ARE POSITIVE AFFIRMATIONS/THOUGHTS B.S

Boston Redsox · Dec 9, 2015

Thx you all for your post and maybe my affirmation are tonfar fetched and i feel this way about them. I think Dr hanscom approach is a little more Approachable for the mind especially is negetive writing aprroach to get it all out on paper. All i know is that i been working at this for awhile and i am looking for some belief in the process

Markus · Dec 9, 2015

Boston Redsox said: ↑

Thx you all for your post and maybe my affirmation are tonfar fetched and i feel this way about them. I think Dr hanscom approach is a little more Approachable for the mind especially is negetive writing aprroach to get it all out on paper. All i know is that i been working at this for awhile and i am looking for some belief in the process
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I do the negative writing. I don't think I just write. I think his stand on affirmations is not negative but he (don't quote me), believes they should be about ourselves. Like you could say"I'm good at what I do", things about yourself.

Mala · Dec 9, 2015

Marco there are affirmations & then there are affirmations. For example if someone just sits on their butt & keeps reiterating that they r going to become a millionaire then it isn't going to happen. That would be equivalent to wishful thinking. We r not talking about that here.

Also positive thinking or visualisation has nothing to do with suppressing yr feelings or emotions. They r 2 entirely different things. You can continue to do the emotional work as you wish & at the same time.

The idea of positive thinking is to try & get away from negative thinking which we as humans have a tendency towards.

Positive affirmations seem like BS initially becoz yr brain is not used to that way of thinking. Often when in pain or depression the mind chooses to create even more negative , catatrosphic thoughts. It then becomes almost necessary to force ourselves to think positively & visualise a better outcome otherwise we will just sink into even more depression.

The choice is to visualise & change the chemicals in the brain thru positive, happy thoughts & mindfulness or take drugs. Both have the same effect of changing chemicals in the brain but which would u rather choose?

When we do that the body will respond as such. The changes will be subtle and at first hardly noticeable but with constant practice you will see subtle shifts in yr perceptions, mood & mental outlook which can only have a positive impact on yr physical well being too.

I suggest u do it diligently for at least a couple of months & see what changes occur before deciding whether it is BS or not.

Mala

Boston Redsox · Dec 9, 2015

Mala

Thx u can u give me a example for a pos aff that would be believable to my brain...something like i am getting better everyday? But i am not. Can u give me some examples please.

Mala · Dec 9, 2015

I think that whatever affirmation u make must be believable to YOU & yr subconscious mind at some level in order for it to work & should trigger some feeling in u.

I can't say what will work for u, its something u will have to work on but maybe:

I accept that I am in pain & I am working on managing it better everyday.

My positive thoughts will make me healthy.

The medication I take will help me heal.

Today I feel better & this is a positive indication that my body has the ability to heal.

Hope this helps

Mala

Boston Redsox · Dec 9, 2015

Thx u Mala very kind of u to take the time to write these for me

Boston Redsox · Dec 10, 2015

How about this: i will not fear my pain my pain is from my emotions

Mala · Dec 10, 2015

What do u feel when u say it? What feeling does it trigger?

Why don't u try it for a few days & see what effect it has.

FredAmir · Dec 10, 2015

Thanks Bunneh.

Loved the video. The Brain That Changes Itsekf is also a good book on the topic.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0143113100

Boston Redsox · Dec 10, 2015

Mala said: ↑

What do u feel when u say it? What feeling does it trigger?

Why don't u try it for a few days & see what effect it has.
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I will thx u

giantsfan · Mar 16, 2016

balto said: ↑

Words Can Change Your Brain
The neuroscience of communication
by Andrew Newberg, M.D. and Mark Robert Waldman

