What are Positive Affirmations?
Think about a recent example of failure in your life.
I can still recall years ago an email that I had sent to a client… Only it was the wrong client. The industry I was in placed a lot of importance on the content of emails, and the sending of an email to the wrong client was considered a cardinal sin. I remember telling myself, “You idiot!”, “How could you have been so stupid!”, “It was such a simple task!” and other unforgiving, unkind commentary.
Horrible – even to write now. But how easy it is to fall into that trap?
Meanwhile, only a few weeks ago a colleague made a similar mistake, and I was the first to say “Don’t worry about it! You’re only human. No need to beat yourself up about it, it was an easy mistake and it’s done now”. So why is it so hard to do the same for ourselves…
The idea of failure.
We are conditioned from a very young age to see failure as definitive. Our education system places a lot of pressure on young people to achieve a certain grade, or to compete with our contemporaries. We are compared to one another (this is literally how grades are formulated) and that creates a false reality that we judge ourselves by. So it is natural that we then form patterns that are unhealthy, when we translate this into everyday life.
Experiencing feelings of failure can be connected to other health issues, such as depression and anxiety. A lot of the symptoms of failure are common in other disorders, such as – low self-esteem, feeling helpless and continuous low mood.
Prevent getting hung up on shortcomings?
Be kind to yourself. One of the fundamentals of mindfulness is kindness. Specifically, ‘loving-kindness’, which many can find a little bit difficult to understand. However a really simple way of enacting this, is to reinforce our strengths, address challenges with fervour and keep your brain flooded with positive neurochemicals, through…
‘Positive Affirmations’.
Speaking positive affirmations to ourselves, whether aloud or in our heads, makes us more resilient to failure. You may be interested to know that the word affirmation comes from the Latin affirmare, originally meaning “to make steady, strengthen.” So, what are we strengthening? Our brains – more specifically through rewiring them. Similar to exercise, positive affirmations raise the level of feel-good hormones in our systems and push our brains to form new clusters of “positive thought” neurons.
Benefits of Positive Affirmations
- Improving emotional regularity and self-control
- Reduces anxiety around making mistakes
- Creates a more holistic sense of self and reduce obsessive mind patterns
- Makes you less defensive and more open to criticism
“You are what you think”, is similar in principle to “you are what you eat”. The idea with positive affirmations is that ‘little and often’ is better than trying to do it all in one go. Standing in front of the mirror for an hour saying “I am confident” is less effective than saying it to yourself in your head momentarily throughout the day.
“I am confident” when you are feeling confident, “I am confident” when you are feeling that your confidence is challenged. Consistency builds your brain and creates a positive mindset over time and with practice. The same way that eating regular healthy meals over a 6 month period is a better way of losing weight, rather than having one big healthy meal once in a while.
Do you want to learn more about the power of the mind?
Take a look at this clip:
