Conventional Affirmations Do Not Work!

Often when people think about the subconscious mind, images of a mysterious subterranean landscape shrouded in an inky, impenetrable darkness seems to pop up. In that darkness lurks all darkest secrets and desires. It also contains a great spiritual light and wisdom we are all trying to tap into.

All that is true, but I would like to say that it is probably not as mysterious as it may appear. To reinforce the notion that it is too mysterious to understand will perpetuate the lack of understanding further and lead people to believe that they can't really do anything about their bad habits and thoughts. The subconscious mind has a practical and positive purpose.Ironically, it is this positive purpose that is the reason why conventional affirmations do not work.

The self help movement in many ways was built upon the use of affirmations such as the now famous or infamous " everyday in every way I'm getting better and better". So for me to say they don't work has caused an uproar. When I mention this to people they look at me like I just threw innocent puppies in front of a speeding train.

Most books on the topic of affirmations recommend repeating affirmations as often as possible to create change, but sadly this fails more often than it works. Why is this so? The affirmation is bumping up against an entrenched and ingrained pattern of belief or behavior. You have probably used affirmations and visualization to reprogram your mind and have failed to see the results you were expecting. I have experienced the same thing It simply doesn't work as easily as all these books state it does.

We develop ingrained patterns of belief and behaviors because we constantly reinforce them. Since the mind loves repetition and loves creating habits, it doesn't matter what you reinforce. If you reinforce a good thought or behavior or bad ones, the mind will make it a habit. It does this to make your life easier. I know that sounds funny but think about all your day-to-day habits like brushing your teeth, taking a shower etc. You have done these so many times ( Well, I hope so) that they have become a habit. Habits are short cuts created by the brain so you don't have to consciously think about every action you do. After awhile they truly become "second nature". As they say, ' old habits die hard'. After a habit or a negative habit (addiction) is reinforced it, will take some work to extinguish it. Remember, the mind created this habit because you reinforced the thought and behavior, it thinks it is doing you a favor. It figures " If he/she is constantly doing and thinking this, let me make it easier for them". It's for this reason affirmations won't be enough.

If you have an ingrained habit and all you have been doing is reinforcing it the subconscious mind will invalidate all those affirmations because it has no proof that those old habits should be abandoned. Chanting affirmations alone is not considered proof. The subconscious mind needs a bit more. For example, If you replace sitting on the couch eating ice-cream with running for a few weeks and then start saying "I am a great runner", then the subconscious mind will most likely be receptive to that, but if you say that BEFORE you start running I can assure you the affirmation will not work. Sure, at first you will get a boost of energy, but that will wear away and before you know it you'll be back on the couch eating a tub of ice cream and watching the latest reality TV show.

You cannot lie to your subconscious mind. So affirmations in essence are a lie and your subconscious mind will hunker down in the presence of them and self sabotage will just happen with ease.

So what does work? Two things.

• Taking Action
• Switchwords

Taking action is self evident, if you take enough action that is opposite of your bad habit eventually that will develop into a habit and your old one will be extinguished. But if you are like me, sometimes it is very hard to take positive action all the time. Since it is not a habit yet, it can take quite a bit of energy. So in order to make it work you need to bypass the subconscious resistance that is making it so hard.

Notice I said BYPASS, not reprogram. Reprogramming eventually becomes a result of bypassing the subconscious resistance. Luckily, there is a way to bypass the subconscious resistance so you can create better habits. It's something not many people have heard about. The way to bypass the resistance is through a modality called "SWITCHWORDS".

I stumbled upon Switchwords by "accident". I was going through a really dark moment in life. I had negative emotional habits that caused me a lot of pain. This was a bitterly painful time. I forgot what exact search term I was using on Google, but somehow I was guided to Switchwords. I have read thousands of books in the self help and spiritual genres and thought I had pretty much seen it all. Nothing new and innovative was coming out and despite having a brain full of transformative tools; I felt I was missing a piece of the puzzle. I was very frustrated because I wasn't able to get the results I wanted from my subconscious mind and it was certainly not for the lack of trying. Something was missing and I needed a boost and I needed it fast. It was at that low point when Switchwords appeared. I have never heard of them before and doing a search I could see that it wasn't showing up like the other methods that saturate the internet with millions of search results such as "manifestation" or "the law of attraction".

Switchwords were created or shall I say discovered by an eccentric man named James T. Mangan. In his book "The Secret of Perfect Living" he states that the subconscious mind has several "switches" that when flipped, can result in certain outcomes.

These switches are certain words or a combinations of words. In many ways they are one-word affirmations or a string of one word affirmations, unlike sentences, or affirmations like "I am wonderful just as I am " they don't make sense in the conventional sense of the word. The conventional affirmations contain statements that your subconscious does not believe is true as I stated above. Switchwords, however, bypass the "interpretive" aspect of your mind and engage the subconscious mind directly thus making the result automatic. This is vital because if your communications with the subconscious mind are drawn out like traditional affirmations, you are giving the subconscious mind the opportunity to cancel those affirmation and dig in, thus making change harder. With Switchwords, it is a switch, there is no opportunity for the subconscious mind to block or interpret it. It simply switches the state on.

The beauty of using Switchwords is that you don't need to believe they will work in order for them to. It's like gravity, you can say it doesn't exist until you are blue in the face but it will work on you regardless of whether you believe in it or not. This is another reason why Switchwords are more effective than traditional affirmations; there is no belief involved.

I know I am sounding like a broken record here but it is very important to keep this in mind. With conventional affirmations you are told to believe the affirmation is true. I don't know about you, but it was VERY hard for me to believe that " I am perfect as I am and I have unlimited money in the bank". As I mentioned earlier, the subconscious will kick that idea out and may even entrench the opposite of that affirmation even deeper. In this way, conventional affirmations can be dangerous.

It is no wonder why so many people seem to get worse after using the Law of Attraction in the conventional way. They are fighting an entrenched force the wrong way... in this case, less is more my friend.