I am a terrible public speaker.
I hate the way I look.
I can’t make friends. Nobody likes me.
I will never meet the right person.
I will never get married.
I never have enough money.
Life is unfair.
Sounds familiar? Many of us have negative thoughts like these, sometimes frequently. When we think like this, our confidence, mood, and outlook can become negative, too. Because our subconscious doesn’t know whether what you keep saying to yourselves is true or not. It will always take it as your truth. So, whether you talk negatively to yourself or affirming the positive things, it will be projected out into your life. Again, because the subconscious mind doesn’t care what you put in there, it will take it as your wish, and it will be granted to you. Simple? Yes, and no. Because the same law can work either to your advantage or disadvantage. It’s up to you what you feed your mind with.
Negative thoughts
However, the problem with negative thoughts is that they can become self-fulfilling prophecies. We talk ourselves into believing that we’re not good enough. And, as a result, these thoughts drag down our personal lives, our relationships, and our careers. Sometimes you might feel like you are stuck in this hole of darkness and negative thoughts. You cannot see beyond that. This is because your negative thoughts become your habit. However, the good news is that you can still change those negative thoughts.
If you deliberately do the opposite and use positive thoughts about yourself, the effect can be just as powerful but far more helpful. Moreover, it will improve the quality of your life and more important your perception of yourself and your life.
Understanding Affirmations
Affirmations are positive statements that can help you to challenge and overcome self-sabotaging and negative thoughts. When you repeat them often and believe in them, you can start to make positive changes.
You might consider affirmations to be unrealistic “wishful thinking.” But try looking at positive affirmations this way: many of us do repetitive exercises to improve our physical health, and affirmations are like exercises for our mind and outlook. These positive mental repetitions can reprogram our thinking patterns so that, over time, we begin to think – and act – differently.
Let me give you an example, evidence suggests that affirmations can help you to perform better at work. According to research, spending just a few minutes thinking about your best qualities before a high-pressure meeting – a performance review, for example – can calm your nerves, increase your confidence, and improve your chances of a successful outcome.
Self-affirmation may also help to lessen the effects of stress. In one study a short affirmation exercise boosted the problem-solving abilities of “chronically stressed” subjects to the same level as those with low stress.
Furthermore, affirmations have been used to successfully treat people with low self-esteem, depression, and other mental health conditions. So, they have been shown to stimulate the areas in our brains that make us more likely to affect positive changes in regard to our health.
Although a stronger sense of self-worth makes you more likely to improve your own well-being. So, 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 encourage you to change your behavior.
How to do affirmations
To affirm anything is to state that it is so, and to maintain this as being true in the face of all evidence to the contrary. Human thought can only affirm, for even at the time of denial, it is affirming the presence of that which it denies! Repeating an affirmation is leading the mind to that state of consciousness where it accepts that which it wishes to believe.
–The Science of Mind, Glossary
Affirmations can be used to change your thinking and change your life! Make up your own, or choose from the list below. Make sure that whatever affirmation you choose, that you truly believe the words. Remember, what you can conceive, you can achieve!
The advantage of affirmations
Furthermore, you can use affirmations in any situation where you’d like to see a positive change take place in your life. These might include times when you want to:
- Raise your confidence before presentations or important meetings.
- Control negative feelings such as frustration, anger, or impatience.
- Improve your self-esteem.
- Finish projects you’ve started.
- Improve your productivity.
- Overcome a bad habit.
Affirmations may be more effective when you pair them with other positive thinking and goal-setting techniques.
For instance, affirmations work particularly well alongside the visualization. So, instead of just picturing the change you’d like to see, you can also write it down or say it aloud using a positive affirmation.
Affirmations are also useful when setting personal goals. Once you’ve identified the goals you’d like to achieve, affirmative statements can help you to keep yourself motivated in order to achieve them.
However, the power of affirmations lies in repeating them to yourself regularly. Therefore, it’s useful to recite your affirmations several times a day (have them pop up in your notifications!). You also need to repeat your affirmations as soon as you engage in the negative thought or behavior that you want to overcome.
Examples of affirmations:
By definition, your affirmation will be personal to you, and specific to what you want to achieve or change, but the following examples may provide some inspiration:
- I have plenty of creativity for this project.
- My work will be recognized in a positive way by my boss and colleagues.
- My team respects and values my opinion.
- I am honest in my life, and my work.
- I like completing tasks and projects on time.
- I’m grateful for the job I have.
- I enjoy working with my team.
- I’m bringing a positive attitude to work every day.
- I am excellent at what I do.
- I will be a leader in my organization.
- I create a safe and secure space for myself wherever I am.
- I give myself permission to do what is right for me.
- I am confident in my ability to [fill in the blank].
- I am happy.
- I use my time and talents to help others.
- What I love about myself is my ability to ………….[fill in the blank].
- I feel proud of myself when I ………………. [fill in the blank].
- I give myself space to grow and learn.
- I allow myself to be who I am without judgment.
- I am generous.
- I listen to my intuition and trust my inner guide.
- I accept my emotions and let them serve their purpose.
- I give myself the care and attention that I deserve.
- My drive and ambition allow me to achieve my goals.
- I can do this!
- I share my talents with the world by ………….. [fill in the blank].
- I am good at helping others to ………………. [fill in the blank].
- I am always headed in the right direction.
- I trust that I am on the right path.
- I am creatively inspired by the world around me.
- My mind is full of brilliant ideas.
- I put my energy into things that matter to me.
- I trust myself to make the right decision.
- I am becoming closer to my true self every day.
- I am grateful to have people in my life who ………….. [fill in the blank].
- I am learning valuable lessons from myself every day.
- I am at peace with who I am as a person.
- I make a difference in the world by simply existing in it.
- I am successful.
To conclude, remember your mind is a powerful tool. So, use it to your benefit. Use it as your tool to create the life you desire. Make the most out of it. Because, it’s right here, always available to you. Always. But it’s up to you what will you do with it.
With love and best wishes,
