How to Create Your Own Positive Affirmations
You have learned that a daily practice of positive affirmations boosts your self-confidence, self-esteem, improves your mood and even your health. You know where to find them: any search engine such as Google, or YouTube if you prefer video/audio format. (Don’t forget, also, in our store).
You wish, however, for something more customized, more personalized to your current situation. Maybe you are looking for specific motivation for your health goals for this year, or you have started a new business and need encouragement you are on the right path for success, or you have just gone through a hard week and need a reminder of all the good things you have going for you.
Where can you find positive affirmations for those specific situations?
“Write your own!”, they say! But you never wrote your own positive affirmations before and don’t know where to start.
How to create your own affirmations
Fear not, it is not that hard! The first part in designing your own affirmations is learning some general guidelines you will find below.
Speak in first person
When you are reading positive affirmations for yourself, a phrase that reads “I am powerful” speaks about your person more than “You are powerful”. Also, you want this message to reach your subconscious by use of repetition. When you use “I” it is clear to the subconscious who this message applies to. Therefore, always use “I”, “me”, “my”, “mine”.
Use the present tense
I understand this one is a challenge for many, because, in many cases, it is interpreted as saying things that are not “real”. “I attract success and wealth”, for example. You might feel that this is not the case (at least not currently). And I understand the resistance to using an affirmation you do not identify with.
Let’s talk about identity for a minute, then. If you identify yourself currently with someone who does not attract success and wealth, but this is the person you wish to become, you may want to let go of that perception. Another example of identity would be: “I am a smoker”. If you plan on quitting smoking, it would do you good to break that identity by starting to use an affirmation that represents what you desire to identify with instead. For example: “I love my body and cultivate healthy habits” would be a good alternative.
The other thing is you don’t want to affirm “I am trying to do my best in my work”. Why? Trying is not your objective. Think having, doing and being: “I am”, “I ‘do'”, “I have”, etc.
Avoid using negatives
Words such as “no” and “don’t” are filtered out by the time the message reaches the subconsciousness. Being so, you want the message to focus on the positive elements. Avoid things like “I am not a bad friend”. Say instead: “I am a great friend and people love hanging out with me”. Aim high – this person already exists inside of you. If you look at it that way, you won’t feel like you are “lying”. You are just working on bringing that reality out – it already exists in the universe and is just waiting for you to step into it.
Believe it
If you are going to start affirming something so it manifests in your life, you want to believe it can happen. Hopefully you can see that a key component here is visualizing yourself as having attained that goal as a powerful tool to bring that reality closer to you. If you affirm “I deserve the best life can offer me” but you really have an inferiority complex that prevents you from believing you truly do, work those out and let those go. You do deserve it!
These are the basics around what you need to get started, so now let’s talk about your goals.
Defining what the positive affirmations will be
What areas in your life are you not 100% satisfied with? We all have things we would like to improve. This second part for creating your own positive affirmations will require a little soul searching on your part. It will be worth it, though.
Take a piece of paper and a pen and write down all categories in which you believe you would like to see major improvements in your life. Some examples would be: health, wealth, family, friends, love relationships, work, spirituality, personal growth. You may have more that you can think about that I didn’t mention.
By each of these categories, come up with a number from 0 to 100, where 100 represents total satisfaction with that department and any lower means less. At the end, pick out from the list the two or three areas with the lowest numbers – where you are most dissatisfied – and let’s write affirmations for those.
If you are unhappy with your love life, for example. If you do not currently have a partner, you will imagine now what would the ideal situation be on this area of your life. What would you want it to look like? What would your dream love partner be like? Write these down (using the guidelines above).
These could for example look like: “I have my soulmate as a partner”, “I have an incredible love relationship”. If you are still having difficulty repeating these because you can’t see it in your mind, try at least affirming you are open to allow for it to happen: “I attract loving relationships into my life”, or “I am open to receiving love”.
Repeat for the second (and if you are into it, the third) areas with the lowest satisfaction scores and write at least five affirmations for each.
Voila! You have your own, personalized positive affirmations! Remember to repeat them daily, believe them, and see what transformation it brings. In time, switch them around as you feel your needs have changed.
Wrapping up
If you still don’t feel inspired, you can always look into existing affirmations, as they can also be inspiring and motivating. The practice of positive affirmations is one of the tools that can be incredibly helpful in bringing positive changes to your life. Take a look, for example, at our downloadable set of positive cards. Or, as we said above, you can find many searching online.
We’ll leave you with some below to get you started. Happy affirming!
Don’t forget to grab our free positive affirmations cheat sheet on your way out! Just click below: