And limiting beliefs about traditional feminine roles contain great material for creating positive affirmations for women to work with in manifesting the results they desire - usually, what we desire is pretty much the opposite of the belief we want to drop, so use the old belief and reword it for the positive outcome you desire.

It is important to realize that all things exist in some form. The money you need is out there. The perfect person you wish you could spend your whole life with is somewhere, just waiting to meet you. The tools you need for learning exist, and so do the people you need to meet. When you stop to think about this, it makes the idea of lack seem utterly preposterous.In order to use affirmations properly, it is important to know what you want. Spend some time thinking about your desires and work on framing your affirmative statements in a manner that will be most powerful. Do not use any negating statements that talk about what you do not wish to have. Think and speak in completely positive terms.

Take a moment today to focus on what you need to heal. Continue to apply the affirmation process. I think you will find it to be a powerful tool. Remember: Affirm, take action and "wait the results in peace." For it is as one of my favorite spiritual councilors, Iyanla Vanzant, says: "You don't get what you ask for, you get what you believe."




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