Do affirmations work? Is there an NLP technique that's better than traditional affirmations? Does anyone here use them? What are good things to say?

Lots of questions there, sorry.

Do affirmations work, let me see now,
if I were to say that I am going to win the lottery , if I did not win would it be fair to say that the affirmation did not work?

Some would say yes,
However there is a new school of thought which would say that it's more than just the affirmation, it's the visualization of
going beyond the affirmation that makes the difference.

And what about the time factor, we live in a world of instant gratification, fast food etc, where does that fit in with cosmic energy and intention?

If I saw my self with the things that the money could buy , and totally associated with the position that would create for me , like doing a future pace time line, then if I could really believe it I would start to act differently and the chances of attracting that situation into my life would theoretically increase. So says the law of attraction.

If for instance it's confidence that some one is affirming, where does that confidence come from?
An inner belief some might say? By affirming that intention and living that intention through the affirmation you have it happening.

It could be said that many people do silent affirmations through out their lives, these are possibly the most powerful of all unfortunately, they are called limiting beliefs! Said but not noticed due to habit.

It's important to note that the words are not some magic incantation just by them selves, you need to breath life into them and be totally congruent.

It's like prayer, you have to deeply believe what you are communing with to understand the way the response might come back. So yes, I believe that they work but it goes further than just reciting words, better still to live with a total inner faith of the affirmation, feel that affirmation inside. Use all rep systems as much as possible to build as real a situation as you can that it is a done deal. Any doubt and thats what you get.

It's a small step from faking it to living it, one can lead to the other, it's called copying. So acting with confidence even if you don't feel it promotes confidence after time. As the affirmation is said before the acting(living out your affirmation through your rep system, your neurology can't tell the difference).

The best bit is you can try it and find out for yourself, we all create our own reality.

Good luck, have fun.

Peter

Amanda

this specific question was asked about 3? years ago on John Grinder's website(his website no longer has a forum for discussion)

the short answer is that comparatively speaking,affirmations are the crudest way to effect personnel change. as you probably know,they are simply positive statements typically used to substitute other less than positive statements/monologue in one's auditory channel. what they really do is just raise the ''noise'' in your auditory channel.

its FAR more effective to ask a series of process questions designed to determine what you want and what it will take to get the outcome(known as well formed outcome in NLP)

as John Grinder said in that thread, just how effective do you think someone would be if all they had to respond with was a unidirectional tape loop when engaging with people

Jim

It is interesting to note that no one has asked Amanda what she means by the word
'affirmations' and in not asking you have filled in this deletions with your own meanings.

So, Amanda, what do YOU mean by affirmations?

Vince

Amanda,

I won't know for sure what exactly you mean by some of what you wrote until you answer Vince's question. However, for the sake of this post, I'm going to assume that you refer to what I have fouind to be the most common usage of 'affirmation' in the context of self-help or self-improvement, that is to say positive statements said repeatedly aloud about things one would like to be true about oneself and in one's life. Things like 'I am a good person and worth of respect', for example If I'm wrong, please feel free to correct me.

I think that any technique that helps someone to think about themselves in their lives in a more focused and proactive way can be helpful. Certainly, NLP has a lot of different techniques for helping us to change our subjective experience of our lives for the better and to help us achieve useful outcomes and goals.

Might some NLP techniques work better than affirmations in certain contexts for doing certain things? I think so. A more detailed answer might be that it depends on you, what kind of a person you are, what sorts of experiences you've been through and what exactly you're trying to do in your life. Once one understands the context, the tools or techniques that would be most useful there tend to suggest themselves, in my experience.

That's why the more that you know and understand about NLP, the more that you can know and understand about yourself and therefore the more specific you can be about learning just what technique or principal might be useful to you in any given situation.

if you were going to use affirmations, I couldn't tell you which ones would be 'good' or as I might put it, useful in your current context, because I don't know who you are or what you're trying to do sufficiently well to give you any sort of advice about that.

I'm sorry I can't be much more specific than that, but those are some pretty broad questions, from my perspective. I hope this was helpful to you as you perhaps consider providing some more specifics.

Be Well,

Michael Perez

Oh, they work. A few years ago, I was working far too much (in my opinion) and I did some affirmations to refocus my energy away from work and onto learning and enjoying life. I had a simple line that I put onto my iPod, and I played that over and over in my ear for a few days.

About two years later, I couldn't work out why I wasn't interested in work any more. I'd turned into a lazy bum, going out for day trips when I ''should'' have been earning money; going on courses when I ''should'' have been building my business.

I meditated and asked myself why I couldn't seem to focus on work. I heard the affirmation in my head and realised it was very simple really: I had got what I asked for!

So, I agree that affirmations are very crude. Knowing what I know about NLP now, I think there are more useful ways to refocus energy and set well-formed goals... but I would say affirmations certainly can work very powerfully.

I have no idea if they work in general but affirmations have worked for me.

I have used them as my ''mantra'' my ''catchphrase'' inside self recorded hypnotic trance MP3s.

I have found them very useful in two areas.

The first was accelerated healing where I managed to get results that shocked and delighted me.

The second area is when I have found myself ''noticing'' I was about to embark on old behaviour that I have been working to change. The mantra has popped up into my conscious mind and I have then been able to choose a new course of action.

I don't want to get into debates about the elegance of affirmations.

I have a very simple rule on that kind of thing. If they work for me, i will use them.

Cheers

Justin

The affirmations that we give ourselves do work !

In Sport particularly, a Sportsman's, belief that they can and will win, will be the deciding factor, in two competitors, if they have the same ability !

Some people have a lot to say some people have less to say. What I say is that clients appear to respond to affirmations and thus in the crudest sense they work!
Grace & Love

Barbara

Why run a marathon , when a sprint will get you there ?

Or perhaps, why run 26 miles...when a 100 yds will do ?

Will do (what)i?

Will get you to where you want to be George ! I believe I was responding to this posting......

(Do affirmations work, let me see now, if I were to say that I am going to win the lottery , if I did not win would it be fair to say that the affirmation did not work?

Some would say yes, However there is a new school of thought which would say that it's more than just the affirmation, it's the visualization of going beyond the affirmation that makes the difference.

And what about the time factor, we live in a world of instant gratification, fast food etc, where does that fit in with cosmic energy and intention?)i