Transcript #401 The Power of Affirmations and Positive Self Talk with Bob Baker

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1. Find out what’s in store for this Myers Detox Podcast with Bob Baker who joins the show to talk about the power of affirmations and positive self talk. Bob discusses what affirmations are and how they work, how they can improve many facets of your life over time, the different types of affirmations and positive self talk that you can create and use, and his top tips for making positive affirmations and self talk work for you.
2. When Bob was going through a rough time during high school a friend gave him a book that made him realize he was not a victim of his thoughts. Learn more about Bob’s journey to becoming a teacher and Youtuber of positive affirmations and self talk.
3. The basis of affirmations is setting an intention of the mindset in which you want to be in. Learn more about what positive affirmations and how they work.
4. There’s no hard and fast rules when it comes to doing positive affirmations, but you do need to do them consistently and continue to do them over time. Learn more about the misconceptions around affirmations and how you can make them fit for you.
5. Read the affirmations Wendy says everyday. They are helping her reach her goals!
6. Read Bob’s thoughts on the law of attraction and how it works on both a “woo woo” level and a more down to earth level.
7. Learn some of Bob’s top tips for making affirmations work for you, how to form them, when to do them, and more!
8. You can contact Bob and learn more about his affirmation work at www.bobbakerinspiration.com
9. Make sure to go follow his Youtube channel full of amazing guided meditation and positive affirmations www.youtube.com/mrbuzzfactor
10. And check out his new book The Power of Affirmations and Positive Self-Talk

Wendy Myers: Hello, everyone. I’m Wendy Myers. Welcome to the Myers Detox Podcast. Today, we’re talking with Bob Baker on the power of affirmations and positive self-talk. Bob has been working for years in this arena, and we’re going to be talking about dos and don’ts of positive affirmations. We’ll talk about the law of attraction. I’ll go over my list of affirmations that I say every single day and how I really feel that has helped to powerfully manifest my dreams and goals. We go over a long list of what I’m expecting in my soulmate. I’m probably going to be single for a really long time, but you have to have goals, right? We’re also going to go into guided meditations. We’ll go into all different kinds of ideas that Bob Baker has about the power of positive thinking and how to go about that, and some of his guided meditations. We’ll also talk about his book that he has out as well and where you can find his guided meditations.

Wendy Myers: But I know you guys listening to the show are really very concerned about heavy metal toxicity, how to detox your body of heavy metals. I created a quiz at heavymetalsquiz.com, where you can take a two-minute quiz, and afterwards, you’ll get a free video series with your most frequently asked questions about how to detox your body. How long does it take to detox? What kind of tests you do, supplements? How that whole detoxification of heavy metals of your body works. Go check that at heavymetalsquiz.com.

Wendy Myers: Our guest today, Bob Baker, is on a mission to inspire and empower people around the world. As an author, he spent decades helping musicians, artists, authors, and creative entrepreneurs use their talents and know how to make a living and make a difference in the world. In 2016, Bob started posting affirmation and meditation videos on YouTube, and the channel grew and now serves hundreds of thousands of subscribers and attracts more than a million views per month. He is the author of the highly acclaimed Guerrilla Music Marketing Handbook and many other books, including The Empowered Artist, The Passion Principles, The DIY Career Manifesto, Unleash the Artist Within, and Branding Yourself Online.

Wendy Myers: He’s also developed a music marketing 101 course and the online continuing education division of Berkeley College of Music. I have a good friend that went there. He also teaches and performs improv comedy and co-wrote The Improv Comedy Musician with Laura Hall, and the longtime pianist and musical director of Whose Line Is It Anyway? Bob is also an active podcaster and blogger. You can contact Bob and learn more about his affirmation work at bobbakerinspiration.com. Bob, thank you so much for coming on the show.

Bob Baker: It’s so great to be here, Wendy, and to join you. I’m looking forward to our conversation.

Wendy Myers: Yeah. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into the power of positive thinking and what you’re working on now?

