Do You Believe in Positive Affirmations?

The_Hurricane

Hi All,

Do you believe in positive affirmations and that the only thing preventing you from achieving your goals are your own negative thoughts?

Alikay

No, people can also be limited by other things such as disability, intelligence, class, education, gender (even now!), geography etc etc.

You certainly stand a waaay better chance of being successful with a positive attitude, but it's not the whole story IMO.

Tropez

No.

(10 char min... sigh)

sassyblue

I do to an extent, as in are your goals achievable? (I'm not able to be President of the USA because l was born in the UK). If so, then l think with some hard work and luck you could get your goal, still no guarantee, but aiming for something is no bad thing.

an9i77

I used to, several years ago I went through a phase where I chanted positive statements each morning etc, I even made a tape of them and played them in the car, did this for months and it didn't make a blind bit of difference. I just got frustrated and confused because I was saying things that weren't true, trying to convince myself that they were but knowing that they really weren't.

What worked for me in sorting my life out was proper therapy with a trained professional which unblocked a lot of carp from my childhood which was standing in the way and cleared me to create a better life ofr myself as a consequence. (not saying OP needs this, just what worked for me)

ostrichnomore_2

No.

You need to believe in yourself and be positive about what you want, yes.

But just wishing for it, or standing in front of a mirror saying it's going to happen, make no difference.

There are too many factors other than your own attitude. If you have an IQ of 90, then telling yourself that you will be the best brain surgeon the world has ever seen won't make it happen. Or if you have a NMW job, no qualifications, no real skills or experience, then you'll only get to be a millionaire next year if your name is Del-boy.

You won't achieve what you want if you don't believe you can. But That doesn't make the opposite true - that if you believe you can you will.The universe is not alive. It doesn't listen to you and give you what you ask for. The whole law of attraction thing is a load of cods.

If it worked, then David Essex would have several thousand wives my age.

miss_independent

I tried really hard to make positive affirmations work for me but they just made me depressed as I felt like I was lying to myself. So that made my self esteem worse.

The unavoidable truth is that !!!!!! happens and positive affirmations aren't going to make everything rosie. I prefer a more realistic approach now.

moneyistooshorttomention

Positive thinking as a whole - to a certain extent.

Overall, I tend to believe in taking a long hard look at yourself and an equally long hard look at other people in general and trying to work out just what they could achieve and just what I personally could achieve in any given context.

Sometimes I figure out that other people can achieve more than me - be it more money or whatever it is they are after.

Other times I figure out that the person who is busily telling me that I can't do something is saying that because they personally couldn't do so in the context of their life for whatever reason - but I and/or my circumstances are that bit better placed for getting the object of my desires and that I CAN manage to get what I want even if they couldnt.

This is the thing though. To have that dead realistic balance worked out in your mind between being someone who tells yourself that you are "special" and can achieve wonders (when the truth of the matter is that most people arent and cant) on the one hand. On the other hand not letting a person who can't do something themselves (be it down to lower intelligence, less money, worse contacts, worse looks or whatever) tell you that you can't when you have the extra thing necessary to make that vital difference to your chances of having it.

Errata

The_Hurricane wrote: »

Hi All,

Do you believe in positive affirmations and that the only thing preventing you from achieving your goals are your own negative thoughts?

Doesn't seem to matter how many positive (affirmations?) thoughts I have about winning the lottery, it still doesn't happen.

Dunroamin

Rather strangely, I think I do.

It was the French Psychologist, Emile Coue, who introduced the method, which became popular in the 1920s, with the most well known maxim being,

"Every day, in every way, I'm getting better and better"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89mile_Cou%C3%A9

Person_one

The_Hurricane wrote: »

Hi All,

Do you believe in positive affirmations and that the only thing preventing you from achieving your goals are your own negative thoughts?

Sort of and no, in that order.

I think they probably are helpful for some people, and its undeniable that the way we consciously choose to think can have a measurable effect on our physical and psychological wellbeing.

However, there are many many barriers and obstacles that can prevent people from achieving their goals, a 'PMA' isn't a magic wand.