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Affirmations

Mole

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...the human mind naturally rejects the condition of cognitive dissonance.

Yes, cognitive dissonance is rejected by the uneducated because it is emotionally painful.

However the educated learn that cognitive dissonance is part of the Socratic Dialog and leads to discovery.

It's interesting that the uneducated want to feel good and not discover anything new. So they just keep on repeating the same old affirmations over and over again.

And so naturally to make a profit, consumer culture caters to the uneducated. And for the same reason popular culture also caters to the uneducated.

Marketeers make us feel good, they boost our self esteem, not to educate us, but to sell their product.
 

highlander

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It seems to work for Jessica.

[YOUTUBE="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR3rK0kZFkg"]"Jessica's Affirmation"[/YOUTUBE]
 

stringstheory

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I don't know what the scientific validity of affirmations are either (and believe me, i am ALL about scientific validity)...but at this point i'm not sure i'm inclined to care. they work for me and i have my own ideas about how they work, but as far as i'm concerned they are effective. the brain works in ways that we cannot yet fully understand. it has SO much power and so much potential that i'm not even sure science could fully capture why affirmations are (not) effective in different people.

my theory is this: we already know that repetition is an essential part of learning for humans. by having positive affirmations repeated to me, i can allow myself to state my intention for the day, such as "i am going to have a productive day". because my brain has already decided i am going to have a productive day, i can now allow myself to practise avoiding situations that do not allow me to have a productive day. the more i practise acting out what i have decided, the more i am actually able to follow through.
 

Mole

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..repetition is an essential part of learning for humans.

Rather then being an essential part of learning, repetition is an essential part of trance, for a trance can be induced by any repetition.

Trances feel good and are highly sought by humans. It doesn't matter whether you are dancing to Trance music under the influence of E, or whether you are at Mass, or watching TV, or repeating affirmations, it is all trance.

And in various trances, various cognitive faculties go to sleep and we become suggestible. So by repeating the suggestion, "I am productive", may very well lead to more productivity, and it will feel good as well.

I learnt about trance on Trance Institute Courses
 

Synapse

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Possibly .. I like your thinking.

I think that positive affirmations are a good source of producing positive outcomes .. or even negative outcomes where you can appreciate the positives from it.
Humans are energy, our aura's can't dispell this negativity until we change our thinking/behaviour (Ever let someone get close enough and got that vibe of negative energy?) Positive energy thus bring closer positive people towards us .. That's the idea anyway.

Yes something like that. The energy and thinking/behaviour I have been used to most of my life is incredibly negative and you expect your family to be different and the outcome would cause a dissonance and a subdued kind of life. For then the ability to express in a comfortable way is changed to a state of anxiety.

And then once that went for me I saw the difference.

In the same way negative focused energies focus on their negatives because those are the experiences they have experienced and find it difficult to see positives when their life has been littered with negatives.

And positive focused energies focus on their positives because those are the experiences most encountered in their life and then its easy to focus on positive experiences in their life and can't imagine otherwise.

Takes effort for a person to recreate this image map in their mind to self belief. We are if I am to use a strong word, assaulted, by negative imagery through not only our upbringing but society, work, friends, the media and writing in kind because it generates an emotional and critical response. It also reinforces negative experiences by association to your own and you look for them more often subconsciously to affirm that that is what happens, see its like validating those negative experiences further in the loop that happened for those ideas to manifest.

In that sense while positive and negative events happen continually, the balance between them is towards negative encounters more than positive and then its easier to self doubt than self believe.

The right frame work, infrastructure, internal as it were needs be in place to have those affirmative beliefs to enjoy a fuller life and accept those events that bring us down and bounce back to those events that lift us up rather than dwell on them. :)
 

Saslou

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Yes something like that. The energy and thinking/behaviour I have been used to most of my life is incredibly negative and you expect your family to be different and the outcome would cause a dissonance and a subdued kind of life. For then the ability to express in a comfortable way is changed to a state of anxiety.

And then once that went for me I saw the difference.

