How to Make Your Positive Thoughts and Affirmations Stick

Are you struggling to see your positive thoughts and affirmations manifest in your life? It's frustrating when you believe in the power of these words, yet your desired reality remains stubbornly out of reach. Don't worry, you're not alone in this!

I've been there too. For years, I thought I had the law of attraction figured out. I was confident in my understanding of manifestation. But despite my efforts, something wasn't clicking.

The good news? There's hope. Through my journey, I discovered some important elements I'd overlooked. These insights transformed my approach to positive thoughts and affirmations, finally bringing me the results I'd been seeking.

Today, I'm here to share what I've learned. It's time to unlock the true potential of your affirmations and start living the life you've been dreaming of!

Let's dive in and discover how to turn those powerful words into your new reality.

The Power of Positive Thoughts and Affirmations

While going through the motions of daily life, it's easy to forget the incredible power within you. And to forget the fact that you’re creating your reality in every moment, whether you realize it or not.

The powerful truth is that everything ever created started with a thought. Your thoughts shape your world. Choosing them consciously is your greatest tool for change.

If you've become discouraged about affirmations, questioning whether they actually work, remember this: you're already using them. The law of attraction is always at work. Those automatic thoughts and beliefs running through your mind? They're essentially affirmations. You just haven't always chosen them intentionally.

Take a moment to look at your life right now. It's a reflection of your thoughts, beliefs, and the actions you've taken because of them. If your life were a movie, I could probably guess the thoughts running through your mind regularly based on what I see.

As you consider this, be gentle with yourself. If you see aspects of your life you don't like, don't blame yourself. It can be challenging to accept that we've created our realities, especially when they're not what we desire. Remember, this isn't something you've done consciously.

The good news is that just as you've created this, you have all the power to create something new. You can choose your beliefs and experience the life you focus on.

You may already understand this concept if you're reading this post. That's why you're exploring positive thoughts and affirmations. But sometimes, even when we believe in this power, we struggle to make it work for us...

Why Your Positive Thoughts and Affirmations Aren't Working (Yet)

Let me share a personal story with you. I used to be all about using essential oils for emotional support. I'd consult my reference book, find the perfect oil for whatever emotion I was dealing with, apply it, and recite an affirmation.

I took an action, thought I was really feeling into it, and leaned into the trust that it would work. But guess what? It never really did.

Sound familiar? Maybe you've tried something similar – using crystals, meditation, or repeating mantras. You're doing it daily, but still not seeing results…WHY??

Here are a few culprits to consider:

1. Are You Using Affirmations to Avoid or Escape Your Current Feelings?

In my example, I was giving all of my power over to a ritual and an oil to change my emotions without ever looking inside to understand why I felt that way. Big mistake. When you ignore your true feelings, you're not dealing with them. This can lead to bigger issues down the road.

Your body is always trying to communicate with you. Ignore it, and it'll start shouting in other ways. Pushing down emotions doesn't make them disappear – it creates blockages that can manifest as various symptoms later on.

Pay attention to how you talk to yourself. If you're constantly pushing away sadness or anger, that isn’t true positivity-it’s toxic. Embracing the full spectrum of human emotions is vital. It's perfectly okay to feel upset sometimes, to not always be okay. Forcing happiness when it's not genuine does more harm than good. True emotional health comes from accepting all your feelings, both positive and negative. This acceptance is a fundamental part of the human experience.

2. Are Your Thoughts and Affirmations Truly Aligned with Your Beliefs?

Simply repeating positive statements you don't genuinely believe won't lead to manifestation. The key to successful manifestation lies in authentic belief. Often, we might think we believe something, but a deeper, more ingrained belief could be quietly influencing our reality.

To create new outcomes, you need to embrace thoughts and beliefs you've never held before. Here's the crux of the matter: if you wholeheartedly believed in your affirmation without any conflicting thoughts, you'd already be experiencing the desired result. So, if you're not seeing the changes you want, it's likely due to one of two factors: either you don't truly believe your affirmation, or there's an underlying belief contradicting it. Recognizing which of these is at play is crucial for moving forward.

3. Are Your Expectations Realistic?

Changing old thought patterns and adopting new beliefs inevitably brings discomfort. It's impossible to hold two opposing thoughts without experiencing an energetic tug-of-war and the unease it creates. This is one reason why most people give up—practicing new thoughts introduces challenges where none existed before. This process goes against your brain's natural inclination to keep things easy, predictable, and safe.

Recognizing these potential roadblocks is crucial in making your positive thoughts and affirmations work effectively. With this understanding, let's turn our attention to solutions.

