Affirmations: I love and approve of myself
Affirmations are used to develop a positive mindset which in turn has positive effects on our lifestyle.They can be described as the power of positive thinking,helping us to achieve whatever we want out of life.Positive affirmations can also be used in the workplace to help those who use them achieve more success at work.The personal advantages of using positive affirmations is that one can change one's life in a positive way as well as improving one's health.
Usinfg positive affirmations is perhaps best summarized as a form of positive brainwashing that one can do on oneself. It involves replacing our old negative thought patterns (negative brainwashing) which have held us back with new positive thoughts of loving an approving of ourselves.
Louise L. Hay in her book "You can heal your life" gives detailed instructions on how to use positive affirmations in a beneficial way.Two of the affirmations that she advocates using are as follows:
"All is well in my world"
"I love and approve of myself"
It is further advocated by Louise Hay to use a mirror when practising these affirmations to get the full beneficial effect.
Another feature of using this approach is the emphasis on present moment living i.e. keeping things in the here and now rather than focussing on the past or on the future.It is important to keep the focus on the present time because the past is gone and the future is uncertain.One has power in NOW as a way of shaping the future.
Those of us who don't want to keep repeating the patterns of the past which sabotage our future can benefit a great deal from the positive affirmations approach.
A key feature of a positive affirmation approach is the way it deals with thoughts.It emphasizes that it is only one's thought processes that prevent one from achieving goals and that thoughts can be changed from negative to positive ones as outlined above.
It is necessary to re-programme our thinking to achieve this improvement in our quality of life. Those who advocate a positive affirmations approach believe that negative thinking can actually make one ill and that an improvement in thinking patterns can have positive implications for physical health.
There are suggestions in Louise Hay's book mentioned above that affirmations can be used effectively in many aspects of life such as healing and health,romance,prosperity and weight loss.
There have been many other publications on the power of positive thinking and plenty of anecdotal evidence that they work so perhaps it is time to take some time to examine our thought patterns to see if they are having a negative impact on our mental,physical and spiritual health.In the process,we can re-programme our thinking with positive affirmations,replacing the old,negative thought patterns with new more positive ones for a brighter,more successful and healthier future.
