Traditional Affirmations Don’t Work for Me, What About You?

Thanks to someone (www.Twitter.com/elisafrench) I’m following on Twitter I was reminded about the power, or not, of affirmations. There are a lot websites and books espousing the value of training your conscious and subconscious mind by reciting repeatedly positive statements to change your life.

I was first exposed to the power of affirmations on a consistent basis while attending a series of Anthony Robbins workshops about 11-years ago. Robbins recommends what he calls “incantations” which are positive affirmations recited with powerful emotional and physical intensity so that the message becomes ingrained in your muscle memory as well and creates a more emotional connection.

A couple of years after investing dozens of hours with these positive affirmations, incantations I noticed something that bothered me. My mind and body began rejecting the messages I was trying to implant in my psyche. I began to introspectively study this phenomenon while researching it online.

Being certified in hynotherapy and NLP I’m very well-versed in how the conscious and sub-conscious mind works. And, having spent two years with Anthony Robbins workshops I’m also well-versed in the fact that we must translate our thoughts into actions in order to achieve the success we desire. Somewhere I noticed a disconnect between the two.  The affirmations and incantations were not translating to action, they were keeping me stuck as I began to reject the statements I was trying to implant.

There are two primary reasons for this:
1) There usually is nothing in the affirmation that promotes taking action. The reason for this is that the philosophy of the process of reciting the affimation is that “the mind can not tell the difference between what’s real and what’s imagined” so that if you just tell yourself something often enough you will just begin moving towards becoming the person you desire.  This was really brought to light after watching the movie “The Secret,” which I thought was a great primer on the power of positive thought and visualization, but there was a missing link, and that was the action component.

2) There is usually no basis in fact and no supportive structure within the affirmation that you can believe to be true. For this reason I believe your mind will reject it and make you feel even worse and less motivated than when you started.

It is my belief, and I think you’ll agree, that there must be some basis on which to believe the affirmation to be true so that you can build from that foundation. Therefore, I want to share with you a strategy I’ve created that has made a difference for me and my clients, they’re called “Active Affirmations.”

The primary difference between “Traditional Affirmations” and “Active Affirmations” is the statement, which is a little bit longer and more specific regarding the action you are committed to taking to move towards fulfilling the future you want to create.

For example, the traditional affirmation of “I am Happy & Healthy.” This may or may not be true depending on your personal situation. If it is not, no matter how much you recite this you will not be any closer to feeling that way, and you may even feel less so.

Here is my corresponding “Active Affirmation” - “I deserve to be happy and healthy and every day I take specific positive actions that allow me to create a happy and healthy lifestyle.”

Notice the “Active Affirmation” is much more specific in telling yourself that you “deserve” happiness which is important to reinforce because many people do not believe they deserve the things they want, and it also includes a statement that you will take some action to get what you want. This statement will focus you on doing positive things as you go through your day to make your statement come true.

Here’s another:
Traditional Affirmation: “Wealth is pouring into my life!”

Active Affirmation: “I believe I deserve to create and enjoy all the wealth the world has to offer and I go after it daily by consistently providing value every where I go.”

Again, here, you are focusing on doing something to bring the wealth to you by providing value to the world first.

If you are interested in a complete exercise on “Active Affirmations” I’m offering it free of charge. The original .pdf lesson is part of my “Breakthrough FOCUS” course that I created two years ago and has been on hiatus since the spring of 2008. I believe it may be time to resurrect it for this coming fall.

Send me an e-mail if you’d like a copy of my “Active Affirmations” Lesson to Info@SkipWeisman.com .