Bob Baker: Sure. Well, born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, right in the heart of the Midwest here in the States. Yeah. I’ve never lived anywhere else. I don’t know if that’s an unusual thing these days. I’ve traveled, but this has been my hometown since my birth. I know a lot of people that ended up getting into this field, in inspiring others, had some sort of… It usually isn’t a golden upbringing. I can’t say that I had a bad childhood or anything. I was raised by a single mom, was very loving, but for some reason, when I was in grade school and high school, like a lot of people, I had a lot of lack of self-confidence, lack of self-worth. I was socially awkward. A lot of people just thought that that was who I was. These are the things I’m thinking, this is the way I’m behaving. It must be who I am. And then in my junior year of high school, a friend of mine gave me a book that sent me on a whole new path and in life. You’ve heard of Wayne Dyer?

Wendy Myers: Oh, yeah.

Bob Baker: The author. Yeah. He passed away about five or six years ago. One of his first popular books was called Your Erroneous Zones. We’re talking the ’70s here, when I was in high school. And this friend of mine said, “I can tell you’re going through a rough time. This book helped me,” which for a guy in high school was a cool thing to do back then. And it opened my eyes to the fact that I am not a victim of my thoughts, that I can actually choose my thoughts, which then influence my feelings, which then can impact the way I show up in the world. Eventually, it can change the results and the circumstances of my life. That was like the first time, the aha moment, when I realized that I wasn’t just the victim of my thoughts, I guess, and my behavior.

Bob Baker: That started me on a path of self-discovery. Read a lot of different authors, became a fan of Wayne’s and many other people over the years. I’ve been involved in the arts in many, many ways as a musician, as a writer, as an author. I’ve done theater, I’ve done standup comedy, improv comedy. Even acrylic painting, visual arts. I really heavily emerged in the arts. I’ve had 16 books published, most of them self-published or independently published by myself, and those early books were on music marketing. They were helping musicians and people in the creative fields to build careers. And even though it was about marketing and building a fan base and all that, there was always this underlying positive… I would slip it in there. I didn’t hit people over the head with it too much, but it’s always been a constant in the things that I teach and have taught over the years through my books.

Bob Baker: And then five or six years ago, actually, I was on YouTube. I was going through a little bit of a rough patch myself and seeking out spoken-word guided meditations and affirmation videos on YouTube, finding some, but many of the things I found, I did not like. I didn’t resonate with the person’s voice. I thought maybe the background music was too loud or too busy or whatever. I said, “You know what? I know my way around a microphone. I’m an entertainer. I’ve been podcasting for a while.” I said, “I think I can create the kind of thing that I’m looking for, that I’m not finding.”

Bob Baker: Out of a sense of play and experimentation, I started putting them on my YouTube channel, and people started listening and liking them. I just really took a deep dive into dedicating myself to creating more and more of these recordings. The channel has grown. Probably within the next couple of months, I’ll hit a quarter of a million subscribers. There’s over a million views across the entire channel every month. It’s just opened up a whole new chapter of my life and career in a unique way to serve. My new mission is to transform and uplift humanity one positive thought and one inspired action at a time.

Wendy Myers: Nice. That’s fantastic. That’s a lot of subscribers. You focus on affirmations. I love meditations and listening to spoken meditations. Actually, every single day, I listen to some type of spoken meditation. What are the affirmations that you focus on, and what role that affirmations have played in your life?

Bob Baker: Sure, sure. Yeah, you’re right. People can meditate and do affirmations on their own without the assistance of recordings, but some people like to have it guided, like a guided meditation is what you’re talking about, where you hear someone’s voice leading you and telling you to relax and maybe picturing some sort of a place where you’re envisioning in your mind.

Bob Baker: Affirmations, I think a lot of people know what they are, but some people don’t, so let’s go ahead and start with the basics. Basically, another word for it is positive self-talk. It’s purposely making statements to yourself about how you want to feel. It’s setting an intention about the mindset that you want to be in. What people aren’t familiar with, including myself, when you first start doing them, you might feel silly. If you remember Al Franken, the former senator, he was a cast member on Saturday Night Live decades ago, and he played this character named Stuart Smalley, who would look in the mirror and go, “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me.”

