You would have heard umpteen times that success results from hard work and dedication. However, the importance of having a positive attitude is often not discussed. What if I tell you that you can bring considerable changes to your life by using the innate laziness of your mind? Yes, you heard it right. You can bring powerful directional change in your life through the power of Affirmations. These positive affirmations for success will enable you to travel on a path never envisaged by you.
The Internet has a lot of articles written on this without clearly explaining the steps to make affirmations work. I will tell you the direction you need to take to implement this in your daily life.
What are positive affirmations & How does it work?
Affirmations are short, positive statements designed to be repeated several times daily to enforce positive thinking.
Sounds too good to be true, right?
I know many of you wouldn’t be willing to bite this. But science has an answer to why affirmations work.
The Social Cognitive and Neuroscience journal has published a paper on this effect. They used MRI to study the impact of self-affirmations on the body. The study found that these repetitions activate reward centers of the brain and create pleasurable experiences, such as eating at an exquisite restaurant or winning a talent hunt. It rewires your neural pathways and makes you happy and cheerful.
So you know this has scientific proof, but the fascinating question is, how?
Affirmations are ingrained by fooling our brain in lieu of its innate laziness. Our brains evolved to keep us alive; Our ancestors had to be agile to survive tough times. So the brain evolved as something that makes quick, snap decisions about and does not make rigorous analytical assessments about everything. That means your brain is constantly creating shortcuts for faster processing and making beliefs that we all have without justification, called cognitive bias. You may be able to find out some of these yourself. It leads to two biases, as shown below.
Observational Selection Bias: You buy a new car and suddenly see that car everywhere. You would have seen that you tend to notice more of something once it has been detected.
Confirmation Bias: This is where you tend to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms or supports your prior beliefs or values.
These are shortcuts the brain takes to avoid thinking. Thinking could mean life or death for our predecessors in the good old days.
Affirmations work based on these biases and use them for your benefit. They show your brain a different way of thinking about the world. So by repeating phrases like losing weight or getting a job, your brain starts subconsciously searching for information to make this accurate. Once done, the subconscious brain will present the sign to the conscious mind. You’ll then begin noticing enablers that’ll help you to achieve your goals.
How to make Affirmations?
Now that we have seen how affirmations work let’s examine how to enact them and make them a part of your life.
Affirmations are something that needs to be told to the subconscious mind. We have conscious and subconscious minds. Put conscious mind processes our momentary thoughts, memories, feelings, and wishes. In contrast, the subconscious mind is a repository of emotions, ideas, and memories outside our conscious awareness. So if we try to tell our mind something inherently different from the current situation, the conscious mind will not accept this.
For Eg; if you are currently jobless and you start telling your mind that you will make a load of money by a specific date, it may be hard for the conscious mind to believe, and hence it will not work out
So the way to work around this is to affirm our subconscious mind, as shown below
1)Sit in a quiet place on a surface or a chair
2)Close your eyes
3)Do focus on your breath. Take normal inhale and exhale, and don’t try to force the breath
4)See any thought that comes to mind and sail through
5)Once you do this for 2-3 minutes, your conscious mind becomes subdued, and now your thinking will reach the subconscious mind
6) Now Repeat your Affirmation 4-5 times, each time imbibing the feeling in your mind
So if your Affirmation is “I’m wealthy and prosperous,” then you must bring in the feeling of already having and enjoying wealth like driving a Mercedes, etc
7)Same needs to be done early morning or late at night before sleep as these are times when the conscious mind becomes least active
8)Lastly, feelings should be felt when the affirmations are repeated. Without feelings, these manifestations won’t work
Some basic rules of creating these positive mantras for success are as given below
- Affirmations are clear and direct statements
- Affirmations need to be in present tense and positive
- Affirmations should have emotional power and felt
- Affirmations mostly begin with the words “I am.”
Examples of Powerful Positive Affirmations
I am strong
I am blessed
I am wealthy and prosperous
I am healthy and happy
I am getting better and better every day
Find an area of your life where you feel the need to change: health, wealth, or relationships.
Make two to three Affirmation for that area to start with
Make it a habit two times a day
Let’s now see some powerful affirmations that we can use to transform our lives.
Motivation positive affirmations
- I am successful.
- I am confident.
- I am powerful.
- I am strong.
- I am getting better and better every day.
- All I need is within me right now.
- I wake up motivated.
- I am an unstoppable force of nature.
- I am living with abundance.
- I inspire and motivate everyone around me.
- I am filled with focus.
- I am not pushed by my problems; I am led by my dreams.
- I can be whatever I want to be.
- I am not defined by my past; I am driven by my future.
