The Power of Positive Affirmation

What is affirmation?

Affirmations are really simple, short and powerful expressions. When you say, think, even hear them, they become thoughts that create reality.
Research shows that there are between 45,000 and 51,000 different thoughts that cross our minds in one day. That’s 150 to 300 thoughts per minute. And unfortunately for most people, 80 percent of these thoughts are negative. It is possible to reverse this negative aura by affirmation.
You may choose to use positive affirmations to motivate yourself, encourage positive changes in your life, or boost your self-esteem. If you frequently find yourself getting caught up in negative self-talk, positive affirmations can be used to combat these often subconscious patterns and replace them with more adaptive narratives.

According to the English American Dictionary, to “affirm” is to state that something is true. When applied to the spiritual life, an affirmation is a statement of truth which one aspires to absorb into his life.

Affirmations are dynamic and practical — not wishful thinking. One reason they work is because they are based on higher truths, which, perhaps, we have yet to realize on a conscious level. “The greatest mistake people make,” Swami Kriyananda wrote, “is to belittle their own power to change themselves.” According to Remez Sasson, a self-improvement writer, the repetition and corresponding mental images formed when saying affirmations help them to change the subconscious mind. (

Ideally, affirmations should be repeated in a quiet space with concentration. This repetition allows one to change habit patterns and attitudes over which one normally has little control. (1) When one realizes that a recurring tendency has been negatively impacting their life, this is an especially good time to use affirmations.

Instructions for Practice

As taught by Paramhansa Yogananda, an affirmation should be repeated with ever-deeper attention: first loudly, then in a normal speaking voice, then in a whisper, and then silently, carrying its meaning down into the subconscious.

Finally, it should be said in such a way as to draw one into the superconscious. This can be done by repeating it while concentrating at the point between the eyebrows, the seat of divine consciousness in the body.