In today’s installment of The Secrets Of Personal Development From A-Z we’re going to look at Affirmations. Most people are at least somewhat familiar with what affirmations are, and yet most people don’t know how to get them to really work for them.

Let’s start with a quick review of creating/writing powerful affirmations.  Your affirmations should have the following qualities:

1.  Be a positive statement written in the present tense. For example:

I am vibrantly healthy and fully energized.

NOT

I am not exhausted and weak.

2.  Whenever Possible use visually descriptive words. For Example:

I love the feeling of the wind blowing through my hair as I drive my new BMW convertible down the sun drenched Pacific Coast Highway.

NOT

I like driving my new BMW.

3.  It excites you. Surprisingly this is often a missing ingredient in people’s affirmations.  They have heard that affirmation can be powerful in creating their reality, and so they pick some affirmations that someone else wrote, and sounds like what they want, but doesn’t really stir their passion or emotions when they speak it or think about it.

The best affirmations for you are usually going to be the one’s you create.  At the end of this post I am going to give you some examples of some of my favorite affirmations.  Theses are really only intended to give you some ideas.  If you find one or more of them that does excite you great, you are welcome to use it, if not use them as a guide to create your own powerful affirmations that do excite you.

Once you have created your affirmations, there are three really powerful ways to use them.  I recommend using all three before you go to bed at night.  The three ways are:

1.  Speaking your affirmations. The key here is to speak your affirmations with as much passion and positive energy as you can muster.  I do this while standing and taking a powerful stance with both hands on my heart.

2.  Write them out in cursive (as opposed to printing). Writing your affirmations in this way puts your affirmations directly into your subconscious mind.

3.  Visualize your affirmations as if you were experiencing them right now. Visualization is another powerful way to get your affirmations directly into your subconscious mind.  Also, your subconscious mind does not know the difference between reality and fantasy, so in visualizing, you are conditioning your subconscious mind to accept the new positive reality you want to create.

The three steps above can done in about five minutes.  I highly recommend doing them before going to bed at night when your subconscious mind is most receptive.  Below are some of my favorite affirmations for you to use as examples in creating your own.

I am always doing all the right things with all the right people right now.

I am living a life of perfect abundance, peace, joy, and love.

I am fully open to receiving the infinite abundance of the Universe

I am worthy of creating and receiving all that my heart desires.

I am attracting all the people, resources, and opportunities I need to make my dreams come true.

I am passionately living my dream everyday while being open to the possibilitiy of greater things to come.

I am extremely grateful for the blessings i have in my life, and those that I know are on there way.

I love waking up every morning fully energized and passionate to go through my day in the perfect way.

I experience peace, joy, happiness, and love wherever I am.

I express unconditional love in all that I think, speak, and do.

Follow the suggestions in this post, and I am confident that you will soon be a powerful creator of your positive reality.  In the next post on The Secrets of Personal Development From A-Z, I will be discussing the importance of Agreements.

I welcome your feedback, comments, and suggestions, and of course I appreciate your sharing this post with others.

In today’s edition of the continuing series The Secrets Of Personal Development From A-Z I will discuss the importance of Alignment. What I mean by alignment is when our thoughts, our words, and our actions are all aligned (and support) our purpose in life.

I see too many people expending their energy in a “shot gun” approach hoping that somehow something will stick and begin to manifest their desired outcome.  This usually the result of the chaos and confusion they are experiencing in their mind.

The First Step Toward Alignment Is Clarity About Your Life’s Purpose

In order to align our words, thoughts, and actions with our purpose in life, we have to first be clear about what our purpose is.  Many of us have things that we desire and would like to achieve, but are they really our life’s purpose, or are they simply things we’ve been conditioned to want in our lives.

This is not something that you can figure out at the mental level.  You have to go deeper.  You have to connect deeply to your heart.  If have never done this, a simple way to start would be to sit quietly with your eyes gently closed.  Place one or both of your hands on your heart, and focus on your breathing as you breathe in and breathe out.

Connect Deeply To Your Heart

As you continue to be aware of your breathing, allow yourself to release and let go of all stress tension and anxiety.  Then think of someone or something that you truly love.  This will connect you to your heart.  Once you have made this connection, then ask your heart what it desires.  You may want to ask this question several times to access the deepest part of yourself.  Then simply listen carefully for the answer which may come to you as an image, a feeling, or whisper etc.

