How Many Affirmations Should I Say a Day

I’ve recently watched again the movie “Groundhog Day” with my family, and it’s interesting how since the first time I watched it I have a different take on it. Now that I know a great deal about positive mindset, I instantly thought to myself: “well, if he really wanted to break free from that repetitive routine, he should have used daily affirmations!”

Positive affirmations can help you change your life and make it more positive. For instance, when something stressful happens or when anxiety creeps in try saying “I am in control of my life.” This will boost confidence by reminding you it’s all up to you and your choices, and you have more power over your day than you give yourself credit for.

What Are Positive Affirmations?

Before going into the discussion of “how many”, let’s have a refresher on the concept. I also talk about what are positive affirmations here, but a quick definition is that affirmations are statements that build your confidence while eliminating self-sabotaging thoughts. There are many good effects from using positive affirmations daily.

The truth is, we have a tendency to put ourselves down in our own minds, and positive affirmations are a powerful tool to turn that around, causing numerous positive impacts in our lives.

Positive affirmations can help not only raise your self-confidence and self-esteem but give your mood and attitude a boost. It can help keep you on track when you are working hard to reach your goals. They have to power to make you see how much more you are capable of, as well as improve the way others see you and your interactions.

Affirmations are great self-improvement tools for their ability to knock down our limiting beliefs and build confidence that leads us to success.

Positive affirmations are a form of auto-suggestion and a self-empowering tool that helps go through tough situations. They should be incorporated into your daily routine, just like taking a shower or brushing your teeth.

How Many Should I Use a Day?

Which is how we finally come to the discussion of how many affirmations we should use a day to make it effective. I find that this is the question that keeps you from starting. Consider the practice of daily affirmations to be effective if you do it regularly, like exercising.

I just went back to exercising after spending the entire last year at home due to the pandemic and not working out at all. I brought myself up to a 15-minute daily aerobic exercise. It may sound like nothing to a fit person, but I can tell it works because it brings my heart rate up and I feel the exertion on my muscles. I’ll raise the time and resistance as I feel I can take on more. For now, it’s all I need and what matters is I have started.

Don’t wait to find out the magical number of how many affirmations should I say a day to get started. Pick 2, 5, or 10 that resonate with you. Whatever amount feels comfortable for you to start and not postpone it anymore, because “there’s no way I’m going to affirm x number of positive affirmations in my already busy day”. Do an amount that works for you, with affirmations that work for you. Change the affirmations, and how many you use, as you feel necessary.

As an example, I have six affirmations glued above my computer monitor that I look at every day. I used my affirmation cards to pick these out:

How to Use Daily Affirmations

Check out the list below and pick the way to incorporate affirmations to your daily routine that best fit your lifestyle.

Use an Affirmation Journal

Just as writing down goals and intentions for your day, writing down your affirmations is a powerful way to register them to your brain, and make them real. Select a handful of affirmations to start with and write them down every day.

Visualize Your Affirmations

You may not feel the affirmations you are using is true at the moment, but you would like them to be. And that’s ok. Start by visualizing that it has already become reality as if watching yourself in a movie. Your subconscious doesn’t know the difference between reality and imagined reality, anyway. Tell it how you want it to be by visualizing it, and it will accept it to be true and help you get it. 

Verbalize it

Say it to yourself in front of a mirror every morning. The routine is what makes it be ingrained into your brain. But don’t just say it: believe it, feel it – or imagine how you would feel if it were there already?

In the beginning, it may feel fake, but if you make a habit out of it, it will get easier. Incorporate it into your morning by associating it with some other activity you already do routinely, such as brushing your teeth, and it will be easier to remember to do it!

Break it Down

If an affirmation sounds too far off and making you uncomfortable (such as “I accept an extra million in my account today”, though, why not?), try instead starting with a step-by-step approach that will get you ultimately there. 

Maybe saying “I accept an extra thousand (or a hundred) dollars on my account today” is not going to cause the money to drop into your bank account literally, but it may sound more achievable. Besides, you are not just saying and expecting this to happen without taking supportive action, but by using the affirmations, you kick the process in high gear. And by breaking it down into smaller steps, it may make it easier for you to truly believe it will come to you.

Create Your Own Affirmations

It’s perfectly ok to start by using generic affirmations you feel resonate with you, but you may after a while feel like you need more personal affirmations.

You could use the ones you have and make slight changes to adapt them to your style, or completely rewrite them. What matters is they work for you.

Be Consistent

Somedays our routines are thrown out the window despite our best intentions. This happens to everyone and you should not blame yourself for missing a day here or there. Just make sure you get back on track as soon as you realize it and make it a daily habit, using whatever technique best suits you from the ones above. If you feel like you don’t have time, a good tip is to just think your positive affirmations.

Actually, one trick I use is to think the opposite of what my mind comes up with when thinking negative thoughts. And these will never go away, although I’m much better nowadays at shifting these as they happen. “Oh, I will never recover my stamina (after 15 minutes of working out and feeling exhausted)”. Is responded with: “wait, who said so? I’ve overcome being out of shape before and I will again, now!”

See them as they come, and hit them back with positive affirmations! Then say it again in your mind, until your “negative nelly brain” gives up and moves out, at least for the moment.

There’s no limit to the number of times you can use affirmations on a given day. Another thing I love to do and recommend is to surround myself with positive affirmations on the things I use on a daily basis. This is why I created the Blissful Road store. Check it out!

And… Go!

Now that you overcame the limiting belief that you can only make it work if you know exactly how many affirmations you need to use a day, get started!

To see real results, go ahead and choose yourself some appropriate positive affirmations, an implementation technique, and believe them during your daily practice. Affirmations just work, by the powerful effect they have on your subconscious brain when you repeat them enough times and believe them to be (at least potentially) real. 

Believe in yourself, and use positive affirmations to unleash your potential. You’ll be surprised how far it can take you!