The Power Of Positive Affirmations

0:07Welcome to today's episode of the Mindset Mentor podcast. I'm your host, Rob Dial. If you have not yet done so, hit that subscribe button so that you never miss another podcast episode. And if you're out there and you love this podcast, do me a favor, take out your phone right now, go to however you're listening to us and give us a rating and review. The more positive rating and reviews that we get, the more that those platforms like Spotify and Apple Podcasts show this podcast people who have never heard of it before, which allows us to grow, allows you to pay it forward and allows us to also impact someone else's life.

0:37So if you would do that, I would greatly appreciate it. Today, we're going to be talking about how to create affirmations. And I know in the world of personal development, there are so many techniques. There's so many strategies and methods for self-improvement. And positive affirmations for an analytical mind like myself seems like a bunch of woo-woo, honky-donky BS. It doesn't seem like something that would ever work to sit and look in yourself in a mirror and say, I love you, or I'm going to be successful, or I look really cute in these jeans. or whatever it is you're trying to figure out, it sounds so corny.

1:10I get it, but I promise you this, they work, there's science behind it. I'll tell you about the science behind it today, and I'm also going to teach you exactly how to create affirmations. Affirmations are very simple, but the effects they have on you can be really profound. And we're going to dive into the science behind it and how it changes your brain, but really what we're going to talk about today is how to actually do it. So let's talk about it. Before diving into the strategies of actually how to do it. It's really crucial to understand the why behind the process. And for you guys that have very analytical minds, as I do, I kind of have to sell you on why to do it, don't I?

1:46By teaching you some science, by teaching you why it works, because your brain, as magnificent as it is, sometimes is a sponge, and especially as a children, we just soak up beliefs and we soak up life and we soak up all of these things from every experience we have, especially during our formative years. And some of those beliefs that you have, particularly some of the negative ones, shape your image of yourself and the way that you perceive the world. And it becomes your identity, becomes your personality. And you think to yourself, well, that's just the way I am. I'm always going to be this way, as if you can't change.

2:20But if you've been listening to this podcast for a long time, you know, one of my favorite quotes is by Alan Watts, who says, you're under no obligation to be who you were five minutes ago. So if you want to change it, you can change it. And it starts with the way that you speak to yourself and think of the world. And so this is where positive affirmations start to really come in. At its core, an affirmation is pretty simple. It's just a positive statement that is just declaring to you, to the universe, whatever desired goal or change that you want. And it is stated in the present tense. That's it.

2:55Nothing real crazy. And as you repeat it consistently over and over and over again with conviction, the statements can actually influence your brain's neural pathways, helping all of us change and overwrite and reprogram some of the negative and limiting beliefs that we have. And so there's actually been brain imaging studies that have shown that when individuals visualize themselves achieving a particular goal and sit there and say, I am achieving X, Y, Z, I'm running across that line for the marathon. Your brain, as you think it and as you say it and as you visualize it, light up as if you're actually experiencing it.

3:33And what they call this is mental rehearsal. And it helps condition your brain for success, for what it is that you want. And the more that you do it, the better. The ways that you really want to change yourself and understand that you want to change yourself is by deciding what you want and being very, very repetitive and bringing it up over and over and over and over and over again. Because the more that you hear something, the more you start to believe something. There was a quote that says, if you believe a lie that's big enough, long enough, and strong enough event. I'm sorry, if you say a lie that is big enough, long enough, and strong enough for enough time, eventually people will start to believe it.

4:09You know who said that quote? Hitler. Hitler said that quote. Because if you just keep repeating something, repeating and repeating it, eventually people start to believe it. The problem is we've been doing that to ourselves for so long. Oh, I'm just not smart. I'm not smart. I'm not smart. I'm not smart. And so we start thinking that we're not smart. And then we start doing things that are not smart. Or if you start saying to yourself, I am intelligent and I'm worthy of love. I'm intelligent, I'm worthy of love. I'm intelligent, worthy of love. You will start to take intelligent actions and you will start to actually see where you deserve to be loved.

