What is an Affirmation?
Affirmations are positive statements that can help us to challenge and overcome self-sabotaging and negative thoughts. When we repeat them often, and believe in them, we can start to make positive changes.
Many think affirmations are unrealistic or “wishful thinking”, but like repetitive exercises that improve our physical health, affirmations are exercises for our minds and outlook. These positive mental repetitions can reprogram our thinking so that over time we begin to think and act differently.
Evidence suggests that affirmations can help us to perform better. According to researchers, spending just a few minutes on affirming our skills and best qualities before doing something we are nervous or anxious about, can calm our nerves, increase our confidence, and improve our chances of a successful outcome.
Affirmations have been shown to stimulate areas in our brains that make us more likely to affect changes in our health. Affirmations have been successfully used to treat people with low self-esteem, depression and other mental health conditions.
Studies suggest that a stronger sense of self-worth makes us more likely to improve our own well-being. For example, if you're worried that you eat too much and don't get enough exercise, using affirmations to remind yourself of your values can spur you on to change your behavior.
How to Write an Affirmation Statement
Affirmation statements usually target a specific area, behavior or belief that you're struggling with. The following points can help you to write the affirmation statement that best fits your needs.
I like to always think of the 3-P’s as the core to affirmations, Positive, Personal, Present tense.
How to Use Positive Affirmations
You can use affirmations in any situation where you want to see positive change. Whether that is a need to value yourself, believe in an ability, push through a fear, improve self-esteem, complete a goal, overcome a bad habit or more.
Affirmations can be more effective if you pair them with other positive thinking and goal-setting techniques. Affirmations work particularly well alongside Visualizations. You picture the change you'd like to see, you also write it down and say it aloud using a positive statement in the present tense.
The power of affirmations lies in repeating them regularly. It's useful to recite your affirmations several times a day (have them pop up in your notifications!). Repeating your affirmations as soon as you engage in a negative thought or behavior that you want to overcome is extremely helpful.
I like to post affirmations where I can see them daily. You can use post it notes, write directly on a mirror or glass surface with a dry erase marker or create affirmation cards that are personal to you and pull one each day as the one to work on.
Creating Affirmation Cards
This week I will be showing how to create simple easy affirmation cards for you to do this daily practice. Check out our Facebook page and our YouTube channel On Wednesday afternoon to see the newest video.
Examples of Affirmations
Have an Amazingly Creative Day,
Larissa
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