Anti-Aging Tip: Write or Say Affirmations to Grow Younger
“I’m going to stop eating sugar-coated donuts. I’m going to stop eating sugar-coated donuts. I’m going to stop eating sugar-coated donuts.”
Ever repeat something like this to yourself? If you resolved to have a healthier body and mind by changing your diet, that’s great.
However, if you’ve been stating your intention in this way, you may get the opposite result and here’s why. In order to change our habits, we need to get both the conscious and subconscious mind on board — and the words we choose are powerful!
When setting intentions, saying affirmations or just repeating something to keep it in focus, be aware that your subconscious mind doesn’t hear the word “stop” or “not.”
So by saying “I’m going to stop eating sugar-coated donuts,” your subconscious mind absorbs “eating sugar-coated donuts” and sets up images of glorious goodies that taste delicious but often have empty calories or artery-clogging fat and too much sugar.
By phrasing your affirmation with a negative, you’re creating a conflict between what your conscious mind and subconscious mind are “seeing.” Since it’s the subconscious that runs the body, your result is likely to be extra pounds and a feeling of defeat when your intention was to eat healthy, look good and feel good.
Here’s what happens: your mind takes words and translates them into pictures. When you read a novel, you’re not just reading combinations of letters on a page; your mind actually makes mental pictures from the words. And when a comedian tells a story, the audience “gets it” by transforming ideas being told into humorous images that make them laugh.
To illustrate what I mean, let’s test your inner vision. Try NOT to think of an elephant balancing on one foot wearing a red dress with white polka dots.
Can’t do it, right? Your mind will automatically visualize that silly-dressed elephant even though you understood that you were NOT to visualize it.
To make your intentions powerful and to support healthy, youthful goals, write and say exactly what you are intending. “I eat healthy, nourishing food. My skin is smooth and firm. My body is strong and buff.” (Women can add, “with curves in all the right places.”)
Say it in the present tense with emotion as if it’s already so. Your subconscious mind doesn’t know the difference between real and imagined and you can just fake it til you feel it.
It’s important to use the present tense in affirmations – not the future tense. If, for example, you focus on what you want with an affirmation such as “I am going to eat nourishing food and become healthy and strong,” you’re not creating that in the present; you’re creating a continuing state of “going to” that will always remain in the future.
Saying affirmations is one of the great aids in creating the life you want, and yes, you can even use affirmations to help you grow younger. They work for me — I AM growing younger and affirmations are part of my daily practices
Start with one small part of a younger, healthier you; for example, having a clear, sharp mind. Then compose a strong, short affirmation that expresses an aspect of a clear, sharp mind as if it’s already true, such as, “I have an excellent memory.”
Write that statement on index cards and put them in different rooms of your house and say the affirmation — out loud if that works for you — whenever you see it.
You’ll also want to catch yourself whenever old programming surfaces and you say things like, “I keep forgetting where I put my glasses,” but that’s another action step in the grow younger process we’ll explore in another article.
Two of my favorite affirmations for overall youthfulness are “Thank God I’m young and healthy,” and “It’s a good thing I’m young and healthy” and I have those on cards in my kitchen, bedroom, office and car. These are common expressions you can say with a little bit of attitude and a lift of your head – just like you might say, “It’s a good thing I’m here or we’d never get this show on the road.”
How about starting today to get your show on the road to youthfulness? Start with affirmations on cards and keep in mind the most important part: have FUN creating a new, happier, younger you.
Click to Comment to share your favorite affirmations for growing younger. I’d love to hear from you.
Joy and Blessings!
Ellen – Your Grow Young Guide
I totally agree with your observation of not stating what one does not want, since we are mostly controlled by our subconscious minds, and it does not “hear” the negative. It must create the opposite first in order to even comprehend what it is we mean. What I find that works for me in terms of getting younger looking and feeling is I state the precise age that I am targeting to look like again. For instance…” I am ….. years old”, and then I add that I look beautiful. Something like “I am …… years old and I am beautiful looking”.
I also put pictures rather than index cards of myself at that age, or younger or a bit older around the house. I have pictures on my refrigerator, my home office, my den, and my living room, as well as my bedroom. When I use my treadmill, I look at a younger me picture, and say “Every day and in every way, I am getting younger and younger”. (Adapted from the Silva Method) I am going to be 60 this year..oyyyy, LOL.. and have young men as young as in their 20’s try to pick me up. How’s that for a confidence booster…
Paula – you’re fabulous!! I love what you’re doing – and on the treadmill – GREAT!! Thanks for sharing.
Love,
Ellen
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