Prisha Khimavat

Affirmations

Affirmations are positive, self-empowering statements that we say to ourselves every day to help us achieve a more positive mindset. In general, they help shift our mindset away from self-doubt and negativity towards a more self-affirming outlook. In short, affirmations can help you feel better about yourself.

They are generally short statements, in the present tense that highlight an attribute, trait, or state of mind you want to achieve as if you already have achieved it. For example, I am intelligent. I work hard. I am loved. I feel joyful. I focus on the kindness I see around me. I attract success. I am focused and productive. I am surrounded by people who care about me. Etc. Even if you don’t believe those things about yourself or believe you have those things, affirmations still need to be positive and in the present tense as if you already are/ have what you want.

So essentially you are reminding yourself of the mindset you want to have and the type of person you want to be by speaking these statements as if they already are true.

Why does it work?

Now here’s the thing, saying these statements to yourself can feel a little silly, especially if you don’t fully believe them or understand why or how they work. So let’s talk about why it works.

Cognitive psychology explores, amongst other topics, how the way we think can affect our behavior and our outlook on life. An aspect of this school of psychology is the concept of repetitive thoughts. Put simply, the things we think about most often end up shaping our perspective on life and thus directly influencing our actions. What we think about, affects how we think which affects what we do. 

This, to me, goes hand in hand with the concept of a self-fulfilling prophecy. When we hear something often enough and start to believe that it’s true, we might unknowingly actually make it happen. For example, if a repetitive thought you struggle with is that you’re always unproductive, it’s highly likely that your subconscious mind will believe that’s a true statement and accept things as they are without making any changes. However, if you believe that you are someone that is productive and attracts success, you’re more likely to take the steps needed to make it happen.

Flipping a Switch

But what do affirmations have to do with it? And what about the negative repetitive thoughts, what are we meant to do about that? Well, when it comes to our thoughts there is no switch that you can flip where suddenly you only think positively and those negative repetitive thoughts disappear forever. While it is possible to monitor your thoughts, identify negative patterns in them and then work to challenge and change those thought processes, it is not an overnight thing. It is not realistic or fair to expect yourself to get rid of all your negative self-concepts in the flip of a switch. 

So, now we know that what we think can affect how we think and that can affect what we do. We also know that we can’t flip a switch and change how we think right away, but we can start by changing what we think about. And this is where affirmations come in. 

Until we are able to really break down some of those negative self-beliefs, what affirmations help us do is spend a little more time each day focusing on and intentionally thinking more about the things we want in our lives. Affirmations are a tool we can have in our arsenals that help us spend more time telling ourselves what we want, and who we want to be. One of the biggest benefits that I believe they offer is that with them there’s no pressure to suddenly only think good things because that’s not a realistic thing to do.

Instead, they help us plant the seeds for what we want more of, so we can prepare ourselves to work towards them.

If you’re wondering how to get started, read part two of this post about: How to Put it into Practice here.

~ Prisha Khimavat ~