- I use obstacles to motivate me to learn and grow.
- Today will be a productive day.
- I am intelligent and focused.
- I feel more grateful each day.
- I am getting healthier every day.
- Each and every day, I am getting closer to achieving my goals.
- I am constantly growing and evolving into a better person.
- I’m freeing myself from all destructive doubt and fear.
- I am healing and strengthening every day.
- I’ve made it through hard times before, and I’ve come out stronger and better because of them. I’m going to make it through this.
- I have made mistakes, but I will not let them define me.
Affirmations of Abundance
- I attract money to me easily and effortlessly.
- I always have enough money.
- I am a money magnet.
- I make money easily.
- I am grateful for money.
- I love money because money loves me.
- I believe there is enough money for everyone.
- I am generous with my money.
- I change the world with my money.
- I am worthy of the wealth I desire.
- I love to give money a good home.
- I am open to receiving what is in the highest and best for all.
- I am open to giving what is in the highest and best for all.
- I release all resistance to attracting money.
- I am financially free.
- I am aligned with the energy of abundance.
- I am capable of overcoming any money obstacles that stand in my way.
- I boldly conquer my money goals.
- I deserve to make more money.
- I accept and receive unexpected money.
Positive affirmations for women
- I am full of energy and optimism. I am ready to find joy.
- Today is the day for change.
- I can overcome negative thoughts and situations. I choose positive!
- I have been given many talents. Today I will use them.
- I possess the qualities I need to be successful.
- I am worth it.
- I will be present. I will be positive.
- I am courageous, and I stand up for myself.
- Today I am thankful for new experiences.
- I will honor my need to rest and recharge.
- I am committed to finding ‘me’ time today.
- I embrace my best self today.
- My body deserves to be taken care of, so I feed it nourishing food and energizing exercise.
- I am healthy, happy, and radiant.
- I have abundant energy, vitality, and well-being.
- I will not worry about tomorrow. First, I will enjoy this day before me.
- Times may be difficult, but it is a short phase of life. Things can get better. Things will get better.
- Challenge helps us grow stronger and makes us tougher in the face of the next challenge.
- Happiness is everywhere I choose to see it.
- I choose to be happy and grateful today.
- My future is full of light and laughter.
- I am at peace with my past.
- I’m going to make the rest of my life the best of my life.
- I accept happiness into every moment of the day.
- I am worthy of feeling happy
Positive affirmations for work
- I am a valuable asset to my workplace.
- I am going to have a productive day at work.
- I choose to learn and grow from difficult situations that may be thrown my way at work.
- I am good at my job.
- I am confident in my ability to produce high-quality work.
- I am grateful for my job.
- I am going to contribute to my team today.
- I will set daily tasks and ensure I complete them.
- I am precisely where I need to be.
- I have the drive and motivation to pursue a promotion.
- I can transform obstacles into opportunities.
- I have integrity when it comes to my work.
- I am fuelled by a passion for my job.
- I have the humility to ask questions when I am unsure of something at work.
- I am strong, intelligent, and fully capable of achieving my goals.
- I am excited by the possibilities that today’s workday may hold.
- I am energized and ready to perform at work.
- I cannot be intimidated by those trying to put me down.
- I am deserving of respect from my colleagues.
- I am not defined by my mistakes at work.
- I am focused and ready to face the day.
- I will go to bed earlier on workdays to ensure I perform at my full potential.
- My future goals are within my reach.
- I have the power to manifest success within my workplace by working towards goals.
- I am attracting success and money into my life.
Motivation positive affirmations for students
- I study hard and regularly.
- Studying is easy and pleasant for me; I can see an improvement every day.
- I learn to make studying fun.
- I am improving my study habits every day.
- I study efficiently, effectively, purposefully, and whole-mindedly.
- Studying is very easy for me, and I am doing it well.
- I always pass exams with flying colors.
- I enjoy studying for my exams and tests.
- I stay focused while studying for exams.
- During the exams, I recall information quickly and easily.
- I work both hard and smart to clear my exams
- I love the challenge of a tough exam.
- I concentrate all my efforts on the things I want to accomplish.
- I am on the journey of becoming a very successful student.
- I have a sharp mind, which makes me an outstanding student.
- I am a gifted student, and I can achieve anything.
- I am an excellent student.
- I believe in myself, and I am capable of becoming a great student.
- I am a talented and prominent student.
- I love my student life!
- I feel thankful to be a student, and it shows.
- I make a positive impact on other students’ lives.
- I embrace life as a student.
- I act kind and courteous to all people.
- Every day in every way, I am becoming more focused on what I do.