Besides causing psychological problems, fear, guilt and shame often cause heart trouble, stomach ulcers, high blood pressure and many other bodily disorders.
So how can you get a handle on these negative emotions when they pop up and rebuild your self-esteem? Listening to positive statements directed to you via a tape can provide a unique benefit to you.
You can use your own voice on the tape, but when the words come from another person, they often have a better effect on you.
By playing an audio tape of positive, encouraging bullet statements in the morning as you wake up or on a car cassette player or at odd times throughout the day in your home, you can successfully saturate yourself with enough positivity to counteract whatever negativity you experience throughout your day.
Select a 12-minute loop tape that plays the same messages continually every 12 minutes, and play it in the morning and evening.
Let a member of the opposite sex (it seems to help attentiveness) read the following statements onto a tape (or make up your own statements).
1) You have a magnificent mind, body and spirit combination, and your potential is unfolding.
2) Think positively and constructively about everything, avoiding criticisms and judgments.
3) Feel good about yourself every day, and live your dreams in the best way you can.
4) Improve your skills, and progress yourself steadily.
5) You have extraordinary ability, so be confident in your purpose, take action toward your goals and feel a sense of accomplishment at the end of every day.
6) All the extraordinary things that men and women have done, you can do too if you just believe that you can do them and take action.
7) You can activate any of the unlimited possibilities available to you at any point in your life.
8) Enthusiasm is contagious, so be excited about everything that you do.
9) Achieve your desired body weight, and consciously improve your posture.
10) The eternal you inside your physical sheathe involves every cell of your body, so take control and consciously direct perfect health for yourself.
11) Learn from everything and everyone as much as you can.
12) You can be anyone you imagine yourself to be, so assume the role of whom you want to be.
13) Life always works out favorably for you when you let it, so live your daily experiences fully and consciously.
14) Smile, be bright and cheerful, and people will look at you with warmth.
15) You have great power & ability, and you influence people more than you realize.
16) You have demonstrated many extraordinary qualities throughout your life.
17) Feel secure and self-confident in all that you do.
18) Accomplish your daily duties productively and efficiently.
19) Treat each day as a challenging and exciting adventure.
20) All your experiences are learning opportunities, so take full responsibility for everything that happens to you.
21) Accept each experience in your life and grow from it, for everything is changing and will continue to change.
22) Boldness has a magic to it, so don't hesitate; act on your thoughts and ideas.
23) Fret not over mistakes; simply use them as stepping stones to a successful outcome.
24) You are a dynamic, sensitive, adaptable, optimistic, understanding, creative, conscientious, considerate and well-balanced person.
As a variation to this exercise, have the positive statements read onto the right ear track of the tape and the sounds of gentle ocean waves recorded onto the left ear track off the tape.
Even when not played through a headset, the sound combination of monologue and ocean waves will have the desired effect on an ordinary tape player speaker.
As you proceed throughout your day, you will be able to remember, replay and reinforce to yourself a condensation of the words and phrases previously heard on the tape.
If the tape is played frequently enough, your mind will automatically run over the affirmations during the day like a conditioned response.