Positive Affirmations

“All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think we become.” ~Buddha

What are affirmations?

Affirmations are positive words or phrases that we say out loud as a way of training the brain.

They help us to challenge and fight back against negative thoughts that might be making us feel and act in ways that we don’t want to.

Affirmations can be any words or statements that are meaningful to you.

However, they are most powerful if they are the positive side of a negative thought or belief that you have about yourself. For example, with a child who often says things like “I’m rubbish” you could create an affirmation such as “I’m amazing”.

Affirmations are often statements such as:

‘I am blessed’ | ‘I am amazing’ | ‘I am calm’ | ‘I am loved’ | ‘I am happy’ | ‘I am confident’ 

How do they work?

We know that we can improve on a physical activity, such as running or jumping, through practice and exercise. Well, the same is true for our mental agility. Positive self-talk has been demonstrated to make a difference in performance in sports, succeeding in tasks and learning.

It has also also been shown that positive self-talk can help to reduce physical symptoms of stress and anxiety. This can be used to our advantage in real-life situations, for example if someone is nervous about having to do a talk in class, repeating positive statements can help to slow breathing, prevent anxiety from taking over and help them feel confident about what they are about to do.

How can I use them?

The key to using affirmations effectively is repetition and saying them out loud on a daily basis. There are lots of ways to introduce affirmations to children and teens:

• Invite them to draw around their hand and write an affirmation on each finger
• Draw a flower and write an affirmation on each finger
• Create an affirmation pebble by writing an affirmation word on a small stone that can be carried around easily
• Write your child little notes that they can find in their lunch box or pencil case
• Write a post-it note and place it on the bathroom mirror for them to find each morning

Make sure that any pictures or notes are somewhere it will be seen everyday.