Affirmation
Affirmation is probably the most powerful tool in our recovery 'toolbox'
I had never made much use of affirmations, positive or otherwise, before beginning recovery but once I was encouraged to make affirmations a part of my recovery journey I began to appreciate that these words not only offered me hope but a way to grow my hope.
I began then to hunt for affirmations that fitted me. Do you know what I mean?
So many affirmations I would find said absurd airy-fairy things that just didn't seem to fit with my reality! I couldn't in all honesty say them, and while I do believe there is a sense in which we grow into our affirmations - we develop a belief that they CAN be - there is also a great need to start from where we are at - at the level we can believe. I am convinced that for an affirmation to be really useful to us we must be able to believe it is possible.
So choose your affirmations well. Make your own - yes, you can do that too.
I like to place affirmation cards everywhere I go around the house - on the fridge, above the kitchen sink, on the windowsill, on the mirror in my bathroom was a favorite - so I would look at it whenever I was there (and I often put ones about my self-image here), in the car, on the dashboard. Find ways to keep these affirmations in front of you.
One of the principles with affirmation is that they must be repetitive - they need to be viewed frequently. This is what changes our self-talk, or entrenched thought patterns. Advertisers know this, that's why we are bombarded with the same images and words over and over - so that it sinks in. We can be smart and use this same knowledge to help us alter long-held faulty beliefs and thought patterns that no longer serve us well.
I believe in the capacity of affirmations to change our thinking - from false beliefs to truth, from faulty to fixed.....I believe this is foundational to recovery.
The series of affirmations below can also be found on the Recovery Helpers app available now on iTunes.
♥ ~ Sue
© 2017 Susan Parry-Jones
I had never made much use of affirmations, positive or otherwise, before beginning recovery but once I was encouraged to make affirmations a part of my recovery journey I began to appreciate that these words not only offered me hope but a way to grow my hope.
I began then to hunt for affirmations that fitted me. Do you know what I mean?
So many affirmations I would find said absurd airy-fairy things that just didn't seem to fit with my reality! I couldn't in all honesty say them, and while I do believe there is a sense in which we grow into our affirmations - we develop a belief that they CAN be - there is also a great need to start from where we are at - at the level we can believe. I am convinced that for an affirmation to be really useful to us we must be able to believe it is possible.
So choose your affirmations well. Make your own - yes, you can do that too.
I like to place affirmation cards everywhere I go around the house - on the fridge, above the kitchen sink, on the windowsill, on the mirror in my bathroom was a favorite - so I would look at it whenever I was there (and I often put ones about my self-image here), in the car, on the dashboard. Find ways to keep these affirmations in front of you.
One of the principles with affirmation is that they must be repetitive - they need to be viewed frequently. This is what changes our self-talk, or entrenched thought patterns. Advertisers know this, that's why we are bombarded with the same images and words over and over - so that it sinks in. We can be smart and use this same knowledge to help us alter long-held faulty beliefs and thought patterns that no longer serve us well.
I believe in the capacity of affirmations to change our thinking - from false beliefs to truth, from faulty to fixed.....I believe this is foundational to recovery.
The series of affirmations below can also be found on the Recovery Helpers app available now on iTunes.
♥ ~ Sue
© 2017 Susan Parry-Jones
