Am I alone in feeling a lot more anxious these days? My social media tells me I’m not. A lot of you have been sharing your stories with me this past week.
Affirmations are sentences that affect the conscious and the subconscious mind, so that in turn, they affect our behaviour, thinking patterns, habits and environment.
Everything that we repeatedly say to ourselves out loud or in our thoughts is an affirmation. The Reticular Activating System (RAS) is a part of our brain that makes words that get repeated over time as part of our identity, positive or negative.
Personal development gurus Rachel Hollis; Tony Robbins and Brendon Burchard all use affirmations regularly. You might be thinking that those quotes on Pinterest or those highlighted sentences in your favourite book are affirmations but that’s not always true.
Positive affirmations are always in the present tense, your brain only responds to present tense statements.
Unsurprisingly, positive affirmations only include positive words. If you see a positive affirmation that contains words such as: “don’t,” “can’t” or “won’t,” it’s not a statement you’ll want to repeat. It takes your brain a lot of extra work to get past negative statements and transform them into positive ones.
Positive affirmations are spoken as statements of fact and truth. Statements that contain words such as “might” and “could” aren’t nearly as powerful as statements that have words like “am” and “do.”
Below, I have listed my favourite affirmations. Try some of the below out, and see how it feels.
Anxiety makes me feel uncomfortable but I am in charge of my mind and body.
I rise above the thoughts that frighten or worry me.
All is under control.
Anxiety is only a feeling, it does not control me.
Today I breathe deeper and practise inner peace.
I am unique, beautiful, enough and worthy.