by Jennifer L. Thompson

Created on: November 12, 2009

Affirmations are simple, positive, self-help statements that can be used by practically anyone. These statements can be regarding any number of issues that someone would like to overcome or improve. The simplicity of using affirmations will often make someone wonder if they really work, or if they are even worth using at all.

After many years of using affirmations, and in helping others to open up and receive the benefits of using them, I can easily say that they are quite effective, and that they do work. At the same time, there are certain things that must be factored in for any affirmation to work in a positive manner, and for someone to achieve success with their use. In order to understand an affirmations effectiveness, let's first take a look at what an affirmation does.

The essential work of any affirmation is to "unstick" and release any unwanted and/or negative thought pattern, replacing it with positive and life affirming thoughts and actions, and also opening someone's mind to seeing the greater potential in what already is. These things will then automatically release the old ways to create new thoughts and actions that bring a more positive direction, and will therefore attract more of what we want.

For instance, if someone is always limiting herself with statements such as "I'm always broke" (an old way of thinking), she will just always feel and act like she's broke. She's teaching her mind to always see herself as broke, and therefore to be broke, by affirming this to herself (In other words, this is an unwanted way of affirming something, yet it, too, will work). Someone wishing to challenge this pattern could use an affirmation such as "money comes to me in many ways", or "I have all that I want and need".

These more positive statements will open her up to seeing what likely already is becoming a reality (if not a reality to begin with), and yet will generally also prompt her mind to expand these thoughts into compatible and reinforcing actions, thus growing her financial status. Her mind will pick out more and more ways for money to come to her, or to have all that she wants and needs, because this is what she is re-training it to see. With this, she will also attract other more positive opportunities, to eventually create a constant quality of effortlessly being in any state she is affirming to herself.

In the end, for both women and men, any affirmation will work with repetative use, whether it is something negative we subconsciously will on ourselves, or a more positive statement we consiously aspire to acheive. The point is to learn how to use affirmations in the most positive and life enhancing way, thereby ensuring we succeed in what we want, and are not just getting more of what we don't.

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