The Power of Daily Affirmations to Rewire Your Brain
I have mentioned this before in the blog, but it’s time for a refresher. Affirmations are a powerful tool for improving your life and boosting your mindset. When you incorporate the use of affirmations into your morning routine, you are starting your days on a positive note and that mood is likely to stay with you through the rest of it. Affirmations are one of the simplest and most effective ways to change your life. Not only can affirmations help you feel more positive, but they also have a powerful effect on how we think about ourselves and our lives. In this post, I’ll dive into some tips so you understand how to use the power of daily affirmations to rewire your brain for a happier life.
It is not uncommon to have a powerful, confident voice when talking with someone else. But it’s easy for that tone of voice to slip into self-deprecating thoughts and words as we talk ourselves down internally. What if you had the same confidence in yourself? It might be easier on your mental state!
The brain can often speak more powerfully than our words to others because there are no judgments from others involved – but how much happier would we feel if our internal dialogue was reflective of positive affirmations rather than negative ones? The way we talk to ourselves matters!
Pay Attention to Your Internal Dialogue
Have you ever noticed your internal dialogue, and do you ever talk down to yourself in your mind? It takes some time to listen and notice, but it pays off because once you bring it to your awareness, you have the power to change it.
What happens is, telling yourself those kinds of messages will create a negative feedback loop in your brain. The more you think them, the truer they’ll become to you, due to something called cognitive dissonance.
The cognitive dissonance theory states that when we experience something contradictory to our beliefs, it causes us discomfort. This is because the contradiction makes you feel as if you are a liar or hypocrite and uncertain about your own thoughts. Makes better sense when we look at both word’s definition – cognitive: of, relating to, being, or involving conscious intellectual activity; and dissonance: lack of harmony.
Shifting Into Positive Thinking
It is easy to let our thoughts run wild and have negative self-worth thoughts, I know I’ve had my share. It only results in making us feel bad about ourselves and in a bad mood, in general. To flip that around, I started using positive affirmations each morning and night before bed:
“Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better.”
This practice has made all the difference. If you haven’t started talking up to yourself everyday, I suggest you start.
In the beginning, it may feel strange, but I guarantee that in a few days, it will become a habit, and the more you do it, you will notice a boost in your self-confidence and self-esteem and other people will notice it, too.
There’s a catch, however: for it to be most effective, you need to believe in the positive affirmations you are using so that you can remove the negative counterparts from your belief system. No use to repeat things such as “I am a strong and confident person” if you cannot feel that you are – at least potentially – that person.
To be honest, it wasn’t easy for me either. I struggled with being consistent. But now that the hard part is over, there are so many ways my life has improved since then. It feels like a weight just lifted off me when I can finally show myself some love instead of hating on everything about myself all the time! Even if you’re still struggling to make your own change for yourself, these affirmations have helped me find peace and happiness from within.
If you are anything like I was and tend to sit and focus on all of life’s shortcomings, I challenge you to join me and shift that into focusing on what is going well in your life. Practicing gratitude is easy, but it does not come naturally. Hers’s an exercise: every day, before going to bed, think of five things you can feel grateful for. They don’t have to be complicated: traffic was better than usual, walking under the sun was enjoyable, I’m alive.
A gratitude practice combined with daily positive affirmations is a powerful combo to boost your mindset into a more positive one. An easy way to practice gratitude is by journaling (we have a free Gratitude Journal you can grab here, by the way). Write or say your gratitude list out loud.
It’s easy to be a glass half-empty kind of person, but if we have the right mindset then anything is possible.
We can’t always control what happens in our lives and there will always be circumstances that will bring us down. We can, however, control what we think and how we react.
It takes practice, but you can retrain your mind to focus on the positive of things that happen to you, and positive affirmations can help.
Positive thinking affects our attitude and our mood, and can make not only our day but others’ days better! You can decide now: are you celebrating your wins or lamenting your losses? Whatever it is you put your focus on, more of it is what you will get back into your life.
Even if it seems to be taking some time, don’t lose faith. If nothing seems to work, search for help from someone more experienced, as you may need to work out some limiting beliefs issues first. The Universe is always listening and will always respond to the power of daily affirmations.
Recognition
Take time to recognize and reward yourself for all your accomplishments, and be grateful for your progress. When we are focusing on what has not yet been accomplished, it is hard to see how far we’ve come. Use positive affirmations to ensure you are giving yourself a well-deserved round of applause (even if it’s just inside your head).
Rewarding yourself also goes a long way to motivating yourself to keep working toward your goals. Give yourself a break, get a fun relaxing activity in your day. Celebrate small wins!
Gratitude Journal
Use our Gratitude Journal, or make your own. Make a daily habit out of it. When you have done this for a while, you will notice how more often you receive good things in your life.
Be thankful for what life has given us instead of complaining about what we don’t have; there really is no point in dwelling on those negative thoughts because it does not serve any purpose at all.
The key to happiness is thinking about and being grateful for what we have and not the things we don’t. Sure, there are people who complain that they lack in some ways but it really doesn’t serve any purpose at all so be grateful for everything life has given you!
You’ll become someone who has a positive outlook and exudes confidence. This is the type of person that not only you will love, but other people will be drawn to as well!
Where to Find Positive Affirmations
If you are asking yourself at this point where to find suitable positive affirmations, you are not alone. You can browse the web for many recommendations, you can write your own, or you can get our positive affirmation cards here. These are the ones I use every day (I have six of them attached above my computer monitor).
Below are some of the positive affirmations you will find on our card deck:
Prosperity flows into my life in unexpected ways
I choose to focus on the positive
I deserve the best life can offer me
What I focus on grows
The world conspires to help me achieve my dreams
I allow myself to let go of beliefs that no longer serve me
Pick the ones you like the best, and use them daily.
If you get the cards, print them and put them wherever they can remind you often of what matters. Put them in your wallet, in your workplace, on the refrigerator door, on the bathroom mirror… This way, you can read them to yourself over and over until you internalize them. Start today.
See the light in the darkness, the sun behind the clouds, and use it to allow your light to shine. Be the source of positive energy the world needs right now. Let’s do it together.
The power of daily affirmations will change your life. When you start truly believing in yourself, the sky is the limit. Your external circumstances won’t affect you as much anymore when you realize everything starts from within.
Thoughts are the seedlings of feelings, which trigger you into action. Become a master of your thoughts, and you will see the results you desire.