These prepare my mind for meditation. Many enjoying listening to guided visualization tapes and I'd just add that after you've listened to the tape, sit quietly in the silence just following your breath for about 20 minutes afterward. I prefer just following my breath, no tape. Sit quietly, put your attention at the base of your nostrils where your breath comes in and out and feel the breath in your nostrils and when a thought comes, and it will, just focus your attention back at the base of your nostrils and again follow your breath, that releases the thought. This is more powerful than you imagine in cultivating the inner experience.
Affirmations absolutely work.
I have others as well, and I say this one about 500 times a day. That's only 50 times every hour on the hour all day long. I tack my affirmations up all over the house where I can see them. They say things like My life is getting easier and happier. I am Divinely guided in all that I do.