AFFIRMATIONS:  FAST CHANGE ARTISTRY      

          Scientific research has shown that hearing or speaking positive statements can normalize blood pressure, strengthen muscle response, and enhance functioning of the immune system.  Psychological studies have proven that hearing praise and encouragement can dramatically improve an individual's performance on I.Q. tests.  Experiments in hypnosis have demonstrated that suggestive statements to a subject can ignite abilities and talents previously unused.  Should we not then accept the possibility of consciously directed self-change and life-change through the use of carefully constructed positive statements given to and by ourselves?

          Positive statements, or affirmations, are like magic words:  by speaking and writing them, with focused concentration and while emotionally experiencing the content of the words, you can change your life and yourself. 

          Repeating your carefully chosen affirmations is called "auto-suggestion".  By using this method, you can improve your emotional state and the chemical composition of your bloodstream within moments.  Within days, you can change your habitual responses and your outlook.  You can quickly create new attitudes about yourself, bring something desired into your life, resolve a problem area, heal a physical malfunction, and even increase your financial supply! 

          Why?  Because we are tremendously influenced, both consciously and subconsciously, by what we hear.  Throughout your life, you have been making and reinforcing statements about the condition of yourself and your life.  Many, perhaps most, of those statements have been limiting, negative, and suppressive.

          Now is the time to counteract years, even decades, of this non-constructive thought and negative conditioning by deliberately replacing those thoughts with strong statements that you want to become true.  When you are making a change, your statements will, of course, not yet be a physical reality. 

          The following are examples of transformational affirmations:   

                        I am now slender. -- when you aren't yet.

                        I'm full of energy!  --  when you're tired.

                        The lawsuit is now resolved.  -- when it isn't.

          Must you believe what you are saying and writing in your affirmations?  No, of course not -- not at first.  If you already believed it, you would have it.  You are saying what you want, not what you have. 

          The difference between a statement about the future and an affirmation is that affirmations are formed in the present tense.  We say that what we want is already a fact, when it isn't, for the benefit of the sub-conscious mind.  The future ("will be...", "will have...") is non-existent for the subconscious.  

          Desire alone is a powerful force, but it is not enough.  You must train yourself to expect and believe that you can have your goals, a better self-image, more positive feelings, and so forth.  Otherwise, you remain locked in the assumptions and possibilities of past conditioning.  Affirmations can help you to expect and believe.

          Affirmations are training tools that help overcome resistances to believing in a far better future.  A very great man, quoted in the Bible, once said, "As you believe, so is it done to you."

          How do we learn what we believe?  We have unconsciously absorbed most beliefs by repetition and saturation in statements, emotions and attitudes relating to those beliefs.  To take control of our lives, we must take control of our beliefs. 

          We must create new beliefs.  We do that with carefully chosen, repeated, emotionally felt, affirmative statements about ourselves, other people, life in general and our opportunities to achieve our goals.  By consciously adopting new, more positive beliefs about our life experience, we learn to transform desires into expectations.  That refinement in thought and emotion is critical to creating your new life.