As usual, Stephen surprised me, first of all, by suggesting that we talk about Affirmations. And then secondly, explaining to me why it's so powerful. Initially, I must admit, I thought this was going to be about chanting, incense and long flowing robes, but quickly I was disabused of that notion.
We established it is much more practical and scientific than that. Stephen explains a simple six step process to how you can form these powerful statements of truth. Affirmations tend to get linked to Manifestation. Stephen discusses this, explaining the roles of Gestalt and sensory acuity in moving to your preferred future.
It's practical, It'ss strong. It has something for everyone.
So let us know what you think. Any questions any thoughts, as always get in contact [email protected]
More notes below:
Affirmations are more than wishing to the universe to get something and she gives it back to you.
The approach to affirmations that we're going to go through is more practical, effective, more about your self-development rather than actually for self-help. It’s about the power of affirmations and how that taps into things like the Law of Attraction. We look at Gestalt and how you manifest things, but in a real, practical, authentic way that brings your personal growth and allows you to take ownership. It gives you confidence that there are things that you can do that has an energy and how you can channel that to make things better.
technically, it's a statement which affirms something to be true.
I first heard about the practice of Affirmations a long, long time ago, and responded with a degree of scepticism, which I believe is healthy, rather than cynicism. People will swear by affirmations and the power and the difference that it's made and the things that they've manifested or realized and achieved. There's a whole load of benefits to this.
This is about understanding the power of affirmations, the practicality of how then to create your affirmations and to understand the impact, and the process that then occurs because you've got good affirmations.
We can have conscious affirmations rather than subconscious affirmations. Because affirmations can be future based, present based, past based, they can also be positive, but they can also be negative, particularly if you're unconscious of the affirmations that you're running. So whether you are consciously creating a statement which affirm something to be true, or whether subconsciously through your self -talk, you are continually affirming something else to be true. So for instance, a positive affirmation would be I know I'm really good at something. But a negative affirmation could be someone just saying, I'm just not good at that.
The consciousness of affirmations is that knowing that you're continually affirming one way or the other, consciously or unconsciously, by literally saying, I have I can, or I, I am, or subconscious is saying, I don't, and I can't, and I won't, those affirmation still have the same power. So this is about taking ownership of your affirmations. Being aware of them, managing them, and then applying them towards the outcomes that you want to achieve.
in terms of self-development this is being conscious and aware of how much self-talk is going on. And then deciding that actually, maybe you want to have some input and ownership of that rather than letting it happen to you. This is actually what the affirmation is. That isn't it is it's controlling some of that self-talk, I guess.
This is a self-development approach to affirmations, and self-development requires you to take more ownership, to commit to the personal growth that can come from that, so that you enhance your self-confidence. And the result of that is that the success you achieve will be success because you're being you. So it's more authentic, more sincere and brings more happiness. Whereas Affirmations are also prevalent in self-help and self-improvement, and these require less ownership and will deliver less personal growth and less self-confidence. Because that is the, putting out there into the universe, and waiting for it to come back. Now that, that can happen but if you haven't been through the personal growth, will you be ready for what you’re trying to manifest, or are you just waiting? And will you recognize it.
it's one of the riskier topics to introduce, in my line of work, working with global CEOs, senior people, and also friends, family and colleagues. It's one of the riskiest things to introduce to the conversation, because of assumption or it or lack of information on or it's just seen as that self-help thing. But I know of I don't know of anything else that I have worked with, with people all over the world clients and colleagues and friends, that's been as transformative for them as an individual than affirmations.
I've had these conversations for years with very senior people, or very wise people and often very sceptical, and sometimes cynical people. When they can look at this, from a self-development perspective, or practical application of affirmation. It has been life changing, career changing, business changing, relationship changing, it's changed any aspect that they apply it to, if you’re doing this from a self-development perspective, because you're taking ownership over. And you're committing to grow as an individual, through that, to be ready for the success that you're trying to create. So immediately affirmations, when they’re positive will really help you instill a sense of belief, optimism, resilience, a clearer sense of your identity, and importantly, your self-confidence. But if you're not taking control of those affirmations, your subconscious affirmations can be undermining your belief, your optimism, your resilience, it can be making you question who you are and what you're about and undermine that self-confidence.
