Affirmations are a popular tool to transform your mindset and work with the law of attraction to manifest your biggest dreams!
But what do you do if affirmations just don’t seem to be working for you?!
Well, that’s where you need to learn how to make affirmations work faster, of course.
Truth is, many people go about using affirmations to manifest all wrong, and that’s why they’re not getting the results they desire in the time that they desire.
Sound familiar? Fear not if this is you, because there are things that you can do to make affirmations more powerful and make them work faster. With just a few little tweaks to your practice.
After reading this post you’ll know all the reasons why affirmations haven’t worked for you so far, as well as how to make affirmations work faster for you so that you don’t have to keep waiting around for your desires!
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What are positive affirmations?
Before we dig into the good stuff we need to cover the basics – what are positive affirmations?
Positive affirmations are statements that are designed to work with your mind and the universe to make your desires your reality.
These empowering statements help you to embody what you want to become so you can stop wishing and start making it happen!
Positive affirmations are a fun and easy way to work with the law of attraction, while also helping you to shift a negative mindset and tune into your own positivity and confidence instead!
But of course, to actually get results from using positive affirmations you have to know how to use them properly – which is what this post is all about, right?
How do affirmations work?
So how do positive affirmations actually work?
Well… if we’re working with the law of attraction, positive affirmations work because they help us get in alignment with what we’re trying to attract.
By using present tense statements about what we’re trying to attract in the future, we are able to actively visualise and access the feelings that we would have if we already had this desire. This is absolutely essential to manifesting your desires!
For example, if you’re trying to manifest money and abundance, using an affirmation like “I am a money magnet” can help you to tune into those feelings of abundance prior to manifesting.
Once you are in alignment with your desire in this way, the universe responds by granting you it!
Beyond this, positive affirmations are simply amazing for shifting your mindset and feeling more empowered and confident to conquer your goals!
I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase “fake it ‘til you make it”. Well, while we’re not strictly faking anything with affirmations, they do help us to embody our best self so that we can start to naturally shift there more often.
The more you tell yourself you are confident and capable, the more you will start to feel confident and capable.
This is because, as clever as our brains are, they don’t actually know the difference between a true or untrue statement, so long as we’re tuning into the feelings associated with it (that last part is important, so more on that later).
So it’s in your best interest to practice positive affirmations because, while they may feel like a lie in the very beginning, they’ll soon become your reality if you stay consistent!
Related post: 100 Self Love Affirmations to Build Your Self Esteem
How to make powerful affirmations
Before we get onto how to make your affirmations work faster, let’s first cover how to make powerful affirmations to work with in the first place.
Because creating affirmations isn’t a complex process, but it is one you should get right.
Without powerful affirmations that have potential, you’re not going to find success in making them work faster for you.
But with the right method you can learn how to make affirmations more powerful each and every time you come to use them.
Thankfully, I have a handy little formula that you can use to create powerful affirmations each and every time!
When creating your affirmations, check in with the following criteria to make sure that they’re as powerful as possible:
- Create affirmations in the present tense
- Choose something that excites you/resonates with you
- Be specific
- Make it memorable
- Express gratitude
- Say how it makes you feel
We’ll talk about each of these steps in more detail below, but first it might also help to see an example of the kind of affirmation that isn’t powerful…
A weak affirmation: “I will be rich”
Let’s examine this affirmation for a minute.
When you hear this affirmation, do you feel truly inspired? Does it feel like this could be your reality?
I know that this affirmation definitely doesn’t cut it for me, and I’d be surprised if it does for you!
Now let’s look at an example of a powerful affirmation instead…
A powerful affirmation: “I am so grateful and excited to have $10,000 in my bank account”
See the difference?
This second affirmation has a lot more power and is much more likely to provoke the feelings that are necessary for the law of attraction to work in your favour!
Related: Positive Affirmations for Anxiety Disorders
Why affirmations don’t work for you
But what if you’re following all the right rules for creating powerful affirmations and you still feel defeated?
Well, there’s more to working with affirmations than just the affirmation itself, right?
If you’ve ever found yourself saying the words “affirmations don’t work for me”, here are some common reasons why they might not be working for you currently.
(but don’t sweat it, because we’ll be getting onto how to make affirmations work faster for you soon!)
1. You don’t have a committed routine
Reason no.1 why affirmations may not be working for you is not having a committed routine with them.
With any practice, consistency is key.
You really can’t expect to use affirmations once or twice and for that to be enough for them to work – that’s just not how they work.
When we’re working with the law of attraction, we need to prove that we’re committed to our goals and desires.
Showing up daily and fully committing to what we want shows that we’re dedicated and ready to make things happen.
