Positive affirmations can reduce stress

Positive affirmations can reduce stress in your life. Here are some suggestions if you find your tendency to worry if affecting the quality of your life mentally, emotionally and physically.

If you have a problem that needs to be taken care of, stop procrastinating and just do what needs to be done. It may be hard to face, but once it's dealt with the stress in your life will go way down daily positive affirmation will help.

If you have toxic people in your life, that is, people who make you feel uncomfortable, bad about yourself, lacking in some way, jumpy, sad, essentially too much negative emotion, limit the amount of time you spend with those people, or cut them out of your life. It's impossible to cut out certain people like beloved family members and co-workers, but you can in these cases, organize your life in such a way that you spend less time with them than you ordinarily would. And when you do have to spend time with a toxic person, schedule some time with a person whom you find uplifting afterward. It will be a positive antitode.

Try positive affirmations and visualization . There are loads of books on the market with instructions on how to use these powerful tools. Many of us run negative stress-producing thoughts without even realizing we're doing it 24/7. It is possible to replace these with positive thoughts and mental pictures. In fact, it is imperative to do so to reduce stress and living a more rewarding life.

Stay away from caffeine. The temporary boost it gives you isn't worth its cost in added jumpiness and roller coaster energy swings.

Start writing down your thoughts in a journal, both everything that worries you and everything you love about your life (that you can think of in one sitting). Then be done with it for the day, and go about living.

Get plenty of exercise. Exercise releases endorphins which make you feel good. It's also very good for your overall health and can often pop you out of a worried state of mind. It's also very beneficial for people who have depressive tendencies.

Try seeing a counselor or hypnotherapist. There's nothing quite like having the attention of a trained professional, someone who listens well and has some insights and ideas for you to try. Each of us is unique, and good therapists realize this, knowing that what works to reduce stress for one person isn't going to work for another person. It's always good to get a helping hand.

Allow yourself a few minutes each day, a very limited time, to worry to the hilt. Exaggerate your fears and negative mental images. Then when your time's up. Let is go until your next scheduled worry session.

Take a break from the media for a while-TV, radio, newspaper, magazines. Read a good, uplifting book instead, and go for long walks. It's amazing what even just a few days of positive affirmations can do to improve your frame of mind. You might want to make it permanent.

Positive Affirmations - Do Positive Affirmations Really Work Or Not?

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Positive Affirmations - Do Positive Affirmations Really Work Or Not?
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Warren_Wojnowski]Warren Wojnowski

You may have heard that "affirmations do not work" or perhaps you find yourself wondering whether affirmations really work or how do affirmations work.

The answer of course is "it depends". It depends on the affirmation and it depends the person's level of belief... or more accurately your level of disbelief.

If the affirmation you say or write doesn't feel true or believable to you, more likely than not it will not manifest for you. You have to "feel" good about your affirmations. So use how you feel when writing your affirmation in order to best achieve results.

If you write down an affirmation that really is not what you believe, you're going to have a natural resistance in your vibration or subconscious thought and so you will be thwarting yourself. So reword your affirmations in a positive way that is believable to you and then say it out loud EVERY DAY, several times a day (because affirmations said only once are not powerful enough to change your sub-conscious patterns of thinking).

For example, instead of saying "I am", if that feels off, substitute the words "I am in the process of" into your affirmation.

Affirmations help you mold yourself into what you want to become. Keep your affirmations open on the "how". When you state something freely and openly then there is no resistance as to how it can come to you. When we say "mold", we mean you are in effect changing yourself, so you need to establish this new you slowly and gently over time.

Also, be careful in your wording of your affirmation because if you aren't, you may go through some chaos as you achieve it. For example,if you want a new job because your current one is stressful, you may get the new job by being fired from your current one or even find yourself an even more stressful job.

In order to avoid chaos or the drama, work into your affirmation that you are achieving what you want in an easy, gentle way. So word your affirmation indicating you are finding a job that you will enjoy in a way that provide you positive change.

"I am in the process of finding a job that is fun and fulfilling and I am making the transition to that job in a relaxed, stress free manner."

Repeat this once a day every day if you have no resistance to saying it.

