Using Affirmations
I’ve been using affirmations for years and at first, it was very much a case of “fake it til your make it” with them. Reading something, even repeatedly, doesn’t mean that we are going to start believing the words right away, our neural pathways take time to develop so naturally creating new ones are going to take time to. That’s why when it comes to using affirmations I always encourage being patient and trusting that with regular practice you will start to believe them.
When used effectively, benefits people start to notice from positive statements and affirmations include:
1. Improved sense of self-worth
2. More confidence
3. Increased motivation
4. More positive
5. Less stress and anxious
Although you can find an endless supply of positive affirmations anywhere on-line, over the years I have found that the most effective ones are those I create for myself based on my own self-beliefs and although I have included a deck of 50 affirmations on this page to get you started, I encourage you to think about creating your own. Start by writing down a negative self-belief you have about yourself and then write the exact opposite of that statement on another piece of paper – that new statement is now your affirmation. An example is “I am not good enough” being replaced by “I am enough exactly as I am”. Make the statement short and encouraging and repeat it to yourself as often as possible. The more you repeat it the more quickly you will start to develop those new neural pathways.
The final thing I’ll say about using affirmations is to stick with it. It takes at least 21 days to start creating a new habit so it may take that length of time before your new affirmation starts to take hold and you notice a difference. So don’t give up if you don’t see an immediate result. This practice isn’t about seeing immediate changes; the change comes with consistency.
The deck below is downloadable, but as I said, use these as examples and maybe have a go at creating your own set of affirmations.