The Art and Science of Affirmations that Work for You
You may cringe when you hear the words, “think positive.” Especially when things are tough! I know I recoil when I hear snippets of positivity that seem to me a form of spiritual bypassing. However, I’ve learned to embrace the practice of positive affirmations after learning and experiencing their benefits.
We will talk about the how and why of creating personally meaningful positive affirmations that work for you.
In the process, watch yourself evolve and thrive, as you add them to your repertoire of spiritual and personal growth practices.
The practice of reciting affirmations reflects the confluence of yoga philosophy and modern psychology, with backup by neuroscience.
My Story of Positive Affirmations
I’ve been including affirmations and intentions in my personal spiritual practice for over a decade now. While some life events have seemed like a “magical” unfoldment of my affirmations, looking back I can see how the positive statements I crafted for myself guided me in making choices and decisions. Perhaps some of these even allowed the magical and serendipitous into my life.
Besides bringing in new and welcome experiences, the practices of affirmations and intentions helped me grow as a person.
The practice of positive affirmations has helped me embody empowering qualities and traits and enabled me to outgrow or transcend limited beliefs.
To me, this personal growth is the most valuable part of the practice, even more than the “magical” things that have unfolded in my life. The practice of positive affirmations in alignment with my core self and values has created lasting change that prompts continued progress in the path of pursuing my dreams and desires.
More important than “manifesting” a desired object, experience, or relationship, the greatest benefit of using affirmations and intentions in daily life has been becoming a person highly aware of and living in integrity with my core self and values.
Affirmations that Work as a Form of Self-Empowerment
Affirmations and intentions are a form of self-empowerment. that cultivates personal growth and change through enlisting the psyche as well as the mind-body connection, using conscious thought to override the often limiting belief system of the subconscious.
Affirmations give us the opportunity to articulate our values and sense of self and “rewrite the script” of core beliefs.
This helps us direct our actions and choices, and sets us up to receive new and positive opportunities.
We can use this for exponential positive change.
Mahatma Gandhi distilled the process with his famous inspirational words. “Your beliefs become your thoughts. Your thoughts become your words. Your words become your actions. Your actions become your habits. Your habits become your values. Your values become your destiny.”
The Psychology of Affirmations that Work
One of the key psychological theories related to positive affirmations is “self-affirmation theory” proposed by Claude Steele in 1988. This theory elucidates that people, across cultures and historical periods, are motivated to maintain self-integrity, or a perception of themselves as good, virtuous, and able to influence important outcomes.
As two professors from Stanford and UCSB explain, our sense of self-efficacy and self-integrity can be maintained by telling ourselves what we believe or value (aka positive affirmations). “Affirmations have been shown to improve education, health, and relationship outcomes, with benefits that sometimes persist for months and years. Like other interventions and experiences, self-affirmations can have lasting benefits when they touch off a cycle of adaptive potential, a positive feedback loop … that propagates adaptive outcomes over time” (Cohen & Sherman).
Self-affirmations help people “maintain the integrity of the self, a global sense of personal adequacy.” When people write about core personal values in their affirmations, the “intervention” of self-affirmations “bring about a more expansive view of the self and its resources.”
Through self-affirmation, we create and maintain a narrative about ourselves in which we are flexible, moral, and capable. We create our self-identity as an ever-evolving and growing person adopting a range of identities and roles, while remaining true to an inner system of core values.
If our sense of self can evolve and change, our definition of success can also evolve … which serves our growth.
Enicia Fisher Shares Her Love of Affirmations
A Personal Story of Affirmations
When I was 15, my definition of success was winning the election for Junior Class President and making a lot of friends. A few decades later, I define success as the freedom to engage in work that is authentic to my core values while receiving compensation commensurate to the quality of my offerings, my skills and experience.
I may not have all the things that others in my social circles would label “success” at this stage in life. (Such as owning a house, driving a luxury car, et cetera.). But I’m able to reframe my situation with the acknowledgment that I have a lot of freedom in my life, which is one of my core values.
This is the psychology of self-affirmations at work.
I can choose to articulate it in the following way. “I enjoy freedom and success as I engage in meaningful work, and I receive abundant compensation commensurate with my skills and experience.” This positive affirmation helps me override the beliefs of limitation, financial insecurity, and fears of the future.
Affirmations can help override negative self-talk or self-sabotaging beliefs.
- Affirmations can potentially help us “re-write” the subconscious patterning by replacing them with more empowering narratives.
- Self-affirmation theory confirms that my ability to view aspects of myself as positive allows me to adapt to different situations.
- Adaptability is an asset working in today’s culture of constant change and the sometimes dramatic upheavals we are all experiencing.
