Live Empowered: Creating Powerful Positive Affirmations That Work

Many people have probably heard the famous quote from Henry Ford that says, "Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right."

What if this statement was absolutely true? What if you could really change your life just by changing the way that you think? What if by simply believing that you can be successful, you have already started in a brisk run down the trail to success?

I'm going to make a statement that many people would probably consider fairly bold, and say that I completely agree with Henry Ford. We have a lot more control over the outcomes in our lives than most people think.

Many people are more limited by their own thoughts than they are by any other circumstances they may face.

It's easy to blame the results we are getting in our lives on others around us or on trials of our past, but once we start taking more responsibility for what is going on in our lives, the positive shifts in our results are undeniable. I can attest to this from personal experience.

If you can conquer your own mind, you can do things that you might have never thought possible before.

Positive affirmations are basically positive statements about yourself, your circumstances, and where you are going in life.

By focusing on these positive thoughts and repeating them often, you are able to get your life moving in the direction that you want it to be moving rather than letting your doubts and negativity hold you back from reaching your dreams.

While maintaining a positive attitude is naturally going to help you to be more effective in your ventures, knowing how to really hone in your positive affirmations and put some power behind them will yield even greater results.

The more specific your affirmations are to your unique situation, the more effective they will be in helping you to move forward and overcome the obstacles that have been keeping you from achieving your dreams.

This is the method I use to come up with positive affirmations that will be particularly meaningful to me.

1. Fold a paper in half vertically (or what they call hot dog style at the elementary school).
2. On one side of the paper, write down the top 10 thoughts and limiting beliefs you have that are keeping you from achieving your goals. Think about your negative self talk. What types of things do you say to yourself on a regular basis that make you feel like you're not good enough? (Don't be afraid to dig deep. The deeper you look inside yourself, the more effective this will be. A lot of people cry during this exercise, and that's alright)
3. On the other side of your paper, you are going to write the exact opposite of your negative self talk and then add an extra positive to reinforce it.

Let me give a quick example of how this would work:

• If my negative self talk says that "No one cares about what I have to say," on the other side of my paper, I might write, "People love to hear and read my insights (this is the opposite of what I said before), and I have a lot of light to share that could really benefit the world (one extra positive reinforcement)."

It is my personal belief that our negative self talk comes from Satan (Lucifer, the adversary, the devil, or whatever you might like to call him). I believe that he is a real and powerful force. He wants us to feel horrible about ourselves, and fills our minds with doubts and lies about our abilities and self worth.

When we come up with the opposite statements, we are discovering God's truth about ourselves. We are God's children and we have infinite potential. We might not be at the peak of our potential right now, but there are great things in store for all of us, and it is our own limiting beliefs that hold us back the most.

When we choose to conquer these limiting beliefs and replace them with truth about our light and potential, powerful shifts happen in our lives.

Don't overwhelm yourself by trying to say ten affirmations a day. Look at your ten negative self talks you wrote down and pick a few that are holding you back more than the others.

Then look at the affirmations that correspond with those and use those to get you started.

Pick between one and three affirmations to work on, and soon the negativity that prompted you to come up with those won't be an issue for you anymore, so you can move on to new ones.

You may have noticed that in the example I listed above, my affirmation was stated in the present tense:

• People (currently in the present tense) love to hear and read my insights, and I (currently in the present) have a lot of light to share that could really benefit the world.

When you word your positive affirmations in the present tense it tells your subconscious mind that the things you desire are ready to happen instead of telling your subconscious that you have to wait until some undetermined time in the future to achieve the results that you are desiring.

So, just to reemphasize how this works, instead of saying, "I will be wealthy," you would want to say, "I am wealthy."

The more enthusiastic you are when you say your affirmations, the more effective they will be at convincing your mind of what your reality can be like.

Some people feel silly saying affirmations out loud, but just speaking out loud will add power to your affirmations. To increase the power of the affirmation, you can speak with more conviction or excitement.

Doing a power pose like the one in the picture above, will help give your affirmation more momentum to change your life.

Taking a step or even a bit of a jump forward will amplify the affirmation even more.

So, in order to bring more enthusiasm into your affirmation you can:

• Use an excited tone of voice that shows conviction to what you are saying
• Do a power pose while you say your affirmation
• Take a step or jump forward to show your mind that you are moving forward with the things you are saying

Positive affirmations work the best when they are used consistently.

You can set an alarm on your phone to remind you to do your affirmations at certain times throughout the day, so that you can get into a habit of saying them frequently.

If nothing else, you should try to say your affirmations at least once a day.

Try to make it a regular part of your schedule.

• Your thoughts are much more powerful than you think.
• Creating affirmations that are unique to you and your specific situation will help you to really target the stumbling blocks that have been hindering your progress.
• Wording your affirmations in the present tense helps to convince yourself that you don't have to wait any longer for a certain time in the future to come before you get the results you want.
• Being enthusiastic (excited tone of voice, movements, power poses) will help your mind to really believe what you say.
• Being consistent and reciting your affirmations often (at least daily) will help you keep your mind focused on the shifts that you plan on achieving.