Wendy Myers: Yeah. I remember that well.

Bob Baker: It was funny. I laughed at that character, too, but he didn’t do a great service, I think, to affirmations by poking fun at them. If you’re not familiar with them, or you first hear about the concept, it’s like, “That’s silly. I’m not going to be saying these things to myself.” But it’s amazing. When you do it and you commit to it, it can change your attitude.

Bob Baker: I like to think that we live our lives on autopilot. When I was a kid, like I said, I felt these feelings of insecurity. A lot of people just go through their entire lives or much of their lives just thinking that’s who they are, like I did back then. There are tools that we can use to alter that. The way we show up in the world or our inclination toward positivity or negativity is often, like I said, on autopilot, based on the experiences that we’ve had, things people have told us, things we’ve told ourselves. It’s built up this filter through which we see the world, and it’s how we perceive other people are good or bad, or whether there’s opportunities or whether there’s obstacles. You can alter that filter over time. It doesn’t happen overnight, but affirmations are one tool, along with meditation, along with journaling, along with taking care of yourself physically and your health. I know that’s a big part of your mission in life.

Bob Baker: My core spoken word tends to be affirmations and specifically morning affirmations, which I believe is the best time, first thing you get up in the morning, if you set an intention for the day. They cover a whole range of topics, everything from gratitude, just counting your blessings. “I’m so grateful for the people in my life, the things in my life, the places.” But a lot of times, you can say real simple things like, “Today, I look for and appreciate the good.” It just sets a tone. What if you just got up in the morning, instead of checking email and thinking about all the issues you had to deal with, you just said, “Today, I look for and appreciate the good”? That’s going to help you live a better life.

Bob Baker: I’ll just use one quick example if anyone has any doubt about the way affirmations work and our brains work. Wendy, I’m sure this has happened to you, too. Years ago, I bought a Honda Element. I actually still have it. It’s a very unique boxy-shaped car. Prior to that, I’d never even thought of Honda Elements. Didn’t even know what they were. But as soon as I owned one and was driving it and liking it and saw it in my driveway every day, I started seeing them everywhere. Literally, it seemed like every time I turned around, there was another Honda Element. What had happened? Did I start a new trend? No, they were there the entire time, but I started seeing them because they were top-of-mind, because I was focused on it. It not only works with makes and models of cars, but it also works with your attitude. Again, are you looking for opportunities more, or are you looking for the obstacles? You’ll find plenty of each depending on what you’re looking for. I just think it’s healthier to set yourself up to be positive and to create the kind of life that you want instead of the ones that you’re just living on autopilot.

Wendy Myers: Yeah. I think it’s really important to refocus yourself every morning, like you mentioned. I read a book called The Other 90% a long million years ago, and it talked about how our brains, that survival mechanism, is focused on solving problems. Depression is a survival mechanism to propel you to action. You have to override that our brain is focused on problems constantly, and it can make you feel bad. It’s a practice of slowly but surely overriding that survival mechanism to experiencing the joy that I think we all deserve.

Bob Baker: Yeah. I guess that trait, we have to look at it with some sense of gratitude, because it allowed our species to survive, right? Without being able to notice when there were dangers in the environment, it kept us alive. Fight or flight has served us well. But now, for the most part, most people, I should say, we’re not exposed to the same dangers. Not that they aren’t dangerous in our world and you have to still be smart and aware, but still. Yeah. Those things kick in, and we’re not even aware of it, and it treats something minor, like somebody cutting us off in traffic, like a saber tooth tiger, right?

Wendy Myers: Exactly. Exactly.

Bob Baker: But you’re right. Yeah. Fear, all these things. Lately, I’ve been thinking about how there’s a lot of things that are demonized, like fear, like uncertainty. I think, instead of resisting them, we can actually get on friendly terms. There’s some value in fear, there’s some value. But if it debilitates you and stops you from taking action, then it’s not healthy.

