Positive Affirmations: Beneficial Self-Talk or Just a Bunch of Silly Woo?
It seems Stuart Smalley was on to something.
"I'm good enough. I'm smart enough. And doggone it, people like me!" - Stuart Smalley
Affirmations are more mainstream than they used to be. I admit that when I started hearing and reading about them more, this SNL character always popped into my mind.
I'm sure I'm dating myself a bit by quoting an SNL character from a few decades ago. Those of you who get the reference, I hope, smiled. Those of you who did not, google it. You won't be disappointed.
I only came to embrace the concept of affirmations myself in the last few years. Before that, if I'm being candid, I felt downright silly repeating positive phrases out loud to myself.
I felt distrustful of the famous people and influencers who pushed the idea that you could manifest your dreams by repeating a phrase. I still am a bit. Sometimes it seems they are selling some kind of path to spiritual awakening or magical way of getting everything you want. If you simply say it out loud over and over, your dreams will come true. It comes across as pretty fake, and they pour on the "woo" factor.
So can they help, or are they just a bunch of "woo"? Before we can answer that, we first need to understand what positive affirmations actually are.
What are they, anyway?
Affirmations, also called self-affirmations, are thoughts you intentionally come up with to support, encourage, and calm your brain and body. They can be positive statements used to challenge negative, depressing, or anxiety-producing thoughts and beliefs. They can also just be general supportive thoughts providing encouragement. Affirmations can be used to influence your thinking patterns, behavioral habits, health, and moods.
This is an easy enough concept to grasp. If you think about it, without realizing it, we've all practiced self-affirmation at some point in our lives.
Before a big test or game: "You can do it."
Before an interview: "You got this."
Before an audition: "You're the best one for this role."
Are there any benefits?
Yes, they can have a positive effect on your wellbeing and sense of self. They can also help reduce stress and anxiety.
Here's the thing, though. If you want affirmations to impact your life, you can't practice them sporadically. You can't say them once and expect your life to change. You need to be consistent. As with anything in a healthy lifestyle, exercise, diet, meditation, consistency is key to success.
Do you remember the saying that if you repeat a lie enough times, you and others will eventually believe it? Well, positive affirmations are the same idea with a much more beneficial result. Keep repeating your affirmations, and you'll train your brain to believe them and perhaps, even manifest them. At the very least, they do impact brain activity.
One study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to show that affirmations activate the reward centers of the brain.
So are they a meditation or no?
Affirmations can be a part of consistent meditation practice. Do they have to be? No. Can they be? Yes.
I enjoy incorporating affirmations into my meditation practice and in some that I write and record. It helps me to maintain that consistency. Are they a part of every meditation I do? No, of course not. But, I enjoy including them when I can. And I learn new affirmations by exploring other teachers' mediations.
That said if mediation isn't your bag, but the self-affirmations interest you, there's no reason why you can't start a practice. You can write affirmations to yourself in your journal. You can begin your day by repeating your affirmations before you get out of bed or while you're getting ready for the day.
When I dealt with severe anxiety, repeating calming affirmations during meditation became a significant path in my healing process. Did they cure my anxiety? No. What they did was empower me to take control over my anxiety and change my response to it. Now, when I feel it coming on, I have my affirmations to repeat to myself and help me manage.
Still on the fence?
If the idea of repeating self-affirmations daily to yourself seems too weird, woo, or silly, that's ok. But, with all new things, we do not grow if we do not try. So don't conform to someone else's rules about it. Find the words you need to hear, and then repeat them to yourself. In writing, in silence, in meditation, or whatever feels right to you.
Set a time, a week or month or longer, to practice regularly, and at the end of that time, check in with yourself. What's changed in how you see yourself or the world around you and how you respond to it?
My experience using affirmations for stress and anxiety has been so positive that I branched out and designed a set of affirmation cards. This is not something I ever imagined doing. Still, it sparked my creativity and desire to share something people can keep nearby and use to help them too.
Why am I telling you this? No, it's not to promote a card deck. It's because it goes to show that this is not silly or a waste of time. You never know where something may lead you. If we shake off our preconceived notions and step outside our comfort zone, we can open ourselves to a new positive way of being.
There, that's as "woo" as I get!
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