Affirmations

Every one of you has the potential to achieve whatever it is you would like to have or become! I truly believe this. To quote Norman Vincent Peale: "Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble, but reasonable confidence in your own powers, you cannot be successful or happy.”
But, we need the mental tools to accomplish the sometimes difficult task of self-confidence in oneself, a sense of purpose, and ongoing belief of our capabilities. We talked last week of one of the tools you can develop to help achieve your goals (visualization techniques).
This week I will talk a bit about affirmations (some of the information comes from Brian Tracey's book "Maximum Achievement”).
Affirmations are strong commands from your conscious mind to your subconscious mind. They override old information and reinforce new, positive habits of thought and behaviour. For instance, the affirmation "I like myself” is positive, present tense and personal. When you repeat it continually, you actually begin to feel better about yourself in everything you do.
With affirmations, you can increase you enthusiasm, boost your courage, assert control over your emotions, and build up your self-esteem by repeating statements that are consistent with the person you want to be.
You must realize that you must become the person you want to be on the inside before you see appearance of this person on the outside.
As you mentally ‘verbalize' simple, positive, personal affirmations, your subconscious mind accepts these statements as reality. A short simple statement such as "I am a leaner, stronger, healthier person” repeated consistently, creates in your mind the person you are becoming. Behaviours change. As you continue to repeat such a statement you will automatically eat smaller portions, and exercise more regularly.
You can create whatever affirmation you would like, but make it short, make it positive, and make it personal.
When my daughter was young, every night before bed I would end a bedtime story with "every day, in every way, I'm getting better and better,” followed by: "if it's going to be, it's up to me,” followed by: "I am, I can, I will.” The purpose of this was simply to try to ‘wash' any negative effects the day had had on her, and hopefully give her positive mental food for the next day.
We must feed our minds constantly with positive thoughts. I know how hard it is to consistently be faced with excesses of food, yet keep yourself focused on losing weight. So, create a few positive affirmations. "I'm becoming healthier by eating less,” or: "Nothing will discourage me or stop me from reaching my goal,” or: "I'm worth it.” Practice! You can do it! Keep it up! Don't ever quit at improving yourself!

Dr. Doug