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What Are Positive Affirmations?

They are a way of reframing negative thoughts.

How Do Positive Affirmations Work?

They utilize your brain’s neuroplasticity

Your experiences shape and change your brain through a process known as neuroplasticity.  Neuroplasticity allows your brain to rewire itself if it encounters damage (functional neuroplasticity) and it enables memories, learning, and experiences to change the physical structure (structural neuroplasticity). This allows us to be efficient and adaptable. The power of positive affirmations lies in their ability to harness structural neuroplasticity to shape your brain through the introduction of new neural pathways. Each time you repeat your positive affirmation, that connection gets stronger. So as you repeat positive affirmations, you’re essentially restructuring your brain to focus on more positive and constructive thoughts.

They help you visualise positive scenarios and start to believe in them

Positive affirmations work to counter the negative thinking patterns, limiting self-beliefs and negative self-talk that exists in your mind. They do this by challenging and replacing the self-doubt, criticism, and pessimism that can lead you to fearing the worst. As you get more confident in saying your positive affirmation to yourself they start to embed themselves in your though processes and slowly shift your mindset to being more positive and supportive of yourself.

They help reinforce positive thought patterns

Positive affirmations help internalize positive thoughts about yourself and your goals so that they become your automatic thought patterns. They are able to do this because they involve regular repetition of positively framed phrases involving yourself and your aspirations, which helps to reinforce them. So, the more you genuinely repeat them, the more likely they are to become ingrained in your thoughts.

Positive thoughts = Positive actions

Your thoughts can influence your feelings, behaviour, and actions. Therefore, if affirmations are have the ability to influence your thought patterns, they can also influence your feelings, behaviour, and actions. When you believe in your abilities or your potential, you’re more likely to have the confidence to start doing what is necessary to achieve your goals. This helps you create a self-fulfilling cycle where your beliefs start to influence behaviour and actions that align with those beliefs. Tying affirmations to specific behaviors or habits also helps to encourage those behaviors. For example, if you want to eat healthier, repeating, “I make nutritious food choices” can reinforce that behavior by helping you to be more conscious and intentional with your food choices.

The Power of Positive Affirmations

The power of positive affirmations lies in several key psychological and behavioral effects:

They help you to shift your mindset and perspectives: Affirmations help reshape your thinking patterns. By consistently repeating positive statements, it helps you to focus on constructive and optimistic thoughts rather than negative ones. This helps encourage you to hold a more positive mindset overall. In difficult situations, they also help shift you from holding a negative problem-focused perspective to having a more positive solution-orientated one. This helps you increase your resiliency.

They help to boost your self-esteem: You can boost your self confidence and enhance your your-self esteem by choosing affirmations that highlight your capabilities and strengths and that emphasise your self-worth. You can use them to remind yourself that you have value and you are capable. As you repeat them more regularly and start to internalize them, these positive messages may start to alter how you see yourself. They may help you to start seeing yourself in a more positive light and start looking at yourself with a kinder eye.

They help to reduce stress: Studies have shown that positive affirmations can reduce stress and anxiety. They do this by promoting a sense of calm and control. This is because when you spend time repeating your positive affirmation it can help focus and calm your mind- allowing the whirlwind of thoughts to settle for a moment. They can also counteract your negative thought patterns that often lead to stress- like self-doubt and worst-case scenario thoughts.

They can increase your motivation: Ever worked toward a goal that you can’t stop thinking about? How motivated did you feel to achieve it? Pretty motivated right? Positive affirmations work similarly in the sense that they serve as reminders of what you are working for. They help you focus on your goals and with that focus comes the increase in determination and drive you need to achieve them.

They can lead to improved performance: Positive affirmations can enhance your performance in many areas of your life, from academics and career to sports and personal relationships. Believing in your abilities can lead to better outcomes.  Albalooshi et al. have also shown that positive affirmations can help you if you have low self-esteem and are in a state of powerlessness, by combating the effects that powerlessness can have on your cognitive performance.

They also help to increase your focus. Repeating affirmations can improve your focus and concentration. They help you channel your thoughts and direct your attention away from the hustle and bustle that goes on in your mind. They also help you focus and pay attention to your goals and aspirations, which increases your motivation and determination to achieve them.

They can increase your resilience: Affirmations can boost your resilience in the face of challenges. This is because you can use them to remind yourself that setbacks and situations are temporary and that you have the inner strength to overcome the challenges you are facing. This can help you gather the courage and the strength to face the difficulties you are experiencing and start taking steps to overcome them.

They help you cultivate a positive self-image: By regularly practicing affirmations that focus on self-acceptance and self-love, you can start to develop a more positive self-image. Through affirmations, you can help yourself focus on the good things about yourself, and help you start feeling more positive about being you.

Improved Health: A positive mindset and reduced stress, which affirmations can contribute to, have been associated with better physical health and a stronger immune system. Studies have shown that they reduce health-deteriorating stress (Sherman, Bunyan, Creswell, & Jaremka, 2009).

How to harness the power of positive affirmations

Make your affirmations specific

Positive affirmations can be a powerful tool when used effectively. One way to ensure that they are effective is to make them specific. There are lots of good affirmations out there, but the problem is that a lot of them are generalised. You need to be creating affirmations that accurately reflect the areas in your life or yourself that you want to improve. You also need to be making affirmations that are specific to the goals you are trying to achieve. This way they are designed and detailed in a way that is best suited to help you.

Make/choose an affirmation you can believe in

To harness the true power of positive affirmations you need to make them personal and something that you can truly resonate with. If you can, try to create your own, they’ll be more effective because they are personalised. If you are going to use one you’ve taken off the internet, make sure it really does resonate with you. If it doesn’t, use the affirmation as a template and turn it into something that it does capture you.

Phrase them using present tense (not the future)

Positive affirmations should be worded in the present tense and not the future tense to unlock their full power. You need to phrase them as if the thing you are talking about is already happening. So switch up your “I will” to an “I am” the next time you use your positive affirmation.

Repeat them often

Consistency and repetition is the key! They are the keys to strengthening those neural pathways and internalising your affirmation. So, find times in your day that work best for your to practice repeating your positive affirmation. You can even incorporate it into your self-care routine.

Repeating your positive affirmation may feel awkward at first and it may be difficult to remember to actually practice your self care phrase. However, if you make it a goal for yourself and treat it as a micro habit it can eventually become second nature to you.

Match them up with an action

When using affirmations to target your goals, don’t forget to pair it with action. Affirmations work best when they are paired with concrete steps and actions. They work in conjunction because affirmation will be the driver and motivator towards success and the action it is paired with will direct you to being a step closer to it.