The Power of Positive Affirmations
I struggle with positive affirmations. I wouldn’t describe myself as a positive affirmations kind of person. I don’t receive them well and also struggle with giving them out.
It’s not something I do by second nature.
But at the same time I recognize its importance in people’s self-esteem, their self-perception, and their overall desire to continue to grow and develop.
So if you’re like me, here’s a reminder on the importance on positive affirmations (for your productive self as well as for the positive mindset of others in your life).
Positive affirmations are statements that are designed to change the way we think and feel about ourselves
They can be powerful tools that can help us develop a more resilient and confident mindset.
If you’re a particularly negative person or engage in regular negative self-talk, remember that youru thoughts can shape your mind and your outlook.
We all have a voice in our head that can be critical and harsh.
And the more your inner thoughts constantly berate your actions and feelings, the more helpless you can feel about everything.
If you cannot see the positives And negatives and simply see negatives, then your perspective is distorted.
By repeating positive affirmations for yourself and for others, the goal is intentionally levelling the playing field.
We can train our minds to focus on the good in ourselves and in our lives.
And it is 100% a trainable, learnable perspective. Even if in this exact moment, you feel entirely negative and self-critical.
Secondly, positive affirmations help to build confidence.
Confidence is an essential part of a resilient mindset.
Confidence allows us to believe in ourselves and our abilities, especially when things go wrong or go awry from original plans.
It gives us the courage to take risks and to pursue our goals.
Taking more risks can expedite our learning, allow us to be more experimental or explorative, and feedback into even more self-confidence.
Positive affirmations help to build confidence by reminding us of our strengths and by helping us to focus on our successes.
Third, positive affirmations help to create a positive mindset. It gears us towards seeing positivity in all facets of our lives. Whereas we can simply be positive about our own abilities but a situation can cause us to lash out at others fro their negative impact on our lives, a positive mindset can structure our thinking to likewise apply that positive towards our surroundings and others. When we have a positive mindset, we are able to see the good in every situation, even when things are difficult.
Positive affirmations help to create a positive mindset by reminding us of the good in ourselves and in our lives. And despite the negativity in our lives or in our own characters, it doesn’t take away from our positives - negate those positives, or diminish those positives.
The impact of such positive thinking is easy to see on improving our mental health. They can be done anywhere, at any time and don’t require any special equipment or training. They are simple yet powerful tool that can help us to develop a more resilient and confident mindset.
Here are 8 simple steps to intentionally and actively implement positive affirmations in your own life.
Start your day with positive affirmations: Begin your day by repeating positive affirmations to yourself. This sets a positive tone for the rest of the day and helps you to focus on your goals.
By incorporating them early in your day, your mindset is shifted towards positivity early on. There’s less benefit to being reminded of your positive mindset right before bed because you’re not going out into the world at that point. You’re going to unconscious for a couple hours in your bed.
Write them down: Writing down your affirmations helps to solidify them in your mind. Keep a journal or a note on your phone and refer to it throughout the day.
When you’re first starting out, it can be challenging to recall or truly intuitively recognize the positivity in our life. The goal is to build the practice with consistency. So writing down the affirmations is a way to offload the cognitive dependence on recalling the actual affirmations. All you need to do is read them to yourself daily.
Use them as a screensaver: Set your computer or phone screensaver to a positive affirmation. This way, you will see the affirmation every time you use your device.
Remind yourself. You want the positivity to be constantly present in your head to balance out the negativity and self-doubt that exists in you already.
Repeat them throughout the day: Repeat your affirmations throughout the day, whenever you have a free moment. This helps to keep them at the forefront of your mind.
The rationale should be clear by now. Continue to remind yourself and actively and intentionally remind yourself.
Incorporate them into your daily routine: Incorporate your affirmations into your daily routine. For example, you could repeat them while brushing your teeth or during your morning workout.
Bootstrap this new habit to already existing habits you have. You don’t forget to brush your teeth. By adding this habit to your established habits, you can ore easily ensure you are thinking about it regularly.
Listen to them: There are many affirmations available as audio recordings. Listen to them while you're doing other tasks, like cooking or cleaning. Sometimes people will listen to them on their car ride to work. Especially if you don’t believe them yourself, hearing someone else talk about you in this way can be a powerful boost.
If you’re comfortable, another effective spin-off method would be to record yourself talking to yourself about it as well. It can be likewise very powerful to hear yourself express strong and confident positivity, especially if you are not one to typically do so.
Use them in visualization exercises: Use affirmations in visualization exercises. Imagine yourself achieving your goals while repeating the affirmations.
Visualizing yourself accomplishing huge feats and goals is important to turning those aspirations into reality, particularly if you currently feel lost and self-critical. Sometimes, we get stuck in feelings of inadequacy, incompetency and self-criticality. These ultimately manifest in feelings of ineptitude and inability. So how could you possibly see yourself accomplishing or mastering some challenging farfetched task.
Visualizing yourself accomplishing these things is important because especially when you have no self-confidence, it can be the unlock to truly accomplishing this feat. And as you see yourself accomplishing these feats repeatedly, you develop a self-confidence and faith in yourself to do it again. This is self-esteem and self-belief.
Believe in them: The most important thing is to truly believe in your affirmations. If you repeat them but don't believe in them, they will be less effective. So, try to internalize them and believe in the positive changes that they can bring to your life. Now, obviously, that’s the crux of it. If you don’t believe, then the effects of these positive affirmations is diminished. But I would 100% argue that even if you don’t believe, still do it. It important to develop the habit first because if you don’t have the self-confidence to do the talk and it’s not a habit, you will never be confident enough to take the risks to further foster your confidence. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy of inadequacy so start with the habit even if you don’t believe. Then, start trying to believe.
Now, let’s talk about why it’s important even for people like me who self-identify as not positive affirmation people.
I think it’s important to recognize that if multiple blogs/people/productivity people talk about positive affirmations, even if you don’t feel self-doubt and fear of failure limits your ability to perform, recognize that it could be impacting your loved ones, your friends, your coworkers and your employees. Recognize that this can impact their ability to perform, their desire to take risks and grow, and can be a source of confidence when they may not have that self-confidence themselves.
So if not for yourself, do it for others. Boost their self-confidence. Give them affirmations if they aren’t at the point of being self-reliant on that aspect.
Incorporating positive affirmations into your daily routine can help to boost your productivity and motivation. They can help to keep you focused on your goals and can also improve your overall mental and emotional well-being. Try incorporating some of these tips into your daily routine and see how they can help you to lead a more productive and positive life.