In the same way negative focused energies focus on their negatives because those are the experiences they have experienced and find it difficult to see positives when their life has been littered with negatives.

And positive focused energies focus on their positives because those are the experiences most encountered in their life and then its easy to focus on positive experiences in their life and can't imagine otherwise.

Takes effort for a person to recreate this image map in their mind to self belief. We are if I am to use a strong word, assaulted, by negative imagery through not only our upbringing but society, work, friends, the media and writing in kind because it generates an emotional and critical response. It also reinforces negative experiences by association to your own and you look for them more often subconsciously to affirm that that is what happens, see its like validating those negative experiences further in the loop that happened for those ideas to manifest.

In that sense while positive and negative events happen continually, the balance between them is towards negative encounters more than positive and then its easier to self doubt than self believe.

The right frame work, infrastructure, internal as it were needs be in place to have those affirmative beliefs to enjoy a fuller life and accept those events that bring us down and bounce back to those events that lift us up rather than dwell on them. :)

Makes sense .. It was only in my teenage years that i was surrounded by negative factors that had a major influence on my thinking thus i turned into a passive and insecure individual .. I never thought i was in control of my own perception of myself afterall people love/care for you know what they are talking about .. Or not as the case was.

It has only been recently that i have changed my thinking for the better .. Humans make mistakes, me included. No harm in admitting that, lol.

I get up in the morning and tell myself 'Today is going to be a good and productive day' and even when something bad happens .. I try and laugh it off. It is all about choices and what we choose to focus on. I can't do this all the time and there are days where anxiety overwhelms me but i always come back and find my place where i need to be.

We always bounce back :D and learn valuable lessons in the meantime.

I have a post it note at the side of my bed .. It says Ask, Believe and Receive.
 

Synapse

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Makes sense .. It was only in my teenage years that i was surrounded by negative factors that had a major influence on my thinking thus i turned into a passive and insecure individual .. I never thought i was in control of my own perception of myself afterall people love/care for you know what they are talking about .. Or not as the case was.

It has only been recently that i have changed my thinking for the better .. Humans make mistakes, me included. No harm in admitting that, lol.

I get up in the morning and tell myself 'Today is going to be a good and productive day' and even when something bad happens .. I try and laugh it off. It is all about choices and what we choose to focus on. I can't do this all the time and there are days where anxiety overwhelms me but i always come back and find my place where i need to be.

We always bounce back :D and learn valuable lessons in the meantime.

I have a post it note at the side of my bed .. It says Ask, Believe and Receive.

Mmm yes affirmations are the most binding aspects in our psyche. Its from that point when our sub personalities are created to deal with the drama, splintered, in life like a fragmented spirit that has been watered down from itself into believing limited beliefs about personal attributes.

As children we are affirmed in our curiosity to achieve the unthinkable with ease, to be authentic in fact, it is pretty common to be able to have a soaring self belief in our achievements. Then this aspect is doused somewhat when the transformational ability to affirm our existence is altered. Then our lower register takes center stage instead of our higher register.

What I mean by that is that when we grow up, the expression in how we interact changes because there is a defensive conflict from the hurt experiences that bind to our projections and reactions in this world. in so doing we bind our affirmations as self enclosed, trying whole life times to find affirmative beliefs in something. And then we cling to them rather than our own self belief. Then it seems too vulnerable to expose that which is most needed, to recreate our affirmations and self belief to a state of maturation in which would also change the reflections of the kind of relationships that manifest in our life experience.

Affirmations are deeply psychological on a subconscious level just like negative and positive environments that foster the conclusions we have. The more you believe something the more it'll happen because it is the intentions that are being spoken of into the subconscious and ends up being expressed in our life time as validating and invalidating markers. Which are false because they aren't our own but generated by society, people, places that have a high effect on our growth state in what we are capable of achieving. The signals and intentions are inherently in conflict and then the spirit would be in conflict without achieving much because the affirmations aren't there to believe it.

The why many influences change the intentions accordingly to how much self belief we have in the way we carry our affirmations in what we do to ourselves and to others.

