The power of affirmations

Hello everyone, I just wanted to open a subject about the power of affirmations.

I use positive affirmations for health, courage, relaxing effects etc. They do work very well in my case. Since I believe in God and practice yoga (I'm talking about meditation) I incorporate God's name or /saints in affirmations. Some of them are my creation (and I make them very simple and personal) and some are Paramahansa Yogananda's affirmations. I'm a big fan of his.

For example:
“Perfect Father, Thy light is flowing through Christ,
through the saints of all religions,
through the masters of India,
and through me.
This divine light is present in all my body parts.
I am well.” (Paramahansa Yogananda)

I take an affirmation and repeat it for months (for at least an hour daily while walking outside or working out), sometimes for years in order to see an effect. And it did change my thoughts! I find this wonderful especially because I used to be very doubtful in the beginning. But I decided to try to use the affirmations anyway. And to stick with repeating them daily.

I used to be in pain for years, back pain mostly but now I'm quite well. At least the pain is manageable and what I did was basically not to pay attention to it so much, not to talk about it. And as I said, I use affirmations all the time. Another thing that I did was to get out of my misery because it was quite tiring mentally and physically, so I started to do things for others. To help, to volunteer, to pray for others when I couldn't do anything else to help them. Dr' Handscom's book was VERY very helpful and this site also, the success stories. Now I lift weights 3 times/week and I mean very seriously for at least 40 min a session. And I do use expressive writing. Every day, sometimes twice a day. Dr. Sarno's books were very interesting but my chronic back pain didn't went away after reading them. I have to admit though that dr. Sarno was a very intuitive person indeed.

I highly recommend the affirmations, their power is amazing. In my case they changed my thinking patterns in a way that was very unexpected. Plus I used to be a quite cynical person and now I'm much more compassionate towards other people and towards myself.

 

Thanks for sharing you experience of affirmations and I'm a big believer in them also. Although I never had the will or discipline to carry them out religiously everyday despite seeing others people success with them.

 

Yes, they work indeed.

Another thing that I used to do (and I really recommended it because it works!) is to post small notes on the mirrors (in the bathroom or bedroom) or around the house. Each note has an affirmation on it, a short one and I read it every time I see it and then repeat it a few times. For example: "I am a child of God, God loves me, everything is fine". Or "I and my father are one". Otherwise is easy to forget about the affirmations but if you see them a few times a day it gets quite easy. This is useful mostly in the beginning. In time, one doesn't need the pieces of paper anymore in order to remember to repeat the affirmation.

 

I'm now using affirmations - I'm following ACE1's success story tips in particular to check-in with my body regularly to notice all internal reactions (tension, fear etc.,) throughout the day and then to repeat affirmations that are the opposite of the tension, fear or whatever negativity I'm feeling/experiencing, e.g. my current favourite is to say to myself 'I am peaceful, calm, relaxed and confident'. Great advice about the post it notes, @Sita - I'm going to do that today

 

I do that too! And I did it in the past too, more often. It's a great tool and it brings tremendous comfort. Mentally, inside, in the heart.
I'll read ACE1 success story now, thank you for mentioning it. You can find it here: http://tmshelp.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=7664 (TMSHelp Forum - Recovery story with keys to recovery at the end)

You'll love repeating the affirmations! They are very powerful and effective.

The one that I use every single day these days is:

AFFIRMATION

I relax and cast aside all mental burdens,
allowing God to express through me
His perfect love, peace, and wisdom.

— From Scientific Healing Affirmations
by Paramahansa Yogananda

 

Thanks for posting the link to ACE1's story on the TMSHelp forum, @Sita - I only before saw his 29 point plan/tips on this forum we're on now, and hadn't seen the paragraph at the beginning about his symptoms that's in his TMSHelp forum posting; I'm also going to read that now plus what ACE1 also posted in conversation with others in the same thread.

I've just put up my post it notes around the house; I bought some heart shaped ones to use

 

Nice!

In order to be more effective, you could use only one affirmation in the beginning. And have it on notes around the house. It's better this way. You'll learn it faster and it's going to become more like a second nature for you to repeat it in the future. That is what I did.

After a while, you can chose another affirmation and use it for a few weeks (months). Then you can practice/try two at the same time. I just don't recommend using too many, it gets more confusing, especially in the beginning.

Have a lovely day!

 

You have a lovely day too, and thanks for the tip @Sita - I'm going to change all my post it notes to ones that say 'I am peaceful, calm, relaxed and confident' as that will be nice and short and simple and easy to try remember to start off with - and I'll take down the others to save for later

 

Now I use:

"I'm pain free,
I'm confident and strong,
I'm a lioness!"