Rewriting Affirmations

Overcome Internal Barriers and Working with Affirmations

The benefits of affirmations are vast. Affirmations are uplifting statements which allow you to choose your direction of growth and/or change. You may pick and choose those that fit and feel comfortable. When you sense you negative feelings about an affirmation that you really desire to align yourself with, begin by rewording the affirmation.

If, for example, I was working on conquering an issue and one of the affirmations is “I am worthy” but I don’t feel worthy, my body would likely signal me, in a tense, apprehensive feelings. And if you were working on money affirmations with statements like “I deserve financial abundance” “I handle money wisely” but those statements are not true to your heart, the best way to overcome and break through this money barrier is to listen to your internal reactions and rephrase the statements to be softer until your body has no negative reaction.

How do you phrase an affirmation softer?

The best way for me to help you phrase affirmations that are less powerful is to show you by examples. First, affirmations should always be kept positive and in the present tense. With that in mind, let’s use the examples to illustrate how to reword an affirmation. By maneuvering around issues your mind resists, you are able to leap into new beliefs.

Let’s use the examples we have been working with:

1. I Handle Money Wisely


2. Deserve Financial Abundance


3. I Am Worthy

1. I Handle Money Wisely, could become

• My ability to handle money wisely increases daily


• I am now wiser at handling money


• My desire and intent is to wisely handle money


• My decisions about money are easily and wisely made

2. I Deserve Financial Abundance, could become

• My beliefs are transforming, I can now say it is my intent to feel deserving of financial abundance


• Each day I feel more and more deserving of financial abundance


• Without knowing how or why, I am deserving of Financial Abundance


• The universe knows I am worthy of financial abundance

3. I Am Worthy, could become

• Each day I allow myself to feel more and more worthy


• Self worth is important to me


• I am worthy of _____ (find something that resonates with your core)


• I am entitled to claim my self-worth


• I am working to be the best me I can, of this I am worthy


• I welcome true self-worth

Can you hear the difference between 1) “I handle money wisely” and 2) “I am now wiser about handling money”? Can you feel the difference? Do not stay with affirmation number two for too long. Your objective should be for new growth and to step into a new thought pattern. As soon as you can, start slipping the stronger affirmations into your daily list. You can use both until you can release the softer affirmation.

Common mistakes of wording affirmations

Some of the common mistakes when creating affirmations are to put them in a negative perspective or a future tense.

For example:

• I will try to be more positive


• I do not smoke


• I never think bad thoughts

All three of these examples are poorly written. To say “I will try” anything means you have not yet done it. If you keep repeating phrases like this to yourself, you will not likely accomplish what you desire. When you tell yourself anything in a negative term such as “I do not…” the subconscious self eliminates the negative and focuses on the thing. So if you say “I do not fall down” all the subconscious hears is “I fall down.”

Try this; say “I don’t want ice cream.” Now tell me, what are you thinking about? Not wanting? Or are you thinking about ice cream? I hope you get the point.

As you work with affirmations that you can internally agree with, you will find that in time, your internal resistance will lessen. Keep checking back with the stronger affirmation to see if you are able to use it. And you may even choose to put both affirmations in your daily mantra, the softer one with the stronger one until you are able to let the softer affirmation go.