Decades of academic research and numerous studies have demonstrated the power of positivity and repetitive self-affirmation. The results of a study published in the Journal of Health Psychology, for example, suggest that engaging in spontaneous self-affirmation was related to greater happiness, hopefulness, optimism, subjective health, and personal health efficacy, and less anger and sadness.
Self-affirmations can be “a tool for self-defense” against situations that may emotionally or psychologically threaten one’s self-view. Affirming things about yourself that you value can help boost your self-worth and overall sense of self, and it can improve your ability to cope with potentially damaging experiences.
If you have a strong and stable sense of self, threatening situations won’t affect you as negatively because you won’t fixate on them. When you affirm your core values and don’t tie your worth to things outside of yourself and the innate qualities you possess, your self-image can continue to be enhanced and your confidence continue to grow at all times.
Make sure your affirmations are a reflection of your core beliefs and personal values.
How you affirm yourself and what you’re affirming is important; there is real power in affirming your core beliefs. Self-affirmations are also known as value affirmations– self-affirmation theory emphasizes the importance of your affirmations reflecting your core personal values. There is little point in repeating something to yourself that doesn’t mean anything to you or align with what you believe to be good and worthwhile.
If you can’t believe in what you’re self-affirming, it’s unlikely that they’ll impact your life. You really need to consider what you’re affirming as important, so every affirmation that you choose to repeat should be a phrase that’s meaningful to you.
Write affirmations that are positively focused.
Effective and impactful self-affirmations are positively focused and can reinforce your sense of self-identity. Use your real strengths to guide your affirmations, or strengths that you consider important.
Identify the things that you really value and use that to guide your affirmations. Reflect on what is actually important to you and live true to those beliefs.
Take control of what you speak into your life and what you believe about yourself. How we talk to ourselves greatly affects our lives–take advantage of that and choose the thoughts you let linger in your mind carefully.
Repeat your self-affirmations regularly.
The power of affirmations lies in repeating them to yourself regularly. It’s also helpful to repeat your affirmations as soon as you engage in the negative thought or behavior that you want to overcome. The more you reinforce a belief in your mind or your brain does a certain task, the stronger that neural network becomes, and more efficient the process is each time. So the more you consciously practice positive self-thoughts, the more easily they will come in times of stress.
Find affirmations that align with your personal values on the Selfpause app, or use the app to write and record your own affirmations!
