The use of positive affirmations is a powerful technique to change that negative self-talk into something more positive.

Leading thinkers and researchers on the use of affirmations include Jack Canfield and John Assaraf. Research on the effectiveness of positive affirmations as a life enhancing tool has led to the formation of the following eight step system for setting positive affirmations.

1. Affirmations should start with the words I AM. These are two of the most powerful words in the English language as they send a command to the subconscious part of our minds.

2. Positive – our minds like to work in pictures, therefore we cannot not think about something. So trying not to think of a pink elephant will undoubtedly bring up an image of a pink elephant. An affirmation such as I am enjoying breathing clean air will be more effective than I am no longer a smoker.

3. State in the present tense. This sets up an imbalance in the subconscious which it will then seek to correct. For example if you want to gain a particular position at work, state I am the regional sales manager, rather than I want to be or I will be.

4. Specific – Our subconscious minds require clear specific instructions which allow them to accurately pursue what we have programmed in the form of positive affirmations. So “I am rich” is not specific enough, better to say “I am earning $100,000 per year”. You may also like to add the phrase this or something better, because if you are too limiting in your desires, such as “I want to marry Susan”, she might not be interested, available or the best match for you.

5. Contain an active verb – without getting into high school grammar mode, an active verb is a do-ing word such as living, having, achieving, earning and so on.

6. Contain a feeling – this magnifies the power of your affirmations by adding the fuel of emotion. Consider including feelings such as joyful, excited, thankful or freedom.

7. Keep it brief- to be most effective, your affirmation should be easily remembered and repeated often. By keeping it brief you are far more likely to remember it. As a fun exercise you could consider trying to make it rhyme. In this way, similar to advertising jingles, your affirmation will stick in your head.

8. Make it personal – your affirmations should be about you. You will not be successful in trying to change another person, neither are you likely to be fully engaged with words that someone else has suggested for you.

A suggested format might look something like this:

“I am so thankful for the freedom that being a millionaire brings me” or “I am so proud to be accepting my diploma in front of my family and friends”

The final thing to remember about positive affirmations is that they must be repeated frequently to reprogram your subconscious into accepting they are true. Some teachers suggest 100 times a day, others recommend putting your affirmations on your bedside table and reciting first thing in the morning and last things at night.

Like many things we don’t fully understand, it would be easy to dismiss the power of affirmations, but enough respected and highly successful people use them that, this writer, for one, will be stepping up his affirmations game.

To dicover more about the power of positive affirmations we have put together a free video mini seminar for you. Follow the link to get our free positive affirmations video.

For one thing to note, the great accesses of the subconscious mind is something that is actually very hard for most people to get into, and in fact, there is no tangible method for people to actually talk to their subconscious mind, and this is really one of the more tragic things for the people of the human race, especially for the fact that we have been trying for the longest time to actually kick all the bad habits and phobias that they had in their mind. One of the things that you might want to be interested in is how to actually get yourself on the positive affirmation programme, and one way that you can do this, is to identify many of the bad things or negative elements in your life, and first and foremost, what you need to do is to take charge and ownership of them.

You need to realise that you have these bad characteristics of yourself and when you have been able to identify this, what you need to know is how to get rid of them. One of the things about positive affirmations is that it allows you to actually speak on these negative elements and speak on them with confidence. These positive affirmations would allow you to actually talk to yourself, and place positive messages into your mind, so that your subconscious brain would take these messages and implant it into the everyday processes in your mind.

If you need help on how you are going to craft these messages, what you really need to know how to do is to actually address yourself in these messages, and take the opposite road of the dysfunction in your life. If you are having problems, then go the other way and keep telling yourself that you have control over these problems and you are able to take them and make it better. All in all, positive affirmations is all about empowerment, and this is the key ingredient of the whole therapy. And also, you need to be able to this on a daily basis, until it becomes something of a practice to you.

Do this for about 30 mins per day, and you can spread this around the day if you want to. Some people say that doing this before you sleep allows you to retain those messages even better. If you need specific help on this, then what you can do is to actually just go online and read about some of the positive affirmations that people have been using all the time to improve their lives. With them, you would be able to gain some real progress in your life.

Click Here to get your Free ‘Ultimate Success Unleashed’ Subliminal Cd and supercharge your success. Greg Frost is an authority in the subliminal industry for many years and has helped thousands of individuals worldwide to attain their dreams and goals with his subliminal messaging cds.