Why On Earth Would You Say An Affirmation?

Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid. - Albert Einstein

This quote reminds me of how often we limit ourselves based on negative self-perception or societal standards, rather than tapping into our real potential.

One of the things I talk about a lot in my writings or socials, and encourage in my clients is to understand how powerful the mind really is in enabling, making and adapting to change at any time. The sky really is the limit.

Knowing this, the future suddenly becomes more appealing and with more happiness potential if you are in a place where life is not in balance.

Whether you're juggling too many responsibilities, feeling stuck, or standing at a crossroads. (And that's outside the guidance and help of life coaching in these areas.)

No matter who you are, you all have this potential.

Your past does not need to define your future. You can start now and move forwards in a different direction, with different behaviour, that is more akin to your desired goals and more in keeping with who you really are.

We all have the ability to change.

Did you know that you can retrain the brain to think positively, so subconciously we take actions to support our goals or the behavioural change that we all desire for our futures?

The additional bonus of having more positivity is what we think can impact not only our mental wellbeing but our physical wellbeing on a cellular level too - as well as, clearly, the lifestyle choices we make.

I used to pooh pooh affirmations practice as fluffy nonsense until I saw its power and understood the science behind it.

What is an affirmation?

In this context, an affirmation is a statement that you think of and say out loud several times a day that you assert or wish to assert or declare to be true.

Common examples of negative thinking and thoughts that a lot of people have would be "I am not good enough" or "I am rubbish at this" or "I am not a good leader".

An example of an affirmation would be when you shift your mindset to transform the statement "I am not a good leader" into "I am a great leader," or "I am not good enough" into "I am more than enough." Or "I'm an excellent at...INSERT WHAT APPLIES TO YOU".

When you say the positive statement enough, your brain really starts to believe it and start making connections on a cellular level to focus the brain onto more positive thoughts that support these statements.

Affirmations are not the only answer which is explored in my life coaching but when you think how easy it is to make a positive change, the potential is exciting!

Positivity really does nurture and create more positivity. It's also infectious, on another note, but that is something I've written about elsewhere.

Studies show that reinforcing positive thoughts improves long-term mental and physical health. For example, meditation and affirmations have even been linked to improved physical well-being, including organ health.*

Likewise affirmations can help with

• increasing activity in the brain in the rewards and self regulating areas (MRI studies)
• increased self control and promoting an increased sense of personal values
• increased self efficacy reflected in both better health behaviour but also promoting better health behaviour
• increased productivity, focus and also academic achievement
• just-in-time affirmation use reduced smart phone overuse

as well as increasing happiness.*

So really it's a no brainer, if you pardon the pun!

Start thinking happy and you will be happy.

Moreover, your brain will start to believe it and you will take actions to support future success.

Retraining your brain to think positively is a powerful, accessible tool for personal growth and well-being.

I'll leave you with this thought .....

What could you accomplish if you weren’t held back by negative thoughts or that inner critic?

Thank you for reading - I hope you enjoyed it!

I'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences in the comments below,

Katherine

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References:

Alexander.R. et al "The neuroscience of positive emotion and affect: implications of cultivating happiness and wellbeing" Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2021: 121: 220-249

Psychology Today 7 August 2023

Xu, X et al. (2022). TypeOut: Leveraging just-in-time self-affirmation for smartphone overuse reduction. Creative Commons Attribution International.

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