Steps to Unlocking the Power of Positive Thoughts and Affirmations

It's time to move beyond wishful thinking and into purposeful action. Let's explore practical strategies to harness the true potential of your positive thoughts and affirmations.

Crafting Your Perfect Affirmation

One of the main reasons affirmations fall flat is that they're not thoughtfully created, written in the right way, or aligned with our highest good. Let's change that!

Before writing an affirmation, it's important to go within. This often-skipped step ensures that what you're working towards truly serves your highest good. When you're in this space, synchronicities start to happen, and you feel genuinely supported by the universe. This magic doesn't happen if you're just satisfying your ego or trying to prove yourself.

So, check in with yourself:

• Question your motives: Are you trying to "fix" yourself or satisfy your ego? If so, start over. Real change comes from growth, not from thinking you're broken.
• Align with your truth: Ensure your affirmations resonate with your authentic self. If it doesn't feel right in your gut, it's probably not for you. It might be coming from external pressures about what you "should" want or be.
• Focus on what you want, not what you don't want: Stop obsessing over problems. We're wired to spot what's wrong (hello, negativity bias!). Instead, channel that energy into growth and things you genuinely want.

Once you're clear on your intentions, it's time to write that affirmation. Here's how to make it powerful:

1. Be crystal clear: Replace vague statements with specific ones. For example, "I feel calm and capable when speaking in meetings" instead of "I'm confident."
2. Use present tense: Write as if it's already true. The universe provides what you believe, so saying "I will be" or "I want xyz" just creates more wanting, not results.
3. State it positively: Focus on what you’re moving towards, not what you're trying to avoid. Instead of "I am free of anxiety," imagine the end result you're after.
4. Identify the underlying feeling: Understand the emotion you're seeking. What’s the feeling behind why you want it? "I feel proud of my healthy choices" is more powerful than "I eat healthy food."

Let me share a personal example that illustrates what happens when you don't follow these tips. I used to subconsciously repeat the thought "something is missing" in my head. This affirmation violated several of these guidelines: it was vague, focused on what I didn't want, and there was no feeling involved. As a result, I found myself on an endless search, constantly proving this thought right.

When I recognized this pattern and applied these tips, I transformed the affirmation to "I have a deep sense of inner peace and am always seeking to grow." This new affirmation was clear, positive, present-tense, and focused on the feeling I truly desired. Once I made this shift, I started finding evidence for this new belief instead, creating a new reality for myself.

Remember, positive thoughts and affirmations aren't about magically manifesting a mansion. They're about aligning your thoughts with your true desires and taking inspired action. When you change your internal dialogue, your external world will follow.

So, take a moment. Breathe. Ask yourself: What do I truly want? What would make me feel alive and fulfilled? That's where your powerful affirmation begins.

Uncover Underlying Beliefs

I used to repeat the affirmation "everything is happening as it should" all the time. I believed it, but whenever anger or resistance to my circumstances arose, this affirmation felt powerless. No matter how often I repeated it, I couldn't find peace or acceptance in those moments. It was incredibly frustrating not being able to show up as I intended to.

Maybe you can relate? What I learned was that I skipped a major step, which a lot of us do. We take something we want to believe, tell ourselves why it's true, and expect magic to happen. But we're missing the fact that there's often a deeper, more powerful belief running the show.

Remember, it's not our conscious mind that's creating our reality most of the time. It's our subconscious mind, filled with deeply held values and beliefs based on survival, past experiences, and learning. The law of attraction works through this subconscious mind.

You can repeat positive affirmations all day long, but if they're at odds with your deep-seated subconscious beliefs, you're fighting an uphill battle. It's like trying to sail against the wind - you might make some progress, but it'll be slow and exhausting.

Steps to Uncover these Hidden Beliefs

Let's explore how to reveal these hidden beliefs. The goal is to identify the thoughts and beliefs that have created your current reality, specifically in the areas of your life related to your affirmation and your desired state.

1. Become aware: Listen to your words and recognize patterns. Look at your life and see how it reflects your thoughts. Some beliefs are so ingrained, you never question them.
2. Open up: Commit to uncovering and releasing old beliefs. Be open to how current behaviors or symptoms (even if they're unwanted) might actually be supporting you in some way.
3. Get curious: Offer yourself compassion as you identify where these thoughts originated. You don't always need to know the exact origin; sometimes just recognizing it might not be your truth, and desiring to let it go, is enough.
4. Feel your feelings: Allow yourself to experience the emotions tied to these thoughts. This helps process them instead of burying them. Ask yourself why you feel that way and what may have triggered these emotions.
5. Question your beliefs: With whatever comes up, determine if these thoughts are true and serving you. Remember, it's not about whether you can prove it true, but whether it's useful, and if you want to keep it.
6. Redirect: If you decide to drop a thought or belief, expect it to keep resurfacing for a while. Use your new affirmation as a redirect statement. This isn't ignoring deeper issues; you've already addressed them. You're simply reminding yourself of your new chosen belief.

