As the saying goes, “Be happy today, and always remain so”. Happiness affirmations can aid us in our pursuit of happiness, by helping get us out of our blues, and creating more happiness in our lives.
What exactly are affirmations?
Simply speaking, affirmations are positive statements that you repeat to yourself, with the specific objective of attaining certain self improvement benefits. For using affirmations effectively, it will help if we understand a bit more about them.
WHY AFFIRMATIONS?
Typically they are used as a tool to achieve various self improvement goals – likestress reduction, finding happiness, or gaining self confidence in one’s life.
It is important to understand that affirmations are no magic formula for anything. Their strength lies in the effective use of them.
HOW TO USE AFFIRMATIONS EFFECTIVELY?
- Write them right: The first step to use them effectively is to construct them correctly. The main difference between affirmations and other statements is in the way the language is used to construct them.Affirmations are distinctly characterized by language that is:=> Positive, and in
=> Present Tense
- Repeat, repeat, repeat: Secondly, repetition is the mother of success with affirmations. Patience is the key here.As we know, it takes 3 to 6 weeks for us to get accustomed to new habits, or get adjusted to new routines. Similarly, it takes that long or more for our mind to absorb the juice of affirmation, and for us to start seeing the changes we desire in ourselves.The importance of daily repetition of affirmations to achieve our self improvement goals cannot be over stressed. If a day is missed, it may become necessary to start over again.
- Believe: Lastly, belief plays an important role in making the use of our affirmations effective; in fact, belief goes hand in hand with repetition.A continuous repetition with a positive mindset and energy can lead to belief; and having the belief makes the repetition task seem much less like a task, and that much more easier.But a dull repetition without the semblance of a belief that we can achieve our self improvement objectives, may not yield the results that we have been looking forward to.
It will help if we can imagine how we would feel when our self improvement goal is realized, and use that feeling and energy to spark the repetition of affirmation.
WHAT ARE HAPPINESS AFFIRMATIONS?
Happiness affirmations are those that are used with the specific objective of creating more happiness in our lives.
A simple example could be:
I experience happiness everyday, every moment of my life.
Note that this affirmation is positive. We are not saying “I will not have any sorrows in my life”, or something to that effect.
And it is in “current tense”; we are not saying we will experience happiness – we are saying we do, now.
A CAVEAT
Does repeating the above affirmation ensure that you will not run into any hardships for all the days, for the rest of your life? No.
What it does do, is to give you the mental makeup necessary to get through those hardships, quickly enough, when you do run into them.
Here is how it works..
Since your mind is convinced that you experience happiness everyday, every moment of your life – the next time you run into a difficulty, it is going to ensure that statement gets as close to being true for you as it can, as quickly as it can.
That could mean giving you the ability to see the bright side of the situation, if any; or opening up your mind to new opportunities that can potentially arise of the situation. Or if nothing, give you the strength to move on or out of it, as quickly as you can.
In other words, it can mean the difference between seeing the dark cloud or the silver lining, and many times, the ability to see that difference is what matters.
WHERE CAN YOU FIND HAPPINESS AFFIRMATIONS?
The best practice, is to write your own.
No pre-written affirmations come close to giving you that strong feeling of belief and conviction that are so needed for these affirmations to be effective, than the ones that are product of your own feelings and thought process.
While you may use pre-written affirmations, you will need to graduate to writing your own happiness affirmations, for them to be really effective in the long run.
