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Today’s Hashimoment: Making Affirmations Work For You
I have a confession to make. I tend to be rather obsessive. Lately, I’ve been obsessing about how to make affirmations work if you suffer from low self esteem.
Let’s face it, Hashimoto’s can definitely impact your self-esteem because it can affect the way you look and feel and it can deplete you of the energy to do something about it.
Do You Believe What You Are Telling Yourself?
I think the issue here may be one of believing what you say to yourself. Sometimes, we say an affirmation and we believe it and it resonates. Other times we say something and a louder inner voice shouts it down and tells you its not true or its a bunch of baloney (not my first choice of words).
So, I pondered obsessively, how can we use some internal tai chi move to quiet that inner voice and get ourselves to believe the affirmation long enough to make it work?
EFT to the Rescue
EFT. EFT or Emotional Freedom Technique can be a powerful tool to get the negative emotions out of your body even if that inner voice is drowning out the good stuff. EFT uses acupuncture points to help you access emotions held in your body.
Dr. Candace Pert is a researcher and really smart person who wrote a great book called Molecules of Emotion that explores that mind-body connection. For me the book was basically saying that the body is the subconscious mind. Your emotions get buried in your cells.
You can use EFT to unbury them. There is a place you can tap right below your pinky finger on either hand.If you trace the outside of your pinky down to the bottom, there is a bone there. Continue down to the bottom of that and there is a tender spot. It’s where you might do a karate chop.
Tap your way to hap, hap, happiness!
In this photo, I permanently disfigured myself with a Sharpie to show you the exact spot.
You can say an affirmation like “I deeply and completely love and accept myself” or “I completely forgive myself” while you are tapping this point.
As you do it check in with your inner voice, if you here the screams from the inner peanut gallery, don’t fight them.
Acknowledge them, and say “Even though I think this is total crap ( or whatever word comes to mind), I deeply and completely love and accept myself.” or words that resonate for you.
And observe how you feel. Often with repetition and determination, you can take the sting out of that negative self talk and start to replace those neural pathways with more positive self talk that you start to believe.
Or Try This
Social psychologist, Amy Cuddy, explains in this TED Talk how to use physical postures to change the way you feel about yourself, as well as how others feel about you.
By spending just two minutes “power posing” with their arms or elbows out, their chin lifted and their posture expansive. (Think Superman or Wonder Woman).
Cuddy’s research, done in collaboration with Dana Carney, has shown that adopting the body language associated with dominance for just 120 seconds is enough to create a 20 percent increase in testosterone and a 25 percent decrease in the stress hormone cortisol.
In other words, adopting these postures makes a person feel more powerful.
It also makes you feel more positive and happy. Do it with a smile and see what I mean!
Another positive pose is the “victory pose” that most athletes do naturally. Arms raised above your head in a “V”, legs spread wide.
I’m doing them all day long! What makes you feel more powerless than Hashimoto’s?
No longer, people!
To learn more, check out this article:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amy-cuddy/body-language_b_2451277.html
Please share your obsessive insights about making positive changes in your life.
