How powerful are your thoughts?

What would your ideal life look, feel and be like?

What do you look like when all is well and you feel healthy and on top of the world?

How would you like to react to the challenges in your life to ensure an ideal outcome?

Positive thoughts can help you to achieve so much. When we have a set of guidelines that map our positivity,

it can be used as our very own secret formula for personal success. Positive thoughts can be created actively

through the use of positive affirmations.

Working on affirmations is challenging to begin with but becomes very easy with some practise.  If you are feeling

low, and your self-esteem has gone AWOL, affirmations can at first feel empty and unbelievable – rest assured this

is a normal state of affairs. It’s very easy to say that reading through a list of affirmations will help, when the action

of performing them feels totally alien.  I like to see my affirmations actually serving a purpose and driving me onto

complete a task or activity, or to handle my thoughts in a different way. I like to see and feel evidence that methods

like this do change how we feel even on a subtle level. If you feel slight trepidation at the thought of beginning

some work with affirmations, try a simple experiment. Change part of your daily routine for one week or even one

day. Change something which is an integral part of your routine. This doesn’t have to be a life changing action if

you aren’t ready for that. This could be a simple action such as hanging your coat in a different place or putting

an object somewhere it shouldn’t be.

When you have made this change forget about it. When you encounter this alteration for the first time observe how

it feels and how quickly you remember your new direction - do you keep reaching for your coat even though you know

you put it elsewhere? If you drink tea in the morning, try putting the tea bags somewhere else in the kitchen. What

happens the next day – did you go to the usual place and wonder where they were?  People who work in repetitive

jobs over many years find the prospect of a change to their routine very daunting – production lines update equipment;

computer systems change, etc., very often causing stress to some members of the workforce. Generally with support

and practise these periods of change are overcome easily. In the same way we can work through our own changes

with the right support structure woven into our being.

Habits can form very quickly and become ingrained over time – they can also be broken fairly quickly with some good

old fashioned hard work! To do this effectively we have to really apply ourselves. The great thing about bringing in

new routines is the feeling of refreshment! When was the last time you changed your furniture around in your living

room or bedroom? How long did it take you to get used to the new layout? Did it feel fresh and new to begin with –

maybe as though you had breathed new life into the place?

That’s exactly how affirmations work – they breathe new life into your soul!

There are a few steps for you to consider to begin with.

1.    The first step is to fully understand that any action or state of being which is repeated over and over,

       will become comfortable or at least, a known quantity, regardless of whether it is a positive or negative!

       As humans we settle into our environment very quickly and generally adapt well (especially when we feel

       as though, and tell ourselves that our choices have been “taken away”). For many people staying in an

       “uncomfortable” comfort zone is better than stepping out into the unknown. If we could look into the

       unknown, logic tells us it will always contain a number of possibilities both positive and negative – it’s

       the law of the land.

2.    Therefore, the second step is accepting fear of the unknown as a normal human trait! Fear only becomes

       real and controlling when you allow your mind to be consumed by it, giving the fear energy to grow, even

       when the source of the fear feels small. Sometimes we have to put our minor fears on hold to prevent

       them from becoming unnecessarily over grown; at times like this it’s useful to have a mechanism for effectively

       weighing up the situation and reminding yourself of your ability to cope. When a fearful situation expects

       or demands a display of strength from us, our inner fear can be reframed as caution and understanding of

       the current environment, including the pitfalls and benefits, rather than an all encompassing frozen state of

       panic. When positive thoughts become a major part of your internal dialogue a more balanced approach to

       your challenges can be maintained. Once we begin to venture into a fear we very often discover it to be

       very different to our expectations – we are surprised at the ease in which we dealt with it; consequently

       we overcome it or at least accept it. The negative energy dissipates quickly leaving us with the knowledge

       of its existence and the nature of its extinction – valuable knowledge indeed; to be used sparingly in case

       of emergency!

3.    The third step is to accept that you are able to decide upon a calculated risk that you can experiment with

       very gently – you are allowed to dip your toe into a new untried situation and see how it feels – it doesn’t

       have to be a headfirst plunge.

To summarise, we know that doing the same thing repeatedly means we learn it and it becomes part of us – good or bad.