4:40And so there's a few studies I wanted to bring up that I found that kind of hit home how this works. So there was a study called in 2005 called Stress Reduction Through Self-Affirmation. In the overview of the study, the researchers were interested in understanding how self-affirmation, if self - affirmation could reduce stress responses. And so what happened was they ended up telling them to go through and actually start to say to themselves, I am calm. I am calm. I am calm. There's nothing that can affect me. I'm a very calm person. And participants were put in a really stressful situation. And that situation was giving a speech in front of other people.

5:15And they use that self-affirmation to start believing themselves. They actually found that people who use the self-affirmation inside of their brains display lower cortisol levels, which is the stress hormone, than the ones who did not, which shows, holy shit, this is crazy. Think about this. If I tell myself I'm calm, I'm calm, I'm calm, I'm calm, my brain will release less cortisol than if I don't say that, which is the stress hormone, which means that I will naturally actually be less stressed. So the things that I say out loud and the affirmation I say out actually change what's going on inside of my brain.

5:50It indicates that positive affirmations can actually have a tangible impact in your brain in responses to stress. There's also another study that was done in 2006 that was called Affirmation Intervention and Academic Achievement. And the study overview, basically what they did was they took middle school students and examined the impact of a series of self-affirmation exercises on their academic performance. And what they found out is that students that had lower than normal grades experienced improved grades when they started learning self-affirmation and repeating to themselves, I'm smart, I'm great at taking tests, I'm a smart kid, which shows that self-affirmation can actually buffer against negative past effects or negative past grades and the effects of them and help improve their performance.

6:34So hold on a second. If I say I'm not stressed and I'm calmed, I will actually be more calm in the cortisol levels of my brain will actually show that. And if I say that I'm smart, I'll actually do better on exams. That's pretty crazy if you think about it, isn't it? So there's science behind this. And it really goes down to, and this is why the placebo effect exists. Placebo effect is probably the most mind-blowing thing that just kind of people don't pay much attention to. The placebo effect is basically somebody has some sort of illness, a doctor comes in, they give them a sugar pill and they say this sugar pill, they don't know that sugar, this pill will cure your illness.

7:17And the person takes a sugar pill thinking that it's some medication, but really it does nothing except for, it's like eating a Skittle basically. They just have it. And then what happens? The person believes that the medication they're getting, which is no medication at all, will heal them. And through believing that they are healed, what happens? they heal themselves. That's why every drug trial, every single drug trial uses a placebo effect to see the efficacy of drugs that are coming onto the market or possibly coming onto market versus just believing in it. 33 % of all medical healings actually come from just believing that they're healed.

7:58So if we can just believe that we're healed, what if we actually proactively start to speak what we want into our lives, into our minds, into our thoughts, our feelings in the universe. Could that change the way that we interact with the world? Of course it could. Let's dive into it. It also comes back to, you may have heard me in the past do, I did an episode on the phrase abracadabra, which I just thought abracadabra was just a word that magicians use when they're pulling rabbits out of hats. But abracadabra is actually an ancient Hebrew word, which stands for as I speak, I create. Whoa, crazy, huh?

8:35As I speak, I create. As I speak my words, I create that reality. And also as you think, you create that reality because your thoughts are just words that are inside of your head. And to be honest with you, they're not even fully inside of your head because if you look at an EEG machine, an EEG machine is where they take electrodes and they stick it to somebody's brain, right? And they stick it to their brain. So I think it's a electroencephalograph is what it stands for. They take electrodes, they stick it to somebody's head, the skull, and they can measure brainwaves. Well, there's also one that's called an MEG machine, which is a machine that goes over somebody's head, but never actually touches their skull.

9:16And they can measure brainwaves without ever touching the human's head, which shows you what? Your thoughts don't stay inside of your head. They go outside into the universe. And so abracadabra, ancient Hebrew word for as I speak, I create. That is what an affirmation is. As I speak it out into the universe, I create that reality. Awesome, huh? How amazing. So let's dive into it. Let's start talking about how do you actually create these affirmations? Well, the first thing, I'm going to give you four different best practices, I guess you could say, for creating affirmations and using them. The first one is to be very specific what it is that you want.

9:54Think about how many ancient texts say something along the lines of, ask and you shall receive, right? Ask and you shall receive. So if you just say that you want something and you're very generic, you might get what you want. But if you're going to say it as you speak, you create, why don't you just get very granular and specific of exactly what it is that you want? You could say, I am successful. Oh, that sounds great. I am successful. I am successful. Right? You could say that if you want, or you could consider what success actually means to you. You know, is it landing a specific job? Is it finishing your project at work?