Its strange like that.
 

FDG

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Bullshit, just like astrology. However, sometimes Bullshit might be interesting - some people have written books on it (Harry Frankfurt).
 

Synapse

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Bullshit, just like astrology. However, sometimes Bullshit might be interesting - some people have written books on it (Harry Frankfurt).

It isn't. Its similar to writing down a plan.

You write down what you want to achieve in 10 years. Your subconscious mind would work towards achieving them and enact parts of what you intended in situations. When blocked from your affirmations this takes longer, the plans, the intentions change. I've observed this process real time and from documentaries like the 7up series. Those plans that were uttered into the subconscious did take shape...40 years later. The affirmations spoken are strong.
 

FDG

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It isn't. Its similar to writing down a plan.

You write down what you want to achieve in 10 years. Your subconscious mind would work towards achieving them and enact parts of what you intended in situations. When blocked from your affirmations this takes longer, the plans, the intentions change. I've observed this process real time and from documentaries like the 7up series. Those plans that were uttered into the subconscious did take shape...40 years later. The affirmations spoken are strong.

What if I plan to win the world cup with my national soccer team (as a player). Do you really believe affirmations will help me? No they won't, this affirmation stuff works only for things we would likely have already achieved without its help (unless you live your life twice, you'll never have a double-blind experiment showing their effectivness), thus there's a tantamount risk of Forer-effect induced kind of bias, just like in astrology (Look, I managed to reach goal X thanks to affirmations! Who knows though if you wouldn't have reached the same goal without affirmation? Especially true if a time-inverval of 40 years is considered as acceptable).
 

Synapse

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What if I plan to win the world cup with my national soccer team (as a player). Do you really believe affirmations will help me? No they won't, this affirmation stuff works only for things we would likely have already achieved without its help (unless you live your life twice, you'll never have a double-blind experiment showing their effectivness), thus there's a tantamount risk of Forer-effect induced kind of bias, just like in astrology (Look, I managed to reach goal X thanks to affirmations! Who knows though if you wouldn't have reached the same goal without affirmation? Especially true if a time-inverval of 40 years is considered as acceptable).

This was so much better reasoning when I was eating cheese just a moment ago but I'll trying to write it out. This is on a tangent slightly but the patterns are the same, the themes are.

You misunderstand the premise which is okay, doesn't work like that. Its why new age stuff like The Secret miss the point somewhat. Would Einstein have been able to create what he did without his affirmations and self belief in what he did.

Its like with CBT and what NLP tries to do too. Except CBT forgets that emotional association plays a pivotal role in peoples infrastructure as do affirmations. While this would work for rational people more often it falters a lot when affirmative self belief is missing.

And NLP tries to place affirmative self belief scripts in the psyche by changing our thoughts but this falters too when people want to create their own intentions with manipulation. Other times it works like hypnosis, you are activating the part of your brain to create affirmative actions in the waking world.

Why do you think we have dreams, why some people see them and others aren't privy to them, because the subconscious reflects those symbols, images in messages that affirm who we are to achieve what we want in our life times. Why do you think we are in resting states so often, is it just to sleep. hardly we communicate with our subconscious and dream about those intentions and affirmations, positive and negative alike. as well as to recuperate our energy so we are rested.
 

durentu

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My mom got me into them recently. Just a quick wiki tidbit for those that don't know. Affirmations (New Age) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

They are kind of new-agey as the article implies. Not sure about the current scientific validity of these. I've always believed that the universe will give you what you ask for, or respond to positive and negative thoughts. (Perhaps this was my upbringing.)

What do you guys think?
Quacky? Out there? A ploy to make money from the vulnerable? Or amazing up and coming discovery?

Arguing the case for the existence of the effectiveness of affirmations is a very difficult one. I've been thinking about this for a while from an existential perspective. This phenomena exists at least in one iteration.

