Conventional Affirmations Entrench Denial

Denial is not just a river in Egypt

As "humorous" as that saying is, denial is no joke. Denial is the number one characteristic addicts display when confronted about their addictions. " I am not addicted, I can control it" or " I don't have a drinking problem, I just like to relax at night with a drink". These are all forms of denial. Denial of course can be used as a defense mechanism for almost anything. Addiction is not the only condition where denial is used. If you or someone you love doesn't want to face the fact about whatever the situation is, then that is denial in its purest form as well.

Denial in the dictionary is defined as the "denial in the existence or reality of a thing or event". In essence, denial is a false belief about reality and who you are in the context of that reality. An addict does not see him or herself as an addict, when in fact, they are. As I studied the denial phenomena further, I found that denial had an almost exact definitional match with another word. Ill define the word first before I tell you what it is. " False beliefs about what is taking place or who one is". Sounds like denial right? Well, it's also a working definition of the word PSYCHOSIS.

Yeah, psychosis! When I realized this I shuttered. Now before you get alarmed and think you are psychotic in the way we are used to considering psychotic to be, let me assure you, you aren't. Let me explain. Although denial and psychosis share many definitional similarities and one condition can be found in the other, they differ in a very critical way.

Denial, like psychosis, displays itself as a disconnection from reality. However, in the usual portrayal of denial the situation that is being denied is repressed and avoided at all costs or at least until it creates an unmanageable situation.

In psychosis, however, the denial symptom is there BUT this denial is then transformed into a downright disavowal of reality and is overtaken by a brand new reality. This is why some people who suffer from Delusional psychosis think that they can fly etc. This symptom is not found in the standard run of the mill denial that takes place in our lives on a daily basis. " I am not an alcoholic" is quite different from " I am a Pegasus". Alcoholism can be managed, but you will never become a Pegasus... Sorry, maybe in your next life...

How can affirmations entrench denial?

Affirmations, as the self-help community has defined them are carefully formatted statements that are to be repeated to one's self or written down and that with enough repetition will create a reality that is in alignment with those statements. Such as " I have unlimited wealth and abundance in my life" if said with repetition and feeling is expected to transform your life so, well, you will have unlimited wealth and abundance in your life.

The problem is, it doesn't work that way, it's for this reason more people than not have complained that affirmations did not work for them. This of course is explained away by gurus as being the fault of the person saying the affirmations, " You didn't do it with enough feeling" or " You didn't believe it was true". Well, sorry to bust your bubble but IT ISNT TRUE and you can't convince your subconscious that it is. Your life circumstances are to entrenched for it to disappear by just saying a few affirmations. I cover more about this in my article " Traditional affirmations do not work". As I stated in that article, the subconscious mind will kick out those affirmations because it is bumping up against an ingrained pattern of belief or action.

Stating Affirmations that are contrary to your true reality can cause a great deal of harm because your subconscious mind is a habit generating mechanism and because habits are essentially your subconscious minds "favor" to you to make whatever repetitive action easier ( good or bad) it will fight any information that will short circuit the habit. That's why they say " Old habits die hard". Your subconscious mind will hunker down.

Affirmations like those above will foster denial and keep you paralyzed. The belief that these affirmations will help you, keep you stuck in the same rut because you will be looking for changes to occur instead of making them happen. This will continue to foster denial and denial fosters inaction.

There are, however, words that do help and those are called Switchwords. How they work exactly is not clear, but it is clear they bypass the interpretive mechanism of the subconscious mind enough to entrench NEW, POSITIVE habits and thoughts. They do not seem to cause the subconscious mind to hunker down with old habits.

Switchwords were discovered by a very colorful 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. Thus the name "Switchwords".

These words are single words and are often found in various combinations. Unlike the traditional affirmation statement such as "I am wonderful just as I am " which is clearly defined. Switchwords don't make sense in the conventional sense of the word. The traditional affirmation contains statements that your subconscious does not believe is true as I stated earlier. Switchwords, by bypassing the "interpretive" aspect of your mind engages the subconscious mind directly, thus making the desired result a bit more automatic. Trying to communicate with the subconscious mind in a drawn out manner like traditional affirmations do, you are giving the subconscious mind the opportunity to cancel those affirmations and hunker down, thus making change harder. Switchwords, gives 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.You can't say that for conventional affirmations.