Affirmations should be a part of your daily routine to really have a positive benefit. This is how they become an ingrained part of your subconscious and can really become your reality.
Try attaching your affirmation practice to another part of your routine to try and make it stick.
For example, you might say affirmations in the shower or while you’re cooking dinner. The great thing about an affirmation practice is that you don’t even have to set aside any time, you can practice them whenever!
Law of attraction aside, a committed affirmation practice actually has benefits on a neurological level too.
Neuroplasticity describes our brain’s ability to create and reinforce new neural pathways the more we activate them. This means that regularly practicing affirmations literally helps to reinforce these positive beliefs in our mind!
2. You’re focusing on the negative
Another reason why your affirmations may not be working is because you’re focusing on the negative.
They’re called positive affirmations for a reason! We always want to be focusing on what we do want, not on what we don’t want when using affirmations.
So if you want to get out of debt, what you don’t want to do is focus on not wanting to be in debt.
Instead, you want to focus on paying off that debt – this is what will get you the result you want!
If you find yourself negatively inclined, try reframing your thoughts and affirmations to focus on the positives instead. Trust me when I say you’ll notice the difference!
3. You don’t believe in their power
Struggling to believe in the power of affirmations? I feel you, but you could be standing in your own way if this is the case.
You could create the most powerful affirmation in the world, but if you have an underlying lack of belief in its power then the sad truth is you’re not going to see results.
Any form of doubt is going to send out negative energy and you’re not going to get the result you want.
This lack of belief and doubt can be hard to shift, but it can be done!
Try testing out affirmations and the law of attraction using small things and work your way up to gain trust in its power. By the time you want to manifest something big, you’ll know that it is absolutely possible!
Another tip is to read law of attraction success stories. Though try to read them with enthusiasm and excitement for other people, rather than approaching them with cynicism!
4. You’re not practicing feeling
Words aren’t necessarily what carry the energy you’re putting out, it’s the feeling behind the words that have the power.
If you’re just repeating statements with no real emotion behind them, they’re not going to carry any power and they’re not going to manifest.
We’ll go into more detail on the importance of practicing feeling shortly!
How long do affirmations take to work?
So you know what’s potentially standing in your way when it comes to affirmations working (or maybe you’ve got these things covered already. In which case I’m giving you a virtual high five.)
But now you want to know the answer to the question on everybody’s lips – how long does it take for affirmations to work?
And as much as you want to know the answer to this question, I have to break it to you that there is no real answer.
There are so many factors that influence the power of affirmations and the law of attraction that I couldn’t possibly give a quantified timescale for them to work by, as much as I’d love to give you one.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t have your own goals or timescales to work towards!
So if you have set yourself a timescale to manifest by but you’re not seeing the results you expected in this time, it’s probably time to start looking at how to make affirmations work faster.
Because, while there is no set time that affirmations take to work, there are definitely some steps you can take to make affirmations work faster than you might currently be used to!
Related: the 17 Second Rule to Manifest Your Dreams
How to Make Affirmations Work Faster
Hopefully by this point in the post you should have a pretty good understanding of how to make affirmations more powerful, as well as any mistakes you might have been making in your affirmation practice thus far.
So if you’re ready to learn how to make affirmations work faster, I’m about to share 8 tips for you to do just that!
Follow these tips for how to make affirmations work faster and you’ll see quicker results from your affirmation practice, no matter what you’re trying to manifest.
1. Be specific
For affirmations to work fast, they need to be specific. Remember, the universe likes details!
If you’re trying to manifest money, how much money are you actually trying to manifest? $5 or $5000?
It’s not enough to just say you want money – this is way too vague and you’re probably unlikely to manifest anywhere near the figure you actually have in mind.
Declaring an actual figure provides the clarity that you need to progress forward, and improves your chances of manifesting it more quickly.
So to make you affirmations work faster, make them as specific and measurable as possible!
2. Don’t overload yourself
A common mistake people make when working with affirmations is trying to work with too many at once.
And then they get frustrated because none of them are working, at least in the time that they’d like them to.
I get it, it can be exciting when you’re getting started with the law of attraction and you can’t wait to manifest all of these things. But, trust me when I say it’s best to take things one step at a time!
When you focus on just one thing you can direct all your energy towards it, making it that much more powerful.
In contrast, when you’re trying to work with lots of different manifestations you’re splitting your energy apart in multiple directions and you’re not truly committed to any of them!
This is making the whole process a lot slower, trust me.
Instead, work on one thing and dedicate your full energy to it, and when you start to see results move onto the next.
