How to begin using positive affirmations in your day-to-day life
Positive affirmations: you’ve probably heard of them in one way or another. Maybe you saw an ad on Instagram all about apps that give you a new positive affirmation to use each day. Maybe someone you know or follow on social media raves on about how positive affirmations have helped with their self-esteem. Or maybe you’re a bit of a self-help book aficionado who’s heard all about positive affirmations by now, and just haven’t taken the first step.
Before we go any further, let’s start by making sure we’re all on the same page about what positive affirmations even are.
Positive affirmations are short, positive statements that you repeat to yourself, in order to motivate, encourage or uplift yourself.
Phrases like, “I am happy,” “I believe in myself,” and “I give myself permission to [blank]” are some great examples.
Okay, we know. It might sound a little (vegan) cheesy and you will probably feel silly repeating these kinds of things to yourself, but positive affirmations are a powerful self esteem building tool backed by psychology.
Our brains are complex and are always looking for new instructions; new information to learn from and implement. Our survival instincts also mean that our brains try to work as fast as possible to find solutions, and that can often mean filtering out certain information to focus on keywords. Here’s what we mean by that:
Let’s say someone tells you to not picture a pink elephant on a bicycle. What does your brain automatically do? You’ve probably got an image of a pink elephant on a bicycle up there right now.
Sure, they may have said not to do it, but our complex brains like to (perhaps ironically) focus on the keywords and work from there.
The same goes when we talk about our self-perception, and in turn, our self-esteem. Citing a 1988 study, Positive Psychology reports that humans, “just need to be competent and adequate in different areas that we personally value in order to be moral, flexible, and good.”
The way that we measure these feelings of competency and adequacy is often through receiving praise, and the science shows that this praise can come from ourselves, too.
So how do you begin using positive affirmations in your day-to-day life?
Start by thinking about what kind of affirmations would be beneficial to you. What is something you need to work on within yourself?
Keep things simple and straightforward. Remember the elephant example from before? You’ll also want to avoid negative words like “don’t” or “not.”
Speak confidently and in the present tense. You want your brain to feel that these statements are true right now. Phrasing positive affirmations as future goals can be a little less convincing.
Decide how and when you want to use these affirmations. Pick a time of day you normally spend alone. It could be in the morning while you’re getting ready for your day, at night before bed, or a few spots here and there throughout the day. You can choose to take a moment to repeat them to yourself, say them to yourself at different points throughout the day, make them your phone lock screen, or write them down in your daily journal.