Bob Baker: I remember there was a time when we were driving through the Rocky Mountain National Park, and we were miles. It was beautiful scenery. But we were driving on these thin roads next to huge drop-offs. I remember I started getting paranoid. I was obsessed with what could horribly go wrong if I took my eyes off the road. And then I had to relax, because it took me out of the moment. I wasn’t enjoying the beauty because of this fear, paranoia. I just stopped, I took a breath, and I said, “Okay, what are you trying to tell me?” It’s just saying, “Well, just be careful. You have a long life to live. I want you to be around a long time.” When I realized that was the message, I said, “Okay, I can hear that.” I accepted it, and then I let that intense fear go and just went on my drive. I was paying attention, I was present, and I got to enjoy it. Sometimes, you just have to ask it, “What is it trying to tell me? What’s the gift or the message here?” And then let it go.

Wendy Myers: Yeah, I totally understand. I had the same experience in Crete. I went maybe a couple summers ago. Lots of hills. I’m scared of heights. We’re driving up and down these hills. I was terrified that whole time. But yeah, I didn’t really enjoy it as much as I could, because I was too busy hyperventilating going over these, about to drop off the cliff.

Bob Baker: Exactly. Yeah. It’s there for a reason. Yeah, I have a fear of heights, too, so I just avoid roller coasters and things like that. Yeah.

Wendy Myers: What are some of the biggest misconceptions about affirmations?

Bob Baker: One is that you could just do them for a couple of days and you should see monumental change. Some people do get immediate effects of feeling positive and looking for the good, but realizing that it took anywhere from years to decades to build up the current filter that you have, the current beliefs and the operating system that you’re working from, so it’s going to take a little bit of time to alter that filter and maybe readjust, I guess what you call it, emotional set point, or maybe an attitudinal set point that you have. If you get instant results, which I think that you can, great, but a lot of people say, “I’ve been doing this for a week, and I don’t see any difference in my financial life,” or whatever. “I haven’t found the one yet,” if they’re looking for a partner. Yeah. Realizing that it’s ongoing. It’s similar to incorporating exercise and nutrition into your life. You have to make it a lifestyle and know that there are long-term benefits as opposed to a lot of short-term payoffs. Again, although I think many people have, just listening to one, can suddenly feel this sense of awakening.

Bob Baker: Other misconceptions, mistakes that you can make, maybe. I don’t have a whole lot of hard and fast rules. There’s hundreds, thousands of comments on my YouTube videos, and a lot of people ask questions like, “Do I have to do them?” They want to know what the rules are, so they’re always asking. I have ones where I encourage you to do the same one for 21 days in a row, and they say, “I missed a day. Do I have to start all over?” They’re so worried about doing it right. Basically, as long as you’re just committed to it and doing it, there’s no hard and fast rules, as long as you’re feeding your mind with positivity. If you skip a day, just come back the next day. If you want to mix them up, listen to a different one or different ones every day. I’m pretty loosey-goosey. You don’t have to sit in a meditation room in a lotus position. You can listen while you drive, while you walk, while you clean, or work out. The main thing is just to do it on a regular basis, preferably in the morning, if you’re only going to do it once.

Bob Baker: A mistake would be, or a misconception is, any time you do affirmations that are related to other people, other people’s feelings, other people’s behavior, you get into a little bit of trouble. Your affirmations really need to be focused on you and how you show up. A lot of people will say, “I want to get Cindy into my… I want her to like me and go on a date and be in a relationship with this particular person.” But doing affirmations about Cindy, just made that name up, you don’t have any influence over Cindy’s feelings, Cindy’s behavior. Instead of making them about her or that person, you would say, “I’m deserving of a loving partner.” It’s about, how do you show up? I’m just going to attract the ideal person into my life. It may be Cindy or it may be someone else who’s even more amazing. Try to make your affirmations about your feelings, about your behavior, about things that you have control over. That’s one aspect of it.