The thing about affirmations is not about submitting an order to the universe. As if you wanted the awesome life combo #2 with fries and a milk shake. The reason why this will not work is because the correct emotional content isn't there. For these affirmations to work, you must internally experience that result which you seek. Asking for rain will never work. Feeling the mud squish between your toes and hearing the drops his the ground is the emotional content that is necessary.

The second part of this is that after you have this subjective imaginary experience, it still doesn't summon the universe to rearrange itself around you to fulfill the order. What is actually does, is it alters your own world view and subjective experience to be ready or to be opportunistic to that result.

The real mechanics of this is simply one's preconception or perspective is altered. If you perceive a bad date, then you will probably have a bad date. If you perceive a quirky one, then you will probably have that too. When your mind is primed, or oriented in a certain way, you will pick up on these things and act upon them.

This is part of creating meaning for oneself. A human without any meaning whatsoever, is a dead duck. This meaning is essential to every human and it's created in two ways. One way is for the self to create these meaning via affirmations/habits, belief systems etc. The other way is for others to tell you what you are. Thomas Szasz is correct in saying "in the animal kingdom, the rule is to eat or be eaten. In the human kingdom, to define to be defined". Part this definition is meaning in life to which these affirmations helps not only to create, but also to flip the coin in favor of the self. For the self to define itself, not to be defined by external factors.

So then why do these affirmations need to have this emotional content? Because you won't remember anything if it had absolutely zero emotional impact on you. Did you notice that car blinker blinks at 60 blinks per minute? you saw, but you couldn't care less hence you don't remember it: it has fallen outside of your perception. Emotions are essential to memory as they are the filters between everything we sense, to what we remember. Emotions are also essential for long term memory.


Again, affirmations are not inputs for the universe to output. It's simply a very effective way to change your own perspective to be receptive to a desired result. Does it work? yes. Can I prove it to you? no and the reason why is that we cannot exchange or communicate our subjective experiences verbatim. We can only do it through virtual means like text and language.

The only way you'll every know if it works for you, is to try it for yourself. Make up your own damned mind, but don't knock it until you try it. Just like food. This is quanta and perhaps spirituality.


refs:
neuroplasticity
viktor frankl (man's search for meaning)
freud's talking cure
CBT/REBT Albert ellis
thomas szasz
sartre/nietche/heidigger/camus etc
buddist meditation, christian prayers
brian tracey's work
steven covey's work (7 habits book)
schopenhauer
philosophers on guilt (I forget the names)
Ramachandran on consciousness
various articles about amygdala and hippocampus changes under stress and depression
PTSD studies
heisenburg (his principle of observations alter results)
dabrowski's positive disintegration
neurological/fmri studies in emotive memory
MIT papers on AI based on emotive memory
harvard business review
few world banc studies in economics
fed reserve studies in incentives
various studies on lucky people/psychology
duncker's candle problem studies
prison experiments and studies
Think and Grow Rich - Napoleon Hill
personal experiences


EDIT:
This affirmation phenomena is part of human existence. I'm sure everyone of us has experienced this sort of thing before to some degree. It's only a matter of leveraging this thing. The systems created around this phenomena is the source of religion and quacks. Chakras, crystals, purple colors, candle readings etc are all systems around this core idea to help people grasp onto something while working with this idea. Some people miss the point entirely believing that buying quakery will product these results, but a sucker is born every minute. don't need to buy anything, just for shits and giggles, try it out. It's good for at least a laugh.
 

Synapse

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Arguing the case for the existence of the effectiveness of affirmations is a very difficult one. I've been thinking about this for a while from an existential perspective. This phenomena exists at least in one iteration.

The thing about affirmations is not about submitting an order to the universe. As if you wanted the awesome life combo #2 with fries and a milk shake. The reason why this will not work is because the correct emotional content isn't there. For these affirmations to work, you must internally experience that result which you seek. Asking for rain will never work. Feeling the mud squish between your toes and hearing the drops his the ground is the emotional content that is necessary.

The second part of this is that after you have this subjective imaginary experience, it still doesn't summon the universe to rearrange itself around you to fulfill the order. What is actually does, is it alters your own world view and subjective experience to be ready or to be opportunistic to that result.

