I recently read a book on Elemental Equilibrium by Virgil, and he says Affirmations are like a seed that you plant in yourself, but that a seed needs a bunch of other stuff to grow, you can't just chuck it on the ground and hope
Since it's a companion to Bardon's Initiation Into Hermetics, he gives Bardon's techniques as examples of that support
Eg if you want to be less lazy, the affirmation/seed might be "I am proactive and energetic"
Then "magical washing" is watering the plant, conscious eating (transmuting your food into the trait of proactivity then consuming it mindfully) is feeding it, exhaling laziness is like removing weeds, and volition ("acting like you think a proactive and energetic person would act") would be, idk like the wooden stake that supports its early growth before it's strong