We also know that feeling scared about something new is normal and it reduces once you’ve done it, again whether it’s

good or bad, large or small, you’ve been there and bought the t-shirt. You may not necessarily want to go back there in a

hurry, but you now have increased resilience to, or more acceptance of, that particular situation. As the situation is new it

could also be very good for you – you won’t know the outcome until you’ve had a go – what have you got to lose at this

point in time by taking this action? What do you have to gain? In other words, what are the costs and benefits?

Assuming that you feel clear with these steps let’s proceed to an exercise. I want you to fully understand that your thoughts

are very powerful and are directly responsible for how you feel.

Mini Mood Swing Exercise

You will need 3 pieces of paper and a pen. You will also need to make one promise to yourself – to complete the task to the

best of your abilities.

Thank you!

Begin by thinking of a task that you have to complete but for some reason or another you keep putting it off – think of something

that you really do not want to do – it’s a hateful job – a thankless task!

Now give the task a title and write it in large letters across the first sheet and ask yourself “How motivated am I to do this task?”

Give yourself a score between 1-10, 10 = really motivated.

I’d like you to go on a journey with the next part

Take the next sheet of paper and write at the top– I don’t want to do this because…and then begin to list the reasons for putting

off the task. Really go for it – be as negative as you want – waffle on as much as you like. Think of the task as thoroughly as you

can – What will you have to do to complete it? Why don’t you like doing this? Is it one task or many? What do you hate about it?

When you have written the reasons, give each one a score of importance on a scale of 1-10. As you do this, consider how important,

in the greater scheme of things this particular reason is? Is it an essential part of your life journey – if so, does it need attention and

work, before the greater task can be achieved? How valid are your reasons or are they simply weak excuses? Get real with yourself.

Use the scores to prioritise. Can the unimportant things be discarded?

Before you continue, how do you feel having immersed yourself temporarily in your own negative thoughts?

How motivated do you feel now?

Discard the paper containing the negatives immediately – it may be helpful at this moment to say thank you to those negatives for

allowing you to move forward. Now forget them.

Take five minutes to clear your mind.

Take the next sheet of paper and write at the top- I will to do this because.....

then begin to write down your reasons for wanting to get the job done – go mad and focus on the highly positive elements. Think

carefully how the initial benefits can lead to greater benefits – again, really go for it and write down as many as possible.

How do you feel now – did you feel yourself rising out of your temporary malaise? Did your mood swing from dark to light?

How motivated, on a scale of 1-10, do you feel now?

Build on this positivity - read your reasons for wanting to do the task and spend a few moments estimating the length of time the

task will take you to do, realistically and begin the process now. Even if you can only complete part of the task, make the move

and plan the remainder for a later time, ensuring you commit to a timescale and measure your progress.

In completing the exercise, you affirmed-

a) You had a job to do that you had been putting off because of a number of excuses.

b) Your reasons for wanting to get it done, and affirmed them as positive, worthy of consideration and important.

c) You are able to switch to a positive frame of mind by taking action and focussing.

d) You are able to discard negative unhelpful emotions,

e) You are able to motivate yourself positively.

The exercise shows how easily influenced we are by our own negative thoughts and how easily, and quickly, we can swing back

into positive thinking simply by taking some kind of action. In doing this we learn that we can control how we think and feel – we

don’t need to fear that we may fall back into our old habits as we have a tried and tested way of putting ourselves back on track

that we can trust in.

How comfortable did you feel with this exercise? Did you enjoy making the excuses for not doing the task? How much did your mood

swing? How quickly were you able to take action? Did you feel motivated?

What did the exercise prove to you personally?

If you were to repeat a list of positive affirmations everyday for a week what do you think the effect would be?

What would that list be made up of?

What aspects of your life do you find difficult to deal with?

What issues could be made easier with a positive frame of mind?

What triggers do you have in your life, causing anger or sadness?

How much good do those negative emotions do you?

How could you counteract your triggers with positive affirmations?

How would you access this list?

Where will you see it everyday?

The affirmations people use depend on the aspect of their life that they are currently working on.

Which part of your life currently feels negative?

What emotion does it stir?

What is the opposite of that emotion?

If we choose immersion into an emotion we begin to feel it wholeheartedly and that’s where affirmations come in. Telling yourself that

you feel a certain way does work when practised regularly with the intention on solidifying the belief – almost ritualistically. Most of us

like some kind of regular routine or ritual – our lives are filled with patterns that we accept without question. When we turn our

attention to creating new patterns of behaviour, exciting changes can happen very quickly.

Richard Leighton

© October 2004

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