Make your visualizations match your words
by Che Garman
Affirmations are words. They are the language of the conscious mind. Visualizations are mental images. They are the language of the subconscious mind. If you want to change your life, you must ensure that your words and visualizations match. This may sound simple and straight-forward, but it isn't always so in practice.
Many people read their affirmations morning and night, and even at random times throughout the day. But reading doesn't guarantee visualizing. In fact, the more often people affirm, the easier it is to fall into the routine of just saying the words, without much attention to visualizing at all. By its very nature, repeating affirmations on a daily basis can easily become a rote habit.
But affirmations on their own won't work. The subconscious mind only thinks in pictures. So if we simply say our affirmations, without using positive visualizations, the subconscious mind is taken out of the loop. It does't understand words. It just understands images.
So what are you visualizing when you are affirming?
To begin with, you are probably seeing images of yourself achieving your goal. This is as it should be. However, if saying affirmations on a daily basis becomes a rote habit, chances are that your mental images will be elsewhere. And, generally, these visualizations will be the opposite of what you are affirming.
Let's say that you are affirming to get fit. And let's assume that your affirmations are worded perfectly. You've been affirming faithfully for a week and visualizing as you say the words. In the second week, your subconscious mind starts presenting you with negative mental images. You affirm, "I love using my treadmill and do it every day", but your subconscious mind brings to your attention that this is not true. You didn't use it yesterday, because you got busy with something else and completely forgot.
Now your mental image has changed. You might be replaying a scenario that happened yesterday that caused you to forget. Maybe it was something that wasn't particularly pleasant, or a particular task that is still nagging because you didn't have time to finish it. Your mental pictures splice into all sorts of tangents, flipping back and forth between could-have's, would-have's and should-have's. But all the time, consciously, you keep reading your affirmations.
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The subconscious mind is very good at getting off track. Actually, it's more like it's doing its job - trying to make associations between our thoughts and beliefs. And because it does this in images, our visualizations can end up totally different than what we are affirming. All this is frustrating, but completely natural as far as the subconscious mind is concerned. What is needed is a way to help us stay in control of our mental imagery.
The best way to keep your visualizations on track is to use actual pictures that represent your goals and dreams. By looking at a picture before saying an affirmation, we give ourselves a starting point from which to visualize. The closer the images are to what we want, the better. Spend some time searching online or going through magazines to find pictures that best depict your goal. Print them off and glue each one to 3" x 5" cards (or create a Vision Journal). Add a perfectly worded affirmation at the top of each card (or on the back), and you're all set. Read the affirmation. Look at the image. Close your eyes and put yourself in the picture.
That's picture perfect affirming :)
