YOUR GUIDE TO CREATING POWERFUL POSITIVE AFFIRMATIONS BECAUSE HEALTHY RELATIONSHIPS START WITH A HEALTHY YOU WWW.RELATIONSHIPCENTERSV.COM
Healthy Relationships Start with a Healthy You. That is why it is so incredibly important to make sure that you are speaking to yourself in a healthy and positive manner. Many of us don't know how to speak to ourselves in a truly healthy and loving way. For that reason, we here at the Relationship Center of Silicon Valley have created this step-by-step guide including additional tips for you to use to start recognizing, creating, and affirming positive beliefs about yourself. We hope that you will enjoy this wonderful guide! Please visit us at www.relationshipcentersv.com for more information and other helpful tools. If we can be of any further assistance, please contact us at 408-502-6790. All content is
Creating Powerful Positive Affirmations We all have beliefs about ourselves. These beliefs can be positive or negative, but either way, the tape we have running through our heads affirms certain things about us. If we choose to focus on the negative aspects, we affirm negative beliefs about ourselves. Studies have shown that out of 10 thoughts a person has about themselves, 9 are negative beliefs and only 1 is positive. When we work with positive affirmations, we are working to replace old beliefs with new ones. Creating strong positive affirmations help us to rewrite the tapes we have going in our head and give us an opportunity to harmonize our thoughts and our actions with our goals. Take a moment to list a few the negative beliefs you have about yourself. This can include any negative qualities you think you have or criticisms others have given you that you believe to be true. As you write these thoughts, you might notice discomfort in an area of your body. If you do, then next to each thought write down where in your body you feel a reaction to this thought. Thought Reaction in Body Now, look back at your list above and notice if there are any themes that seem to arise. What are the themes or patterns you can see in the above listed thoughts? Now, look back at your list above and notice if there are any themes that seem to arise. What are the themes or patterns you can see in the above listed thoughts?
Write down a positive affirmation that is opposite of the self-judgment identified above. Be sure that your affirmation is centered on you, in the present, and only contains positive words. If you are feeling a lack of strong positive words, feel free to use your phone to look up synonyms for the words so that they feel good to you. Write the positive affirming thought from your heart. Reread your positive affirmation to yourself. Ask yourself: Is it focused on you? YES NO Is it focused in the present? YES NO Does it contain only positive words? YES NO Take a pause here to reflect momentarily on what this was like for you. I now invite you to say your positive affirmation out loud three times. As you do this, place your hand on the part of your body that was feeling discomfort when you initially wrote down your negative beliefs about yourself. Breathe in to that part of your body as you place your hand there and just notice any difference that you might feel. You might also notice that there is no difference at all, and that is okay. Take a moment to write down any shift you may have noticed. _ Initially you may not feel that there is truth in your positive affirmation. That is okay. Sometimes we have to start by acting as if. As you say your positive affirmations to yourself 3 to 5 times a day (or write them down 3 to 5 times a day), you will start to believe them more. This shift will happen slowly and gradually, but it will happen. Take some time to document what the shift feels like for you. Notice where in your body you start to feel it, in what words and actions does it show up. You might discover that after a while you start to get other thoughts that randomly pop into your head about yourself. These are messages that come from the unconscious mind as your mind and your body are making the shift into believing the positive messages about yourself. Do not fight the thoughts that pop up, go with them. It is a sign that your affirmation is being fulfilled! :)
Other helpful tips for your positive self-affirmations: -Don t get caught up in focusing on the How will this happen. Focus only on the What do I want/need. The How will fall into place once you get clear on the What. -A part of making affirmations work is also acting on them. When we are working to rewrite our beliefs about ourselves, we must act in a way that is congruent with our positive affirmation. If we don t act in a way that is congruent with our positive affirmation, our subconscious mind gets confused and does not believe that you truly want or believe in your positive affirmation, which then goes to affirm the negative beliefs. -Speak out loud and/or write your positive affirmations daily. It is okay to modify your current positive affirmations or create new ones at any time. -If this activity is too difficult, start simply by writing your positive qualities about yourself daily in a journal, calendar, or other log. Over time, this can have the same benefit too. If even this is too difficult, think of what your friends, mentors and other support persons say about you. -Often times, sitting in prayer and meditation can help us start to believe these affirmations much faster, as long as we allow ourselves to feel it in our bodies as well as our minds. -Don t get discouraged if it takes a while. Your negative self-thoughts didn t appear overnight, nor will they change overnight. If you are interested in learning more about how the services at the Relationship Center of Silicon Valley can help you, contact us at ph. 408-502-6790 or visit our website at www.relationshipcentersv.com. We hope you have enjoyed this helpful guide!