By Annie Alvarado
Be kind to yourself and you will be healthier, happier and will achieve more in your lifetime! Our bodies and minds are linked and are so closely related that positive and negative thoughts (self-talk) can reflect in the way we feel and can even affect your health!
It’s common for people to engage in negative self-talk, where we tell our self that we “can’t”, “shouldn’t”, or “don’ts”, which stops us from actualizing our full potential. A good example of this would be a young person being told by their teacher, adult or parent that they do not have the ability to do something, or that they were overweight or awkward. Unfortunately, those negative thoughts will probably stay in that child’s conscious or subconscious mind throughout their life.
Negative self-talk can sabotage our health, relationships, and even our life goals. If our subconscious perceives a beneficial goal, such as stopping us from doing something out of fear, it will do just about anything to stop us – even so much as becoming sick or even breaking a limb. Some believe that negative thoughts can even cause serious illnesses, such as cancer. Of course there are many reasons we get sick, but being healthy mentally can prevent sickness and even strengthen our healing abilities.
Positive affirmations are things you tell yourself to help achieve goals, feel better, stop negative feelings, and self-heal. “You can do it,” and the opposites of the other negative talk words, “can”, “should”, and “do” are examples of positive affirmation words. Our best defense against negative talk is to have a healthy mind and healthy self-image. We believe positive affirmations are the best tool, both in fighting negative self-talk and the way to a healthier self-image.
There are several different ways to use self-affirmations including: saying the statement several times a day, writing the statement down (I like to put PA’s on sticky notes and place them in strategic places in my home – on the refrigerator, bathroom mirror), and thinking about of the statement as often as possible. These affirmations are conscious thoughts that, when thought of enough, will become subconscious thoughts.
How to Use Positive Affirmations (PA’s) –
- Find a reason to feel what’s being said is true. (You must believe what you say.)
- You must commit! Practice everyday and say PA’s daily to get positive results.
- Avoid all negative thoughts and do not think about negative situations.
- Do not share your PA’s with others until you are completely comfortable with the process, as others may pose self-doubt, reducing the power of your PA’s.
How Positive Affirmations Work –
Our minds cannot differentiate between things that are real or fake. It’s like when you cry at a movie…you know the person in the movie really didn’t die, but you cry anyway. Or when you cry at the though of something that it isn’t happening now, but you cry anyway. Affirmations work when they become subconscious thoughts. So, when we use PA’s, we are introducing the beliefs that we want our mind to have and if we keep introducing this thought over and over, it will be memorized and become a part of our subconscious (we will think it automatically). Our brain will not know that thought was placed there; it will think it’s reality…and that is how they work. The one trick is that while placing this thought into our subconscious (saying the PA over and over), we need to believe it. So you have to choose PA’s that you believe in.
Daily Exercise –
Take 30 index cards and write one positive affirmation on each. One card is for each day of the month – read one positive affirmation a day. When you finish a month, start again. You will end up writing one affirmation for each day of the year. You can hold the 365 cards in a recipe box and reuse them each year. Add new affirmations as you need them or as you find new fun statements.
I’ll leave you with some positive affirmations for health (from Law-of-attraction-Explained.com) to get you started:
“I radiate good health”
“I am well, I am whole, and I am strong and healthy”
“My sleep is relaxed and refreshing”
“I am healthy, happy and radiant”
“My mind is at peace”
“I am healthy in all aspects of my being”
“I have balance in my life”
“I have vitality”
“I have the choice to change”
“I am healthy, healed and whole”
“My body heals quickly and easily”
“Every cell in my body vibrates with energy and health”
Sources:
http://www.vitalaffirmations.com/health.htm#.UBUDXo5XLzI
http://www.silvalifesystem.com/articles/affirmations/positive-affirmations-and-self-hypnosis/
http://www.livestrong.com/article/15086-self-affirmations/
http://suite101.com/article/affirmations-for-health-wellness-and-healing-a173512
http://suite101.com/article/affirmations-a-self-improvement-tool-part-2-a117385
http://suite101.com/article/affirmations-a-self-improvement-tool-part-1-a117381
http://www.law-of-attraction-explained.com/health-affirmations.html
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