Today, I’m going to talk about one of my dirty little secrets: Affirmations.
For several years off and on, I have been experimenting with developing a spiritual practice using affirmations. If you are unfamiliar with the use of affirmations, there is a significant body of literature, particularly originating from psychology, concerning their use. Suffice it to say, affirmations are words or phrases that one repeats over and over again in order to root a specific thought or action or change of habit in your mind. Sounds great, doesn’t it?
For instance, you might decide to get up earlier in order to be more productive. You could use the following affirmations to help you stick to that new routine: “I wake up filled with energy. I love waking up early. I begin my day with intention. I am waking up more and more easily every day.” So on and so forth.
There are all sorts of variations.
Some are very general, stemming from Emile Coué’s famous affirmation: “Every day in every way I am getting better and better.” Some affirmations are very specific, and you can find a great deal of (mostly anecdotal) evidence about their utility in positive thinking and habit change, helping with everything from weight loss to quitting smoking. Others advocate subliminal affirmations, recorded at such a low frequency along with music or soothing sounds. Only your subconscious mind can hear these affirmations.
Affirmations seem like a great idea, and – as you can imagine – they could fit right in with some spiritual practices of mindfulness, reframing, or practicing the presence of God. At least, that’s what I thought when I began experimenting/exploring, and I hoped to write up a method to just begin using them.
However, I have just not been able to see any real effect as I’ve used them. Even on the matter of shifting perspective, they are not useful to me like mindfulness exercises or Centering Prayer.
That’s my dirty, little secret. So, why should I say anything about them then?
Well, I wanted to bring them up as an example of what I have been saying in my books and on this website for a long while – not every spiritual practice works for you, so feel free to pick a practice up, try it out, and set it down again.
Affirmations may work great for some people, but they don’t do anything for me. You might try them and find them to be the bee’s knees. If so, terrific! If not, that’s okay too. There’s no harm or shame in finding out that a practice isn’t for you.
If that’s the case, then you can join me in setting it down, moving on to the next idea, and giving it a go.
Let’s go explore.