10:37What you want to do is you want to take your affirmation and tailor it towards your goal. Tailor it what you actually want to create. And so you could say, instead of saying, I am successful, I am excelling at my new managerial position. I am excelling at my new managerial position. I am an amazing manager. I am the best manager that they've ever had in this company. My employees love me. I could go through and be very clear on exactly what it is. I'm excelling at it. I'm making the most money that I've ever made. I'm helping my employees change their mindset and their lives. I'm excelling at this manager position.

11:12I'm excelling at this manager position. I'm excelling at this manager position. It could be that. That could mean a success to you. Or maybe you've been wanting to create a novel for like forever. And that would be success. You could say, I am going to complete my novel by December 31st of this year. I am going to complete my novel by December 31st. I'm going to complete my novel by December 31st of this year. Maybe that's success to you. Or maybe making$100 ,000 is success to you. I will absolutely 100 % make$100 ,000 this year. I will absolutely 100 % make$100 ,000 this year. I will absolutely 100 % make$100 ,000 this year.

11:48The clearer your affirmation, the easier it is for you to understand, for you to know what you're shooting for so you can see it better, and the easier for your mind to start to think about, visualize, and work towards it. And so what you really want to do is you want to identify a goal or a positive belief or whatever it is that you want to instill to yourself. Then you want to frame it in the present tense as if it's happening right now. And then you want to make sure it's extremely specific so you can visualize it vividly, which we're going to talk about. Because if you can bring in positive affirmations and visualization, that's like gas on a fire.

12:26And so that's the first thing is you've got to be very, very specific. The second thing is to bring in an emotional charge. Try to bring in as much emotion as you possibly can. Here's the reason why. Think about this for a second. The way that you change your brain like immediately is by having an extremely strong experience. So like as you get older, it's harder to change your brain. It's not impossible, but it's harder. But if you have a very high emotionally charged experience, say someone robs you at gunpoint, you could have, you could, you could, if you're robbed at gunpoint inside of your car tonight, then the next month you might get inside of your car and immediately feel the feelings of your body starting to change.

13:09Why? Because that's a very heightened emotional experience. And so there's two ways to change your brain. And the best, not the best, but I guess one of the ways is very emotionally charged, the heightened experience. The second way is through repetition. So heightened experience and repetition, which we're going to talk about in a minute. it. So you have to bring an emotional charge to it. And emotion, what do I mean by that? Is the power that you can bring to it. There's something that's really interesting is you could do an affirmation, which you could, you know, you could say that I am, I am, you can look in the mirror and you can say, I'm strong and I am powerful.

13:47I'm strong and I am powerful. I'm strong and I am powerful. And that helps you hear it over and over and over again. It becomes basically like a song that's stuck in your head, which is what you want. And you want to continue and you keep saying it. And you can look yourself in the mirror and you can say, I'm strong and I'm powerful. I'm strong and I'm powerful. Or for instance, I have a gym that's inside of my garage. I can go into my garage. I can blast some music. I can get myself into a very heightened state. And with every single rep, I can say, I can scream. I am strong and I am powerful.

14:17I am strong and I am powerful. I am strong and I am powerful. What I'm doing is I'm taking the emotional charge, but I'm also taking the repetition of saying it over and over and over and over and over again. And so if you can bring emotion into it, emotion is one of the ways that you can lock it into your brain and into your subconscious mind. And so that's when it becomes an affirmation turns into something called an incantation. So an affirmation is just saying it. It's a statement, whatever it might be. An incantation is like a fully immersive experience. It may be a phrase that you scream out loud to yourself.

14:50Maybe you go on a hike and you're trying to work on yourself some sort of way and you this hike in the middle of nowhere and you just freaking scream it at the top of your lungs. It could be a chant. It could be a ritualistic statement. It can be whatever you want it to be. But the key to it is a heightened state, an emotion, a physical movement. So if you're trying to become more powerful, go to the gym. And if you can work out in a gym without other people and not scare the shit out of them, scream if you can. Whatever it is that you need to do, that's how you take an affirmation and turn it into an incantation.