Bob Baker: Another one is affirmations really should feel authentic to you. There’s two ways of looking at this. The best example is using financial ones. If you’re really struggling and you’re way behind on your bills, your homes going into foreclosure, if you sit there and say, “I am a millionaire,” your brain’s going to go, “No, you’re not.” If you find your brain saying that, and if you feel like you’re feeling worse after doing them, then just change the way that you word them. Instead of saying, “I’m a millionaire,” or, “I’m abundant,” you say, “I am ready for a new relationship with money. I am eager to discover new streams of income.” That’s true. No matter how much money you have in the bank, you are ready for a new relationship with money. You’re eager to discover new streams of income. Tell them that they feel authentic to you. It’s just a matter of rewording them into something that speaks to you. It’s still positive and it’s moving toward what you want, but it speaks to where you are in that moment. That could change today.

Bob Baker: Although, there is something to be said for faking it until you make it. I had a friend of mine who I interviewed, who built a million-dollar landscaping business. As he was moving toward it in the years, he used a lot of my affirmations in his practice, his daily practice. He says, a lot of times, he was saying, “All right, my company now grosses a million dollars a year.” And he said his mind was going, “How’s that possible?” He had a little doubt in there, but he just was faithful to sticking to it, and it led to him seeing opportunities. In that case, it worked for him. Depending on how you want to approach it. Yeah. If you’re really getting a lot of resistance to the wording, then change the wording, but if it’s not too bad, just lean into it and know that you’re speaking to a place that you’re moving towards that will manifest as long as you stay. May manifest if you stay focused on it.

Wendy Myers: Yeah. I have affirmations I say every single day. I almost have my goals and things that I want to bring into my life, things that I want to manifest, and I say them every single day, every single morning. I say them like they’ve already happened. I’m almost stepping in quantumly to where that space is and really trying to feel emotionally how I feel when I’ve achieved that thing or whatnot. I think we’re very, very powerful manifesters, we’re very powerful co-creators of our existence. Can you talk a little bit about that and the power of manifestation and the law of attraction? I think it’s very important to tell the universe what it is that you want and command what it is that you want in your life every day in order to achieve that and receive that.

Bob Baker: Sure. Before I answer that question, do you mind sharing one or two of the affirmations that you use? I would love them. I’m just curious.

Wendy Myers: Yes. Yes, yes, yes. I’d be happy to.

Bob Baker: Sorry to put you on the spot here.

Wendy Myers: I hope you have some time, because it’s a little bit of a long list here. I’ll have to find it.

Bob Baker: Yeah, just a couple.

Wendy Myers: Yeah, here it is right here. I’ll just say all of them. I don’t care. Let’s see. I have a one-million-person email list. I have one million YouTube subscribers. I have complete freedom and peace on all levels, spiritually, physically, geographically, mentally, psychically, financially, in my romantic relationship. Let’s see. I produced a core supplement line book, cookbook, and film docu series focused on anti-aging via bioenergetic supplements, nutrition, and cutting-edge biohacking techniques. I created a natural skincare product line, perfume, deodorant, and makeup line. Let’s see. That I bought the home I currently live in, in Playa del Carmen. I bought my dream ranch on Kauai, Hawaii, with a garden, fruit orchard, a stream and waterfall, and a view of the ocean. That I’m going to buy beachfront property in Mexico or Bali. That I’ve traveled to every country in the world that I want to visit. That I’m a naturopathic doctor. That I know the Spanish language fluently. That I’m an expert in bioenergetics, I’m a successful crypto investor. And I will meet the man of my dreams, who’s grounded, spiritual, intuitive, affectionate, open, flexible, intelligent, fun, authentic, honest, financially secure, emotionally healthy, loves travel, happy, romantic, handsome, and ready to have a relationship full of passion.

Bob Baker: Wow.

Wendy Myers: That’s not a tall order at all.

Bob Baker: Not at all. No.

Wendy Myers: I get very specific here.

Bob Baker: Yeah. Swipe right on that dude. Is right good? I haven’t done a dating app for forever.

Wendy Myers: I think I’m going to be single for a long time, but it’s okay. I’m going to be patient.

Bob Baker: Those are all huge visions. Congratulations. Let me ask you. Sorry. It’s turning into a coaching session here. I don’t know where you are in the early ones you said about the million subscribers. I don’t know where you are in relation to that, but how do they feel when you say them?

