Affirmations are statements that, by repeating over and over again, we can convince the mind to adopt and replay in its chatter
– Ronit Baras
I have written a lot about affirmations in this blog, mainly because I believe they are very important for our health and wellbeing. You can sit down with a person for 10 minutes and tell if his or she is a happy, successful, healthy person by the phrases they say repeatedly.
Do you know why? Because those things they say repeatedly are part of their beliefs about themselves and the world around them. The way we experience the world depends a lot on how we tune our minds.
Let me give you a good metaphor. Think of the beliefs in your head as colored glasses. If you put pink glasses on, you will see the world in pink. If you put blue glasses on, you will see the world in blue. If you have black glass on, well, you won’t see anything because they block out the light.
Most people dedicate a lot of their energy to changing the world around them, when the greatest and easiest impact would come from just changing their glasses, or in our case, our beliefs about the world inside and outside of us.
It is true that not everything can be changed by changing our glasses, but changing our beliefs have a tendency to snowball, for better and for worse. If we make small adjustments in our belief systems, it will lead to exponential change because our beliefs are highly interconnected.
Here is an example:
Let’s say I have a belief that having a fever is a sign of some great sickness in my body and that I should stop it at all cost. My reaction to such a belief would be to panic at any sign of fever, take medication, go to the doctor, take sick leave, overload on vitamins…
If I change that belief to thinking that a fever is a sign that my body is in perfect working order and is fighting something, and that I should allow my body to do its job, my reaction to such a belief (even if I had the same temperature) would be to take time off, drink lots of fluids, stress less and let my body do its job.
One belief makes me constantly mistrust my body while the other is calm and happy with it. Same me, same temperature (and probably the same reason for the fever), but different reactions and therefore different paths. Think how many other beliefs are associated with letting the body do its job, and trusting that it is healthy and superior and can heal itself.
That is the power of affirmations. They are positive beliefs, which if we foster them, will help us make those small changes that will make our lives better. In my coaching, I help my clients develop the beliefs that will be good for them.
In the next chapters of the affirmation series, I will share a list of affirmations about different topics, including health, self esteem, opportunities, love, success, failure, money, relationships, trust, focus… Many of my clients have asked me to post affirmations on the blog, so they can come and search for beliefs they would like to adopt in other areas of lives, which I am very happy to do.
All you have to do is look at the list, pick some that work well for you and post them in a visible place where you can see them twice a day: mirrors, doors, diary, on your mobile phone as a screen saver, on your computer screen as a screen saver (I have mine on my desktop screen and it works well), toilet, office cubical, corkboard, white board, fridge, car… Try to keep it there for at least 3 weeks.
See you next time, with some health affirmations.
Happy day
Ronit
