What comes to mind when you hear people talk about affirmations? Repeating positive statements over and over that never seem to come true? Read on to find out how to make affirmations work for you.
Whether you’ve tried affirmations before (with no success) or dismissed them as silly, forgettable sentences, it’s easy to think of affirmations as fluffy statements that may or may not work. Here’s the thing, though: the way we speak to and about ourselves (and our lives) may seem like self-help nonsense, but with every word we say and think we are affirming something.
We affirm things day in and day out often without even noticing, and that’s because, on a subconscious level, the mind is always listening. It takes what we feed it as a direct order, so as your subconscious mind runs your life 95% of the time (yes, really!), you want to make sure you are feeding it what you want it to feed you.
Brain training
Affirmations aren’t just the positive things we say either – it’s the negative things too. Without thinking – i.e., subconsciously – we train ourselves to say affirmations on a daily basis and these might be words of support and encouragement, or they could even be detrimental, like putting ourselves down and speaking unkindly about ourselves.
Training your mind to change such affirmations into positive ones is powerful. It starts with knowing that you have a choice to change any statement or words you speak into supportive ones. Once you choose to trust that and repeat them often enough, you will start to believe them, and your subconscious mind will begin to repeat them back to you. When this happens, you will start to see the results of your affirmations.
How, then, do you get started? The good thing is that affirmations don’t need to be spoken out loud. You can repeat them silently in your mind to gain exactly the same results. The key is consistency, so they become the new, positive way of talking to yourself.
Mind tool
Try this reframing exercise to create a positive affirmation
1. Grab a pen and paper.
2. Think about something you say a lot about yourself that’s not particularly kind. Now ask yourself, ‘How is this serving me?’ Note down the answer.
3. Next, ask ‘What would happen if I carry on saying this?’ Your answers could be, for example, that things will stay the same, I will feel bad about myself, I will feel stuck, etc.
4. Now write that sentence again, but in a positive way. You might find this bit more challenging, but use words that make it positive.
5 Now ask ‘How will this serve me now?’ For example, it will help me [do the thing I want to do], it will help me feel less nervous and more confident, etc.
You might be wondering if an affirmation is different from a mantra, and you’d be right. Mantras (a single word or phrase, commonly in Sanskrit, that we don’t necessarily give meaning to consciously) are often used as a focus point in meditation to keep returning to and repeating, and can be very calming.
Affirmations are made up of words we choose and understand. As we don’t have to meditate to use affirmations we can harness them all day long, so, for example, simple statements like ‘I am energised’, ‘I am strong’, ‘I am confident, I got this,’ and ‘I have everything it takes to do this’ are brilliant mood and confidence boosters, making them a good way to self-motivate.
Talking the talk
To create your own affirmation practice you just need to stick to some key principles. Keep things simple and always use the present tense. One of the easiest ways to begin is by creating a positive statement starting with the words ‘I am’ and then adding the word that you want to feel, for example, ‘I am worthy’. With time, and once you’re practising consistently, you can expand on those sentences with more positive language such as ‘I am confident and I choose to believe in myself.’
The more you practise, of course, the quicker you will see results, so you have to be willing to keep practising your affirmations. Try to use other mind tools, too, like mindfulness, as they can also help you train your mind and make it easier to create positive statements. A daily affirmation meditation is another way to support your practise – the ‘I am’ meditation is a particularly good one (find it on the Zenme app) or fall asleep to an evening affirmations meditation for self-worth (also on the Zenme app), which can just seep into your subconscious mind while you sleep. Easy, right?
Make affirmations work for you, step-by-step
1. Choose a sentence you want to say every day, for example ‘I am worthy’ or ‘I have what it takes to…’.
2. Write your affirmation on a post-it note and put it on your bathroom mirror, so it’s the first thing you see every morning and the last thing each evening.
3. Now, every time you see your affirmation, repeat it to yourself in the mirror, as many times as possible with purpose and intent.
4. Try this for the entire year and switch out or add to your affirmation each month, so you can get used to creating and practising new ones.
Remember, you have the power to choose a healthy word diet for yourself. Only you can decide how you speak to and about yourself, so why not speak kindly as you would to your dearest friend? You deserve it! Be kind to yourself, because it is in your power to change and to do.
Want to learn how to meditate with ease or listen to the affirmation meditations? Download the Zenme app for guided meditations, self-discovery courses, enlightening podcasts and more – it’s your all-in-one wellness companion. Find out more at zenme.tv
