“Nothing can dim the light that shines from within” - Maya Angelou
Affirmations are positive words that you say to yourself that can help you feel motivated and reshape your limiting beliefs. Affirmations are a key factor when using the law of attraction and manifesting your dream life.
The definition of self-affirmations is the ability to think positive thoughts so you can empower yourself.
Some people believe its nonsense, and some believe it works. I’m not here to convince you of either but to talk about my experience and how they have helped me.
Do affirmations work?
I discovered the power of affirmation almost 4 years ago after attending a seminar. The presenter was so passionate about getting everyone to start using affirmations as part of their daily routine. I was extremely motivated, as you do, after the seminar so I started with ten minutes in the morning. I would listen to YouTube motivational affirmations.
I’m not going to lie; it didn’t make sense to start with and I often found myself thinking what absolute nonsense! I didn’t understand how saying things to myself was supposed to help me feel motivated. On reflection and now that I do see the value in doing them, there are several reasons why it didn’t work.
I felt like I was lying to myself. Where things are going wrong, I am telling myself I’m brave. Brave where!? I didn’t believe the words I was saying were describing me coupled with doubt. Affirmations require you to visualise yourself in that goal/future in order to manifest it. After some further reading and speaking to others who practice affirming daily, I overcame these barriers. I started writing my own affirmations (rather than listening to ones on YouTube but that’s not to say that they are bad) which were more relatable to my desired situations.
Since using them, I have never looked back. They are my go-to when the going gets tough and I feel stuck. You can use them when you want to positively change things in your life.
So how does one get started? Using self-affirmations is developing a new thought process. You are telling your brain to think in a particular way than it is used to. I recommend practising for 21 days because that’s how long it takes to form a new habit and with practise, anything can be improved.
How to use affirmations
1. Think of your life and what changes you want to make. Where do need improvement or feel less confident. Could be:
Business – turn your side hustle into a full-time income
Confidence – make decisions you trust and get rid of self-doubt
Career – looking for a new job, be more confident when giving presentations
2. Ask yourself some self-discovery questions and identify your personal core values. Questions can include who am I? What are my personality traits? Where do I see myself in 5 years?
3. Decide you want to change your mindset (which of course doesn’t happen overnight but takes lots of practice)
4. Create your affirmations of the desired situation
For example, If you are trying to find a job and feeling discouraged or you think you are not good enough. You can change your mindset by using self-affirmations such as “I am confident in my abilities to work in my dream job that brings lots of satisfaction.”
How to create affirmation statements
Make sure every word in the sentence is positive
Always use it in the present tense. Use words like I am… rather than will be or I am going to
Repeat, repeat, repeat. Affirmations aren’t I said it once and I am done. The more you repeat them the more they will impact your reality.
Visualise yourself in the goal which you are trying to achieve. Don’t just say I have a great job that brings me joy and money actually envision yourself in that environment with that awesome paycheck!
Where should you place your affirmation statements?
I would recommend a place where you can see and/or hear them. As I said, using affirmations is developing a new way of thinking so the more you see them or the more you listen to them (like we do music), the more you believe in achieving your goals and manifesting into your destiny.
Mirror - repeat them in front of a mirror looking at yourself to emphasise the affirmations
Record yourself - you can record yourself on your phone saying your affirmations and play them before you go to bed or when you wake up
Save them as a screensaver - you are constantly reminded every time you go on your phone
Display them - I write mine on post it notes and stick them in my room so I can see them first thing.
Here are some great books I recommend reading to understand more about how affimations work:
R x