Reset Your Mind : Benefits of Autosuggestion

Author: Clyde John

We have all dealt with the demon inside our heads telling us that we can’t do it. For a lot of us, it becomes our default way of thinking. These thoughts wire our brains to only perceive negative things. This is where autosuggestion comes into play to manipulate our realities.

Think about the last time you felt like you were incapable of achieving a goal or completing a workout and the result turned out exactly how you predicted. Now think about the times you felt confident in your abilities and the results matched the internal optimism. 

In 1882 Emile Coue, the founding father of autosuggestion said in his book, Self Mastery Through Conscious Autosuggestion, “If you persuade yourself that you can do a certain thing, provided this thing be possible, you will do it however difficult it may be…” 

 

Coue describes autosuggestion as an instrument we are born with. He stated that patients to whom he spoke about a medicine’s effectiveness healed faster than those to whom he said nothing. In today’s terms, it’s referred to as the Placebo Effect.  

 

Due to the absence of scientific backing, there were many critics of Coue’s assertions. The criticism suggested that although it may help some people, it may negatively impact others who could benefit from another course of treatment. 

 

However, a recent study using Coue’s assertions by researchers from Utrecht University came to a reasonable conclusion. They tested 212 10-year-olds to see whether positive self-talk would better their math performance. These children were recorded to have low levels of confidence in their math skills. The initial part of the study focused on how the children felt about their math ability and how they scored on a math test. 

 

In order to observe the effects of self-talk, the children were split into 3 groups. One group was tasked with engaging in “effort self-talk.” Another group was supposed to engage in “ability self-talk.” And lastly, the third group was tasked with not engaging in any self-talk.  

 

The first two groups of students were asked to quietly repeat the self-talk statements for a short period of time (“I will try my best”, “I am going to do well”). In addition, they were asked to write down the phrase and repeat it while working on the second part of the test.

 

At the conclusion of the study, they observed that the children engaging in any form of self-talk outperformed those that engaged in no self-talk. From this study’s results, it can be understood that positive self-talk helps struggling children to focus on their effort rather than on their lack of ability.

 

With Coue’s methods in mind, you can take these 3 steps to better position yourself to achieve your goals. 

1.  The first step is to suppress negative thoughts. Blocking negativity clears your mind from anything that can cloud your judgment. It also enables you to pay closer attention to your self-talk. This step of reflection and realization is pivotal in any progress towards achieving your goal. 
2. A daily affirmation in the morning is enough to set the day right. Once you can fixate your mind on your self-talk, inducing a positive affirmation can not only achieve better outcomes but also aid in overcoming self-sabotaging thoughts. Positive affirmations are so much more than just happy feel-good phrases. They have the power to influence your subconscious mind and promote access to new beliefs.
3. In order to fully conquer your challenges, utilizing repetition alongside your affirmations can solidify that positive belief in your mind. By using mundane and repetitive tasks as an opportunity for rewiring yourself, an affirmation can transform from thought to reality. 

Simply changing how you think and talk to yourself can drastically affect the outcomes of any endeavors you embark on.

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