Positive affrimations?

Do you believe positive affirmations work? How have they worked or not worked for you?

Re: Positive affrimations?

On there own, I'd say no.  Under hypnosis, maybe. 

The problem is that that there has to be more to it than just the words in most cases.  You have to convince your subconscious to believe these new ideas, ideas that go against very deeply held beliefs that you've/it's accumulated over many years. 

I've found a technique that works better, from the field of cognitive-behavioral therapy.

Say, for example, you are a person with social anxiety disorder.  Negative thoughts flood your mind whenever you leave the house: those people are all staring at me, everyone knows i'm feeling anxious, everyone think's i'm stupid because i'm not participating in the discussion, etc.  Merely stating the opposite to yourself will have little effect on these thoughts.  They're well-established habits that aren't going to change just because you say so.

However, you can ease your way into changing your thoughts.  You don't really believe the affirmation “people like me whether or not I participate in the discussion” so repeating it to yourself will do little good.  But you do believe the same statement with “maybe” prepended to it.  Anything's possible, right?  Sounds silly, but it works well.

Re: Positive affrimations?

Darn, i guess I can't edit my previous post.  I meant “on their own” not “on there own”.  Grr…

Please don't think less of me for this or any other slips ;)

Re: Positive affrimations?¿snoitamriffa evitisoP

Umm..  mind if I get real for a moment? First of all, what an affrimation?

You guys don't have children, do you? Were you two ever children yourselves?
Have you never seen kids do what they don't know their not supposed to be able to do?
They don't say to themselves; “I think I can, I think I can,” they just do it.

I don't subscribe to the “I think I can” way of doing things either. If I can't do a thing its because I haven't learned to do it yet. Or just don't want to say… learn to knit.

Positive affirmations may work in an illusionary “fake it till you make it” way for awhile, but if you don't actually go do the thing while your chanting this stuff at yourself, you won't get it.

Other than that, corporations are using positive affirmations taught to managers for use on employees to yield more productivity and positive outlook from those employees. It's main function is to incite a positive emotional response in the employee. In a perfect world.

My children are more active, and alert because of it, so am I, and so are you. Our parents, at least the ones who didn't Dr Spock, used positive affirmations on us every day in healthy ways. (or not) And what results do you see in your lives from external affirmation? Well you don't appear to be insane, at least not by the words you've written.

I have a second degree blackbelt in Ken Do. When I am at my best during practice or matchups, language based thought is not even present, and thinking I can is not an option.

I can't speak to the mental health angle so I won't, but ask yourself this: If someone you know is down, or a little crazy, do you empathize and use realistic affirmations to assure them naturally? Or because a book said to do so?

Patrick.

Re: Positive affrimations?

The power of affirmations is astounding.

I have experienced one completely mind-blowing miracle following days of
applying myself deeply in an intentional affirmation statement. Using language
to create reality (seemingly backwards) is a lot of fun.

Thought forms have a lot of power.
Clearly & Intentionally spoken & written thoughts put into words are super-powers.

It’s bedtime, but I’ll post again soon when I have time. I’m certain that defining what I mean by positive affirmations will make it easier with our pod to connect with what I’m asserting.

Mindfully Wielding the Sword of the Present Tense,
Maile

PS
let’s see how does it go again…? this is how someone shed a little light on the related processes…. just one way of framing things that seems to help a lot of people:

belief determines perception
perception determines thought
thought determines action
action determines manifestations of reality

It’s really empowering and freeing when we begin to see our own beliefs as a witness. When we are unaware of our beliefs and thoughts, we are at a bit greater risk to
identify directly with them and get a bit muddled, therefore, losing some of our un-stopable creative force.

Re: Positive affirmations?

Yes, I think defining what postive affirmations are would be a fruitful path here.

To me, making a statement that obviously contradicts reality, especially when you don’t believe it, doesn’t really do you much good. I think this is the concept Maile was referring to in her post when she said, “Merely stating the opposite to yourself will have little effect on these thoughts.” If you are not good at something, merely repeating to yourself that you are good at it isn’t going to make you good at it.

