“I wrote weekly affirmations for one year to support my mental health”

Negative thoughts about yourself and your body can be hard to ignore. Here, we explain how you can fight them off with powerful affirmations.

In recent months, I’ve noticed a significant shift across media and society in attempting to protect our mental wellbeing – and thank goodness for that considering the year we’ve just had. Unlike the stigma that was once attached to mental health in the past, exercise for our minds has become as mainstream and critical as physical exercise. Now, value is placed on building mental strength as much as it is for physical strength. And when either of those takes a hit, I see the ways in which it impacts my wellbeing – which is how I learned to exercise my mind and emotions by practicing affirmations.

Two years ago, I was working a job that made me incredibly unhappy. I’d just moved to New York City from Houston, and my goal was to get work quickly – so I settled on my first offer. Six months later, I found myself being torn between gratitude for having a job in a competitive industry and simply wanting to walk away from an unfulfilling situation.

My confidence took a hit daily and it was getting harder to stay positive. So one day, I wrote myself a message on a sticky note. It read, “Hey Chels! You’ve got this girl! Knock ‘em out!”. As I sat there one evening, feeling really down about my life, I realised that the little note of encouragement sticking to my laptop always made me feel better – so I googled ‘affirmations to start your day right.’

At the beginning of each day, I would repeat these daily mantras to myself out loud to put myself in an optimistic and positive state of mind – opening myself up to having a good day. And when I found myself struggling throughout the day, I would refer back to the affirmation and repeat it silently to myself. Yes, I know that talking to yourself in the mirror might seem as mystical as reiki and crystal healing. But before you roll your eyes at me, let’s hear from the experts.

One of my favourite explanations of how affirmations impact our mental and emotional wellbeing comes from Ronald Alexander in an article on Psychology Today. He writes: “An affirmation can work because it has the ability to program your mind into believing the stated concept. This is because the mind doesn’t know the difference between what is real or what is fantasy. There are both positive and negative types of affirmations. If an unwholesome belief is deeply rooted in our unconscious mind, then it has the ability to override a positive affirmation, even if we aren’t aware of it. This is why, for many people, affirmations don’t seem to work: Their afflicted thought patterns are so strong that they knock out the effect of the positive statement.”

One of the key psychological theories behind positive affirmations is self-affirmation theory. The psychologist Catherine Moore wrote in a post for Positive Psychology that “there are empirical studies based on the idea that we can maintain our sense of self-integrity by telling ourselves (or affirming) what we believe in positive ways.”

What I love about affirmations is that they aren’t intended for us to disregard the reality of our circumstances or what it is that we’re feeling. Instead, they benefit us by conditioning our response to say, ‘I recognise what I am feeling, so I am going to be proactive about speaking life into these circumstances.’

I’ve gotten into a routine where I recite my affirmations three times a day. First thing in the morning, at midday to help myself reset, and at night before I go to bed. When writing affirmations, I focus on whatever it is I’m dealing with or what I want to affirm. Then, writing an affirmation that begins with “I am” and following up with proactive terms. For example, instead of, “I will do my best to be kind to my body” I say, “I am kind to my body.” It’s important to take those negative thoughts and use them in your favour by turning them into something positive.

Louise Hay, author of Heal Your Body, is considered one of the most sought after voices for affirmations. “You have the power to heal your life, and you need to know that,” reads one of her most famous quotes. “We think so often that we are helpless, but we’re not. We always have the power of our minds… Claim and consciously use your power. Remember, you have been criticising yourself for years and it hasn’t worked. Try approving of yourself and see what happens. Every thought we think is creating our future.”

And remember, in order to achieve overall wellness – in mind, body, and soul – it is imperative that we focus on developing more than just our physical bodies. To work on one part of our being without the other is counterproductive and a big part of the reason why I am so passionate about affirmations and decided to write a book about it. Speaking to ourselves in a positive manner has the ability to build us up, help us see the best in ourselves, and serve as an effective buffer when we are not able to strengthen our bodies physically.

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