Objectives

In this article, you will begin the exciting and creative process of crafting your own healing affirmations, using a few interesting techniques.

Section 1. Meditation to Identify Issues

In order to get the most out of this unique healing method, you need to know exactly what issues to focus your affirmations on. By using meditation techniques, you can really drill down to what's affecting your life and health, and laser-focus your affirmations.

Meditation is a very easy, yet powerful, way to tap into your subconscious. You may need to practice this a few times before you feel a connection and revelations begin to occur, but it is well worth the effort.

To get started with meditation, review the following tips. Feel free to adapt to your taste, needs and environment.

Select a place in which you will meditate, preferably private and familiar.

Ensure that the space is conducive to meditation including color vibration, etc.

Bring in any objects you feel will help you relax and get in touch with your emotions and thoughts, such as candles or nature recordings.

Pick a time for meditating when you are alert, focused, and have no interruptions.

Once you have set the stage, it's time to get to work. You may want to further relax yourself by drinking a cup of tea or taking a warm shower before beginning. Meditation may sound complicated, but it is actually quite simple. The hardest part is letting go and allowing yourself to sink into the experience.

Below are some flexible tips that can help you achieve a meditative state:

• Sit in a comfortable position. Many people find that sitting on the floor or on a pillow helps to ground them and open up their senses.

• If you feel tense, gently roll your head in small circles, which will release tension from the neck. You can also roll your shoulders frontward and backward and stretch your arms above your head to loosen them up.

• Close your eyes and begin to breath deeply, letting your belly expand, when breathing in, and contract, when breathing out.

• Once your body is relaxed, focus on emptying your mind of all of the busy thoughts that fight for attention 24/7. The goal is to create a clear space to focus on identifying areas to focus your affirmations. It may help to concentrate on a central picture in your minds eye, such as a meadow or a bubbling stream, until everything else fades away.

• Once your mind is clear, focus on your illness or problem. Allow your mind to settle on the ailment and how it makes you feel. If it is a physical illness, think about the symptoms you experience. If it is mental or emotional, reflect on what the possible trigger may be, such as failed relationships or childhood trauma.

• Allow your mind to wander in any direction that it likes. Often, when you just let go, thoughts, ideas, and unexpressed emotion will well up from your subconscious. Allow this to happen and see where it leads.

• Once your mind is open and receiving input from your subconscious, as well as universal energy, try to gather the various inputs into a cohesive train of thought. For example, if your mind keeps wandering to the last few arguments with a spouse, as well as images of your boss yelling at you, it may indicate a feeling of being undervalued, bullied, or ridiculed.

• Once you have solidified a central theme, think about how it has made you feel over time, and how it may be manifesting in your body. Do you suffer from anxiety, a nervous facial spasm, or lack of self esteem? The central thought you arrived at could be a key contributor to all of your ailments.

• Slowly open your eyes and come back to the here and now. The experience may have taken a lot out of you, so be gentle with yourself. Wipe away any tears. Breathe deeply and do some of the stretching exercises mentioned before in order to unwind. Know that despite what may have come up during meditation, you are safe and better off, now that you have more insight into yourself and potentially your health problems, as well.

With this technique, you seek to envision a desired state, almost as if it were real. This will help you to hone in on what you would like your life and health to look like. Visioning provides an unencumbered way to give your imagination full reign and tap into all that is possible.

Visioning can be done in your meditation space, but is also extremely effective when done in a nature setting, such as in the woods or at the beach. The natural life force found in nature's raw beauty often stimulates the creative juices and expands the range of possibilities in your mind.

With visioning, you follow many of the same methods as meditation to relax yourself. Once relaxed and tapped into your own consciousness, you try to think of tangible things that you desire on a deep level. These can have to do with health, money, relationships, or your career. Don't limit yourself. Allow your mind to venture into the realm of possibility and articulate what optimal health and prosperity means to you. Once you gain insight into what you desire in the future, write those things down to later be integrated into your affirmations.

Section 3. Color Play

If you are the type that finds it hard to stay still and think better when you are being creative, then color play may be the best way to tap into your subconscious. With this method, you use art to express what may be inside of your subconscious, including fears, hopes, and dreams.

The goal of color play is to create a piece of art, without having any predetermined ideas about how it will turn out. The goal is not to create a masterpiece, but a sincere expression of your inner thoughts. As you create, let your mind settle on the problem or illness you are trying to conquer. Allow any feelings and thoughts that come up to be expressed in what you are creating. Go with the flow of your emotions and you may be surprised at the depth and revelations contained in your finished product.

The following are materials and means you can use to create your reflective artwork.

Clay

Finger painting

Vision boards

Water colors or oil paints

Crayons, markers, or colored pencils.