- Affirmations can help us integrate new ways of thinking, which is the premise of cognitive restructuring in CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy). Next time you meet with your therapist, ask about co-creating a positive affirmation as a tool in addressing a thought pattern that makes you feel limited!
The Neuroscience of Affirmations
Besides the research of psychologists, neuroscientists acknowledge that positive affirmations can affect the brain itself. According to a study published by Oxford University, MRIs suggest that certain neural pathways are activated when people practice self-affirmations (Cascio et al).
Affirmations engage parts of the human brain that process positive valuation, information about our self, and rewards. People who use affirmations show increased activity in neural networks, especially when reflecting on core values and when related to the future.
The “neuroplasticity” of the brain can further amplify the results of self-affirmation by reinforcing a positive outlook on life.
Yoga Philosophy and Affirmations
People who practice yoga love it when modern psychology and science “backs up” the teachings of the ancient philosophy and teachings of yoga. Setting an intention is a common practice in yoga classes. But the practice of positive affirmations also derives from the focus on development of self-awareness, the foundation of yogic wisdom.
Yoga originally developed as a practice and way of life based on becoming aware of one’s inner self and finding equanimity amidst the ever-changing fluctuation of thoughts and emotions.
The primary purpose of yoga asana practice is to allow a person to “take a seat.” This leads to meditation and stillness. The intention behind asana and meditation within the yoga tradition of India is to cultivate inner equanimity and observation of thought patterns, while discovering the essence of self, or identity.
This inner awareness is a foundation for mental health and well-being. When a person is familiar with who they are at their core, their essential self, they can notice when they are off-track or “out of alignment” with their self and values.
Awareness is the first step for self-regulation.
Affirmations are one of the many practices, along with asana, breathwork, meditation and mindfulness, that help us come back “home” to our essential self, our values and purposes.
Psychotherapist and yoga teacher Gretchen Suarez explains it further: Yoga gives a person “the chance to explore personal and psychological patterns and … the opportunity to establish and cultivate a relationship with their inner awareness…. A yoga practice will certainly improve the look and health of your body, but the true benefit is becoming aware of who you are and know, accept, and love yourself unconditionally.”
What are Affirmations?
The definition of affirmations gives a clue as to why they are so powerful.
Simply put, an affirmation is a positive phrase or statement that is used to challenge negative or unhelpful thoughts.
The Psychology Dictionary describes affirmations, in the context of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, as “a brief phrase which is spoken again and again…to plant seeds of happy and positive notions, conceptions, and attitudes into one’s psyche.”
Psychologists note that the most effective affirmations are created by a person for themselves and reflect their particular values and identity (Sherman). Affirmations give people the opportunity to identify their core self and values–who they are, who they want to become, what is important to them, what really matters in the larger context of life.
Affirmations are not just superficial self-esteem boosters. They give a person a chance to regain perspective and confidence that they can overcome challenges.
How do Affirmations Work?
Positive affirmations put the spotlight on a person’s sense of adequacy and values. Affirmations affect motivation and can set in motion a series of events that reinforce the feeling of self-adequacy. Affirmations assist in big accomplishments and small everyday acts, which can have large effects over time.
When applied to challenging situations, affirmations can ease stress and help a person make positive choices. A person’s confidence in their ability to overcome future challenges grows and contributes to a person’s “self-reinforcing narrative” (Cohen et al).
Affirmations do not take away a challenge or stressor. But they help a person place it in a larger context so they can rise to the occasion and find more creative solutions to problems. This may make events seem less stressful, while also helping a person focus on their priorities, which can create a self-reinforcing cycle of positive change.
Affirmations also help people learn from their mistakes and reassure people that they have integrity and are “okay” despite the adversity they may be facing.
Affirmations give people confidence to approach problems instead of avoiding or giving up. Practicing them can reinforce a person’s self-concept as someone who can overcome difficulties successfully.
Affirmations help a person construct a self-narrative of adequacy.
This in turn strengthens their confidence and resolve for the next adversity, which then reinforces the narrative of adequacy and success.
In this way, affirmations can have significant and long-term effects. When affirmations reinforce psychological processes, their effects can grow over time and can even bring about a turning point that sets off a series of reciprocally reinforcing events, creating a positive feedback loop that can increase a person’s potential (Cohen et al).
As seen with students and athletes, affirmations not only help a person’s performance and self-assessment, but also affect others’ positive expectations of them. This can create an additional positive feedback and reward system, and bringing more opportunities.
Affirmations have proven to have lasting benefits in education, health, and relationships. These are areas where problems typically emerge over time and grow when unaddressed.
