JOYOUS, SPARKLING CONFIDENCE AND SELF-ESTEEM: MAGICAL AFFIRMATIONS AND VISUALIZATIONS

News from Denise and Summerhill Ranch:

After discovering that Denise wasn’t happy about him hanging around in the house, and after an unsuccessful attempt to hang out with the dogs, Mork, Denise’s resident rooster has finally found his “people” on the ranch – the goats!!  He goes walking with them in the morning and doesn’t mind that they nibble on his feathers.

What is visualization and what is an affirmation:

· An affirmation is something that you say, think or write over and over again, that affirms something you desire. 

· A visualization is where you use your imagination to literally visualize, to literally imagine, that truth or dream that you desire, as if it were so.

Why would you want to do visualizations:

· According to research done, mental practices of eg. a sport has the same value as the physical practice – simply visualizing it can develop the skill almost as much as doing it.  Studies regarding this include: 

· The same brain patterns in weight lifters who were actually lifting weights and those weight lifters who visualized themselves lifting weights

· An exercise psychologist from the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Ohio compared to groups of people – one group that went to the gym and the other group that visualized themselves exercising.  Both groups experienced increase in muscle strength and the latter group’s muscle strength remained for 3 months after the mental training! 

· In other studies, it has been shown that one can increase the blood flow to a particular part of the body simply by visualizing it.

· A man in prison for 9 years visualized himself playing a chess game in spite of the fact that he didn’t have a chess set or an opponent to play against.  Eventually, after he got out of prison, he beat the world chess champion!!

Using visualizations and affirmations together:

· When you use an affirmation together with the visualization, it deepens your ability to impact your body and your consciousness. 

· If you’re dealing with health issues, here is an affirmation – Denise uses it:  “I have legendary healing abilities!” 

· Visualizations and affirmations can increase your immune system. 

· But it’s not enough just to say it – your subconscious mind will not register it as a truth unless you feel it to be so.

Tips to step more into joyous, sparkling confidence:

· Start with an affirmation – think it, speak it and write it down.  Use an affirmation that works:  it has to be something that’s real and that your subconscious believes, eg. if your affirmation is “I’m a millionaire”, your subconscious doesn’t find that believable and sabotages you.  Instead of saying:  “I’m a confident person”, say:  “I’m becoming more and more confident”.  So you’re activating something that’s occurring now – whatever your confidence level, you’re becoming more and more confident.  Then think it, speak it and write it down.

· Be present with the affirmation every time you say it – you do this by changing the emphasis each time you say it, eg:

“I am becoming more and more confident.”

“I am becoming more and more confident.”

“I am becoming more and more confident.”

· Imagine it to be so; feel it to be so.  How would you hold your body if that were so?  How would you sit if you were really confident?  Scan your past – when in your life did you feel really confident?  Find that time, activate that memory.  Do the affirmation over and over, but really feel it each time.  It’s as if you’re creating a new path through the grasses of your mind and whenever your mind wants to go back to the old path, you’ve got to make this new path through the grasses of your mind, over and over – and let the grasses grow over the old path.

· Say the affirmation in the present tense, not in the future tense – the future never comes, it’s always in the future!  Use the present continuous tense:  “I am becoming more and more confident.” 

· Visualize what your life would look like if you were more confident.

· Use your emotions – there has to be an intensity to your affirmations; feel it!  Feel confident – feel how exciting it is to feel confident.

· If you apply all these techniques together, it works!

Denise’s Wisdom of the Week:

About goal-setting:  “Shift the focus from what you want to do to what you want to be; how you want to feel.  When you focus on how you want to be, how you want to feel, and how you want to experience life around you, the things you want to do and have start to flow out of that much more easily.  The more joy you activate, the easier it is to create the life you desire.”

Join the fun:

Denise has an additional Facebook page called:  Fabulous fun, funky factoids – join the Fun Factoid Family and share some fun factoids if you know some!!

The link is:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Denise-Linn-Fabulous-Fun-Funky-Factoids/323311001034897?sk=wall