by: John Peace
A simple definition of positive affirmation states “An affirmation is a form of autosuggestion in which a statement of a desirable intention or condition of the world or the mind is deliberately meditated on and repeated in order to implant it in the mind”.
Is this just some New Age or Far Eastern idea of meditating and planting seeds of reality disillusionment, or is the idea of affirmation, backed by Neural Science?
Although the idea of the use of positive affirmation and meditation is often associated to some New Age “hocus pocus”, nothing could be farther from the truth.
These ideas are based on sound solid medical facts, and deal with the science of your mind and neural biology. The joining or wiring together of brain cells, is often referred to as, "cells that fire together, wire together", and the theory explains that, when we learn, groups of cells that are activated together, grow a stronger connection.
This grouping of common brain cells gives us our learned behaviour, it allows us to walk, talk, run, write, sing, in fact any learned activity we do, seemingly without thinking. But it goes much deeper than that, every bodily function and every aspect of our personality is in the wiring of these groups of brain cells.
Even before you were born your brain arranged cells or neurons in particular orders, testing and rewiring its circuits, routing and rerouting its electrical signals. The day you were born, you were programmed to function, to pump and clean blood, control an army of defence cells, feel hunger, digest and dare I see it, fill a nappy.
>From this day on you started to make use of your senses, collecting data, analysing and testing. You started to recognise smell, sound, taste and sites and form Neuron Circuits to help you identify these things again.
Was the smell good, how did I react to that taste, was this sound pleasant and did this look nice. Whatever the reaction was the first time around, will probably be the same again, the circuit is formed, the cells are structured, the brain is wired.
You test reaction and response, that’s why babies cry, you test taste and texture, you learn about pain, fear, love and laughter, and each action and re-action is wired in for future use.
So how does this process work?
The process of wiring habit, pattern or memory into your brain is in two steps.
As I have already mentioned, “At birth, you start to make use of your senses, collecting data, analysing and testing”, this is the first process of learning. This is the action of the objective or conscious mind, testing, retesting and programming data.
The second step takes place once all the data has been passed, and all responses verified, this is then belief, we know the fact to be true and the response to be appropriate and we then pass the fact to the subjective or subconscious mind, to be programmed in biologically.
So why do we need a Positive Affirmation, if we are passing facts to our subconscious?
Quite simply, to evolve our intellect, to achieve, to overcome and to grow as a human race. Now that’s quite a statement, but I’ll go further, “Positive Affirmation is the key to all advancement and all achievement, without exception”.
You see there is quite a biological flaw with our outstandingly clever bodies, wiring facts into our brain means that we can achieve and remember almost anything. The analysis of data, testing of response and the programming of our circuits seems a flawless system, but there is one big, giant monster of a stumbling block.
What happens if the data was wrong and the response defective or inappropriate?
So how do we overcome faulty facts? Well to coin a phrase, it’s just like riding a bike!
But seriously it is, just like riding a bike, and how you learnt to achieve this marvellous feat is the answer to the problem.
Riding a bike is one of the most unnatural things to do, your subconscious is already in charge of your balance and speed, the data has been tested, retested analysed and programmed as fact. You know how to stand up, walk and run. But a bike? Balance on a couple of square centimetres and propel yourself forward at three times the speed? I don’t think so!
“But you know it can be done, you practise, you tell your body to take the pain each time you fall, you are determined, you will achieve, overcome and ride this bike”.
This is a Positive Affirmation at work!
To help you see this as a positive affirmation let me make the statement personal lets go back to our time learning to ride a bike and say the statement to ourselves, as if we were still learning.
“But I know it can be done, I will practise, and tell my body to take the pain each time I fall, I am determined, I will achieve, overcome and ride this bike”.
A powerful Positive Affirmation!
Now lets imagine that you live in 1790 and a Frenchman gave you his new invention “The Celerifere”, this was one of the earliest bikes, with no steering.
Your beliefs and programming about balance and speed would be the same as they were when you actually learnt to ride a bike, but your experience would be different. You would never of seen one, never have witnessed it work and I’m sure you would believe, that the idea of a bike seemed an outrageous way to move.
How then, would your “Positive Affirmation” read?
It would probably go something like this.
“But I’m not sure if this can be done, I don’t know how much I can practise, and take this pain each time I fall, I will never do this, I can’t achieve or overcome and ride this bike”.
Hardly a Positive Affirmation, but an Affirmation all the same.
OK, so it’s easy to see how we can use a Positive Affirmation to achieve a physical goal, but it surely can’t make me earn more money, find love or be happy.
Or can it?
This is the second flaw in our biological make up.
Your subconscious does not think, it only accepts, it cannot decide. Your subconscious discharges chemicals into your bloodstream every time certain circuits are activated, and you will perceive these chemicals as emotion, but your subconscious doesn’t feel, it does not know whether these chemicals are good or bad, wanted or unwanted
If you’re in debt you will be all to familiar with the dread of the arrival of the postman, the feeling of another bill, another demand and then the bill arrives, the letter is opened, yet another demand or final notice, and you experience the feelings of despair and depression.
The event is anticipated and the relevant circuit is activated, the corresponding chemical is released and you perceive the chemical as emotion, as dread. The event happens and another circuit is activated, the corresponding chemical is released, and you perceive the chemical as emotion, as despair or depression.
But this then grows more powerfully as our bodies start to crave this chemical rush, and just like the smoker, who’s body crave the rush of nicotine or the drinker the rush of alcohol, your body is crying out for the rush of proteins that give you these emotions of dread, despair and depression and you will keep moving towards the things your body needs.
Our subconscious, does not analyse this, it does not know that you do not want this result, why should it? After all, you are the trainer, you set this in motion by practising the event every morning, you analysed it, and passed it on, therefore it must be true.
This is why the abused, seems to move from one abuser to another, or the failure to more failure and the broken heart to the heartbreaker.
Whether you believe in the Law of Attraction or not, if you cannot see that like attracts like, surely you can see that what you think you like, you will keep moving towards by default. By your very own actions, you are what you think about.
You have today, built your destiny for tomorrow, and you will continue to become the things you fear the most, that is, until you respond, until you stand up and shout out.
“I know it can be done, I will practise, and tell myself each time I fall, I am determined, I will achieve, I will overcome and ride towards my chosen destiny”
"I will be, what I will to be”
What a Positive Affirmation.
