What is an affirmation?  

An affirmation is a positive statement designed to counteract a negative belief that you possess.   It should be written in the present tense and should re-affirm something that you want to become true. 

By using an affirmation, you are attempting to convince yourself that you can do or be something even though your mind doesn't accept it yet.

You may already be aware of the mental conversations that run in your mind.   There is a constant exchange running in our minds, demonstrating our beliefs about the world around us as well as what we believe to be true in ourselves.  Some may find this hard to believe, so lets take an example.

Imagine trying to push a large, heavy car on a flat surface by yourself.   If you haven't ever tried this, it might seem impossible.   You already know the car is extremely heavy.   Unless you are a weight lifter, you might not believe you have the strength to move the car.   If someone asked you to attempt it, your mind would probably fill with thoughts like "You're crazy" or "I'm not strong enough". You might not even be willing to try to move the car as you are certain that it is impossible.  Your thoughts express your beliefs to you.

Yet moving a car on a flat surface is not all that difficult.   A car is designed to roll easily.  As long as you don't need to lift the car, you can set it in motion with a good push.   It is a task that a person of average strength can perform. Yet, because of an existing belief, when given a task to move a car, you might give up without ever really trying to move it.

An affirmation of "I can move the car." would affirm something that you may not believe at the current time.   It would seek to break the old mental habits and replace them with a new belief.   If you repeated this to yourself daily for a few weeks or months, you just might surprise yourself the next time you see that car.

Many western readers have already been exposed to the idea of affirmations as children, although they may not realize it.   Many children grow up with the story about 'The Little Engine That Could'.  This story describes a train that affirmed "I think I can' repeatedly to itself as it attempted an uphill climb.

In creating an affirmation, you want to build a phrase that encourages you to succeed.   There are some guidelines that will help you build one effectively.

Guidelines:

• Keep them in the present tense.

• Make them positive.

• Work with words that are right for your way of thinking.

• Use words that give have power and feeling

• Keep them shorter rather than longer.

• Make sure you are counteracting a negative belief.

As you practice your affirmation within single-step, you might encounter resistance from your mind.   This will emerge as thoughts that contradict your affirmation.   It may be as simple as "I can't really do that" or "This exercise is silly".   They may also be much more complex and subtle, such as "I'll do this later, I have something more important to deal with right now".   Either way, this is your mind working against you!

As you encounter this resistance, record it in the thought log.   You can do this by simply entering the thought at the bottom of the Affirmations Exercise screen.   You may then return to your affirmation entry where you left off.

In addition to repeating a phrase, single-step allows you to assign images to your affirmations.   This is intended to increase the emotional response when you enter your affirmations and also to encourage you to continue on this somewhat tedious task.   Your images should be enjoyable and remind you of your goal. As you view them you can focus on where you want to be rather than where you are now.    

Once you have changed your belief about a given subject, or reached your goal, you will want to change the status of your affirmation to completed.   You may want to create a new affirmation for the current goal, if this goal is not yet complete.