What’s The Deal With Affirmations?

By now you have probably seen them.  You know the positive statements and quotes that keep showing up in your social media feeds.  Sure they are cute and make us feel good to read them, but what’s the deal with them?  Positive affirmations describe how we want to be.   Positive affirmations are a tool we can use to change our negative thoughts to positive thoughts.    If you keep telling yourself something over and over again, you start to believe it.  That is often how negative thoughts take over our mind.  We can learn to control our thoughts and thus change the outcome of our lives.

Using positive affirmations in our daily lives can lead to many benefits.  They are like an exercise for the mind.   As I’ve already mentioned you can use them to change your negative thoughts to positive thoughts.  That is a great tool used in decreasing depression and anxiety symptoms.  Having more positive thoughts also increases our self esteem and self confidence.  Positive affirmations can also help us visualize what we want our future to be.   When we use positive affirmations to visualize our future, it helps keep us motivated to achieve our goals.

What is meant by using positive affirmations?  First you have to come up with your own positive affirmations to use.  Then the key to success with them is repetition.  You want to train your mind to think and/or say them often throughout the day so that you start to believe them.  When you believe in yourself, you make things happen for yourself.  

Steps For Finding Positive Affirmations

1. Come up with a list of your negative thoughts.
2. Turn your negative thoughts into positive statements that are written in present tense.  These statements also need to be realistic and believable.  Avoid using negative terms such as “not” in them.
3. Also come up with positive statements written in the present tense that describes your vision of who you want to be.
4. Choose just a few that you want to work on first.  It’s okay if you want to work on only one at a time.  Don’t overwhelm yourself with too many at a time.
5. Choose ways to create a repetitive way of saying/thinking your positive affirmations on a daily basis.

Examples of Positive Affirmations

• I am intelligent and can think through solutions to my obstacles in life.
• I love myself and who I am.
• I choose to be proud of myself.
• I enjoy exercising my body and strengthening my muscles.
• I matter and what I have to offer this world matters.
• I breathe in calmness and breathe out stress.
• I trust myself to make good decisions.
• I am grateful for each day.
• I embrace the peace and quiet of the night.
• I am in complete charge of planning my future.

Ways To Create Repetition Of Your Positive Affirmations

• Write them down and post them where you will see them throughout the day.
• Write them down and then pull them out several times a day to say them.  This works well if you tie the new behavior to a behavior you already have.  For example you could read them every time you go to the bathroom through out the day or before you eat your meals.
• Set reminders on your phone to remind yourself to say them at certain times during the day.
• Say them whenever you start to think the negative thoughts.
• Meditate on them several times during the day.
• Add them to your vision board.  If you don’t have a vision board, you can create one with your new positive affirmations.
• Pair up with a buddy and help remind each other of your positive affirmations.  Sometimes it’s nice to hear someone else say it to you.

It doesn’t cost any money to say positive affirmations to yourself, so everyone can give it a try!  It only takes a few minutes of your time several times a day and is a lot easier then trying to keep up with a fitness routine!  So give it a try and let us know in the comments what your positive affirmation(s) is and your results.  It can take a few weeks of doing this to actually see results in your thinking.