In short, the process looks like this:

• Awareness (we can't change what we're not aware of)
• Accept with compassion
• Explore with curiosity and create new perspectives
• Practice new beliefs and affirmations

When you remove the thought patterns that created your current circumstances, you clear the path for your new positive thoughts and affirmations to take root and flourish. It's not always easy, but it's so worth it.

Check in on Your Belief

After acknowledging your feelings and identifying underlying beliefs, it's time to honestly take a look at your level of belief in your affirmations. This step is vital because simply reciting positive thoughts you don't truly believe won't lead to effective change.

Sometimes, you may find that you already believe the affirmation and just need to clear away mental clutter. But often, we recite affirmations we don't believe at all. This raises the question: "How do I believe something I've never experienced before?"

The key is to view your affirmation as an ultimate goal, not an immediate reality. Like any significant objective, it needs to be broken down into manageable steps. Think of it as climbing an emotional ladder - you don't leap from the bottom rung to the top in one leap. Instead, you gradually progress through a spectrum of emotions, both negative and positive, as you work your way up from, say, doubt to confidence.

Let's say you're trying to break the habit of overeating. Your end goal might be: "I have everything I need within me. (I don't need anything outside of me to feel okay.)" But if that feels too far-fetched right now, try these stepping stones:

1. "I sometimes overeat, but I'm aware of this habit."
2. "I'm learning to recognize my true hunger cues."
3. "I'm exploring healthier ways to cope with my emotions."
4. "I'm finding satisfaction in activities other than eating."
5. "I'm becoming more comfortable with my feelings without needing food."
6. "I'm discovering inner resources to deal with stress and discomfort."
7. "I'm growing stronger in my ability to nourish myself emotionally."
8. "I have everything I need within me to feel okay."

Use "I am becoming" instead of "I am" if something feels too out of reach. If an affirmation feels fake, tweak it until it clicks. For example, change "I love my body" to "I'm learning to appreciate my body more each day."

Try adding "I'm working on..." or "I'm learning to..." to affirmations that feel distant. If you're struggling at work, you might say: "I'm having a hard time, but I'm doing my best." This honors your current feelings while opening the door to positivity.

Be gentle and compassionate with yourself in this process and not critical. Don't force positivity when you're not feeling it.

Keep your end affirmation in mind as you go. It's your North Star, guiding you as you climb the ladder. Remember, it's not about reaching the top overnight - it's about making steady progress, one believable step at a time.

Visualize It and Act As If

Affirmations are just the starting point. Words alone won't magically change your life. You need to back up those positive thoughts with action.

Once you're clear on the thought or affirmation you're choosing to believe, it's time to fully embody it. Visualize and feel it as true and possible. Don't just imagine the end result; envision the whole package - your thoughts, feelings, and actions as this new version of yourself. Remember, believing a new thought is a total identity shift. It's usually a much bigger transformation than we initially realize.

Think of it as method acting. You're not just playing a role on the surface; you're becoming that person from the inside out. Let's say you're working on transforming stress into ease and flow. Don't just picture yourself calm during a busy day. Visualize yourself as someone who naturally moves through life with grace and ease.

How does that person think? How do they feel? What choices do they make? Imagine yourself approaching tasks with a sense of flow, seeing challenges as opportunities, and feeling a deep sense of trust in your ability to handle whatever comes your way.

Here's how to put this into practice:

1. Believe it's true, then scan for evidence. Your brain is great at finding proof for what you believe, so put it to work for you.
2. Take action to prove your new beliefs true. Every little step counts.
3. Set small, achievable goals that align with your affirmations. If you're affirming financial abundance, start by creating a simple budget.
4. Make a list of steps you can take to support your affirmations. Break these down into daily or weekly tasks.
5. Celebrate each step forward. It's proof you're capable of change and builds momentum.

Remember, action creates results. Your efforts, no matter how small, bring you closer to your goals. It's not about perfection; it's about progress. You're building a new identity, one thought, one action at a time.

So, visualize it, feel it, and most importantly, BE it. Act as if you're already the person who embodies your affirmation. Before you know it, you won't be acting anymore - you'll be living it.

Engage in Practices That Raise Your Vibrational Frequency

Engaging in practices that raise your vibrational frequency will help remove blocks from your system and bring you into greater alignment with your truth, allowing your affirmations to manifest more quickly.