Graphics programs

Large poster board or butcher paper spread over the floor

As you are creating, pour all of your emotions into the artwork, without censoring yourself. Once complete, sit and contemplate what you have created. What does it say to you? How are the images depicted tied to your life and illness? What trauma or goals have you expressed? You many need to come back to the artwork a few times to fully extract all of the meaning from it.

Food for Thought

Have you ever meditated before or gone on a vision quest? Does the idea sound scary, or intriguing? Are you a creative type? Which method of introspection do you think most fits you?

Structuring and Implementing Your Affirmations- Part 2

Writing and Using Affirmations

Objectives

In this article, you will graduate to actually writing out your affirmations. You will also learn how frequently affirmations should be used for best results, as well as keeping track of your journey and rewarding progress.

Section 1. Components of an Effective Affirmation

You may think that writing affirmations can be done in a non-structured way, but for best results, an affirmation should contain specific key elements. Read through the points below and you will see how each element works to enhance the power of the affirmation.

Components of an effective affirmation:

Clear - Each affirmation must be a clear statement of desire, negation, affirmation, or praise. You should not use any hesitant or indecisive language and be undeniably clear in the intent of the statement.

Here are some examples of clarity in an affirmation:

I will receive a promotion to senior vice president.

I am beautiful, just the way I am.

I do have the strength to conquer my fear of public speaking.

Do you notice how, in each statement, there is a definitive word used that adds clarity? Based on the structure of the sentence, there is no doubt that the words written afterward are, in fact, true. Your subconscious mind picks up on this cue and more readily absorbs the message.

Concise - Your affirmation should not be long, rambling, or convoluted. Brevity is important for absorption of the message. Only have one thought or idea per affirmation. If you add in others, you will dilute the effectiveness and confuse yourself.

Here are examples of how NOT to be concise:

I am beautiful just the way I am and I will attract the man of my dreams and have three beautiful children. (This should be three separate affirmations).

Once I finish my MBA and complete an internship, I will get a promotion to senior vice president. (Too many variables, not solely focused on one outcome.)

I will improve my overall health. (Too general and does not state a concise, specific goal.)

Positive

It is imperative that your affirmations always have an air of positivity and possibility. Even when you are negating a negative quality, you should frame it in a positive way. You want to train your mind to see things in a way that reduces resistance and blame, which allows you to be fully receptive to the changes you desire.

Here are examples of how to frame even negative items in a positive manner:

I have fully conquered my fear of public speaking.

My childhood experiences do not define who I am.

My mistakes in love have all been valuable learning experiences.

Do you see how in each situation, we are reframing what was a negative, into a positive? It then becomes a statement of empowerment, instead of defeat and self-recrimination.This is how we get past the negative inner critic that makes us feel as if we can never recover from our history and past cases of bad judgment.

Present tense

Finally, one of the simplest, but most important elements is that the affirmation must be stated in the present tense. You are programming your self conscious to believe this is the current state of affairs. When this happens, your mind automatically goes about the work of validating your statements and removing any roadblocks that exist. If you like, you can also use past tense, which can be powerful, as it signifies that you have already accomplished the goal.

Exercise

Based on the above criteria, take a few minutes and write out some sample affirmations. They do not have to pertain to you, specifically, and are just for practice.

Section 2. Frequency of Affirmations

When you first begin with affirmations, consistency is key. It's best to set aside time daily, and for best results, several times a day. You are trying to build a habit and rewire your consciousness, so attempting to use affirmations sporadically will not be effective. Over time, once you see concrete results, you can lessen the frequency and duration of your affirmation sessions. However, be careful of abandoning them altogether, as we all need to reinforce positive thought patterns and behaviors to keep them up.

It is amazing, the progression you see when using affirmations to improve your health and overall well being. Keeping a special journal to document your reflections during this time ensures you can clearly see the whole journey at a glance, including the requisite peaks and lows. A journal allows you to write down, and work through, fears or setbacks you may have during the process, and also to document and celebrate positive milestones.

A journal will be a precious keepsake that reminds you of the commitment you made to support the coming out of your best and healthiest self. It will remind you that anything is possible and you are stronger than you ever gave yourself credit for.

Section 4. Recognizing and Rewarding Progress

Although it may seem as if progress is slow, especially in the beginning, it is very important to your success to reward yourself for any incremental improvements. Do not wait until you are totally healed, but recognize and reward every achievement along the way.

Rewarding yourself feeds areas of your brain and spirit with love and positive reinforcement to continue the journey. Every step forward is a step closer to wellness, and a step away from the person you used to be. Celebrate every footstep along the path and make sure to reward yourself with things you love, which are healthy or spiritually uplifting. It will go a long way to helping you make permanent change.

Food for Thought

If you've already written and tried using affirmations, how did they feel? Are you comfortable with the process?