Wendy Myers: Oh, they feel very real. They feel like those are happening. Yeah. And some of them are already happening. I started seeing these about three or four months ago, and I’ve already hired a YouTube consultant, already started working on this anti-aging thing with myersdetox.com, already started working on a natural skincare line, already about to go into escrow on a property in Bali, Indonesia, signed up to become a naturopathic doctor. A lot of these already are going into motion very, very quickly, because I’m saying them every single day.

Bob Baker: That is so cool. That’s so great to hear. Thanks for sharing that. Two things come to mind, maybe three. Basically, I was going to reiterate what I said earlier, is your affirmations have to feel good to you. They have to raise your vibration. As long as that’s the effect on you, then keep saying them, but you can always change things up. Again, I’m not hard, fast. Just make them work for you. The only thing I would really stress is that you do it on a regular, daily basis. You said you do these every morning, and you probably have been for months or years, I’m guessing.

Wendy Myers: Definitely for the last six months. At first, it had smaller goals that I had. And I’m like, “You know what? I’m going to go big. I want to make these bigger, badder, and hairier, and scarier, and really take things up to another level.”

Bob Baker: Cool. Yeah. That’s a great point. You can ratchet up, you can start at a certain level if it feels like, “Okay, I think I’m ready to stretch it a little bit.” It’s okay if you say a number that makes you feel a little bit, “Oh, is that really…” It’s right outside of your reach. Stretch goals are really good, but as long as they’re working for you. Yeah. Someone may have to start by saying, “I’m ready for a new relationship with money,” and then work your way up to saying, “I’m abundant,” and eventually, “I’m a millionaire.” As long as it’s feeling good and moving you in that direction.

Bob Baker: I know it’s a common thing with goal-setting to visualize yourself already being there, and I’ve done that. I still do. It is very powerful that it pulls you toward it. However, I don’t think that I suggest that people might do. A lot of times, people will envision that they’re already there. I know you’re one who takes action, but some people can feel… I remember I was at a Jack Canfield workshop years ago, and this woman stood up, and she was talking about how, “I see myself as a rail-thin supermodel. Therefore, I feel like I’m already there and I can eat whatever I want.” It wasn’t positively influencing her behavior in the present moment, because she was already there. Sometimes, people will just sit there with the vision, but they won’t act on it. In addition to visualizing already being there, I like to encourage people to visualize and do affirmations about the process. What are the habits you have to develop? What’s the behavior you’re going to have to engage in to get to that, to reach that goal? In addition to seeing yourself with the book or the property or the lover, also see yourself sitting down-

Wendy Myers: No, the soulmate. The soulmate, not the lover.

Bob Baker: The soulmate. Yeah. Soulmate. Also one aspect with all that long list of adjectives.

Wendy Myers: I know it’s kind of ridiculous, but it’s true. I want to find that person.

Bob Baker: Yeah. You can also visualize or affirm. Yeah. You add visualization to what you’re saying, meeting them for the first time, having dinner, laughing, the silly things that are meaningful to you in the early stages of a relationship. In the case of writing a book, it’s sitting down, and the words are just flowing out of you, and you’re enjoying the process. Building a business, it could be renovating a space. But think about the behavior aspect of it.

Bob Baker: Yeah. Regarding the law of attraction and manifesting. I put out a book, actually, back in April. It’s my 16th book overall, but it’s the first one on the topic of my YouTube channel. It’s called The Power of Affirmations and Positive Self-Talk. It’s been very well received. And in it, I address the law of attraction a little bit. And in it, and I state upfront that I’m very comfortable with the idea that I do not know all the answers. I don’t know how everything works. Some people need to know this is the way it is, and so cling to a religion or a spiritual dogma that helps them answer those questions. If that works for you, great. But I have no idea how a lot of things happen. I’m just amazed by the mystery of it all, just trying to live my best life within it.

Bob Baker: A lot of people, with regard to the law of attraction, and I just used the term just a little while ago, raise your vibration. A lot of people think that, if I just think positive thoughts, I send this wave out into the universe, and people and circumstances are pulled to me. I would love to think that’s the way things work, because I also really am geeky and into physics and how things work on that quantum level and all that. You can really take a deep dive into that stuff. And there’s some science that backs up things like that, that things happen. Things that vibrate similarly are attracted to each other.