The real mechanics of this is simply one's preconception or perspective is altered. If you perceive a bad date, then you will probably have a bad date. If you perceive a quirky one, then you will probably have that too. When your mind is primed, or oriented in a certain way, you will pick up on these things and act upon them.

This is part of creating meaning for oneself. A human without any meaning whatsoever, is a dead duck. This meaning is essential to every human and it's created in two ways. One way is for the self to create these meaning via affirmations/habits, belief systems etc. The other way is for others to tell you what you are. Thomas Szasz is correct in saying "in the animal kingdom, the rule is to eat or be eaten. In the human kingdom, to define to be defined". Part this definition is meaning in life to which these affirmations helps not only to create, but also to flip the coin in favor of the self. For the self to define itself, not to be defined by external factors.

So then why do these affirmations need to have this emotional content? Because you won't remember anything if it had absolutely zero emotional impact on you. Did you notice that car blinker blinks at 60 blinks per minute? you saw, but you couldn't care less hence you don't remember it: it has fallen outside of your perception. Emotions are essential to memory as they are the filters between everything we sense, to what we remember. Emotions are also essential for long term memory.


Again, affirmations are not inputs for the universe to output. It's simply a very effective way to change your own perspective to be receptive to a desired result. Does it work? yes. Can I prove it to you? no and the reason why is that we cannot exchange or communicate our subjective experiences verbatim. We can only do it through virtual means like text and language.

The only way you'll every know if it works for you, is to try it for yourself. Make up your own damned mind, but don't knock it until you try it. Just like food. This is quanta and perhaps spirituality.


refs:
neuroplasticity
viktor frankl (man's search for meaning)
freud's talking cure
CBT/REBT Albert ellis
thomas szasz
sartre/nietche/heidigger/camus etc
buddist meditation, christian prayers
brian tracey's work
steven covey's work (7 habits book)
schopenhauer
philosophers on guilt (I forget the names)
Ramachandran on consciousness
various articles about amygdala and hippocampus changes under stress and depression
PTSD studies
heisenburg (his principle of observations alter results)
dabrowski's positive disintegration
neurological/fmri studies in emotive memory
MIT papers on AI based on emotive memory
harvard business review
few world banc studies in economics
fed reserve studies in incentives
various studies on lucky people/psychology
duncker's candle problem studies
prison experiments and studies
Think and Grow Rich - Napoleon Hill
personal experiences


EDIT:
This affirmation phenomena is part of human existence. I'm sure everyone of us has experienced this sort of thing before to some degree. It's only a matter of leveraging this thing. The systems created around this phenomena is the source of religion and quacks. Chakras, crystals, purple colors, candle readings etc are all systems around this core idea to help people grasp onto something while working with this idea. Some people miss the point entirely believing that buying quakery will product these results, but a sucker is born every minute. don't need to buy anything, just for shits and giggles, try it out. It's good for at least a laugh.

Sweet! that's what i'm talking about. are you sure your not NF, you seem to have a sound grasp of emotional association.
 

durentu

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Sweet! that's what i'm talking about. are you sure your not NF, you seem to have a sound grasp of emotional association.

phase 1: affirmation = "live life as INTP"
phase 2: affirmation = "live life as NT"
phase 3: affirmation = "live life as N"
phase 4: affirmation = "live life as... me"


I see MBTI as a great empowering thing, but I see that many people here still think that MBTI or one's personality cannot change, therefore it is destiny and fate, like genetics. But like genetics, it's important, but that's not the whole story. It's really genetics + epigenetics. It's really MBTI + belief system

EDIT:

You become what you think and feel most of the time. This knowledge has been known for thousands of years. Even 4000-5000 years in the indian culture. What is 'new age' is the products and services (gimmicks and quackeries) that are around in the last century. The best 'how to' book is Think and Grow Rich by napoleon hill. He spells it out pretty darn clear and you can find a copy of it free online.
 
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