If I were to put you into an fMRI scanner—a huge donut-shaped magnet that can take a video of the neural changes happening in your brain—and flash the word “NO” for less than one second, you’d see a sudden release of dozens of stress-producing hormones and neurotransmitters. These chemicals immediately interrupt the normal functioning of your brain, impairing logic, reason, language processing, and communication.
In fact, just seeing a list of negative words for a few seconds will make a highly anxious or depressed person feel worse, and the more you ruminate on them, the more you can actually damage key structures that regulate your memory, feelings, and emotions.[1] You’ll disrupt your sleep, your appetite, and your ability to experience long-term happiness and satisfaction.
If you vocalize your negativity, or even slightly frown when you say “no,” more stress chemicals will be released, not only in your brain, but in the listener’s brain as well.[2] The listener will experience increased anxiety and irritability, thus undermining cooperation and trust. In fact, just hanging around negative people will make you more prejudiced toward others![3]
Any form of negative rumination—for example, worrying about your financial future or health—will stimulate the release of destructive neurochemicals. And the same holds true for children: the more negative thoughts they have, the more likely they are to experience emotional turmoil.[4] But if you teach them to think positively, you can turn their lives around.[5]
Negative thinking is also self perpetuating, and the more you engage in negative dialogue—at home or at work—the more difficult it becomes to stop.[6] But negative words, spoken with anger, do even more damage. They send alarm messages through the brain, interfering with the decision making centers in the frontal lobe, and this increases a person’s propensity to act irrationally.
Fear-provoking words—like poverty, illness, and death—also stimulate the brain in negative ways. And even if these fearful thoughts are not real, other parts of your brain (like the thalamus and amygdala) react to negative fantasies as though they were actual threats occurring in the outside world. Curiously, we seem to be hardwired to worry—perhaps an artifact of old memories carried over from ancestral times when there were countless threats to our survival.[7]
In order to interrupt this natural propensity to worry, several steps can be taken. First, ask yourself this question: “Is the situation really a threat to my personal survival?” Usually it isn’t, and the faster you can interrupt the amygdala’s reaction to an imagined threat, the quicker you can take action to solve the problem. You’ll also reduce the possibility of burning a permanent negative memory into our brain.[8]
After you have identified the negative thought (which often operates just below the level of everyday consciousness), your can reframe it by choosing to focus on positive words and images. The result: anxiety and depression decreases and the number of unconscious negative thoughts decline.[9]
The Power of Yes
When doctors and therapists teach patients to turn negative thoughts and worries into positive affirmations, the communication process improves and the patient regains self-control and confidence.[10] But there’s a problem: the brain barely responds to our positive words and thoughts.[11] They’re not a threat to our survival, so the brain doesn’t need to respond as rapidly as it does to negative thoughts and words. [12]
To overcome this neural bias for negativity, we must repetitiously and consciously generate as many positive thoughts as we can. Barbara Fredrickson, one of the founders of Positive Psychology, discovered that if we need to generate at least three positive thoughts and feelings for each expression of negativity. If you express fewer than three, personal and business relationships are likely to fail. This finding correlates with Marcial Losada’s research with corporate teams,[13] and John Gottman’s research with marital couples.[14]
Fredrickson, Losada, and Gottman realized that if you want your business and your personal relationships to really flourish, you’ll need to generate at least five positive messages for each negative utterance you make (for example, “I’m disappointed” or “That’s not what I had hoped for” count as expressions of negativity, as does a facial frown or nod of the head).
It doesn’t even matter if your positive thoughts are irrational; they’ll still enhance your sense of happiness, wellbeing, and life satisfaction.[15] In fact, positive thinking can help anyone to build a better and more optimistic attitude toward life.[16]
Positive words and thoughts propel the motivational centers of the brain into action[17] and they help us build resilience when we are faced with life’s problems.[18] According to Sonja Lyubomirsky, one of the world’s leading researchers on happiness, if you want to develop lifelong satisfaction, you should regularly engage in positive thinking about yourself, share your happiest events with others, and savor every positive experience in your life.[19]
Our advice: choose your words wisely and speak them slowly. This will allow you to interrupt the brain’s propensity to be negative, and as recent research has shown, the mere repetition of positive words like love, peace, and compassion will turn on specific genes that lower your physical and emotional stress [20]. You’ll feel better, you’ll live longer, and you’ll build deeper and more trusting relationships with others—at home and at work.
As Fredrickson and Losada point out, when you generate a minimum of five positive thoughts to each negative one, you’ll experience “an optimal range of human functioning.”[21] That is the power of YES.
For more information on the effects of positive and negative speech, see Words Can Change Your Brain (Newberg & Waldman, 2012, Hudson Street Press), and for strategies to reduce stress and improve communication, visit www.MarkRobertWaldman.com.
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Wow, Balto. That is one heck of a post, and it actually helped reduce my pain quite a bit today. Definitely gonna keep up with the positive affirmations and try my best to truly believe in what I am saying aloud. Belief, repetition and patience.

Gigi · Mar 16, 2016

Like this thread! I tell kids all the time that the brain is their most powerful tool. Imagine if we could harness even 10% of that power!
Sarno's work is the ultimate proof that our brains have power over illness.
I admit I felt silly when first practicing affirmations, but I used the "fake it until you make it" advice and ultimately changed those neuro pathways that Balto and Jan mentioned. Yay for success!

giantsfan · Mar 17, 2016

Gigi said: ↑

Like this thread! I tell kids all the time that the brain is their most powerful tool. Imagine if we could harness even 10% of that power!
Sarno's work is the ultimate proof that our brains have power over illness.
I admit I felt silly when first practicing affirmations, but I used the "fake it until you make it" advice and ultimately changed those neuro pathways that Balto and Jan mentioned. Yay for success!
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That's great to hear, Gigi. I think my subC started to recognize that my words and thoughts were shallow and meaningless (like a cheap actor who's filling in for someone else). That and the fact that I had slowly stopped using the affirmations. I figure if I just keep on repeating positive thoughts and words (100's of times a day) that my mind will eventually start to believe what is actually true. Yes, I agree, it feels quite cheesy at first, but today I gained some pretty heavy evidence that affirmations do work and that better proves to my gut that this is all just TMS. Intellectually this is all understandable and believable, but my gut still needs more brainwashing lol.

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