Remember also that if your job doesn't show up right away, that doesn't mean it isn't coming. Things have to line up first, which means you really have to truly know what it is you want... otherwise you will not likely be in alignment with it.

So while you are waiting for the "perfect job", affirm to yourself that your current job is stress free and enjoyable. Now you are covered. You get less stress in your current job, while your perfect job is on the way.

Now you are out of the way in terms of how it happens. You may find that in the end you didn't need a new job, but just had to adjust to the changes in your current one. And once you learned to respond better to your circumstances things improved for you in all areas of your life.

We also hear about people using over 300 affirmations a day, and getting no results. The solution is to focus. Focus on something that is really important for you. In this case, less is more.

Finding relief from your current situation also may be the next step for you to achieving success. So start with an affirmation that you are discovering more joy or love in your life. Start with simple things.

If you find yourself in a stressful situation, you can repeat specific affirmations to help calm you down. Let's say you are stressed, then affirm you have "peace and calmness" soaking deep into your being right now. Take a few minutes to see yourself soaking in that wonderful energy. Those quick positive affirmations are handy, so be ready to use them.

It can be very simple to work with positive affirmations if you take a simple easy does it approach with no resistance in the words. A lot can be done right now to make your next 12 months a positive experience just by starting today to write out your key affirmations for the next 12 months.

If you'd like more information about how to use positive affirmations, visit Intrinsic Coach® Warren Wojnowski's website and be sure to sign up for his free 7 day eCourse by clicking here now: Create Abundance, or send an email now to inspabundance@aweber.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Warren_Wojnowski


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How to Use Affirmations Effectively

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Self-affirmations are positive statements or self-scripts that can condition the subconscious mind so that you can develop a more positive perception of
yourself. Affirmations can help you to change harmful behaviors or accomplish goals, and they can also help undo the damage caused by negative scripts, those things which we repeatedly tell ourselves (or which others repeatedly tell us) that contribute to a negative self-perception. Affirmations are easy to create and use, but you'll need dedication to make them work. Here's some pointers to help you get the most out of these powerful tools.

Steps

1. Think about your positive attributes. Take stock of yourself by making an inventory of your best qualities, abilities, or other attributes. Are you gorgeous? Write it down. Are you a hard worker? Make note of it. Write each quality down in a short sentence, starting with "I" and using the present tense: "I am beautiful," for example, or "I am generous". These statements are affirmations of who you are. We rarely focus on those things that we really like about ourselves, instead choosing to dwell on things we'd like to change. An inventory will help you break that cycle, and using these affirmations to help you appreciate who you are will give you the confidence you need to accept your affirmations of who you want to become.
   
2. Think about what negative scripts you want to counteract or what positive goals you want to accomplish. Affirmations can be extremely useful to counteract negative perceptions you have developed about your appearance, your abilities, or your potential (we'll refer to these types of affirmations as "counter-scripts"). Affirmations can also help you achieve specific goals, such as losing weight or quitting smoking. Make a list of your goals or the harmful self-perceptions you want to change.
   
3. Prioritize your list of things to work on. You may find that you have a lot of goals or that you need many counter-scripts. It's best, however, to concentrate on just a few affirmations at a time, so choose those that are most important or most urgent and work with those first. Once you see improvement in those areas or accomplish those goals you can develop new affirmations for other items on your list. You can try using as many affirmations as you want at any given time, but you may want to start by using no more than five.
   
4. Write your affirmations. In step 1, you got plenty of practice writing affirmations based on your positive qualities in the present. You can use these alone as counter-scripts, or you can add other affirmations to influence your behavior in the future. The affirmations you will use to influence future changes should follow the same basic form as those from step 1. They should start with "I," and be short, clear, and positive. There are two kinds of future-oriented affirmations you can use to work toward goals.
   
   • "I can" statements: Write a statement affirming the fact that you can achieve your goal(s). For example, if you want to quit smoking, a statement such as "I can quit smoking," is a good start. Many experts recommend that you avoid any sort of negative connotation, so that you would instead say something like "I can free myself from smoking," or "I can become smoke-free."
     
