50 Life Affirming Affirmations To Change Your Life

50 Life Affirming Affirmations To Change Your Life

Author: Sue Mazur

Did you know that in 2021, one of the most popular Google searches worldwide was ‘Affirmations’?

It makes you wonder why doesn’t it. While affirmations are no substitute for professional help such as personal development, self-discovery courses or counselling when you’re experiencing anxiety or depression, those who swear by the power of affirmations find it improves their mindset and performance. 

Affirmations can be used to motivate yourself, encourage positive change in your life, or boost your self-esteem. And yes, there is genuine theory, studies, evidence and a fair amount of neuroscience behind this practice. If you’re looking to form better mental health habits, this is a great, and free, place to start.

What Are Affirmations, and Do They Work?

Affirmations are positive statements that can help you to challenge, overcome, or refocus negative thoughts. When you repeat them often, and believe in them, you can start to make positive changes. 

You may have thought that affirmations are unrealistic and a bit of fluff – wishful thinking. But think of it this way. Many of us do repetitive and consistent exercise that improves our physical health. Affirmations are the same for our mind and outlook. By focusing on them we can reprogram our thinking patterns and consciously put into place thoughts that are positive and have meaning to us, so that, over time, we begin to think – and act – differently.

From Fluff to Life Affirming

Affirmations allow your intellect (mind) to keep up a global narrative about yourself. In self-affirmation theory, you move away from viewing yourself in one “fixed” way, as a “student”, “daughter”, “the grumpy one” or whatever “label” you or someone has put on you, and move yourself into flexible way of seeing yourself and adopting a different way of being - including how you define success and your ability to adapt to different situations. You can also better handle pressure on your thoughts and energy, so you are clearer to improve your life. When you use affirmations to ‘self-affirm’ and it is aligned to your values and realistic aspirations for the future, this is extremely powerful. That’s the caveat though – there has to be alignment for it to be effective.

Benefits of Daily Affirmations

Affirmations have many benefits and may also boost your overall health too. Studies support the idea that the words we choose matter. A good positive affirmation can help you decrease health-deteriorating stress, increase the neural pathways in your brain, lower rumination, respond in a less defensive and resistant way, develop more adaptive and resilient sense of self. Other research found that saying or writing down affirmations may foster a deeper sense of belonging.

In addition, incorporating your affirmations into meditation can be relaxing and soothing. Meditation has been also been found to also have numerous benefits in terms of mental health. Keeping an affirmation journal is also highly beneficial.

What Does The Research Say?

Evidence suggests that positive affirmations can help your performance. According to an Oxford Academic publication, “self-affirmation can restore self-competence by allowing individuals to reflect on sources of self-worth. Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI’s) results demonstrated that participations showed increased activity in key regions of the brain’s self-processing, and this neural activity went on to predict changes in sedentary behaviour”. 

According to researchers, spending just a few minutes thinking about your best qualities before a high-pressure meeting at work (e.g. a performance review) can calm your nerves, increase your confidence and improve your chances of a successful outcome.

Further, self-affirmation may also help to mitigate the effects of stress. In one study, a short affirmation exercise boosted the problem-solving abilities of “chronically stressed” subjects to the same level as those with low stress.

What’s more, affirmations have been used to successfully treat people with low self-esteem, depression and other mental health conditions. And they have been shown to stimulate the areas in our brains that make us more likely to effect positive changes in regard to our health.

Powering Up Your Affirmations

There is evidence that the higher your self-esteem, the more effective affirmations can be. The use of affirmations is one way to make positive changes in our life. When you pair them up with goal setting, self-discovery personal development, mindfulness, meditation, journaling, positive thinking, you can really power-up this technique. It gives you the opportunity to analyse the thoughts and behaviours that you would like to change in your life and career and develop positive, credible and achievable affirmation statements that are the opposite of the negative thoughts that you hear in your head or sit on your shoulder, weighing you down.

Warning

Negative thinking and impulses can cause severe health problems, and in extreme cases, death. While these techniques have been shown to have a positive effect on reducing occasional negative thinking, they are for guidance only. If you have any concerns over related illnesses or if negative thoughts are causing significant or persistent unhappiness, please take this seriously, and book in a consultation.

