I
have been reading many gratitude and thankful lists on blogs recently. I love
this and I think it’s great that people take the time to realize all the
wonderful things and moments in their lives. While I think it’s great that so
many people are writing these kinds of posts, I would love to suggest to
everyone to take the time learn about positive affirmation and decide if
writing these would be a beneficial addition. Toward the end of this post I
have a link to my full list of my own positive affirmations as well as the 5
daily repeated affirmations I tell myself.
I
keep using positive affirmations as part of my routine because it helps me when
things get stressful and this year has been especially stressful for me. My mom
died early this year and my grandpa died recently. I lost my good job that I
had worked so hard to get and that my mom had been so proud of me for having. In
addition to these events, I have health issues and more specifically emotional
disorders. I struggle with anxiety nearly daily and I go through periods of
depression. For these reasons alone, I work on being more positive and with the
events of this year I needed those affirmations all the more.
I
believe positive affirmations are important because studies have shown that being
consistently more positive than negative is beneficial to our overall health. While
a recent study showed that being overly positive does not greatly improve
oneself physical and emotional wellbeing, it did show how much of a negative
impact negativity has on our wellbeing and how being moderately positive does
improve our overall wellbeing. I guess the point here is that too much of
anything is not a good thing. Being too positive is not more beneficial and it
would be better to work on being consistently positive and preventing
negativity.
Being
positive is beneficial to our health, according to Mayo Clinic, by having a
positive outlook it enables you to cope better with stressful situations, which
reduces the harmful health effects of stress on your body. When people are
feeling stressed the body is harmed by the chemical reactions that occur in the
brain and nervous system. People feeling constant stress tend to develop
emotional issues like depression and anxiety which creates a cycle of harmful
reactions from feeling stressed.
The
idea here is that people need to prevent stress in themselves by being more consistently
positive than negative and this will help them to have a healthier mental
health status. They will also have more motivation and determination in their
tasks and goals which will help people feel like life is easier. There are many
benefits to having a positive outlook and more than just mental health, but
also physical health.
Health
benefits that positive thinking may provide include:
- Increased life span
- Lower rates of depression
- Lower levels of distress
- Greater resistance to the common cold
- Better psychological and physical well-being
- Reduced risk of death from cardiovascular disease
- Better coping skills during hardships and times of stress
Affirmations
are New Thought and New Age terminology referring to the practice of positive thinking
and self-empowerment. New Thought and New Age are belief systems that focus on
the idea that humans have a responsibility to take part in positive creative
activity and to work to heal ourselves, each other and the Earth.
One
way to live up to these ideals is to work hard on ourselves to improve our own
mental and emotional wellbeing. Positive affirmations are a simple and easy way
to start making improvements and think creatively while being more positive. An
affirmation is a carefully formatted statement that should be repeated to one's
self and if possible written down frequently. For a positive affirmation to be
most effective, it should to be in present tense, personal and specific.
One
suggestion is to write the same 5 positive affirmations daily with the
flexibility of changing one or more of them as your goals in life change. Creating
positive affirmations and writing them down once is not enough. The point in
creating and using positive affirmations is to improve our health as well as
helping to improve how people are as people. This is why it’s important to
repeat them on a daily basis, because the more we repeat these personal
affirmations to ourselves the more our subconscious and conscious both believe
them to be true and thus our natural behavior tends to align with those
beliefs.
There
are different affirmations for different intentions. Some affirmations are to
help prevent negative feelings like fear, sadness, hopelessness, and anger. Positive
affirmations can also be for self-esteem, empowerment, and to give you confidence.
The important thing to remember is to make your affirmations personal and specific
to your goals whether that’s you wanting to feel more beautiful or you want to
ward off a negative emotion that keeps creeping in on you.
Right
now my main focus is on giving myself more confidence and having
self-compassion as well as keeping calm and relaxed. I know I am doing better than
I was a few months ago and I think I can give credit to putting my mind to work
and repeating these 5 affirmations to myself daily.
My
5 Positive Affirmations:
I
fill my mind with peaceful thoughts
I
am worthwhile and capable even though I make mistakes
I
forgive myself, because I lovingly accept my human limitations
I
have inner power and strength to get through anything
I
have the courage to see beauty in all the possibilities, even in the face of
pain
I
would suggest making a longer list of positive affirmations and choosing 5 that
are more important and urgent. As life moves and things begin to change, you
can refer back to that master list of affirmations and possibly pull out a new
one to work on to replace one that you feel you have mastered. My master list
of positive affirmations can be found on Diary of Emily Rose. Go check it out!
What
is one of your positive affirmations? I would love to hear from you in the
comments section below!
