We’ve all heard about the power of positive thinking and positive affirmations. Sounds pretty straightforward, right? If you think about something enough, it becomes a reality.
If you accept this as true, then we need to become more aware of what we put into our minds, because that will inevitably become our reality.
“It just takes a subtle shift, for a big cataclysmic change, there’s the intention behind everything”
– Yogi Aaron
So, what is positive thinking? How do affirmations affect my day?
Picture for a moment.
On a regular morning, your alarm pulls you out of sleep and into wakefulness.
As you open your eyes, the sunlight gently peaks in between the blinds of your window. You can hear some birds chirping far in the distance. You roll over and think to yourself, “Urgh, I’m so tired… I hate Mondays”.
Thoughts trigger a feeling, and the feeling sets the tone for our behavior throughout the day, week, year, life. A lot of the time, we might even miss the visit from these negative thoughts.
Just think for a moment, how many times you have said, or have heard someone else say,
“Don’t talk to me when I first wake up, or I will be a total %^&*% to you.”
or
“I am a real BI%^CH until I have had a cup of coffee in the morning.”
Do you recognize these statements? The negative affirmations become self-fulfilling prophecies in our life.
So, what is positive thinking, you ask? It’s exactly that. Being aware of what we are thinking throughout our day. Making an intentional choice to actively transform those thoughts. From negative to positive.
Negative thinking is directly connected to emotional and mental disorders.
That’s quite an impact, even for the over-the-top enthusiast types. We listen to this unconstructive, mental chatter, and, as a result, we become disconnected from our true selves and purpose. Your thoughts create your life! (Watch this short video with the renowned Louis Hay on this topic.
But as soon as we say to ourselves, “I choose to live differently,” we can begin to transform our lives and wake up the highest aspects of our minds.
In fact, you can begin to flip the script right NOW by deciding to affirm in the mornings:
“I am happy to be awake.”
“I am grateful to hear birds at my window.”
Change comes from:
1. Awareness of what is happening
2. Taking responsibility for making that change happen. Daily.
How to Change Your Thoughts?
There comes a time in life when you catch yourself in a thought that you didn’t even know belonged to you.
I remember having a conversation with a friend about the distribution of resources in the world. As he said to me, “… the world is abundant, and it has enough resources for everyone.”
I responded and blurted out, “No, it doesn’t. There isn’t enough for everyone.”
I caught myself in that moment and heard what I said.
I was shocked and surprised at what I said because I had never consciously thought it before. In fact, I strongly disagreed (and still disagree) with that negative affirmation. I wondered attached that moment how many other negative thought patterns polluted my subconscious mind? And more, how many of these negative thought patterns were steering my destiny?
“What we think about, we bring about.”
I had many thought patterns that I wasn’t even aware of.
I knew I needed to change these thought patterns, as they didn’t align with my core values and beliefs.
Have you actually stopped to reflect on what you think about a subject because most of us never do? You can’t change your thoughts if you don’t know what your thoughts are.
Consider a belief an attitude it belief you have.
If you can’t draw one to mind, let me indulge you.
Consider your beliefs about food and hunger.
When you are hungry, what thoughts do you have? Then, just let the thoughts float in. Don’t force them, simply see what appears.
When you become conscious of your thoughts, write them down.
Are you surprised? This is how you can start to change your thoughts.
(By the way, I brought up the topic of food, because most of us have many debilitating beliefs and attitudes concerning food. But that is a topic for another day. 😁)
What Are Positive Affirmations?
Positive affirmations are positive statements that connect you to your true self. The one that’s been buried under all the negative utterances of the external world during the human experience.
Our body’s subconscious mind also doesn’t know the difference between the past and the future, all that there is now. So, as we paint our future of how we want it to be, it needs to be already in the present.
Why?
Believe it will happen for you because you are already the kind of person these things happen to.
We must focus on being and not seeking something outside of us. For the impact of positive affirmations to be sustainable, we need to build our character and avoid getting sidetracked with external objectives and temporary goals.
Note – There’s nothing wrong with external goals, but they need to be in alignment with our beliefs and our true selves.
How Do Affirmations Work?
A negative thought pattern might tell us: “I am not smart enough.”
Remember, this is an affirmation because you are affirming that you are not smart enough.
Because of this affirmation, we will then make decisions that do nothing for our growth. Operating from influences of the external world rather than being motivated by our true nature.
For example, someone who is searching for how to be happy is operating from the external belief that ‘finding happiness is the purpose of life.’
How did we forget that happiness is a consequence of the type of life we lead?
Start cultivating habits that align you with living your best life so that you may manifest and live your life purpose more effortlessly.
In doing so, you will radiate those internal qualities that will attract more happiness to you. And who knows, maybe you will start to attract a high salary, a loving relationship, or begin traveling the world.
When you become inwardly aligned, the outer world begins to flow more easily.
Happiness doesn’t respond to how much effort you put into it, how much time you spend wishing to be happy. Just like water will not boil faster because you’re standing there starring at it.
Conscious Way to Reprogram Your Subconscious Mind
Think of your goals as your ‘doing’ setting and your identity as your ‘being’ setting.
When we decide on a goal, but it doesn’t match up with what we believe of ourselves as true in the present, how can we achieve it?
If we catch ourselves thinking: “I am not good enough,” it will not be possible for us to attract opportunities that allow for this – “I will earn a six-figure salary by the time I’m 30.”.
Noticing these kinds of discrepancies in our thought process will help us speak our inner truths. As we live out our narratives, what we tell ourselves becomes who we are.
As complex beings, our simple negative affirmations can develop further into negative narratives. And we have to dig a little deeper to change this thought pattern.
Here is an example of a negative affirmation:
“I am free of debt.”
This affirmation focuses on having debt, which is negative.
Whereas a positive affirmation focuses on the present and what is around us.
“I am grateful for the abundance that surrounds me.”
The seeds we grow in the meadow of our inner worlds change our life’s trajectory. When we are intentional in what we think and speak, this is when we come to an alignment of self and purpose.
So what truth do you want to speak?
Make It a Daily Ritual
When we think a thought repeatedly, when we continually say it loud, eventually someone is going to hear us. With every affirmation, with every thought and utterance, we send out energy through the medium of words. Then, it is brought back to us in the form of experience.
You know, what goes around…
We have a choice in what we think, how we react to what we feel, and what we imagine for ourselves.
While we have little to no control over what life presents to us, but we can control our attitudes in any given circumstance during our human experience.
So now the big question you need to ask is, “What choice are you going to make now?”
“What you think you become. What you feel you attract. What you imagine you create.”
Paraphrased from the Yoga Sutras.
