Join Me in Exploring Affirmations and Visualizations

Welcome to my Affirmations and Visualizations for Success blog! My name is Jennifer Shepherd, and I'm also known as The Lipstick Mystic. You may have read one of my syndicated astrology or spirituality columns in newspapers or in magazines across the U.S. Or you may have seen me doing some ghostbusting on TV shows like the Sci-Fi Channel's Sightings or Fox TV's Real Scary Stories.

I used to have a full-time psychic counselling practice, and I turned up on a lot of radio stations giving my on air predictions about everything from celebrities' love lives to my pick for the next team to win the SuperBowl.

Confession: I was always wrong about the SuperBowl. I soon learned that in order to make accurate psychic predictions about something, you have to have an affinity for the subject. I attended my first football game just a year ago, so I can't say I "get" the game very much!

Now I write and teach full-time on spirituality subjects and I also run a bunch of funky websites on different topics. In this blog I'll be sharing my own personal stories and cool anecdotes from others around the world on the subject of affirmations and how they work. We'll also be looking at how they don't work. Feel free to offer comments in the comments section and to share your own questions or personal stories about working with affirmations in your own life.

In short, an affirmation is a conscious attempt to use words and language to "reprogram" the brain and to rewire human consciousness. It goes a little deeper than mere hypnotism, which can be used to do everything from stopping smoking to losing weight.

Affirmations penetrate on an almost mystical level, and they truly can shift not just our conscious thoughts, but they also have the ability to shift our "vibration" and change what we start to manifest in our daily lives.

"Vibration" is a term that is often misused, so don't be scared about it. You might have heard a hippie dippie New Age healer type talk about "shifting your vibration" or "ascending to the next level." Chances are that this same healer was also packing his bags waiting for the next ship full of ET's to beam him up. I'm not talking about that.

When matter is analyzed down to the most microscopic level, quantum physicists have discovered that these subatomic particles are in constant motion. Another word for this movement is vibration.

Sound healing with the use of instruments like Tibetan bowls, shamanic drums, or other musical tools can actually shift this vibratory rate, changing the way our bodies feel.

The messages we tell ourselves each day also have a big affect on this vibration. Negative self-talk has been proven through muscle testing to decrease the strength of our bodies and to slow down our reaction time. So sports medicine has come to incorporate a lot more of a mind/body/spirit approach because these techniques enhance an athlete's performance so beautifully.

Basically, when you're telling yourself you're no good, you won't be any good.

When you tell yourself you're good, you'll be good.

Now, we all have a bunch of stuff going through our heads. In this world of multi-tasking, our brains have become like Grand Central Station. So many thoughts are headed into the station at the same time. Others are leaving. Some get diverted, interupted, and thrown off track. If you've ever been in the middle of a conversation and suddenly forgotten what you were talking about, you know what I mean. It's like your thought was derailed. The brain is so busy doing so much stuff that it's easy to get off track.

The use of affirmations is just one technique that can allow us to take charge of the brain and start rewiring how mental processes operate. And affirmations can also soak into the subconscious level, shifting the "tone" of how we feel about life and even reprogramming us to become more successful in all aspects of our lives.

Of course, the undisciplined part of our brain likes to resist. So affirmations need periodic tweaking, experimenting, and innovation as we discover these resistance points or "psychic tripwires" within the mind and subconscious.

Let me leave you with an affirmation for you to experiment with. In my work as a healer with individuals from around the world, I often compare notes on cool affirmations that people seem to be having great success with. And sometimes I will "download" affirmation tips from my own higher guidance. This blog will be a place to share some of these. I encourage you to experiment with them, offer feedback in the comments section, and see how you feel, what happens, etc. Think of this blog as a school for affirmations, and we're all part of the teaching staff. Let's focus on figuring out what works, what doesn't work, and some of the potential reasons why.

This is an affirmation I've been working with to replace my multiple daily cups of coffee. I've become a little too used to that caffeine lift and notice that my energy really drags when I get off the coffee.

This affirmation is designed to help you to increase your natural energy levels. It's phrased as being in the present because affirmations are more powerful if we assert them in the NOW instead of in the future.

"My energy is vibrant, clear, and happy. I have unlimited energy."

Experiment with this and let me know how you do with it. Don't judge yourself if you encounter resistance. Simply observe, notice, and keep experimenting with it. Take note of any shifts or changes as you work with it. You can combine this with visualization (picturing positive imagery or colors in your mind's eye.) And you can use sound, too. Usually, to truly retrain the brain, it's good to incorporate sound, color, and language.

There's a wonderful brain researcher from Australia named Jeff Staniforth who has spent years developing a special software program that incorporates all these things. It's a desktop application that allows you to schedule ten minute increments where you display a positive image of your choice on your computer, play peaceful sounds that you select, and work with typing in and looking at various affirmations. You can choose to focus on any area of your life that needs work and the software will guide you through a ten day "mini-program" where you will focus on that particular area of your life, using affirmations to shift your consciousness around that thing. It's powerful stuff. If you're a geek like me and you enjoy doing stuff on the computer, you'll love it. If you're a bit less tech-friendly and don't like being in front of your computer much, this might not be the best tool to aid you with learning more about affirmations. But you can read about it and see some of the cool testimonials and articles at Jeff's site.

Sculptor3 - Powerful Affirmation Software to Change Your Life

Affirmations Today