Bob Baker: But I ask myself, “What if that’s not the way it works? Even if people aren’t attracted to me, what if, just by doing these affirmations, I just raise my own personal perception or my sense of optimism?” I’m looking now for opportunities, so I’m spotting things. I’m noticing people, because instead of looking for obstacles, I’m looking for opportunities. Maybe my demeanor is more positive, so that person feels more comfortable about talking to me. They get a good vibe from me. But it’s not really based on, again, anything that’s overly woo-woo. I’m not discounting that law of attraction could work on that vibrational level. But what if it doesn’t? I think it’s still just as magical to just change your perspective, upgrade and firm up your filters, like I mentioned a number of times, through which you see the world, and you start seeing these things. And then when you act on them and you interact with the world, great opportunities will come your way.

Bob Baker: Again, I’m not sure how it works, but that’s what manifestation is for me. I guess it’s being clear about what I want, because I’ve done a lot of amazing things. I’ve published many books, I’ve built this YouTube channel, I’ve recorded several albums of original music as a musician, and got it out into the world. That came originally as an idea, which is why I love the arts, because the arts is all about, I have this idea, and I’m going to take action to either create this painting, create this play, create this show or whatever, a piece of music. And then through action and intention, the physical thing is developed. You can do that with the woo-woo aspect, or you can do that just with practical setting a goal, being positive, optimistically putting one foot in front of the other, and creating that thing and then sharing it with people. I rambled on.

Wendy Myers: Oh, we’re all about the woo. We’re all about the woo here at Myers Detox. Oh, yes.

Bob Baker: Yeah, I’m open to it all. Like I said, I don’t discount anything. My girlfriend is woo-woo, woo-woo.

Wendy Myers: She sounds fun. I like that.

Bob Baker: Yeah. Her name was Pooki. Yeah. She’s been getting more and more involved with the channel. Her personality is as lively as her name.

Wendy Myers: Love it, love it. Pooki.

Bob Baker: Yeah. I describe myself as woo-woo. She’s woo-woo, woo-woo.

Wendy Myers: Do you have any tips for us on making good use of affirmations? I created my list of affirmations that work for me, and they’re always evolving as things come to me as I’m sitting still every morning and doing my meditations and listening to guided meditations. Things will come to me as I’m sitting there still, or things I get excited about, or ideas or things that I want. And I’ll add them to my list. Things I take off my list. Any other tips to give people about making their own affirmations?

Bob Baker: Yeah. Like I said, you can write your own, you can say them, you can speak them, you can say them in your mind, you can print them out and post them in places where you’ll see them every day. A lot of people put them on the bathroom mirror, by the computer, on the refrigerator. I guess the main way that I serve is serving people who want to hear them. In my recordings, the way they’re set up, in case you didn’t know, most of them, although I switch things up, I’ll say an I-am affirmation. That’s the most common recording on my channel. Leave space for the person to repeat it back to themselves. You don’t have to memorize them or read them. Again, you can do them while you’re driving, walking, whatever. I also have done you-are affirmations. A lot of times, people don’t get encouraging words from parents and mentors and teachers and so on, so sometimes, hearing someone say, “You’re amazing. You are worthy and lovable,” and all that stuff. I have a number of those.

Bob Baker: Regarding the recorded versions of affirmations that you listen to and repeat, I would suggest having a playlist. That’s what a lot of people do. Do this on Spotify. I have a growing number of my recordings in Spotify and Apple and all that, but YouTube is the main platform. People create playlists, and you can pick the topic of your choice. You can never go wrong with gratitude. Gratitude is a great regular daily affirmation to do where you just focus counting your blessings. I believe that’s the foundation of personal growth. Appreciating truly what currently exists in your life opens the door for more. You can do both of those things. You can be ambitious and be eager for more, but still appreciate where you are now, even if your circumstances are not ideal.

