Affirmations are an aid to healing, getting fit, becoming successful, in fact they will aid you in any area of your life.

This post describes how you can record your own affirmations to play in the background or full up as you go through the day or just when you need a refresher. But I also want to state here and now that it is not necessary that they be recorded at all. Write them on an index card and bring it out and read them to yourself or aloud several times a day. It still works – I like them recorded and I let them play in the background on a loop as I work at the computer. Do it the way you’d like – just do it for yourself – do it to build yourself up to be the best person that you can be. That’s the most unselfish thing you can do – build a better you. You will, by becoming better, lift those around you. Even if you don’t intend to record affirmations stick with us for the background and a couple of ideas about writing affirmations.

Émile Coué is credited with popularizing affirmations with his famous ‘everyday in every way I’m getting better and better.’ Coué was a pharmacist who found that when he dispensed medicine with a good word that the medicine was more effective. From this he developed his daily affirmataions.

If you are trying to improve any area of your life from health to sports performance to how you do in school affirmations can help. Many people grew up being told various things both good and bad about themselves. A parents voice may ring in your head to this day and it affects your actions, what you believe you are capable of, what you believe the truth to be. The truth is, “what one man can accomplish, so can another.” The truth also is the mind has a powerful affect on the body and by putting your message in you can improve your lot. Put your message of the desired result and build yourself up.

Music is not required for affirmations but studies have been done suggesting that affirmations (and any form of learning) can be facilitated by playing Baroque music at the same time. Baroque music is at 60 beats/minute and that seems to be the key. Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” is one piece with suitable music (largo tempo).

Affirmations or self-talk have long been recognized as a way to affect the way you look at and interact with the world. Affirmations affect both the conscious and unconscious mind allowing you to plan and sink ideas and actions into your life almost unnoticed.

In reality affirmations have been around almost forever. Consider these verses from Proverbs 4:

20 My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. 21 Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. 22 For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh. Keep them in the midst of thine heart! Proverbs is promoting the idea of scripture as affirmations and keeping them in your heart.

Here is the whole idea Behind Affirmations:

1. State desired thought/action in a positive way.
2. Repeat.
3. Keep it in your heart, in other words keep it in mind all the time.
4. Keep to a single theme in your affermations for a few days or a week. Keep it short and repeat.

If you suffer from negative thoughts, create or find a good affirmation to replace it. Some people use Bible Quotes: Norman Vincent Peale in “The Power Of Positve Thinking” gave several scriptures for this purpose. Notably Philipians 4:13 – “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” He was also fond of Romans 8:31, “If God be for me, who can be against me.” There are many in both testaments of the Bible that can be used if you are so inclined. Peale, a minister also made clear that even if you were not a believer that the techniques would still work.

Your affirmation should be positive and reflect a desired condition: “I see a picture of myself as having already reached my goal. The picture becomes clearer day-by-day as I work toward and achieve my goal.” This affirmation includes instruction to visualize your goal, to see it as already completed. This is a huge success factor in anything you want to do. “I do the things I need to do to keep myself healthy, fit and feeling good.” “Life is a wonderful dance, I enjoy my life and experiences, I attract the very best into my life and I am grateful.” Use words like: “I have” or “I Am,” say it in the present tense. Just a few ideas to get you started in creating your own and remember, your thoughts create your life.

I like to record about a minutes worth on a common theme and then loop the playback with Real Player or ITunes. You can read more about it and download free affirmations on this blog. There are lots of resources on the web and many want to charge money for affirmation recordings but there is no need to pay. The formulas are very simple and you can do it for yourself.

If you don’t have audio recording software, try Audacity – it’s open source and free. It should be able to do anything you need. Here’s where to find Audacity and the basics of how to install it:

1. Download Audacity: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/latest/audacity-win/audacity-win-1.2.6.exe
2. Execute and follow the prompts
3. Download lame: http://www.rarewares.org/dancer/dancer.php?f=226
4. Unzip it and save the file lame_enc.dll to C:\Program Files\Audacity. Ignore the rest of the zip contents.
5. The first time you use the “Export as MP3″ command, Audacity will ask you where lame_enc.dll is saved. Point it to: C:\Program Files\Audacity

That should do it.

Remember keep your affirmations short (1 to 2 minutes). Keep it positive. Repeat.

Here are some books that can help you tune yourself mentally.
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