To write good affirmations that work you have to write them by hand, be very clear on exactly what you want and craft it in a way that creates an image in your mind.
The strategy of using affirmations to create change in a person’s life has been popular since the very start of the so-called ‘self help’ movement.
The basic premise of affirmations is that by repeating a positive statement over and over it will eventually take root in your mind and get ‘installed’ as a dominant thought.
In some ways, this theory reverse engineers what we believe to be the way that our subconscious thoughts and beliefs get formed and rooted in the subconscious mind.
The big difference however is in the way that these thoughts and beliefs get formed.
Most of your negative beliefs and disempowering thoughts were formed unconsciously and most of them were formed at a time when your mind was incredibly receptive to ideas.
The vast majority of our thoughts and beliefs around money, relationships and life in general got handed down to us from our parents and other authority figures.
Worse still, they handed these beliefs down without even knowing it. Children learn and model what they see, hear and experience much more than what they are being taught deliberately.
This unconscious learning implants ideas and beliefs without you or the authority figures being consciously aware of it.
We then spend the next 20 years using our life experiences as evidence to back up these beliefs – and each time we reinforce the ideas even further.
With affirmations we are really up against it. Shifting ideas and beliefs that had that many years of reinforcement is not easy.
To write good affirmations we need to uproot a lifetime of thinking in a certain way. No matter what anyone tells you, it is important that you know upfront that working with affirmations takes time and effort.
Do Affirmations Really Work?
Almost everyone who has ever touched a self help book has tried affirmations. Most of them will tell you that it does not work.
That is probably because they did it wrong and most likely gave up way too soon. If you haven’t really giving your affirmations a really good go for at least 6 months then you haven’t really done the work.
The real problem with affirmations is that it has to pass through a big ‘security checkpoint’ on its way to the subconscious mind (where your beliefs live).
This checkpoint is your conscious and reasoning mind.
When you say an affirmation, your conscious mind immediately kicks in and reminds you that you are lying and that the statement is not true.
The conscious mind can be very persuasive – especially after using affirmations for a few months and not seeing any results.
This can suck up a lot of your mental and emotional energy and most people just give up – claiming that afformations does not work.
Affirmations are more like a marathon than a sprint however. Most people who run a marathon encounter ‘The Wall’ which is a metaphor that runners use when they reach a point where they feel like they simply can not continue.
They feel emotionally drained and many give up. Those who push through and keep going soon find a new level of energy and can then push through and complete the marathon.
Affirmations work.
Period.
When you write good affirmations and commit to them they work but only if you push past all the resistance that your conscious mind will throw at you.
The main reason why we will be writing our own affirmations and not just copying a list from the internet is because we are going to craft a deeply personal and highly effective statement that resonates with our innermost desires.
This is that place within ourselves where our true power resides. If you don’t connect deeply with your affirmations they simply can not penetrate the barrier that your conscious mind puts up.
The Power of Writing Affirmations
My first encounter with affirmations was through a self help book which listed about 20 to 30 affirmations for each area of life – finances, relationships and health.
The recommendation was to read it, memorize some of it and repeat it as often as possible.
Looking back at it now I can see the flaws and why it was so deflating at the time. General affirmations certainly does help you with ‘positive thinking’ but it lacks that deeper meaning that connects with your subconscious mind.
The second and probably the biggest problem is with the idea of reciting a list of statements.
It becomes dull, meaningless and devoid of any real power to reach your subconscious mind.
For affirmations to be effective it needs to implant a new image in your subconscious mind. Affirmations are actually the most effective way to practise visualization.
For this to be effective, we have to cultivate the power of writing affirmations. Not only do we write it in the sense of crafting and refinding the image, but we write our affirmations daily as a practise of visualizing and ‘installing’ new images in our mind.
Learning how to write good affirmations is all about understanding that your mind can not easily be forced to visualize. That is why many visualization practises simply do not work.
Writing is a tool. The connection between your hand and your brain is important. The act of writing something down takes your idea and your thought and gives it shape.
It is the first step in manifesting something because you take the thought from the immaterial and bring it into some form of concrete reality.
While you are writing you force your mind to think in a different way and act of writing engages parts of your brain that are usually on auto pilot.
These thoughts that are coasting on auto pilot are the very thoughts we want to engage to effect real and lasting change in our thinking.
How To Write Good Affirmations in 7 Steps
What is a ‘good’ affirmation ? A good affirmation is simply one that can help you visualize an end result. Words have the power to create an image in your mind and it is the image more than the actual words that make affirmations effective.
To write good affirmations we want to keep this in mind as we craft something that is meaningful, deliberate, unique and personal to YOU.
Since we are going to write our affirmations during this process of ‘crafting’ it we are already engaging a part of the mind that is usually idle when we merely copy other people’s affirmations or just recite lists of meaningless words.