If you are unsure of the answer you receive, you can ask your heart to clarify the answer by asking “can you please answer in a way that I can understand.  It maybe that sometimes the answer doesn’t make sense to you in that moment, but in  a day or two it does.  Be patient with yourself.

Once you have your answers and you are clear about what your heart desires (which is the fulfillment of your purpose) you can then begin aligning your thoughts, your words, and your actions in a lazer-like focused manner.

Alignment Makes Decision Making A Graceful And Easy Process

When you are clear about your purpose it becomes very easy to make decisions about what to do in your life.  If the action will move you in the direction of fulfilling your purpose, the decision would be to take the action.  If it will not move you in the direction of your purpose the decision would be to not take the action and move on.

Our words are very powerful, and should always speak in favor of and support our purpose.  Sometime as a result of subconscious programming we have thoughts and beliefs that are contrary to our purpose.  In this case you must re-program these thoughts and beliefs so that they support your purpose.  One of the most powerful ways you can do this is through the use of affirmations during the half hour before you go to bed.

When your thoughts are aligned with your purpose, this will also be reflected in your words.  You will find that once you are clear on your purpose in life, and you align your thoughts, words and actions with that purpose, everything flows more gracefully and easily.  You will also find that instead of expending a lot of energy in many directions and feeling exhausted, you are aligned with your purpose you accomplish much more while experiencing an abundance of joy and vibrant energy.

To summarize what is required for Alignment, you want to:

1.  Get clear about your life’s purpose.

2.  Only take actions that move you in the direction of your life’s purpose

3. Always think and speak in support of your life’s purpose, and never against it.

In the next post on The Secret of Personal Development from A-Z I will be discussing Affirmations.  I welcome you questions, comments and feedback, and of course you can tweet this post if you like.

I am very excited about this new series which begins today.  I will literally be going through the alphabet and sharing what have been the most powerful concepts/secrets in my own personal development.  Some letters will have more secrets than others, and by the end of the series you will know all of the secrets of personal development from A-Z that I have learned over the past 20 years or so.

That being said, I don’t claim to know it all, and I welcome you to share your own secrets of personal development either as guest contributor on one or more segments, or through your comments.  To be considered to write a guest post, email me directly at mitchell@thechampionsheart.com

Awareness Can Be Curative

Let’s get started with the letter A.  The first secret is Awareness.  Awareness is such a powerful concept that it has often been said that “awareness in and of itself can often be curative”.  Most of us have been conditioned to avoid being aware, and rather ignore what is going on inside our bodies and in our environment.

For example, when one experiences an uncomfortable feeling, the most common response is to try to ignore or supress the feeling.  Responding in this way does nothing to further our development and often has serious health and other repercussions.

Being Aware Of Your Feelings

When it comes to feelings you want to be aware of and acknowledge (another A word) them.  In being aware of them, notice where in your body that you are feeling them.  This can provide you a clue as to the cause, and quiete likely to the “cure”.

As you continue to be aware of the feelings inside of yourself notice if the feeling begins to change in anyway.  Does it grow stronger or weaker.  You can even choose to further your awareness by having a conversation with the feeling.  Yes this may sound a little crazy if you have never done anything like this before, yet this is very powerful in increasing your understanding of yourself and furthering your development.

Having Conversations With Your Feelings

You might even start the communication by asking the feeling “What are you trying to communicate to me?” or “Why are you here now?”  If you listen carefully you will get a response that will allow you to continue the conversation and gain a greater understanding of yourself and areas of your body and your life in need of healing.

You may even consider keeping a Daily Awareness Journal.  In the journal simply write down what you are aware of.  If a feeling comes up simply write down the feeling and describe where you are feeling it.  You may also become aware of certain behaviors resulting in certain outcomes, or that being in nature allows you to feel a stronger connection with Spirit.

Your Awareness Is Infinite

There is no limit to what you can become aware of.  You may want to ask for Spirit’s assistance in helping you to become aware of those things that are most important to your continued growth.  The most important thing is that you simply start to become aware of what is going on inside of yourself as well as around you.

If you simply start to become aware, you will notice things starting to change in a positive way. In my next post I will discuss the Secret of Alignment. I welcome your feedback, comments, and suggestions.