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An affirmation is a statement of Truth. Not true in the sense of a fact, such as there are millions of active cells in my body. True in the sense of a principle, such as I am healthy. In my spiritual upbringing I learned that an affirmation is a statement about the essence of who you are as a child of God. That definition makes many assumptions. First, it assumes that you believe that you are a child of God. It also assumes that you believe that as a child of God you are the essence of God. Further, it assumes that you believe that the nature of God is all good.

But what do you do when none of these assumptions hold true for you? Can you still use affirmations for your benefit? The answer is a resounding YES. You can use an affirmation to reinforce what is true for you, positively or negatively.

I used to say the affirmation, “I am healthy.” From my upbringing, I knew intellectually that it was true. I happen to buy into the philosophy that says that I am a child of God and as such I inherit all that God is. Certainly, God is healthy, therefore I am healthy. However, my experience told a different story. One day after an invigorating walk I would feel vital and alive. Next day I would walk into the doctor’s office and learn that I had high cholesterol. High cholesterol is certainly not indicative of someone is healthy. That’s when I decided to take a look at the truth about affirmations.

I could say to myself all day long until I was blue in the face, “I am healthy,” but I didn’t believe that it was true for me. As a result it set up in my mind conflicting beliefs. I would take one step in the direction of the affirmation, the two steps away. Spiritual teachers explain this by saying that the affirmation is still true anyway because the Truth about my nature has not changed. However, this affirmation was causing me more harm than good. After a while, I started to beat myself up over it. It became ineffective.

Here’s what I came up with. The Truth about affirmations is that they work for you when you believe them. You can work on your belief or change the affirmation to more closely resemble what is true for you. I took the latter approach. I changed my affirmation about health to: I am healthy. As I attain and maintain my ideal weight, I eat conciously. I nourish my body with healthy, tasty food, and fun, invigorating exercise. This statement is more in alignment with what I believe to be true. It affirms what I am doing and it affirms who I am. With this revised statement, my experience comes into alignment with my beliefs and vice versa. Even though, what I am experiencing is still not an exact replica of the statement, I can believe it. That belief ignites a reaction that creates more moments to support the statement which in turn fuels my belief. The reaction builds momentum exponentially. My belief, statement, and actions (thoughts, words, and deeds) are working with each other to support a life change. The affirmation is effective.