Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.-Proverbs 18:21 (NKJ)
We’ve talked before about the placebo effect and how belief can affect our wellness, if not dictate it outright. Then what about affirmations? Are affirmations some hokum used to sell books? Are they peddled mainly by people who already feel good about themselves and therefore are of no value to those who need help? Let’s dive into this for a moment.
Impact on Energy
Think about your energy. When do you feel up and when do you feel down? What factors influence these feelings? If simply smiling can raise your energy, then what about positive statements about yourself? Does it stand to reason that speaking positive words over yourself and about yourself will have a positive impact on your energy?
Consider the impact of this. Do you think it is possible that feeling more positive about yourself will raise your energy? And, if so, will your body fall in line? If you raise your own energy, will your body’s myriad systems respond accordingly to the positivity you are feeding it, doing their jobs as designed? If the placebo effect is real, then will positive belief about yourself have a similar effect on your body?
Putting It Into Practice
I suggest to try a little experiment on yourself. For one week, make a conscientious effort to cease all complaining and negative statements about yourself. Maybe we speak negatively about our abilities, our looks, our finances, etc. You might be surprised how many tiny little negative statements we make about ourselves without even realizing it.
Then, put together a list of positive statements about yourself, whether you believe them to be true or not. They could things you hope to be or achieve in the future. Start speaking them now as if they exist now and see how your body and mind respond.
Do you start to believe them? Maybe even a little? What about your energy? Does it rise? If so, could that be an indicator that your body is working closer to its designed intention? Do you feel more motivated to do things that are beneficial to you? Things that improve your health, your finances, your treatment of others?
Let’s Bend Some Minds
If your treatment of others improves, could you raise their energy as well? If it is possible to influence the energy of those around us, will that have a boomerang effect of improving our own wellness, health and energy also? Do we truly receive when we give? I say yes!
Conversely, the masochists among you could try the opposite of this experiment. You could run yourself down for a week, tell yourself that you are terrible and then see how your body, energy and well-being responds. Does your body respond to your deprecating commands by working at a higher level or lower level? See if your negative affirmations motivate you to do well by those around you and then see if they return the favor. Obviously I’m leading here. I think this would be a terrible idea. In fact, my energy is lower just from writing this paragraph.
I think I better go say some nice things about myself. Perhaps we’ll explore this further in the future, but for now, try treating yourself nicely and see what happens. What’s the worst that could happen? You gain a new friend in yourself? Seems pretty “no risk—high reward” to me. And a great step forward in pursuing greatness.
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Have you heard of “morning pages”? The strategies you mention work.
No, I haven’t heard of that before actually. Love to hear the strategies I wrote about exist in other forms and are working for people!