Be Mindful

‘Sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me.’ Even as child I knew this wasn’t true. Words have power.

Research suggests that the mind is more powerful than modern science has believed. So powerful it is believed it can affect our physical well-being. The study of psychoneuroimmunology, as it’s known, is still in its early decades, and causes much controversy. But research suggests that positive thinking and visualisation can play a part in influencing a person’s sickness or health.

In his book Nature Cure (The Nature Cure Publishing Company) Dr Henry Lindlahr MD explains, ‘Every thought and every emotion has its direct effect upon the physical constituents of the body. The mental and emotional vibrations become physical vibrations and structures. Discord in the mind is translated into physical disease in the body, while the harmonies of hope, faith, cheerfulness, happiness, love and altruism create in the organism the corresponding health vibrations.’

Early last century French pharmacist and psychologist Emile Coue created his own method of psychotherapy based on autosuggestion, a type of self-hypnosis, where an individual trains the sub-conscious mind.

His favourite affirmation was ‘Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better.’

Nowadays one method of this self-hypnosis is positive affirmations, where an individual speaks aloud, or writes, positive statements about herself or her life.

Positive affirmations can also aid in self development and achieving goals.

Personal development speaker and author Michael Domeyko Rowland says positive affirmations are about making choices. ‘When we have negative thoughts we make negative choices,’ he explains.

Rowland, who is the author of Absolute Happiness (Hay House), has advised Sarah Ferguson and is credited with being the man who turned her life around.

Lee Nutter, 23, a web designer from Sydney has been using positive affirmations for five years.

He credits his affirmations with helping to increase his self confidence and uses them every day. He’s even set up a website www.bmindful.com dedicated to positive affirmations.

Lee uses affirmations every morning before he begins work. ‘At the moment I’m working for myself from home, and sometimes when I get up I don’t feel like working, so first thing in the morning I do some affirmations about my work. I concentrate on how fulfilling it is when you have completed a big task, or done something that you’ve been putting off for a while. So I do an affirmation which reminds me that if I sit down and work hard today then at the end of the day I can sit down and relax and watch a movie, or whatever.’

The basic rules with affirmations are simple and few. They must be set in the present, not the future. And they must focus on the positive aspect of the desire, not the negative.

So, instead of saying I’m not broke, or I’m not sad, which just reminds you of negative words, re-frame the statement to I’m wealthy or I’m happy and content. For more ideas of affirmations that conjure positive thoughts and emotions have a look at Lee’s site, which lists new affirmations daily.

While some fans of affirmations recommend doing them in the morning when the mind is refreshed others swear they are best said at night. Some choose to say them out loud while others write them down. Feel confident to use your affirmations creatively. Use them morning and night and any time in between when things feel as though they are slipping out of balance.

Lee feels that many of his affirmations are personal but confides, ‘One of my favourites is ‘I always expect first class behaviour from myself and others.’

‘What that’s getting at is that sometimes I’ll do something like let a friend down, unintentionally, and know that wasn’t the best thing I could have done.’

‘In my professional life they remind me that I have a commitment to someone, they remind me that I feel fulfilled when I finish my day’s work, and to do my best.’

Affirmations, of course, do not have to be about professional advancement or building wealth. In her bestselling book The Artist’s Way Julia Cameron explains how positive affirmations can be used to develop creative desires or abilities.

Using her 12 week programme, which includes using daily affirmations; thousands of ‘blocked’ artists have done great things. Just check out the reviews of her book on www.amazon.com for proof!

Kathleen Freeman, 35, a part time painter from Brisbane, confirms, ‘I love my affirmations. They have made me feel a lot more confident in myself. I feel like an artist. And, best of all, I have even sold some paintings!’

Cameron writes, ‘If we can become one-tenth as good at positive self-talk as we are at negative self-talk, we will notice an enormous change.’

Cameron suggests choosing a statement like I am willing to create or I am willing to use my creative talents. Statements like these can even help with deciding on a creative path.

Choosing an affirmation, or set of them, can be harder than one might imagine. We are so used to filling our head with ‘modest’ or negative self-talk it can be quite uncomfortable and confronting to begin saying such glowing things about oneself.

Kathleen says, ‘At first it felt difficult writing my affirmations. But very soon I began to enjoy them.’ Her favourite affirmations are very simple. ‘I just wrote things like ‘I’m a good painter.’ And found that I would start to say it to myself during the day too.’

But Rowland is keen to point out that affirmations do not work for everyone. ‘It depends,’ he says, ‘upon the individual personality.’

‘The personality is made up of multiple sub-personalities. So there’s a work personality and a parenting personality, a money personality and a love personality and so on. A positive affirmation may not work if one personality uses the positive affirmation but another sub-personality counteracts that thinking.’

Cameron agrees. ‘You will be amazed at the rotten things your sub-conscious will blurt out. Write them down. These blurts flag your personal negative core beliefs.’

One way to counter this is to use Michael’s ‘22x11’ technique.

• Write your affirmation.
• For example you might write ‘I am happy.’
• Next write the response you feel or hear yourself make. For example, ‘No, I’m not, I’m lonely and flat broke.’
• Then write your affirmation again.
• Once again, write your response, which might be, ‘And I’m fat…’ or similar!
• Write your affirmation again.
• And your next response.
• Continue this until you have written your affirmation and response 22 times.
• Do this for 11 days.

Responses do not necessarily become more positive. The idea is to wear out the negative voice in your head simply by giving it a chance to speak. Allowing it to be heard, as well as allowing the positive words to be expressed, ensures that your negative counter thoughts are not being ignored.

According to Rowland self development is a very large area and complex, and reminds us that positive affirmations are a small part of self development. After using affirmations he suggests progressing to mantras or classical meditation to reach a higher degree of self awareness and peace.