15:23An affirmation is a statement an incantation is an immersive emotional experience while saying the affirmation. So try that out. The next one, which is number three, is consistent repetition. So as I said, the way to change your brain is number one, either through a heightened emotional experience, or number two is through constant repetition. Once again, if you say something over and over and over and over and over again, a hundred thousand times over the next year, you're going going to start to believe it. You will. It's just what the way the brain works. It will happen. And so it's not about doing this one time.

16:01It's about doing it all the time. It's about repeating it to yourself every single morning, repeating it to yourself every single evening, put on the background of your computer, on the background of your phone, write it on the mirror so that you see it every single time you brush your teeth. It should, it should be omnipresent. It should be everywhere. And it's constantly being, you know, it's like, it's like if I were to say, you know, I love this too. I love when I do this. It's basically the same as if I were to say, we want to get a song stuck in your head. And that song that you want to get stuck into your head is this new affirmation.

16:32It's like if I were to just immediately put, if I were to just have all of you guys listen to the Spice Girls. And I would just put on the first 30 seconds of that song. Well, I'll tell you what I want, whatever I really want. And I would just say that. Some of you guys are going to have that song stuck in your head for the rest of the damn day. You're welcome. Now you can party with the Spice Girls in your head. But just like having that, that song gets stuck, doesn't it? How can you try to get your affirmations stuck into your head so that even when you're not thinking about them, they're kind of still there?

17:02And so what it requires is consistent effort. Neuroplasticity, which is the brain's ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections, it needs you to repeat over and over and over again. In order to change your brain, you need to do something over and over and over and over and over again. in order to change the way that you think about yourself, you've got to repeat over and over and over again. And the more that you repeat the statement with conviction, with power, the stronger the connections in your brain become, making it more dominant of a thought over time. And so dedicate a specific time of your day or multiple times a day to go over it.

17:41Because affirmations, they're just something that you could do at any moment. You could get into your car and you could say, okay, I've got a 20 minute drive. I'm going to listen to one episode of the mindset mentor and then whatever time is left over i'm going to say my one affirmation over and over and over and over and over again okay so that's number three and the last piece is as i said if you want to put gas in the fire combine it with visualization so your brain can actually start to visualize what it would look like so you repeat it to yourself and you visualize it and you see it and i've done you can go back i don't need to spend an entire episode talking about visualization because i've done that before in the past but our brain struggles to differentiate something that's really happening right now in front of you and something that you're visualizing.

18:23And so when you pair your affirmations with visualization, you're making them basically double effective. So you're not just telling your brain what you want and what you're creating, you're actually showing your brain what it is that you want. And so as you state your affirmation, you can look at yourself in the mirror, you can go for a run, you can yell at yourself, you can do whatever it is that you want, or you can also close your eyes and you can see it. You try to bring as much visual colors and clear aspects of whatever it is that you're trying to create. And you sit there and you think about it.

18:58You think about it. You think about it. You say it. You think about it. You say it. And you try to visualize it and try to create a mental picture of it actually being true. Visualize the environment, the people, the sounds. Most importantly, see yourself in that scenario living in that affirmation. And so I get it. Affirmations don't seem like they would work. But hopefully I've talked you into showing you that affirmations are something that is scientifically proven to improve yourself, improve the way that you think about yourself, improve the actions that you take, because ultimately, abracadabra, as you speak, you create.

19:31So make sure that you are speaking the life that you want to create in the future. So that's what I got for you for today's episode. If you love this episode, please share it on your Instagram stories and tag me in at Rob Dial Jr., R-O-B-D-I-A-L-J-R. And if you love this podcast, you'll also love my book, which is coming out October 3rd, which is called Level Up, How to Get Focused, Stop Procrastinating and Upgrade Your Life. If you want to pre-order it, you can go to robdial.com slash book right now and pre-order it. Why would you want to pre-order it? Well, reason why is because you'll get it the day that it comes out, should be mailed to your house.

20:01And at the same time, you will get a free, only for people who pre-order, you'll get a free course on how to stop procrastinating. And at the same time, you'll also get entered into a prize pool of over$25 ,000 in cash prizes. That is only for people who pre-order. So go to robdial.com book. And with that, I'm going to leave you the same way I leave you every single episode. Make it your mission to make someone else's day better. I appreciate you and I hope that you have an amazing day.