   • "I will" statements: Write a statement affirming that today you will actually use your ability to achieve your goal. So, following the above example, you could say, "I will be smoke-free today," or "I will smoke fewer cigarettes today than yesterday." Again, the affirmation should use positive language and should simply express what you will do today to achieve the longer-term goal.
     
   
   
5. Match up some of your positive attributes with your goals. Which of the positive qualities that you affirmed in step 1 will help you achieve the goals you have set? If you're quitting smoking, for example, you may need willpower or courage, or you may need to reflect on the fact that you are beautiful or that you care about your family. Select two or three of these affirmations to support your goal-oriented affirmations.
   
6. Make your repetitions visible so you can use them. Repetition is the key to making affirmations effective. You want to think about your affirmations several times a day, every day. There are several ways to do this.
   
   • Make a point of writing your affirmations in a journal or diary each morning when you wake up and each night before you go to sleep. Repeat the affirmations to yourself at these times, as well. Ideally your affirmations should be the first thing you think of when you wake up and the last before you go to sleep.
     
   • Meditate on your affirmations. Close your eyes, shut out the rest of the world, and think about your affirmations. Say and repeat the words, but think about what the words mean to you; think about the future and try to feel the emotions that the affirmations evoke.
     
   • Leave reminder cards in various places. Use 3X5 index cards or sticky notes to write your affirmations (one per card). Make several cards for each affirmation, and then leave these cards where you will see them: place one where you sit at the kitchen table, tape one to your car's steering wheel, slip one inside your desk drawer, or stick one to your computer monitor, etc. Each time you see the card, read it and think about what it means.
     
   • Carry your affirmations with you. Make a list of your affirmations and put it in your wallet or purse. If you need a pick-me-up, or if you find yourself about to waver from your goals, get out your affirmations and read them.
     
   
   
7. Continue using your affirmations. The more you affirm something, the more firmly your mind will accept it. If you are trying to accomplish a short-term goal, use your affirmations until you have accomplished it. If you simply want to use affirmations as a counter-script, use each one as long as you like.
   

Tips

• Don't be discouraged if your affirmations don't seem to help at first. Instead, think about how you are using them. Do you really believe them? If you don't believe the affirmations, they can still be effective, but it will take longer. If you're tired of waiting, make sure your goals are attainable and set reasonable expectations for when you want to attain them. Use affirmations to counteract negative scripts or to accomplish small goals, and you will eventually develop the confidence to tackle bigger issues.
  
• Affirmations can be used in combination with visualizations to increase the effectiveness of both. By visualizing your affirmations, you can make them more real in your mind. Include mental visualization using as many of your five senses (sight, sound, smell, taste, touch) as appropriate.
  
• If you don't want people to know about your affirmations, just place your reminders in discreet locations. Remember, however, that it's important that you see them frequently, or they'll do you no good.
  
• If you find yourself simply parroting the words of your affirmations, instead of concentrating on their meaning, change affirmations. You can still affirm the same goals or characteristics, of course, but rephrasing your affirmations can rejuvenate their effectiveness.
  
• If you find it difficult to believe an affirmation will materialize, add "I choose to" to the affirmation. "I choose to be at my healthy weight," for example, or, "I choose to maintain a healthy weight easily and effortlessly."
  
• Make a recording in your own voice and play it as you fall asleep. Some people swear by this method.
  
• Attach positive emotions to your affirmations. Think about how achieving your goal will make you feel, or think about how good it feels to know that you are good at something. Emotion is a fuel which makes affirmations more powerful.
  
• Ask friends to say a version of your affirmations to you. For example, "Maryanne, you are eating such healthy meals. You must feel great." Self-affirmations are valuable precisely because they free you from a reliance on the approval of others, but affirmations from others can be just as beneficial as negative scripts from others are harmful.
  
• Gratitude is a type of affirmation: One that says the following: "I enjoy and value the good in my life and trust that more will come my way".
  

Warnings

• Affirmations are not a quick fix to all your problems. Do not expect a miracle, especially not overnight. It may have taken years for you to fully accept negative scripts in your self-image; it will take time to change how you feel about yourself, as well.
  

Related wikiHows

• How to Stay Positive when You Know Your Life Sucks
  

Sources and Citations

• Coping.org
  
• MJBovo.com
  
• bmindful - the positive affirmation community
  

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