Affirmations can trigger a positive cycle or interrupt a negative one. The interactive processes of using positive affirmations (even if done by only one person in a relationship!) can bring about positive and lasting change in academic and career performance, health, and the quality of relationships (Wilson & Linville).
Benefits of Affirmations
Research from psychology and neuroscience suggests that the practice of positive self-affirmations offers many benefits. Positive affirmations are shown to have the following benefits.
- Decrease stress and improved health and well-being.
- Increase rates of physical exercise.
- Ability for us to face challenges with less resistance and more success.
- Make us less likely to dismiss or avoid health concerns.
- Encourage us to make positive behavioral changes. These can include, but are not limited to exercising, quitting smoking, or eating more fruit and vegetables.
- Boost achievement in education and career.
- Help us cope with illness, maintain hopefulness, and improve recovery.
- Lessen rumination and other harmful thinking, including negative self-talk.
- Empower us to make better life choices.
- Help us postpone short-term gratifications for the sake of long-term goals.
- Reduce our tendency to linger on negative experiences and instead encourage an optimistic mindset.
Putting it into Practice: How to Craft Affirmations that Work for You
We know what affirmations are. We have endorsement from psychology professors and ancient yoga philosophy, along with backing by neuroscience, and we know the benefits.
Like yoga, affirmation practice is not an out-of-the-box, one-size-fits-all practice.
The affirmations that work for one person may not work for you. Not everyone shares the same values or has the same priorities and goals.
How do we craft our own affirmations that will work?
While an affirmation might seem like magical thinking, the key factor to its efficacy is that it helps a person identify and align with their core self and values. It affirms who a person is (or strives to be) in terms of their abilities, values, relationships, and life goals.
Affirmations are more successful when they are focused on what a person wants to do, who they want to be or become, or what qualities they will embody.
Some Basic Tips for Crafting Affirmations that Work
1. Keep it Positive
Effective affirmations are stated in a positive way of what one wants to be or experience, rather than fixated on the past, on a negative, or on what one wishes to avoid.
2. Be Specific and Clear
Be clear rather than vague. But avoid fixating on specific things or certain events (or even people). For example, instead of “I am happy to drive my new luxury electric car,” a more effective affirmation might be, “I enjoy a life of luxury and ecological awareness.”
3. Keep it Simple
Write an affirmation that is brief and easy to remember. Choose no more than 1-2 sentences. Use everyday language.
How to Begin a Daily Affirmation Practice
Identify the core values that resonate most with you.
Ask yourself some of the following question to get started on identifying your core values.
- Do you value freedom over security, or vice versa?
- Do you identify most with compassion and generosity, or persistence and power?
- How do you define your true nature?
- Are there particular strengths you wish to draw upon and activate in your daily life?
- What qualities do you equate with success?
- What is most important or worthwhile to you?
Write your affirmation in a positive statement incorporating the core values you wish to access.
- You may wish to include targeted actions you will take and positive emotions to reinforce a positive mindset.
Create a daily practice to recite your affirmations.
- At least once in the morning and once in the evening is a good goal.
- See if you can incorporate your affirmation into something you already do on a daily basis. For example, recite it as you wait for your morning brew, while you walk the dog, or after brushing your teeth.
- Try to feel your affirmations–what emotions or sensations arise? Do you feel a full-body, full-hearted YES? Feel it fully!
- Visualize yourself fully embodying the affirmation. What are you doing? What kind of person are you becoming? As you are in this process, what life events are taking place? Picture the goals you will achieve.
- Express gratitude. Give thanks ahead of time for the good you will receive as this affirmation comes to fruition (more on this topic in my article, Gratitude as a Spiritual Practice).
- Reflect and revise. If the affirmation doesn’t “light you up,” try writing it differently. If it “gets old,” freshen it up with some new wording or write a new affirmation.
Pro Tips for Affirmation Success
- Journal about your affirmation, its process and your progress.
- Incorporate your affirmation into a daily meditation or contemplation practice.
- Make it available and/or make it pretty. Write your affirmation on a sticky note and post it on your desk or mirror. Print it in an attractive font and hang it on your fridge. Write yourself a “love note” inside an eye-catching card with your affirmation. Write your affirmation on a piece of watercolor paper painted with vibrant colors. Place your affirmation on a vision board (see my article, How to Create a Vision Board that Really Works).
- Recite your affirmation in front of the mirror for additional self-reinforcement.
- Incorporate affirmations into your goal-setting and see if you achieve the action steps more effortlessly.
- Practice your affirmations regularly and consistently over a period of time if you want to make lasting changes, especially when confronting an old thought pattern.