Learning how to write good affirmations is not complicated at all but it does require some ‘hard work’. It is hard in the sense that you really need to think and you really need to engage yourself fully.
The 7 steps to write good affirmations are:
Step # 1: Get very clear on exactly what you want
Step # 2: Focus on the end result
Step # 3: Start your affirmation with your name
Step # 4: Use the present tense only
Step # 5: Write only positive statements
Step # 6: Reduce it to a single sentence
Step # 7: Inject emotion into your written affirmation
Ideally you want to focus on 1 to 5 affirmations. These affirmations will become part of your life for the next 3 to 6 months and we are going to put a lot of effort into crafting the most effective affirmation possible.
This is a very different strategy to the popular (but very ineffective) one of having lists and lists of general affirmations.
Step # 1: Get very clear on exactly what you want
The first and most important step is to get very clear on exactly what you want. Being general simply does not work. The more detail you have the more you can give your mind to work for.
I want to lose weight or I want to be rich, happy and successful are examples of really weak affirmations.
An example of something specific will be more like this:
I now own and drive a brand new red Lexus S2, 2022 model
Step # 2: Focus on the end result
Most people obsess over the means to the end. We tend to think of what we want and then work back and think how we can get it. We then make that the goal.
It is a huge mistake. When you focus only on the end result – as already having what you want, then you give creative intelligence the freedom to figure out the ‘how’.
Think only in terms of the accomplished end result. Build an image of what that will look like.
Driving the new car, being at your ideal weight and wearing a specific dress, standing inside your dream home.
Step # 3: Start your affirmation with your name
Many experts recommend that you start your affirmations with “I am”. While this is a powerful and effective strategy, I found that starting an affirmation with your own name works much better.
I John now own my dream 5 bedroom home on Stratton Avenue, with a beautiful swimming pool, tennis court and wall to wall marble tiles.
Step # 4: Use the present tense only
Your conscious mind is not very good at future pacing. Anything that we see as something distant simply does not get priority. Unless it is here and now, your mind simply shifts it aside.
Never use wording like “I will”. Always make it a present tense statement – as if it is already in your life.
I John, now have…
I Sarah, now own…
Step # 5: Write only positive statements
Trying to use negative statements in your affirmations is just about the biggest mistake you can make. Writing affirmations like “I will stop smoking” or “I am not overweight” or “I have no debt anymore” simply does not work.
Your mind can not interpret the negative. It simply reacts to the statement. Smoking or not smoking – your mind dwells on smoking and what you try to resist actually persists.
Always focus on the positive aspect of what you want to manifest. Instead of writing “I have no debt anymore” – focus on abundance instead. Forget about the debt completely.
Getting in or getting out of debt has no meaning to your subconscious mind.
Step # 6: Reduce it to a single sentence
Don’t get too wordy with your affirmations. It is fine to start writing more comprehensive affirmations at first as it often helps you gain more clarity.
As the idea starts to condense in your mind, try and shorten it to one powerful sentence. As long as the affirmation contains the words needed to create the image in your mind then your job is done.
Step # 7: Inject emotion into your written affirmation
The law of attraction dictates that whatever you think and feel on a consistent basis will be attracted into your life.
It is not just the thoughts we think, but also the emotions that come with the thoughts that creates the real attractive force.
With affirmations we create the image of what we want to attract or create. By attaching a positive emotion to that image we can accelerate the process.
If you can find an appropriate word to attach to the image that can help you ‘reach’ that emotional state of feeling the feelings of already having it.
Writing Good Affirmations That Work
Now that you know how to write good affirmations, you need to put in the work. I would recommend you sit down with a journal at least once a day and write out your affirmations for about 5 to 10 minutes.
Just keep writing the affirmation over and over again. You can use slight variations to prevent boring repetition.
I John, now own and drive a red Lexus S2 2022 model
John, you now have a stunning 2022 red Lexus S2
I John, now drive my dream car – a 2022 red Lexus S2
There are various law of attraction techniques that work really well with affirmations. I’ve written about the 3-6-9 technique and the 55×5 technique before and they are both great resources to help you achieve more with your affirmations.
One last thing to add is that while you write your affirmations, speak it as you write it. Speak it softly, but loud enough so you can hear it.
Seeing it, hearing it and writing it helps you implant the idea much faster.
Your conscious mind will resist. It will keep resisting until you do it and bombard it with the idea to the point where it can no longer resist and start to accept it.
This is the point where you will start seeing and experiencing dramatic changes. As long as you follow the 7 steps on how to write affirmations you will be well on your way.
Trust the process. Affirmations work – but only if you do the work and the work entails being consistent, persistent and ignoring your inner critic (your conscious mind) who will fight tooth and nail to avoid any form of change.