The word affirmation means ‘to strengthen’. Within the context of LighterLife, affirmations are about changing the way we talk to ourselves to counter negative messages. Affirmations are powerful motivating statements which can support your goals for your weight management to strengthen your resolve to change.
Affirmations are one of the tools, if used on a regular basis, you can use to utilise your power.
Here is the key – Affirmations are a way of telling yourself ‘I am’. Not telling yourself of dreams and hopes about ‘what you want to be’.
The power of Affirmations
‘What you see is what you get’. There are four structures that make affirmations powerful:
Present tense
Keep it in the present tense using words like ‘I am, I have’.
Not future talk such as ‘I will have’ whatever, ‘My body will be’ whatever. That is setting yourself up for always aiming for something and never getting there.
Positive statement
Keep it as a positive statement about who you want to be and do. An affirmation about wanting to be a healthier weight would be said as ‘I am at my healthier weight’, not ‘I want to be at a healthier weight’.
Personal
Keep it personal. An affirmation is about you. You cannot affirm for someone else. Start with words that are personal to you, words like ‘I ‘and ‘my’.
Repetition
Keep repeating your affirmations. ‘Acting as if’. That means you are practicing today being who you want to be tomorrow. It places the affirmation into the subconscious mind helping you interrupt any unhelpful, crooked thinking that might be getting in the way. A new way of talking to yourself is a proven method of self-improvement by helping to rewire our brains.
Affirmations are one of the most powerful tools you can use in revolutionising your subconscious mind from the unhelpful to the positive. To begin with, surprisingly, it’s not even necessary to believe an affirmation in order for it to start to have its effect. It is repetition of affirmations that leads to the belief you are possible. What you believe is what you get. What you think about is what you get.
Affirmations can be spoken out loud, written or drawn, spoken to self or visualised. The more the more powerful.
Written: Put these somewhere you can see them throughout the day. Writing out affirmations is like typing information into a computer. The repetition of saying it out loud is like pressing the save button on a computer. Writing and repeating out loud the same information may seem odd, but different parts of the brain have their own way of getting information, and it’s important not to take any shortcuts.
Spoken: say your affirmations out loud at least three times a day. Set up a routine of doing that every time you visit the bathroom or stop at traffic lights.
Visual: a vivid mental picture of yourself doing what you’ve committed yourself to doing. Over time develop your affirmation much as a director develops a film clip. To keep you focused on your goals repeatedly play your visual affirmations as ‘film clips’. The more you see what you want in your future, the more you will be believing and living it. See yourself doing the things today that will be part of your healthier future. Such visualisation or positive rehearsal is a technique used by professional athletes to prepare them for competition.
As well as supporting yourself with affirmations asking for help from others is extremely powerful. LighterLife Mentors are there for you and are trained to help you do just that. Find your Mentor here.
