Technalink firmly supports the idea that improving yourself improves your environment and potentially those around you, which brings both personal and professional benefits. Affirmations have had an up-and-down perception over the years. Once, like mantras, they were regarded as useful tools, and then as time passed, they became regarded as humorous artifacts of another time and not very effective for self-improvement.
However, research into how the brain and nervous system operate has led to new understandings of effective methods of learning and self-improvement. It now turns out that affirmations may play a role after all.
Affirmations & Neuroplasticity
Neuroplasticity is the brain’s way of taking short-term experiences and memories and converting them into permanent parts of our neural network. In other words, neuroplasticity “rewires” our brain. Repeated actions are one of the keys to promoting neuroplasticity, and affirmations are one of the easiest ways to help promote this process.
As with any process, the more you personalize it, the better results you’ll get. This is why it’s critical to take the time to devise affirmations that are effective for you. So, for example, if you have a strong aversion to standing in front of a mirror, talking to yourself, as some affirmation techniques of the past advocated, don’t use this method. If you dislike the technique and don’t believe in the words someone else wrote, the affirmation will have little to no impact on you, except maybe a negative one.
I you take the time to find an affirmation that is meaningful to you, such as cultivating more patience, or diligence, or maintaining calm under pressure, find the technique that works for you. This may involve silently thinking about the affirmation, or even taking a page from athletics and visualizing your goal or emotional state, words may not be what you’re comfortable with at all, and that’s fine. When you incorporate this into other tools that may work for you, such as agate prayer stones, you may find that affirmations are more effective than you ever imagined for self-improvement.
Leave a Reply