Your beliefs become your thoughts,
Gandhi
Your thoughts become your words,
Your words become your actions,
Your actions become your habits,
Your habits become your values,
Your values become your destiny.
You’ve probably seen positive affirmations recently, and you might be wondering: What are affirmations? Here’s the best way to explain it:
The way you experience reality starts first with your innermost thoughts.
But changing your thoughts is not a simple task. How many of your thoughts pass through the day without you even noticing?
And then your negative thoughts, that you may not even notice are there, can prevent you from achieving your goals, because they simply are not in alignment with them.
So, what can you do about it? That’s where positive affirmations come in.
At the core, affirmations are a manifestation tool that allow us to shift our thoughts using short, positive statements.
Let’s take a closer look at what affirmations are, and how you can use them.
What Are Affirmations??
Affirmations are short, powerful statements that we intentionally bring to mind to help us overcome negativity and manifest our goals in life.
At the core, affirmations are a simple concept. But the power they hold lies in how they are used.
To learn more about what affirmations are and how they can help us, we can look at the actual meaning of the word affirmation.
The Meaning of Affirmation
Affirmation can mean a few things.
It can mean “support and encouragement”
It can also mean “confirming something to be true”
In the case of spirituality, affirmations actually do both of these things.
They support and encourage us toward creating a desired reality, through confirming that it is already true.
So when you say, “ I am strong”
You are putting it into the universe that this is reality, and even if it doesn’t feel true at first, you are in turn creating that reality.
How to Write Affirmations
When it comes to writing affirmations, you can choose to either create your own, or choose from a list of pre-written affirmations.
If you’re new to using affirmations, pre-written affirmations are a good place to start. As you get more comfortable, you can start to modify these affirmations or write your own.
When you write affirmations, there’s a couple things you’ll want to keep in mind:
- Affirmations are positively framed statements. They focus on the positive, and not the negative. For a super simple example, “I am beautiful” vs “I am not ugly”. We can communicate the same idea, framed is in a positive way.
- Affirmations often start with “I am”. This is why you’ll often hear them referred to as “I am statements.” Affirmations are statements about who we are and the type of life we live, so it only makes sense they start with “I am”
- Affirmations can be extremely general, or very specific. You can apply them to life in general, or to a specific area like health, relationships, and more
Why Should you use Affirmations?
You may find yourself falling into familiar thought patterns on a daily basis. This is totally normal. Our thoughts go on autopilot, and we don’t even notice most of them.
Interestingly, research tells us that 95% of our repetitive thoughts are the same thoughts we have the previous day..
And sadly, 80% of our daily thoughts are negative.
With that in mind, it’s no wonder it can be so incredibly difficult to create positive change in our lives.
But affirmations can help, as they allow you to shift your thoughts toward a more ideal reality.
Affirmations are related to mindfulness, where you choose to notice your thoughts. Except with affirmations, you intentionally create new thoughts, which in turn inform your reality through manifestation..
And the best part is, you can use affirmations for so many areas of your life. A few examples of what you can achieve through affirmations:
- build self love
- make health a priority
- achieve career or business success
- attract love.
- build friendships and relationships
Examples of Positive Affirmations
Looking for a few examples to get started?
- I am doing my best
- I deserve love.
- I love my body. 49 more affirmations for self love
- I am creating the life of my dreams.
- my life is full of blessings. 44 more affirmations for gratitude
How to Use Affirmations
Now, you may be wondering how you can use affirmations on a daily basis.
Ways to Use Affirmations
Affirmations can be used in many ways as a part of a larger manifestation practice. A few of my favorites:
- For journaling. Try writing an affirmation or a few multiple times in your journal on a regular basis. There are several manifestation techniques you can use to guide you through this, like the 777 or 555 manifestation methods.
- Writing affirmations on sticky notes and placing them where you will see them every day. You can even place them contextually. For example, if you have an affirmation about healthy eating, it might be a good idea to stick it on the fridge
- Say your affirmations out loud. I cannot stress the importance of this enough. Saying our affirmations out loud creates a shortcut for us to believe they are true, and thus create our realities around them. Commit to saying your affirmations out loud each day. Even if you feel silly at first, the process works.
- Set positive affirmations as your phone wallpaper. Are you on your phone a ton? One way to keep your affirmations top of mind is to use them as your phone wallpaper.
- Use affirmation cards like flash cards. You can buy or print your own affirmation cards and cycle through them like flash cards. As you do this, take note of which ones stand out to you the most, and set them aside for more frequent use. You can also place affirmation cards in places you will see them every day.
How Many Affirmations Should You Use Daily?
You can choose to focus in on just one affirmation, or use multiple each day.
5-10 affirmations is a great place to start. What’s more important, is that you dedicate at least 5 minutes each day to practice your affirmations.
Another way you can use daily affirmations is to spread them out throughout the day, based on certain tasks. For example, you may want to repeat affirmations for health before you go to the gym, or affirmations for success before going to work.
Do Affirmations Really Work?
The good news– yes! They really work. The bad news— it’s not magic. Here’s what I mean:
What many people don’t know about the law of attraction, is that it’s actually one 1 of 12 laws of the universe at play.
Another? The law of action, which states that in order to change your reality, you have to put in the work.
Affirmations are a tool that you can help to enable you to create change in their life, but they won’t do anything on their own.
Like I said, it’s not magic.
Evidence that Affirmations Work
However, there is some promising evidence that affirmations work
A study from the university of Pennsylvania showed that “affirmations can decrease stress, increase well being, improve academic performance and make people more open to behavior change.”
A separate study found that the affirmations that affect the most change are focused on effort rather than ability.
So, the evidence is promising that when combined with other tools, affirmations do really work.
Closing Thoughts
Think of affirmations as just another tool to add to your life’s toolkit. When you’re struggling in a specific area, or reaching a new goal, think of how affirmations can help you.
You’ll be surprised how quickly you’ll feel the benefits of using affirmations.
Looking for more daily affirmations? Check out my other posts on affirmations:
- 50 Affirmations for Self Love & How to Use Them
- 35 Powerful Affirmations for Entrepreneurs
- 50 Positive Bedtime Affirmations for a Good Night’s Sleep
- 45 Affirmations for Gratitude
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