- Keep an expectant attitude and watch for opportunities and synchronicities that bring your affirmation to life.
- Have fun and enjoy the process and your affirmations will begin to work for you.
Make your affirmation something you can believe and embody.
You want your affirmation to feel true for you, and not something completely opposite to your belief system. If you are challenging a particular limiting belief, make your affirmation a bridge statement that can help you “step up” to what you want to integrate into your mindset.
A good check for affirmation success.
Make sure that instead of having your inner voice reply, “Yeah, right!” your inner self replies “Oh, yes!” to your affirmation. You can also tune in to your body to see if your energy seems to shrink or expand with your chosen affirmation, and adjust accordingly.
A popular reinforcement to repeat after an affirmation is “And so it is!” Another option can be, “Thank you, Universe!”
Get Started with Writing Affirmations that Work
Back to psychology, Richard Schwartz, Ph.D., developed the Internal Family Systems model to help clients become aware of the core self and its values. He identified key traits such as compassion, connectedness, creativity, patience, and persistence. People who express these qualities are more likely to have a positive mindset, greater well-being, and higher levels of success in life.
Here are some affirmations based on the Internal Family Systems which I wrote as examples. Please feel free to adapt and try them out!
- Calmness. “I am calm and serene throughout my day.”
- Creativity. “I am a creative being and infuse my life and work with creativity.”
- Clarity. “My inner clarity guides me to make empowering decisions.
- Curiosity. “I can be curious and expand my perspective.”
- Courage. “I have the courage it takes to follow through.”
- Compassion. “Compassion brings me greater peace and understanding.”
- Connectedness. “I enjoy meaningful connection with friends and family.”
- Presence. “I am fully present to my loved ones when we spend time together.”
- Patience. “I have an infinite reserve of patience within.”
- Perspective. “My true nature provides me with greater perspective.”
- Persistence. “I have the persistence to follow through on what is important to me.”
- Playfulness. “I can be playful and lighthearted.”
Many people wish to start with affirmations related to self-acceptance. If you think about it, how can you be in touch with your inner self and your core values if you don’t first accept yourself, flaws and all?
Examples using cognitive behavioral therapy to reverse negative core beliefs.
- By being myself, I bring happiness to myself and others.
- Through courage and dedication, I meet my goals and set myself up for success.
- My desires and goals are worth the investment of my energy and resources.
- I admire and respect myself and I love who I am becoming.
- I am grateful to have unlimited resources available to me at all times.
- My body is amazing just the way it is, and I accept and honor myself by taking good care of it.
- I contribute to positive change in the world by following my unique purpose.
- I surround myself with loving and supportive people who bring out the best in me.
Inspire Yourself with Affirmations that Work!
I hope you are feeling as inspired and motivated to incorporate affirmations into your life as I am!
I’d love to hear from you in the comments below as you put it into practice. And I look forward to sharing affirmation practices with like-minded people like you on our next retreat in November.
Enicia Fisher loves to hold sacred space for healing and transformative experiences by guiding people to come home to their body, breath, Nature, and Spirit. She has been curating, hosting, and offering healing retreats since 2012 in the US and Mexico. Founder of Sanadora Sanctuary Retreats and Sanadora Yoga International Teacher Training Program, Enicia has taught yoga since 2005 and has been practicing yoga personally since 2000. She loves yoga because of its mind-body approach and because of the healing power of integrating all aspects of being through the wide range of yogic practices: body, emotions, mind, soul, spirit, philosophy and mindset, and lifestyle practices.
Enicia created and leads Heart Alignment Yoga? and “heartfulness” meditation with an emphasis on Divine heart qualities and life-affirming yoga philosophy that inspires people to live with a deeper connection to their own heart, body, and spirit.
Enicia has a Master’s degree in Education, founded a small private school in Southern California, and is registered with Yoga Alliance as a highly trained and experienced teacher, E-RYT 500.
Enicia is a mother to two wonderfully creative and grounded young adults and is also an author currently preparing her first novel for publication. A Southern California native, Enicia now divides her time between her family base in Los Angeles and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.
Enicia began leading retreats in the Riviera Maya in 2015, and has offered ten retreats in the region since then. She lived in Akumal/Tulum for three years and continues to collaborate with local healers and ceremonialists on all of her retreats, in honor of the indigenous traditions and cultures being incorporated.
Enicia wishes to honor the Mayan guardians of the sacred lands of Tulum (Ekab), and her teachers who have shared their wisdom and practices: Leon Xochitl Coatl, Adrián Salas Xopan, and Devi Chandra Ma from Quintana Roo, and Ashley Fiala, Doreen Madison, and David Kutruff from Shraddhaa Yoga School.