Everyone needs positive reinforcement, especially young children and teenagers. Chances are your parents, relatives, coaches, and teachers helped you believe in yourself, and gave you the mindset that you can accomplish anything you set your mind to.

Everyone needs positive reinforcement, especially young children and teenagers. Chances are your parents, relatives, coaches, and teachers helped you believe in yourself, and gave you the mindset that you can accomplish anything you set your mind to do. As we get older, however, our minds lack this positive reinforcement and the negative, "I can't" attitude takes hold. You no longer receive personal affirmations about your great qualities, or self-worth, but begin to focus on the negative aspects, usually during puberty, and the formidable teenage years. Though not a quick fix, affirmations offer people the unique ability to fundamentally change the way they view themselves and others by commanding their brains to do so.



The difference between an Affirmation and a Wish or a Prayer is that an affirmation is more of a statement, already assuming it is reality, whereas a wish or a prayer infer that the event is a future tense and might not necessarily come true. An example of an Affirmation is, "I'm the richest man in the world"; this statement is obviously not true, but it is read as if it is already a fact of life. A prayer or wish form of this might read, "I pray to god (wish) I was the richest man in the world". Both affirmations and prayers are callings to the collective consciousness (God) for help, but affirmations certainly take the bolder claim, bombarding your mind (tricking it?) that what you say must be reality. Like brainwashing, which usually holds a negative connotation, positive affirmations constantly reinforce all the good qualities you have, or want to possess. We all must live inside the confines of our own mind. With this approach, someone who is horrible at football for example might affirm, "I am the greatest quarterback in the world". Although this is most likely untrue, the person has deemed it important for himself to believe in it. Like Neo from the Matrix, you have to first believe you are the "one", or whatever you affirm, or else it will fall on deaf ears and your brain will not accept an insincere affirmation.



Don't believe you have control over your brain with affirmations? It is understandable to be skeptical over the power of one's body or even world, but when you delve into the science, affirmations hold their own. No one is saying you can alter anything and everything about yourself or life with the power of your brain, but the brain harnesses immense power which goes untapped. Ever hear that we only use 10% of our brain power? 90% could lie in the spiritual realm, where our creators of our own destiny, life, and ultimately universe. If you believe we are all connected (in the universe) on some level, even small, then you can see how we all posses a fraction of the energy, chi, or consciousness of the universe. When your brain tells your body to pick up a piece of paper it does. When you tell your mind you are tired over and over, eventually your body will go to sleep. When you utilize the fragmented consciousness you possess to its maximum potential, affirming and shaping your own world, your life will be fulfilling and no situation can stress you out, freak you out, or cause you to panic. In fact, when large segments of fragmented consciousness (people) come together and pray, wish, affirm, call it what you will, they can alter not only themselves but their environment. A study in 2001 in D.C. had 4000 people meditating each day for peace in the area. The results? Only a 23% decrease in violent crimes! The chances of this being a coincidence are 2 in a billion - extremely worse than hitting the lottery (no coincidence).



Your whole life is built around affirmations and assumptions. You can do it, you can't do it. I'm not good enough. I am good enough. You have a constant struggle within your mind to feed it positive food, or the negative crud that most mainstream media outlets provide to promote fear mongering, violence, drug abuse, etc. It is possible to be exposed to such aweful atrocities on a daily basis only after you have successfully built a fortified wall for your personal psyche. The greeks believed the psyche, or soul, was responsible for behavior. Build it and expose it to what you want to become; the alternative of living in a state of confusion, doubt, worry, fear, and uncertainty is no life at all. You have control over your own life. The sooner you believe this, the sooner you can begin shaping it. You are the artist for your own life. Pick the right tools, brush strokes, and enjoy the masterpiece you create for yourself.