If you want to change your life in a positive way, you have to start by repenting -- by literally changing your mind, changing the way you think. And one of the best tried and true methods for doing this is by using daily affirmations. Affirmations are amazingly powerful if they are done and used in the right way. Affirmations will help you to feel strong in mind, spirit, and even body. Affirmations can reprogram your subconscious mind to be positive and help you get the confidence you need to change your life.

How to make effective use of affirmations:

The best way to use affirmations is to write them down. Writing them down is stronger than just saying them aloud because writing is audio-visual and it has the physical component of pushing a pen across the paper. Also, if you write down your affirmations, you can go back and read them over later on, making the impression upon your subconscious mind even stronger.

This is not to say that there are not times to just say an affirmation aloud, such as when you have gone to bed for the night and you're lying there waiting to drift off to sleep. But throughout your waking day you must write down the affirmations to make them solid to your mind.

Take a piece of paper and use a straight-edge and your pen, or a fold, to divide the paper into two columns. In the left hand column write down your affirmation, while doing so if a negative thought comes into your mind, write that down in your right hand column.

This enables you to divide off your negative, self-defeating thoughts from your affirmations of positive things--separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak. You should write down your affirmations at least 20 times a day. This sounds like a lot but you can write them down four times each at five different times per day, or something like that, if that would be easier for your schedule. Repetition is important, though, to get the affirmations flowing like a river through your subconscious mind.

There are other affirmation techniques like singing them, recording yourself speaking them and then playing back the recording, and looking in the mirror and finding great things to say about yourself, but I have found that the best way to make use of them is truly to write them down.

Here are some affirmations that you might want to use on a daily basis. Select one or more that seem to really grab you emotionally, and write it or them down 20 times a day, every day, for at least four weeks straight:

I am worthy and deserving of all the good things that come my way
I choose to feel confident
I choose to feel that I am lovable just the way I am
I deserve to have a joyful life and do, be, or have what is important to me

These are just some examples of affirmations. You can adapt them to your personal circumstances and you can research or think up more of them as you need. You will need perseverance and discipline in order for your affirmations work. They have to become your new reality and a whole new way of thinking. Give yourself the chance to improve your life and have joy.

Carla Valencia is the author and owner of http://www.selfesteemawareness.com and http://www.the-emotions.com