Maximizing the Benefits of Affirmations: How to Harness the Power of Positive Thinking

most common categories of positive affirmations

Self love affirmations:

Self love affirmations are used for self love! Use them to build and develop and better relationship with yourself. To develop self love and appreciation for your unique and wonderful self. Self love affirmations can help you learn to accept yourself, build self esteem and cultivate a healthy self image.

Examples: 

“I am worthy of love”

“I am enough”

“I love and accept myself exactly as I am”

Abundance and Wealthy Affirmations:

Abundance and wealth are there to help you attract wealth and financial success. These affirmations will help you focus on positivity and abundance instead of negative thought and lack of money or scarcity. 

Examples:

“I am worthy of abundance and prosperity”

“Money flows easily and effortlessly into my life”

Success and Confidence Affirmations

With these affirmations you can work on achieving your goals and increasing your self confidence. We all experience self doubt every once in a while, these types of affirmations can help you overcome negative self talk and doubt and believe in yourself and your abilities. 

Examples:

“I am capable and deserving of success”

“I am confident in my abilities”

Health and Wellness Affirmations

You can use healthy and wellness affirmations to work on improving both your physical, mental and spiritual well being. You can use these affirmations to develop good, healthy habits in all areas of your life and develop a healthy lifestyle.

Examples:

“I take care of my body and it takes care of me”

“I am strong and healthy and full of energy”

Peace and Happiness Affirmations

These affirmations are meant to help you cultivate inner peace and happiness despite your external conditions. Essentially helping you cultivate peace and happiness from within, to concentrate on the present moment and disregard the stress and negativity.

Examples:

“I choose peace and positivity”

“I am at peace with my surrounding and myself”

Relationships Affirmations

Relationship affirmations are designed to help you in your relationships with loved ones, family friends, even coworkers. They can help develop loving and supportive relationships in your life.

Examples:

“I am surrounded by love and positivity”

“I am worthy of love and i give love freely and easily”

One of the essential steps before we get to actually crafting our personalized effective affirmations is to understand ourselves. What does that mean, well simply put before you can craft your affirmations you will need to take a deep dive inside yourself. 

Know yourself

Identify your beliefs and values

Our values and a=our belief system is a cornerstone of who we are as individuals. They can either limit us or propel us forward. In order to create affirmations that truly resonate with you, its important to take a moment and explore your core values. Here are a few prompts to get you started. Think about:

  • What is important to you?
  • What do you stand for?
  • What are some of your core beliefs about yourself?
  • What do you believe about others?
  • What do you believe about the world around you?

Your strengths and your weaknesses

If your goal is to grow and improve, it’s crucial for you to honestly evaluate yourself, without judgment. Identify both your strengths and areas where you could use some improvement. This honest evaluation of yourself will help you create your perfect personalized and most effective affirmations that will help you grow and achieve your goals.

Understanding what it is you want to achieve.

You might know exactly where you’re going and what it is you want  and you might not. If you are unclear about your goals that’s ok, take a few minutes and think about what it is you really want, what are you trying to achieve. At the end of the day you can’t get there if you don’t know where you are going. 

Now that we are familiar with types of affirmations and what it is we are trying to accomplish its time for some practical tips:

 Now that you know what your goals are, make a list and keep it close. Decide what you are going to work on first, prioritize it. You can choose one thing that you are going to work on or  maybe there are a few things on your list you would like to tackle. Decide your plan of “attack” sort of speak

Craft your affirmations:

Use positive language: One of the more important aspects of crafting your affirmations is to use positive language. You want to concentrate all your attention on what you are trying to achieve, not things you are trying to stop.

Example: Instead of saying “I don’t want to stress” or “I want to worry less” try using something like “I am calm and relaxed” or “I am calm and at peace”

Use present tense: Positive affirmations are most effective when used in present tense, so when you are crafting yours make sure to use positive language and set them in present tense. Doing it this way helps train your brain to believe your affirmations are true. 

Example: So instead of saying “I will be more relaxed” or “I will be more confident” try something like “ i am more relaxed” and “I am more confident”

Avoid negative  words: Make sure you avoid using negative words such as no, never, don’t. This can be a little tricky sometimes, but with a bit of practice virtually anything can be rephrased with positive language without negative words. 

Example: so instead of saying “I will not be afraid” use something along the lines of “I am courageous” or “I am strong”.

Make affirmations personal to you 

To get the most out of your affirmations they need to be personal to you. It’s perfectly fine to find an affirmation or two online if it covers what you want to achieve or use some popular affirmations as a jumping off point. But in order to make your affirmations effective make sure they are personal to you.

Repeat your affirmations regularly:

The idea behind affirmations is that with repetition they become a part of your subconscious mind and reprogram your brain. So the more you repeat your positive affirmations the more effective they become. Repetitions and consistency is key. 

Believe in your affirmations.

This might be tricky for some, sure is for me sometimes. And it may take a bit of time to fully believe in your affirmations but with practice and consistency you’ll eventually get there. Repeat them as if they are already true, with conviction!

Reference

Raypole, C. (September 1, 2020). Positive Affirmations: Too Good to Be True? Healthline. Retrieved from https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/do-affirmations-work#takeaway

Chiu, A. (May 2, 2022). How to make self-affirmations work, based on science. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2022/05/02/do-self-affirmations-work/

Boynton, E. (September 15, 2021). How to Practice Positive Affirmations — and Why They Work. Right as Rain by UW Medicine. Retrieved from https://rightasrain.uwmedicine.org/mind/well-being/positive-affirmations