[Begin with Barakah] – What exactly are Affirmations? How do they work?

You’ve probably gotten started on your Begin with Barakah journey, (or are just about to), so to help you make the most of the system, I wanted to talk a little bit more about Affirmations; specifically what they do and how they work. My aim is to make sure you’re fully on board, and that you understand what you’re trying to achieve through using Affirmations.

I understand that Begin with Barakah may not be something you decide stick with in the long run, because obviously what works for me might not work for you. But I want to help you at least give it a shot. So let’s take a closer look at Affirmations.

Affirmations

Affirmations are a tool to help you articulate and define the experiences and outcomes you want to achieve. You’re essentially programming and influencing your subconscious mind to focus on the thoughts, values and beliefs that help you live a life that’s inline with your ideals.

In other words, once you know your goals, dreams and aspirations, you use affirmations to focus on becoming the person you need to be in order to achieve them. This can apply to any area of your life family, career, relationships, personal development, spirituality, worship etc. In fact, the more you explore what you want in those areas of your life and commit to improving on them and working to achieve them, the better you’ll do.

There’s a bit of overlap between Affirmations and Visualizations, the big distinction to me is that affirmations are to focus and define, while visualizations are more about living and experiencing the emotions and outcomes.  They come hand-in-hand and reinforce one another.

Affirmation Formula

There are many ways to do this, as a quick Google search with confirm, but the one I like the most so far is one that uses a simple formula to come up with practical, specific, and time bound affirmations. What the formula does is it keeps this from becoming a strictly theoretical exercise. Here’s what it looks like:

I am committed to _____the activity______, ___the frequency____, so that I can

________goal, result or ideal outcome_____, by _____deadline_______.

I use the formula above for goal-oriented affirmations. Other affirmations, particularly those that have to do with my personal development, changes to my character, lifestyle etc are worded in a simple statement. Reminding myself of who I want to become and the ideals I want to live by inshallah.

Examples of Affirmations

Using the formula here’s a few sample affirmations:

I am committed to being a source of light, radiance, grace, dignity, composure, warmth and positive energy, daily, so that I can become a better version of myself by September 2017.

I am committed to being mindful of my emotions, on a daily basis so that I can learn to respond instead of react, by March 2017.

I am committed to praying 12 rak’aat of sunnah prayers, daily so that I can qualify for a house in jannah.

I am committed to reading one book, every month so that I can continually learn something new, for the foreseeable future.

Fear and Doubt

Where there’s fear, reluctance and doubt around achieving a particular goal or living up to a certain ideal, coach yourself through the fear, in writing. Tell yourself the things you would tell someone you care about who was going through this and felt afraid.

For example, “Don’t stress the outcome, you can’t fail, you can only succeed or learn and grow”, “it may have been done before, but not by you, you have unique talents and skills that make your offering to the word truly special” or “build it and people will come“.

My parting advice is: ‘Don’t give fear the power to knock you off track or be half-hearted about what you’re doing. Get clear about what you want and go for it inshallah :)’

I hope this is coming along well and that you’re already getting settled in to the system. If you have any questions or suggestions I’d love to hear from you in the comments or by email