How to Write an Affirmation Statement

Think about the areas of your life that you’d like to change, e.g. do you wish you had less anger or more patience? Or more loving relationships with loved ones and friends? Or would you really like a work day where your mind is clear, focused and productive?

Write down several areas or behaviours that you would like to focus on. Be sure that they are compatible with your core values and the things that matter the most to you and are reasonable and achievable. You want to feel genuinely motivated and believe that you can achieve them. If you set an unrealistic goal (ie doubling your salary without improving your skills) it is unlikely that affirmations will impact your life – they aren’t fairy dust.

Write your affirmations in the present tense, as if it is really happening. Writing it as “I am confident, prepared and well-rehearsed, and I can give a great presentation” is great, rather than “I can be confident if I prepare and rehearse”. The first example helps you to believe that the statement is true – RIGHT NOW.

Remember to say it with feeling. Affirmations are effective when they carry a true feeling behind them. You need to want this change to happen, so every affirmation that you choose to repeat should be a phrase meaningful to you.

Examples of Affirmations

1. I choose to be happy
2. I believe in myself and trust my own wisdom
3. I am a successful person
4. I am confident and competent
5. Wellness is the natural state of my body
6. I can do this!
7. I am truthful in my life and my work
8. I am grateful for the job I have
9. I enjoy my life and my work
10. I am brave and stand up for myself confidently
11. I am a natural leader
12. I love the changes in my energy when I attend a course
13. I respect others and others respect my wisdom
14. I am calm, clear my words have impact
15. I am confident of my discernment and use it to make great decisions
16. I choose to rise above negative feelings and ditch negative thoughts
17. I am resilient, strong and brace and cannot be destroyed
18. I am gifted with and surrounded by an amazing group of people
19. I am in charge of my thoughts and I don’t judge myself
20. I accept and love myself completely
21. Nobody by me decides how I will feel
22. When I go to sleep, I will regroup and wake up fresh and inspired
23. My goals and desires are as worthwhile as everybody else
24. I am fine with who I am and I love who I am becoming
25. Through my contributions, I make positive changes to the world
26. I choose to surround myself with and attract supportive and truthful people
27. I am a quick and capable learner
28. I am unique and beautiful
29. I forgive others for sometimes doing the wrong thing, and I forgive myself when I do the same
30. Whatever difficulties come my way, I have the power and resilience to overcome them
31. Today, I am going to trust myself and my instincts
32. If a few people don’t understand nor accept me, I am fine with that
33. I was born strong and grow stronger and wiser every day
34. If I fall down, I get back up again
35. I am responsible for looking after me
36. I experience and recognise joy each day
37. I am at peace with my body and accept it as it is. It was created to do amazing things
38. I am responsible for what happens to my body and treat it with love, respect and care
39. I am patient with my body when it needs rest, healing and recovery
40. I choose to release love, happiness and gratitude into the world today. Life is precious and beautiful and I choose to focus on the positive.
41. I know I am alive for a reason. Today, I honour my purpose and inspire people around me to do the same.
42. I embrace my best self today. I live in a way that brings tranquility, joy, and pleasure to myself and others.
43. I am grateful for this wonderful day and the endless possibilities it has to offer. I know something great is in store for me
44. No matter what goes on today, I know the truth that I am a radiant, powerful and free woman/man
45. I push fear aside and take action in spite of perceived limitation because I know all of my needs are being met by the universe
46. I am exactly where I need to be. I welcome the challenges and opportunities that I am facing today and I choose to learn, grow and heal
47. I am ready to commit to my ideal life, and the world works alongside me. I take the first step and the rest comes naturally
48. I release my attachment to anything that does not serve me
49. I choose to learn from the positive and negative events of the past so that I continue to make progress towards my bright future
50. I do not allow other people to hold me back from achieving my goals. I give myself permission to walk my own path and allow other people to do the same.

https://www.livingillumination.com/pages/affirmations

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Read other articles related to this topic:

1. How to Improve Your Mental Health - 7 Ways

2. Dave Grohl - Perfection can be a Beast 

3. The Pursuit of Perfection 

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