My favorite way to do this is through Reiki. This practice can speed up the process by helping you become aware of thoughts that may be holding you back and helping you to release them. By using intention with self-Reiki or booking a session, you can see results faster.

 If you're attuned, you can also use Reiki to power your manifestations. Write your affirmation on a piece of paper and send Reiki to it daily. You can even use the Distance Symbol to send Reiki to your future self who has already achieved your goal.

Of course, Reiki isn't the only way. Here are some more powerful techniques to elevate your energy:

1. Meditation: Practice daily mindfulness or guided meditations to calm your mind and connect with your inner self.
2. Gratitude Practice: Keep a gratitude journal or spend a few minutes each day acknowledging what you're thankful for.
3. Breathing Exercises: Try techniques like box breathing or alternate nostril breathing to reduce stress and increase focus.
4. Visualization: Spend time each day vividly imagining your desired outcome as if it's already happened.
5. Nature Connection: Spend time outdoors, grounding yourself and absorbing the earth's natural energy.
6. Physical Movement: Engage in activities like yoga, dance, or tai chi that combine physical movement with mindfulness.
7. Sound Therapy: Use singing bowls, chanting, or listen to binaural beats to align your frequency with your intentions.
8. Acts of Kindness: Perform random acts of kindness to boost your own mood and raise the vibrations of those around you.

Remember, consistency is key when it comes to these practices. Choose one or two that resonate with you and make them a regular part of your routine. As you raise your vibrational frequency, you'll find your affirmations becoming more powerful and effective, bringing you closer to your desired reality.

Why Many People Fail or Give Up

Changing your beliefs isn't just flipping a switch; it's a complete identity shift. Even if you truly want this change, saying goodbye to your current life can be tough.

Your brain, naturally inclined towards laziness, will resist what it perceives as unnecessary challenge and change. Dread, anxiety, and discomfort are pretty much guaranteed. Remember, when these feelings arise, it's actually a sign you're on the right track! It's your old identity throwing a tantrum as you embrace the new you.

You might also struggle with the realization that you've been "wrong" for so long, triggering feelings of regret, shame, and guilt. This discomfort, though challenging, is a natural part of the growth process.

I used to shy away from experiences that made me feel inadequate or childish, especially those I felt I should have already mastered. This avoidance kept me stuck far longer than necessary. Embracing these uncomfortable moments, rather than running from them, is key to moving forward and achieving lasting change.

Even after deciding to change a belief, accepting it can be challenging. You've identified one way for so long that letting go is hard. This is why people often lose weight only to regain it - the mind is stubborn.

When I quit smoking, letting go of that "smoker" identity was tough. I carried a lighter long after I quit, still seeing myself as a smoker who just didn't want one right now. It wasn't easy, but I'm grateful I stuck with it.

The bottom line is, be prepared for discomfort. Expect to feel like you're edging on panic as you shift into something completely different, regardless of how much you want it.

The thoughts that created your current reality are tempting because they're automatic and easy. Believing something new takes mental energy and can be exhausting. But you have to decide what's worth your energy. Personally, I'd rather be exhausted from redirecting my mind towards growth than from letting life happen to me.

These challenging feelings are part of the process. It's worth pushing through to reach the belief you're after and create the life you truly want. The choice is yours: temporary discomfort for long-term fulfillment, or the familiar ease that keeps you long-term stuck.

Remember, the path to change isn't always smooth, but it's always worth it. Embrace the discomfort, knowing it's a sign of growth.

Commit to It

Alright, we've reached the final piece of the puzzle: commitment. To transform your positive thoughts and affirmations into reality, you must wholeheartedly commit to believing them and embodying the person you aspire to be.

When I say commit, I mean it in the strongest sense. Leave no room for doubt or alternative paths. Don't hope, try, or wish - truly commit. Success is inevitable as long as you stay dedicated. The only way you'll fail is by giving up.

Make your affirmations a non-negotiable part of your daily routine. Be patient with the process, but relentless in your practice. Change takes time.

If doubt creeps in, take a deep breath and reconnect with your affirmations. Visualize your desired outcome and feel the emotions of already having what you want. This reinforces your belief and keeps you motivated.

Remember, the key is to go within, claim your power, and consciously decide who you want to be. Then, be that person, and the life you desire will follow.

You've got this! Your mind is incredibly powerful, and you're learning to harness it in amazing ways. Stick with it, believe in yourself, and trust the process. Practice consistently, keep your commitment at the forefront of your mind every day, and watch as your new reality unfolds.