Affirmations are a form of talking to yourself in a positive manner. The opposite is negative self-talk, which so many of us are so good at. The idea here is to replace that negative self-talk with something far better, positive self-talk. This will have a long lasting effect on your self of self-worth and your power to accomplish whatever you want to achieve.

Let's try this (it's a test of the emergency affirmation system:) Start by saying, "I like myself" 10 times, in a row, quickly: "I like myself, I like myself, I like myself, I like myself, I like myself, I like myself, I like myself, I like myself, I like myself, I like myself..."

What did that do for you? Did it make you feel good? Silly? I picked that one up from one Michael Clouse, who got it from Brian Tracy.

I felt odd when I first tried it out, it felt wrong somehow. What did saying that do for you? Generally we aren't taught to like or respect ourselves. Our training sometimes seems to teach us not to like ourselves. After all, we know ourselves, right?

We all participate in our own self talk. That's what we say to and about ourselves when we're the only one's listening. Our thoughts count, too. How many of us treat ourselves like we'd treat someone who we're tying to encourage? Not many of us.

Generally, we're our own worst critics. Now imagine many years of this nonsense, where are we? This is what the positive thought is intended to reverse. The idea behind positive affirmations is to get us to say things, to ourselves, that are a much more positive and uplifting than what we have been saying. This has endless positive benefits, such as improved self esteem and better results in all the things that we try.

Used properly affirmations can make a big difference in our lives and the lives of those around us. After all, we may tease the person who is always positive, but isn't it much nicer to be around him (or her) than the one who is always tearing himself/herself, and others, down.  And then the positive (and focused) person always seems to accomplish more and have more fun doing it.

You can go about creating your affirmations, depending on what you need to work on, or you can start with the basics, such as the "I like myself," above. Other basic affirmations are along the lines of, "I am Happy," "I am confident," "I am attractive," and so on.

There's a trick, though. If you say them once, they won't work. Just for today pick one affirmation, to start, and say it out loud ten times, while looking in the mirror (Ok, we're getting tough here. 😉 ) Do it in right after you wake up, at some point mid-day, and again when you go to bed. You don't have to do it with other people around.

The nest step is to keep doing that for a week. See how it makes you feel. If you can keep it up for three weeks it will start to become a habit and you will be feeling a lot better about doing it.