And I hear Diversity echoing that: especially where there is skill involved, simply telling yourself you have the skill doesn’t generate it on the fly. If I have never practiced karate, I can tell myself all day that I’m a kung-fu master, but when I step into that ring with a trained karate expert, it’ll be obvious that I don’t have the skills (even if I do have the spirit and the will and perhaps even the belief).

And so I don’t think postive affirmations have to do with that kind of ‘false confidence’ or ‘fake presentation’.

Now, Grace posted that great connected-chain concept:

belief determines perception
perception determines thought
thought determines action
action determines manifestations of reality

And this is nicely clarifying for this conversation, I believe, because it allows us to ask, “which link(s) in that chain do positive affirmations affect?”

It may be even more helpful to side-step the term “postive affirmations’, which can have a charge to it from previous books, methods, popular press abuse, etc., and just say that what we are talking about here is the self-talk language you use: what do you say to yourself regarding what you are about to do? How does what you tell yourself affect your perceptions and your confidence?

I think that self-talk reveals your beliefs. The quote that comes to mind is, “the man that believes he can and the man that believes he can’t are both right.” (attrib. to Mark Twain?) Certainly, simple confidence doesn’t create skill. But performing skill without confidence will almost always bring failure. Thus, stepping up to the task with self-talk like, “I’m going to blow this. I’m not good enough to do this. I can’t do this right. This isn’t going to work,” will most certainly affect the outcome. Your body and mind will perform in alignment to that belief.

Changing your self-talk to something like “this may be possible. I might be able to do this. This could work out,” shifts dramatically the kinds of strategies and resources you’ll employ while engaged in the task. Heck, it’ll dramatically affect your level of engagement in the task. [back to Maile’s post]

I think of the next level of self-talk - things like, “I’m going to make this work. I will be successful here. I’m going to experience the joy of accomplishing this,” are really more commitments to yourself to stay in the game when things get tough, to go the extra mile again and again, to stay with it *until* it works, to continue gaining resources and refining strategies until you are successful. Of course, you can’t activate those commitments in yourself if you still hold the belief that “I can’t do this,” so that intermediate step of making it possible that ‘maybe you can do it’ is critical.

So there are definately different levels and kinds of positive self-talk: some open perceptions, some are commitments, some are merely negative-pattern interrupters.

Re: Positive affirmations?

I think we are all fakers, nobody is born a Yogi or a Carpenter or a baseball player. We begin by telling ourselves that we are able to do something, we try it and most likely fail. If our affirmations are weak then perhaps this is where we give up, but if we can still say “I can do this” then perhaps we persevere. At first our skill is not so good, we can do the thing, just not very well. We feel sometimes that we are in over our heads, that maybe this wasn't the best use of our time, but we continue to tell ourselves “I can do this”. Our skill improves, along with our understanding of the undertaking, and soon we start feeling comfortable calling ourselves 'surfer' or 'welder' or whatever. Soon our skill matches the idea we had when we first said “I can do this” and we have arrived, but it took the first courageous “I can do this” and the willingness to fake it until we did.

Re: Positive affirmations?

The highest level of (insert your favorite descriptor of behaviour here) you can expect from anyone else is the lowest level you personally manifest. Many “humans” are truly social creatures and subject to this because of our social addiction. The experience of entering a room where a conversation is in progress, and, observing that conversation evolve, or, devolve based on individual and collective desires, experiences, and relations never ceases to amaze this spirit. And from a personal standpoint, this spirit has reflected back upon that which manifested and had the pleasure (or shame / pain) of being able to relate it back to some action taken (or not) personally. That words have power to enable and create is being relearned by all. “We” certainally would not have been to our orbiting relatives if all the participants collectively agreed that it was not only impossible, but a waste of time and resources to even attempt. And why are “We” still loitering about on our Mother, instead of moving on? A lot of “negative” language being hurled about these days, surely not coincidental that billions world wide are spent on fear and hatred rather than on exploring our positive potential.

May we all: be blessed in all things; have our spiritual, mental, and physical wounds healed; know everlasting peace; experience joy in each moment; and join together in the warmth of Creations love.