Over time you’ll find that you get into a bit of a flow state and it feels effortless to manifest one thing after the other, and much more quickly than when you’re spreading your energy too thin!
3. Be committed
As I said before, commitment is key!
If you’re not going to fully commit to your affirmation practice, that’s as good as not bothering at all. It might sound harsh, but it’s true.
Show up daily and make affirmations a part of your routine.
Even if it’s just a minute a day. This consistency adds up and gets the ball rolling which will mean your affirmations working much faster.
Show yourself and the universe that you are dedicated to making your dreams come true, and they’ll come to you much quicker!
4. Keep it simple and memorable
Sometimes we get so caught up in creating a powerful affirmation that we forget the importance of keeping things simple.
Sure, there are certain elements that are helpful to include, but not at the expense of actually being able to remember the affirmation!
If you’re creating a twenty word long affirmation that you struggle to recall from memory, this isn’t going to help you. You need something short enough that it is easily able to stick in your mind!
The ability for your conscious mind to remember the affirmation is what’s going to help it take hold in your unconscious mind, even when you’re not actively reciting it.
So when you’re creating your affirmations, practice reading them and see which ones seem most likely to stick.
Get rid of any affirmations that don’t feel right and only work with the ones that do!
5. Say your affirmations out loud
While you don’t have to say your affirmations out loud, doing so can definitely help to increase their power and make them work faster.
Actively voicing them will help make the words feel that much more real than just saying them in your mindspace.
By speaking your affirmations aloud you are putting the energy out into the universe with conviction, rather than shying away from saying the words. These are two very different energies.
It might feel unnatural at first, but once you get past that awkward barrier you’ll start to tune into the confident side of yourself. This is the side of yourself that is going to make stuff happen!
At the very least, write your affirmations down with a pen. Doing so puts them in a permanent space, which also increases their power compared to just saying them in your mind space.
You might choose to use the 5×55 method to make them work even faster this way!
6. Practice visualisation
Visualisation is a great tool to work with the law of attraction and can definitely be used to make your affirmations work faster.
Creating a visual image of your desired reality is much more powerful than your words alone.
The problem many people make when reciting affirmations is that they’re not actually visualising what the words represent, which can make them fall flat.
Next time you speak your affirmations, try to visualise what you’re speaking as if it were true.
Visualising your affirmations in this way automatically puts more energy behind your words, while also giving you a clearer image of what you are working towards so that you can start taking action.
7. Use “I am” statements
When we look at the key criteria for successful affirmations, the first point on the list is to create your affirmations in the present tense!
So when we look at “I will” vs “I am” affirmations, it is clear which are more powerful.
While you may think that claiming you “will” do something means you are committing to making it happen, it actually makes you further away from achieving it.
That’s because “I will” is based in the future, so every time you exclaim this you’re keeping your desire in the future.
You’re always going to be that one step away from it, because you never see it as your current reality.
If you want to make your affirmations work faster, you should always use “I am” statements.
Not only do I am statements sound more powerful, thus making you feel more confident, but they put your manifestation in the present tense which is exactly where you want it to be!
Though it might feel strange to say something that isn’t technically true yet, you can rest assured that if you use affirmations in this way then it soon will be!
8. Tune into your feelings
As I mentioned previously, a common mistake that people make with affirmations is not tuning into the feeling and the energy of them.
Remember, it’s not your words that carry the energy of your manifestation, but the feelings behind the words!
If you want to make your affirmations work faster, you must practice tuning into your feelings while speaking them.
A good way to do this is to ask yourself how you would expect to feel if you actually had your desire right now.
For example, if you had your dream job you might expect to feel proud, accomplished and successful.
While these emotions might not be your resting state currently, tune into these feelings and practice seeing what it’s like to live in this experience as you recite your affirmations.
We don’t just want to speak our affirmations, we want to feel our affirmations! This is the right way to practice and the only way to get you results, so don’t compromise on this!
And there you have it, those are my 8 tips on how to make affirmations work faster, no matter what you’re trying to manifest.
Try the above tips on how to make affirmations work faster, combined with setting powerful affirmations and you’ll definitely notice a difference in the speed that you manifest.
Which of these tips will you be trying?
Liked this post on how to make affirmations work faster? Check out these related posts:
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- 50 Soulmate Affirmations to Attract Your Soulmate
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Esther is the founder of Through the Phases, a wellbeing and healthy lifestyle blog dedicated to sharing mind/body/soul practices for self-exploration, healing, and fulfilment. She has a degree in Psychology, is yoga teacher trained (200hr), and is currently pursuing a Neuroscience MSc to further study the mind-body connection. Read more about her story here.