What are affirmations? You might’ve heard the word banded about quite a bit recently, but let me introduce you to what exactly they are, and how they can benefit you.
People go through a lot when it comes to changing their thinking patterns. Almost all of us have times where our negative thoughts take control of our lives. Negative thinking does not only mess with our head but also with the aspects of our personality like confidence.
The main problem with negative thinking is that it becomes part of our self-talk.
By continuously feeding our brains with negative thoughts, we pollute our subconscious. Therefore, negativity becomes part of our lives. The ‘we are not good enough’ sentences act as a hindrance to self-improvement. As a result, we continuously drag our personal life, careers, and relationships down!
However, as everything in our lives does not come without trying, becoming positive requires a little effort from our side. Although the effort is minimal the results you are about to reap out of being positive are abundant. Why not give it a try then?
This is where affirmations come in.
How to become positive
The positivity starts with a deliberate effort of portraying life through the lens of positivity. The positivity starts from within us. To change what goes in the head is not possible always. Hence, changing what comes out of our heads is definitely in our hands.
One way to incorporate positivity in our heads is through affirmations.
What are affirmations?
If you’re asking yourself What Are Affirmations then let me try and make it clearer for you…
- Affirmations are positive self-statements that can overcome negative thoughts and help us embrace ourselves fully.
- Affirmations provide us with reassurance and hope.
- Affirmations tend to fill us with inspiration and encouragement and take us towards our goals.
- Affirmations are fed into our brain through repeatedly hearing them.
Believing is another important part of listening to affirmations. Without faith, you cannot possibly hope for affirmations to do their work. Positive change through affirmations requires a little patience from the listener’s side. With continuous use of affirmations, you can become familiar with the power of words especially if they are positive.
Affirmations may appear more like wishful thinking when you make a start at rehearsing them. However, affirmations are like an exercise to our mind and perception. Affirmations are statements meant to reprogram our thinking patterns positively over time.
What are examples of affirmations?
Affirmations are personal and specific to everyone. It depends on what you expect out of your life, what you wish to achieve and what to change. The meaning of affirmations can change from person to person, but that’s the beauty – they’re totally up to you and completely personal.
Some examples of affirmations that can help you in understanding what affirmations are, are listed here:
- I’m full of life.
- I can do everything if I put in a little effort.
- I can focus on my goals without getting distracted.
- I can do
- I’m worth all the love and respect.
- I’m meant to be a great person.
- I’m successful.
- I’m honest.
- I’m a respected person.
- I’m a creative person.
- I look for positivity wherever I go.
- I enjoy doing my work.
- I’m proud of everything I’ve accomplished.
- I’m a leader.
- I’m an ethically strong person.
- I’m a source of happiness for others.
- I can be my happiness.
- I’m at peace.
- I’m an individual filled with a lot of potential.
- I’m leading a successful life.
You can see a lot more examples of affirmations on this site. Check out the affirmations for money, or friendship affirmations to get more of an idea.
How do affirmations work?
Our brain is not only complex to know, but also very interesting to understand. Our brain happens to go through the process of neuroplasticity which is the brain’s way of adapting to changing circumstances throughout our life. This process not only helps us understand how affirmations work but also how we can make them more effective.
Our brain can often not comprehend the difference between reality and imagination which is a plus point in many cases. Imagining yourself doing a task that makes you anxious – like giving an interview – can activate the same areas in our brains that will activate upon experiencing this in reality.
The same way regularly hearing or repeating affirmations about ourselves encourage our brains to take these affirmations as facts. Hence truly believing in these affirmations can change our realities too with time!
As an example, take this negative statement “I’m terrible at helping others” can be replaced by the positive affirmation, “I’m so good with helping others”.
Affirmations have successfully treated people with low self-esteem, low confidence, anxiety, depression, and other mental ailments. Affirmations have also been seen to stimulate the areas in the brain that affect the changes that are positive to our health.
READ MORE: Birthing Affirmations for the Big Day
How to use affirmations for our betterment?
Feeling a bit clearer on what affirmations actually are? Once you start to answer the question, what are affirmations, it all becomes that bit clearer – and totally makes sense!
Before starting your journey of using affirmations, you need to know that what you are seeking and with what intensity you are seeking it. Once you’re clear about what you want and all your doubts have been cleared about the pursuance of your goal, you are ready to manifest by writing down your goals.
Your goals can range from buying a car to becoming confident or having peace in your life… whatever it is you want to improve in your life in fact.
However, one thing you need to be sure about manifesting and using affirmations is, that our intentions matter a lot!
When learning how to use affirmations it’s important to remember that if you are trying to manifest something that is entirely out of selfish motives, lust, or greed, you won’t be able to get anything or anywhere. Our motives should be pure and positive. Before seeking something our hearts should be grateful and our actions should be directed right towards our goal.
Some steps you can follow while repeating affirmations in your head are:
- Start by waking up early in the morning and taking deep breaths.
- Think positively about the rest of the day with a clear head and positive intentions.
- Say your affirmations clearly and loudly so you absorb what you are saying.
- Rehearse these affirmations about 2-4 times a day and keep your goals in your head.
- When you finish repeating these affirmations, end up this process with deep breaths to absorb positive energy and let go of all the negative thoughts.
12 benefits of affirmations
Affirmations have aided thousands of people in bringing important changes in their lives. Affirmations have the power to reach into our brain and reprogram our minds into believing the change we want to make in our life.
Some benefits of putting affirmations into our daily routines are;
1. Affirmations help us to act and move towards achieving our goal. They also put a desire within us to keep going and not lose hope.
2. With affirmations, we can increase our focus and concentrate on our goals. When one’s mind is continuously focusing upon a specific aim, it becomes easy to achieve the goal.
3. Affirmations also change our negative thoughts into more positive and serving thoughts.
4. Affirmations have access to our subconscious mind and are capable of creating new beliefs.
5. Affirmations help us become positive about our bodies and increase self-confidence and our self love.
6. Many pieces of research done on the power of affirmations show that when a person is experiencing stress, affirmations can increase problem-solving ability.
7. Affirmations can also help one perform better under pressure. For example when you are about to appear for a job interview or going for your first class in a foreign state.
8. Affirmations that are repeated regularly help to raise vibrations and become aligned with the universe. This can aid in manifesting what you crave at a faster rate.
9. Affirmations can increase self-awareness and our insight into our mental processes. This ability to know our mind, helps us combat well against negativity.
10. Positive affirmations increase gratitude within us and broaden our perspective of seeing the good in life.
11. Affirmations also aid in boosting our happiness.
12. Recent researches conducted on cardiovascular health show that optimistic people have better health. So, if optimism is drawn out of affirmations then who wouldn’t want to opt for them.
13. Affirmations can help us balance our chakras. You can read more about Root Chakra affirmations and the Solar Plexus affirmations here.
What are affirmations?
Affirmations are the best solution to turn to if you are feeling depressed or generally trying to manifest something into your life.
These positive statements are responsible for bringing a positive change into our life by changing the pattern of our thinking. With continuous use of affirmations, one can gain more confidence and self-awareness.
Overall, positive statements as in affirmations increase our ability to be grateful and peaceful beings. And who doesn’t want that?!
I hope this article has helped you to see how to use affirmations in your day to day. Now it’s time to work out exactly where you want to target all this positive energy!