Pictures as cards: Thoughts, quotes and affirmations

The collection „Warm regards“ keeps on growing and is featuring pictures that have been turned into cards (greeting cards, postcards or whatever else you’d like to call them) featuring my own words and thoughts as well as quotes and affirmations to inspire and reinforce positive thinking.

Pictures as cards I: Quotes, thoughts, affirmations

In a broad sense, an affirmation is anything we say or think. Unfortunately, a lot of these words and thoughts, in particular about ourselves, are negative. In order to evolve, we can retrain the way we think and speak, simply by using positive statements. These positive statements said (aloud or internally) with confidence are what most people refer to when they talk about affirmations.

Affirmations: What they are and how they work

Affirmations are a very useful tool to change your own belief patterns and the limitations we put onto ourselves. Expressions often used in this negative or limiting sense are „I am (not)…“ or „I can’t …“ or „I will/can never …“. „I am“ is considered to be the most powerful affirmation as it is setting the state to be in. For instance, „I am happy“, „I am content“, „I am brave“, „I am strong“, … . It is essential to feel in this state when you say the affirmation. Don’t say – or feel – „I want to be happy“, it won’t have the desired effect. If you can’t feel it if you can’t convince yourself to get into the feeling even for the brief moment of the affirmation, try to formulate it slightly differently: „I am getting happier and happier with every new day“.

Laura Malina Seiler has a podcast and video on affirmations for those who speak German. Certainly, there are many more in English as well as German. Therefore, find a personality, voice and approach you like or simply write your own affirmations to use. Of course, affirmations aren’t the one miraculous tool that eliminates all our problems. But they are a very good starting point to change the way we look at ourselves; how we perceive our lives and the world around us; and empower us to make the changes in our lives.

Please realize that every complaint is an affirmation of something you think you don’t want in your life. Every time you get angry, you’re affirming that you want more anger in your life. Every time you feel like a victim, you’re affirming that you want to continue to feel like a victim. If you feel that Life isn’t giving you what you want in your world, then it’s certain that you will never have the goodies that Life gives to others-that is, until you change the way you think and talk.

Louise Hay: The power of affirmations

Affirmations don’t work anyway!

That’s an affirmation actually. If we choose to believe that something won’t work, we can be pretty sure, that it won’t work. So, the key for affirmations to work for you is to believe in them. Above all, believe in yourself and feel the power and energy of the statement. Like with everything in life, the intention of what we do or say something, is having a great impact on the outcome. Therefore, the stronger we feel what we say, the quicker these words can think in; and ultimately, work towards real changes in our lives.

If an unwholesome belief is deeply rooted in our unconscious mind, then it has the ability to override a positive affirmation, even if we aren’t aware of it. This is why, for many people, affirmations don’t seem to work: Their afflicted thought patterns are so strong that they knock out the effect of the positive statement.

Ronald Alexander Ph.D. in „Psychology today“: 5 steps to make affirmation work for you (Aug, 15 2011)

Pictures as cards II: Quotes, thoughts, affirmations

Psychology to make it work

Even unconscious negative thoughts can turn into self-fulfilling prophecies this way. Quite often, we talk ourselves into believing that we’re not good enough openly though. Conscious or unconscious, the result is the same: We drag down our relationships and our personal as well as professional lives. What’s the way out?

Psychology today is laying out 5 steps to make affirmation work for you:

Step 1: Make a list of what you’ve always thought of as your negative qualities.
Step 2: Now write an affirmation on the positive aspect of your self-judgment.
Step 3: Speak the affirmation out loud for about five minutes three times a day, morning, midday, and evening.
Step 4: Anchor the affirmation in your body as you are repeating it by placing your hand on the area that felt uncomfortable when you wrote out the negative belief in Step 1.
Step 5: Get a friend or coach to repeat your affirmation to you.

For detailed instructions read 5 steps to make affirmation work for you in „Psychology today“ (Aug, 15 2011)

Happiness is the way

Using affirmations to give your life a positive spin, is sometimes easier said than done. Just because you can’t feel it immediately, doesn’t mean you can’t do it. Be kind, be patient, be forgiving, be curious, be enduring, be powerful, be loving, be … . Most importantly, give it time and try which words work best for you. We are different on so many levels. Everybody has their own personal background, their own experiences to start with. We have different interests, feelings, thoughts and energy. In conclusion, find your own way to happiness and remember happiness is the way. The way you choose to live your life, each and every day. It’s not a destination to reach when xyz has happened or entered your life.