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How to Change Your Thinking by Using Self-Affirmations

Posted on October 7, 2011 by Daniel Wood | CATEGORIES: happiness, self improvement

Your mind is an interesting tool and lives in symbiosis with the sensations from your body. It is proven that your emotions can alter your perceptions and actions, but also that your actions can alter your mood.

All the time these two factors affect each other, that is why smiling when sad makes you happier and it is why you laugh when you find something funny.

Self-Affirmations
I learned a long time ago to tell myself “I like myself!”
Telling yourself that you like yourself affects your mind and increases your sense of self worth.

Before I used this exercises it was as if I had a little voice in my head saying;
“Ooh, that looks difficult, you can’t do that, stay away!”.

By using self affirmations I have been able to drown that voice out and replace it with a voice screaming
“YOU CAN DO IT! GO GO GO!”

Obviously this voice is a lot more motivating and helps me keep my courage up when I feel scared or insecure.

Self affirmations have the potential to help you change your mindset and your emotions, by repeatedly feeding yourself positive thoughts you can make yourself more motivated, happier, more relaxed and more confident.

Every morning I read the following passage out loud:
“I like myself
I love my work
I am going to be happy today
I can do it!

I like myself
I love my work
I am going to be happy today
I can do it!

I like myself
I love my work
I am going to be happy today
I can do it!”

You can use anything you need
Telling myself this has made me happier at work, more confident, happier and it has helped me take more action.

Try using this, or something else that might fit you better.
You can tell yourself anything, my advice is to always say it in an active form e.g. I am, I have. Instead of I will, I wish.
It is a lot more powerful to say “I like myself” than “I will like myself”.

Some suggestions
I deserve success
I am a good X
I am motivated
I am the best Y
I am great

Daniel M. Wood works as a Coach, Mentor and is a Time Management Expert with a background in Psychology, Sales, Marketing and Sports. On his blog Looking To Business you can get free advice on how to complete your goals and how to be a successful time manager. He also has a free newsletter giving away both his ebooks “The Beginners Guide to Success” and “How to Make Selling Easy”, join now for free!

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The 21 Habits of Healthy People

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  • http://awesomelifecoach.com/ Kian | Awesome Life Coach

    When I first heard of people using affirmations I thought they were wacky and insane. Since using them in my own life in the morning I’ve seen fantastic changes.

  • http://www.successatreach.com Nabil

    Hi Daniel,

    Amazing points you brought..The reason many people get in a  different state of mind everyday is because they are note aware of their inner dialogue. You will notice that if you talk to yourself in a negative way, you will start feeling more stressed out and out of peak state. It also makes a huge difference by who you are surrounded by (human energy transfers to others, therefore if you are around negative people, you will feel the same kind of energy unconsciously and consciously…

    Thanks for sharing..

    Cheers,
    Nabil

  • http://www.clintcora.com Clint Cora

    Possibly the first cases of affirmations in public I have ever seen were the Olympic weightlifters.  It was interesting to see how they went up there on the platform saying to themselves that they were strong and how they were going to lift all that weight.  Even if they failed an attempt, they would come back to try again with the same affirmations.

  • http://Mazzastick.com Justin

    Hey Daniel,
    Affirmations definitely work in changing our being. The key is to find out what words or phrases work best for you. Also you have to say it and mean it.

  • http://www.colon-liver-cleanse.com/ Sean

    Yeah what you think about greatly affects you, whether it be positive or negative so might as well think something good, even if your current situation sucks better to just do it anyway :)

  • http://twitter.com/tsisocial Natalie

    Affirmations are a useful tool to have. They definitely help, but they have to be the right words and you have to be able to believe them. The affirmation can’t be so far from where you are that it triggers a counter inner dialogue. Saying “I am rich” when you are going bankrupt often brings a counter dialogue of “Who are you kidding? You’re broke, not rich!”… If, instead, you say something like “I am increasing my income” you are more likely  to believe it.

  • http://www.mindnod.com Mindnod

    I’m not that big on affirmations but I do believe that forcing yourself to smile can change your mood. Whenever I feel myself getting low or angry, I will force myself to smile and after a short time I can feel the depression or anger lifting.

  • http://www.OurWishRadio.com Raymond Cubeta

    Great message in this post, Mr. Wood. I took a few notes on it. :)