I read something yesterday that caught my attention. This morning I woke up to the realization that what I read could be very helpful in understanding that “mental chatter” that runs in my head.
Being a sharing kind of person, I’m sharing it with you!
Noah St. John coined a new word called afformations. You can search him out on the internet – he’s all over it! Afformations. I heard the word, but I didn’t really take time to go see what he meant until I got an article yesterday that outlined it.
(There’s a reason this website is called “Jet Keeps It Simple.” I LIKE Simple!)
What he does is take a statement and turn it into a question. He says that when you turn an affirmation into a question – what he calls an afformation – your mind goes looking for a positive answer to the question. I like that!
What questions do is invite a dialogue. When you say something to someone, they may or may not respond to you. When you ask someone a question, usually you get an answer.
Attorneys and moms have learned that how you phrase a question very often influences the answer you’re going to receive.
Okay, back to mental chatter. We all know that there is quite often a streaming dialogue going on in our heads.
The so-called five senses are constantly working; while I’m sitting here in front of the window typing, there’s a nuthatch on the feeder, and there’s information streaming about that.
While my fingers type I’m concentrating on the keyboard, consciously or unconsciously.
And I’m thinking about the work I have to do today, the email I have to write, the errands I want to run, and a lot of times a part of me is telling me I’m never going to get everything done that I need to do.
We are rarely thinking about one thing. That conversation is actually hundreds, maybe thousands, of impressions “talking” at once.
No wonder we’re exhausted at the end of the day!
What I propose is this – to help you direct the mental chatter to some degree, how about asking it to address things of importance, like:
How does it feel to be free of worry and stress?
How does it feel to be gainfully employed in a wonderful job that I love?
How does it feel to wake up energized and joyful every morning?
How does it feel to be hale and healthy?
How does it feel to have more than enough income?
How does it feel to be loved?
Chances are you know what affirmations are. Whether or not you buy into them, you’ve probably stated some at one time or another in your life.
And as Noah St. John says, what normally happens in the conversation is this –
Affirmation – “I am wealthy.”
Immediate mind chatter. “Yeah, right. You’ve got car payments and a mortgage and the economy sucks and you’re in a dead end job,” and….. and so on.
His idea (he says it differently) is to try –
“How does it feel to be wealthy?”
My mind chatter says, “Free, Joyful, Loving, Happy, Deserving,” and so on.
And the dialogue starts.
AND, I find my mental chatter focusing on those qualities and feelings rather than how much I am struggling!
I am actually choosing what my mental chatter is saying! (It’s called an I Choose list. You can learn more about it here.
Regardless of what the world appears to be presenting to me, I am, at the very least, directing my mental chatter not to sabotage me so much!
Try it. Let me know how you make out.
How does it feel to have a healthy mental conversation with yourself?
To learn more about how I deal with mental chatter and qualities and feelings, please visit my mentor, Beca Lewis, at Perception U