WHAT ARE AFFIRMATIONS & WHY SHOULD YOU USE THEM?

The first time I heard about affirmations was in an episode of Sex and the City.

Charlotte and Carrie had gone to a seminar about finding love and Charlotte had stood up, shared that she was repeating her affirmations every day but Mr Right still hadn’t shown up. 

The host had criticised her, saying she probably just wasn’t trying hard enough and Carrie stood up and said “Believe me, she is”.

I didn’t take much notice of affirmations then but when I became a business owner, I started to take mindset work more seriously. When I invested in a 1:1 coach to help me increase both my confidence and success in my business, one of the tools she mentioned was affirmations.

I realised then that I’d been using affirmations for years, I just didn’t know that’s what they were called.

The term affirmation is defined in the Cambridge English Dictionary as: a statement or sign that something is true.

When we repeat a statement to ourselves that we want to be true, overtime, we start to believe it because our subconscious can’t distinguish between the truth and a lie. That statement then becomes our reality.

Example

You tell yourself over and over again that you’re scared of snakes. This manifests itself into your reality and soon, whenever you see a snake, you feel afraid. You’ve told your brain you’re afraid of something so your brain has caused your body to react with fear.

Why use affirmations?

When we repeat positive affirmations to ourselves, we train our brains to believe that thing. If you tell yourself over and over again, “I am confident”, you’ll soon start to feel more confident. 

Between the ages of 18-20 years old, I was too afraid to leave the house. A phobia of people being sick meant that I believed if I were to go outside, someone would be sick near me or I’d catch a sickness bug and be sick myself.

For years I repeated this story over and over, focusing on the 3 occasions this had actually happened in my 18 years on the planet and discounting the millions of times it hadn’t happened.

Instead of facing my fears, I fell victim to them. I’d repeatedly tell myself “I can’t go out” or “I’m scared to go out” and it became true.

When I was nearly fired from my job for calling in sick so often, I realised I needed to make a drastic change to my life. I realised I wasn’t living, I was (barely) existing. 

I started to change the way I spoke to myself and instead of repeating “I can’t do this” I started to repeat the affirmation “I can do anything I put my mind to”.

In different situations, when I was out of my comfort zone or felt like I’d have a panic attack, I’d repeat this affirmation over and over and over again.

By repeatedly telling myself “I can”, it soon became my reality: within the space of a year, I’d quit my 9 to 5, fallen in love and booked a round the world backpacking trip. SOLO.

Try it yourself

Here’s a fun little experiment that I’ve recently started doing for myself. I tell myself that every time I go outside, I find money on the floor. Now, granted, it doesn’t happen every single time BUT since repeating this affirmation, I’m finding money everywhere. Not just 1p either. 10p, 20p even £1 coins. 

All because I’ve told myself that it’s going to happen and now it’s a belief I have. That belief has become my reality. 

Use this affirmation for a few weeks and see what happens: I’m always finding money on the floor. 

Summary

What are affirmations?

Affirmations are statements that we believe (or want to believe) to be true.

Why use affirmations?

Using affirmations can transform the way you think, helping you increase your confidence and achieve goals you set for yourself.

Affirmations experiment

Repeat “I’m always finding money on the floor” to yourself over + over and watch as you start to find money on the floor...

Affirmations aren’t a quick fix but if you consistently use them, overtime, you’ll start to see the positive effect affirmations can have.

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