Bob Baker: Then, you choose affirmations based on what’s important or what you’re struggling with. That could be abundance and money, it could be romance, love, finding your soulmate. I also have a lot of videos that are popular on success, on confidence. I have a number of them on health. Like lawyers and doctors or whatever, people usually seek these things out when they’re having issues. Yeah. Quite often, there’s an area of your life that you’re struggling with. “I need to firm this up, I need to get a little bit better perspective on this.” Depending on what’s happening in your life, you choose the affirmations that are going to speak to you. If you have a big public speaking or you’re doing some kind of a talk and you’re nervous about it, obviously something related to confidence would be helpful. Again, just tailor them to where you are, what’s going to make you feel good, and then just doing it on a regular basis. If you’re going to do it, do it once a day, like we talked about. It sounds like that’s what you do, Wendy, first thing in the morning, pretty much.

Wendy Myers: Oh, yeah. Yeah. First thing in the morning, or later if something comes up. But yeah, pretty much. I don’t skip it.

Bob Baker: I don’t create a whole lot of these, although I have several of them, but the end of the day, too, is a great time. Some people actually play them when they’re designed to listen to as you drift off to sleep. Before bed. If you can have that bookend effect where you start the day with setting an intention, you end the day by looking back on it, and what are the lessons learned? What were some of the highlights? What am I grateful for that took place? And then set an intention so that you’re going to sleep with that same positive perspective. It’s a wonderful thing to do. If you could throw them into the middle of the day if you need a pick-me-up, certainly, that would be good, too.

Bob Baker: But I would say morning, for sure. If you’re going to do a second time, before bed. And then whatever you want to throw in, if you really want to supercharge things. Then, you could print them and all this stuff. Depending on where you are in life, if you’re coming out of decades of depression, although if it’s an extreme case of depression, I would seek out professional help instead of just doing affirmations. But for the typical human, if you lose your mojo for a while, you may have to really turbocharge it and just take a deep dive for a while, and then you can get set into a pattern every morning. Those are some helpful tips, I hope.

Wendy Myers: Yeah. I love it as far as my morning routine goes. I really, really cherish doing a guided meditation in the morning, because I don’t really like regular meditation where I’m just sitting there being still. I like to be guided, and it just helps me to get into a certain space. I like meditations that have frequencies in them, also, that can elicit various effects as well, that I listen to, that I really like. But yeah, everyone’s different, what they like. Tell us, where do we find your guided meditations? Tell us what your YouTube channel is, your book.

Bob Baker: Sure, sure. I’ll do all that. I just want to mention. I mentioned a number of times that I’m a longtime musician, and lately, over the past year, more and more, I throw in some musical affirmations, where I’m saying them or even singing them over electronic dance beats. That’s another way that people… Some people love it, and some people just prefer the more spoken words with mellow background music. You can move your body and sing them. That’s a whole level of embodying them.

Bob Baker: YouTube, just search for my name, Bob Baker, B-A-K-E-R, and put in the word affirmations. You probably won’t need to. It should come right up to my main channel. I would appreciate it if you subscribe so that you start getting notifications. I post at least two new videos every week. And then Pooki, my girlfriend and I stream live every Sunday morning with something we call Sunday Inspiration. That’s a lot of fun. We get to interact with people’s lives. There’s a global community of people that show up for that.

Bob Baker: My website for this type of work is bobbakerinspiration.com. You can go there and find out more about the spoken word stuff that I do. And then the new book is called The Power of Affirmations and Positive Self-Talk. It’s available on Amazon, more than a dozen countries, Barnes & Noble, pretty much wherever books are sold online in both paperback and ebook formats.

Wendy Myers: Fantastic.

Bob Baker: Would love to connect with your readers if they feel so inspired.

Wendy Myers: Fantastic. Well, Bob, thanks so much for coming on the show. And everyone, thanks so much for tuning into the ,Myers Detox Podcast where we talk about everything detox. But I want to get more into mindset and positive affirmations and how to detox your mind as well and improve your life through the power of positivity. Thanks for tuning in today. I’m Wendy Myers of myersdetox.com. I will see you guys next week.