It's about a statement, affirming something to be true. The word that almost gets ignored in that is ‘statement’ because it's about the true and then the affirming. But if you're not making a strong, authentic statement, you've got this undercurrent of gossip and whispering around you. Your subconscious is whispering what you are, and you're not so good. You shouldn't be here. But actually if you say ‘no, this is what I know to be true about me or this is what I wish to be more true about me. Then that statement is good and strong and talking over that sort of hubbub. You're taking ownership of that self-talk, and this does start to shape and impact your future self, something we talked about in habits as well, I can see that this has got a really strong link to that
it affects your sense of identity; it's affecting your mental health and your well-being and everything else. But if you think of all the social media, traditional media in addition to all the self-talk that's going on in your own head about questioning, who are you? Are you good enough? Particularly social media, because the volume of that is just so significant in our lives nowadays, that getting you to wonder and question and doubt, or to believe in someone else's solutions for you, that it's about who they are rather than who you could be. If you don't have that solid foundation, you will get blown away in the wind.
Our futures are determined by the quality of the decisions that we make. Being able to make those decisions from a solid foundation of knowing who you are, and being positive about who you are, you'll make better decisions than someone who's either taking the decision that someone else is telling them to take or taking the decision from a negative or unstable position, because the decisions and choices you make from that position would be very different. Confident people make better decisions.
So if you've got this practice doing well, you'll be a stronger sense of identity, you'll feel stronger in yourself, you make better decisions, which help you move to that future self that you've that you've got out there projected as well. Better, quicker and clearer decisions. If you are confident on who you are, then the decision becomes very clear very quickly. If you're not sure who you are, then there's a whole range of things you need to consider.
Affirmations not only then help ground you toda. It also helps you find your tomorrow self. This is worth doing because it makes me better today and better tomorrow
At the Operational level: understanding what affirmations are & how to create affirmations that work for you.
At the Management level: how do we apply that to manage our current state to get us into that best possible place of where we are now.
The Strategic element, that future element, is how can we use affirmations, to create, manifest and imagine, to realize that fullest potential that we have.
We then want to do is construct an affirmation statement. And there's the six P's on this.
1 Personal: it has to begin with I, because this is you taking ownership.
2 Present. It’s a now thing. I now, or I have, or I do, but it's present. It's not ‘one day I will’, or ‘I might’ or ‘I'm aiming for’. It’s saying now so connects with the present. The Psychology of the importance behind that is the present then it means it connects with you now, saying you have it so psychologically inside you go looking for it, because it's there. When you say I will or I might one day, what you are affirming to yourself as that you don't have that or you're not that or you don't do that.
So you go looking for that character trait inside you connect with it. Somewhere inside you, you see this in these transformation programs where it is you already and it's hidden somewhere. This helps drag it out. You're affirming it's Now. So you're affirming it’s you, it’s personal, affirming that it's a now thing that's it’s in the present.
3 Positive. Being consciously aware that it's positive, not negative, and not neutral. It's not saying I’m okay at something, or I'm all right at something. It’s clearly positive. Don't sell yourself short. clearly positive, not just bit better, positive. The moment you're ‘not something’ you stop; whereas positive can keep getting bigger and bigger and better and better.
And also, in my experience of this, and at some point, your emotion and your confidence are going to waiver. And if you've already got that wiggle room of being really positive. Even if that comes down a couple of notches, because you doubt or you wonder, then you're still in the positive. But if you've went neutral, and then you get that little bit of doubt, you’re into the negative. And that's a slope that's really quick to slip down.
4 Passionate. Something that matters to you. Something that has meaning to you, something you really care about. This is not about picking up affirmations that someone else thinks you should be better at. This needs to be something that matters to you something you're passionate about.
You can also have that logic, 'I should be passionate about money. I should be passionate about possessions. I should be passionate about the car I drive, the house I live in, my reputation'. And for some periods in your life, you will be passionate about these things, but sometimes you become less passionate about them. Sometimes you get more passionate about them again. But it's being honest with yourself: what matters to me. Because if there's no passion, there's no connection and if there's no connection that light bulb doesn't light up.
5 Persistent. This is about your determination. Commitment. This is about real drive to so it's not just something you're that is something that you are passionate about, but you're committed to. That persistence taps into action, real active connection. It's a journey.
6 Powerful. It's going to make a difference, it's going to add value, have impact. It is going to matter. It's going to do something. It's not just something to tick a box, there's great power in it has an impact, it will make a difference. And whether that's making a difference to you to the people round about, to your business, to your future, to your career, to your community, to the environment, whatever it is for you. But it is powerful, it does make a difference.
I recommend to people that you don't share your affirmations with anybody else, unless it's someone who can benefit from that. The reason I'd recommend that people hold these close and be very considerate before sharing, as opposed to just going and telling people, is that this is a very personal thing. And it should be a very personal thing. And what's best to be able to do is to experience the benefits of it, and then go and share the benefits of it, as opposed to necessarily exposing what your personal affirmations are
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