Do Affirmations Work? How To Integrate Affirmations In Your Life
Affirmation or self-talk is the internal dialogue with the subconscious mind of an individual, and well, the truth is that affirmations can be both a positive and a negative self-talk.
We tend to engage in self-talk in our routine by thinking or speaking about ourselves, our lives, and our current state of mind without being aware of it.
Remember that one time someone asked you to play a game and you responded “Nah, I’m too bad at this…”
Well guess what, that is an affirmation! By saying this out loud, or even thinking about it, you just affirm to the brain that you actually suck at this and thus, your brain, actions and thoughts bend to that belief and make it a reality.
Quite the opposite, if you respond with “Sure, I’m pretty certain I can learn this game in no time!”, you make a positive affirmation that follows the same sequence, making the brain believe it can learn quickly and again, bending to that belief to make it a reality.
So, the short answer to the question is - Yes! Affirmations do work. However, more often than not, people use them to affirm negative beliefs, rather than positive ones.
If you’re looking for ways to integrate affirmations positively in your life, do keep reading this article!
How Positive Affirmations Affect You
Since positive affirmations are about success, positivity, and productivity, they inspire and motivate you to achieve your goals.
With positive self-talk, you are able to create a positive mental attitude by tricking your brain into creating new belief systems, or upgrading the old ones.
In addition to that, doing so can help you A LOT in certain situations, such as:
● It helps you stay motivated when you feel demotivated
● It inspires you when you are looking for inspiration
● You are able to develop good, positive habits
● It improves your mental health
The bottom line is that positive affirmations and positive self-talk allow you to change things for the better.
You are cheerful about life and don’t feel miserable anymore, because you’ve managed to break into your subconscious and rewire it.
How Negative Affirmations Affect You
Contrary to positive affirmations, negative affirmations are destructive, as that negative self-talk makes you feel bad and miserable.
It does not allow you to change your thoughts/viewpoints and bring about good change.
Furthermore, the negative affirmations focus on problems and failures, rather than your ability to overcome them.
With having negative self-talk you only make the problems bigger because:
● It causes low self-esteem
● You feel little or no hope
● It reinforces the feeling of the victim
● You feel stressed
When you tell yourself things like “I am a failure” you allow yourself to feel even more miserable.
Making a Shift From Negative To Positive Affirmations
Since negative affirmations will not create any results, you must shift from negative to positive affirmations in order to live a happy, positive, and meaningful life.
As Donna Karan says, “Delete the negative; accentuate the positive!” To do this, you will need to promise yourself to accept and acknowledge the negative thoughts, rather than attach to them and make them linger on for longer.
Once you acknowledge those thoughts, try to not take them so seriously and don’t let them unfold as an entire story in your head. Don’t dwell on your negative thoughts.
Second, learn to reverse the negative affirmations. A very simple strategy to this is by replacing every negative phrase with the positive one.
For instance, when you feel like you are worthless, tell yourself that you are worthy, or, instead of saying “This is impossible to do” try and say “There is probably at least one way to do this”.
Third and most importantly, write down the positive affirmations for every negative one.
By doing this, you will see a shift that will make your negative thoughts disappear and you will be able to focus more on positivity.
Doing Daily Affirmations
Positive affirmations are a powerful way to develop positive thoughts every day, because repeating certain phrases makes them more and more believable to your brain.
The best part? Such positive affirmations could be used for self-love, work, stress-management, self-esteem, success, and more.
You can find various affirmations online, but remember that developing your own, personal affirmations is the best way to actually FEEL them and thus, make them more believable for your brain.
An important thing to remember and consider while developing your affirmations is you should always focus on well-meaning positivity and facts.
In addition to that, your daily affirmation should be written and spoken in the present tense because your brain communicates in the present.
Conclusion
There are a number of limiting beliefs that we hold, which lead to us affirming negative things about ourselves, out loud or an internal self-talk.
Affirmations can make or break you, so learning how to master that self-talk is essential for your own greater good and success.
Try and analyze yourself and get rid of everything negative that you keep believing about yourself and replace it with something more likely to bring about a positive outcome.
So what are you waiting for? Start doing your daily affirmations and rewire your self talk today!
