It is a well documented fact that chronic stress decreases our ability to problem solve, and make analytical decisions. While this may seem discouraging (considering that we all suffer from stress), did you know that affirmations can actually help you overcome the negative effects of stress?
A study done by Carnegie Mellon University showed that self-affirmations have a powerful effect on problem-solving performance — even when the participants recently suffered from chronic stress. The results from the study demonstrated affirmations are a meaningful tool to protect from the negative impacts that stress has on problem-solving.
In the study, college students were randomly assigned into a test group or the control group. The participants were asked to rank a list of personal values based on how significant they viewed them, and were asked to indicate the amount of chronic stress present in their lives. The participants in the test group then were prompted to engage in a standard affirmation exercise that included explaining through writing the importance of their number-one ranked personal value. Both groups were then given a time constraint and various problem-solving tasks that required a sense of creativity to complete.
Chronically stressed participants in the control group significantly underperformed by completing 50% less puzzles than those who indicated they suffered from low chronic stress. In the test group, however, it was found that the simple self-affirmation activity before completing the tasks allowed chronically stressed individuals to perform at the same level as those who indicated they had low chronic stress.
These results attest that self-affirmations can help protect the creative performance of people suffering from stress. They also demonstrated that simple affirmation activities can have a significant effect on one’s ability to problem solve.
Overall, the findings in this study imply that self-affirmations make a notable difference in performance when dealing with chronic stress. If you are interested in integrating simple affirmations into your life to combat the negative effects of stress, give the Selfpause app a try! They have thousands of prewritten affirmations and a place to write, record, and meditate on your own personal affirmations.
