What Are Affirmations

By Meeyuen Thang

Close your eyes for a full minute and observe your thoughts. Try it. According to a study, an average human have 55,000 thoughts per day or 38 thoughts per minute. So, what were your 38 thoughts about? Were the thoughts running so fast you couldn't decipher its meaning? If you try observing your thoughts in silence with your eyes closed for a longer period of time, you will come to experience how our thoughts are a reflection of our inner beliefs. Every thought you think that is decoded into a word you say is an affirmation.

Our reality is created by our beliefs; beliefs are thought patterns we developed since childhood. These beliefs make up our personality; the positive beliefs become our strengths while the negative ones form our weaknesses. So, self development is all about transforming our weaknesses in order to have a more fulfilling life. You would have probably read numerous self-help books and attended countless motivational seminars, yet the dysfunctional thought patterns are still a hindrance to growth. Why? Most of our learning experiences are done on a conscious level. There is still growth and change on this level but some of our erroneous thought patterns are deep-seated. These flawed thoughts ought to be released and replaced with affirmative positive thoughts.

When we integrate positive experiences like a duck takes to water, it means we have made an affirmative deposit into our subconscious level. Our self-talk is a stream of affirmations and we are constantly affirming subconsciously through thoughts and speech which in turn become our life experience in every moment. The subconscious utilizes the behaviour patterns learned in the past to respond and react to all that is happening every moment in our life. If the basis for our beliefs is flawed at an early stage (e.g. "I am not good enough"), problems would crop up throughout life. The skills of being aware of our thoughts are not taught in schools as we were growing up. So, as long as we haven't understood that faulty beliefs are the source of our problems, we would be going around in much despair.

Just like how you would re-boot the central processing unit of your computer when you want to start anew, you can re-programme your thought patterns. Positive affirmations can replace invalid beliefs and create the reality you desire. Positive affirmations are short statements that help focus your awareness on your power and ability to create and have what you want. They are stated in the present tense as you repeat and say these affirmations, you will begin to create them as true for you. So in place of the erroneous belief in the example above, affirm: "I accept and love myself for who I am now"; and, "I give myself permission to be all I can be".

Use affirmations to open and expand your awareness of what you can have. Use them to align with your wisdom and to attune with the unlimited abundance of the universe. As you repeatedly say them to yourself, you will create positive, more enriching realities in your life. For a start, you may write your own affirmations on small pieces of paper and plaster them on your computer screen, car dashboard or the bathroom mirror.

Meeyuen Thang is a former journalist and since becoming a mother, her main interests are self improvement and child development, particularly in emotional literacy. You can visit her website at http://www.parentingtalks.com

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