“Belief consists in accepting the affirmations of the soul; unbelief, in denying them.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
The Power Of Affirmations
Part 4 of a 7 part series by my friend Nancy Barry-Jansson
So far, we’ve covered:
MYTH #1: “I don’t do affirmations.”
MYTH #2: “Oh, I’ve tried affirmations…they don’t work.” and MYTH #3: “I’ll start doing affirmations when I figure out how I can meet my goals.” Moving on to…
The Power Of Affirmations MYTH #4: “Affirmations are a form of brainwashing.”
Well, there is some truth to this, but positive affirmations are not intended for brainwashing other people. Affirmations, properly done, are a form of positive self-brainwashing. The operative words in that sentence being “positive” and “self”.
What we traditionally think of as brainwashing is when someone else, or a group of people, forces you think and act as they wish, regardless of whether you want to or not. When we think of brainwashing, we usually think of cults or POW camps where people are forced to change their thinking and to conform to the agreed thinking of the cult or the controlling government.
They also use repetition as a tool in brainwashing, focus on breaking the human spirit through sleep (and other types of) deprivation, and utilize other means of emotional or physical torture to accomplish their goal. Clearly, brainwashing, as we know it, is a dark use of the power of the subconscious mind. Could someone write negative affirmations and begin using them to make themselves thinking negatively? I guess, but why would you? Most people have enough negative affirmations coming from our environment that you really don’t need any extra help in that department.
The truth is that we have all been brainwashed, in some fashion, by our culture and our environment since the moment we were born. As a child, we didn’t have a choice what message was passed down by family or society, but as an adult we do have a choice.
Positive affirmations are about taking control of what you know are your shortcomings and consciously changing negative thought patterns for positive thought patterns that are better aligned with your life goals. In this manner, positive affirmations are a positive form of self-brainwashing that allows you to choose the suds, the size of the bucket, and the sponge. Sure beats someone else doing it for you!
Tomorrow, we’ll fearlessly address Affirmation Myth #5!
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