Powerful affirmations have been a part of my life since a very young age. When I was 15, my mother gave me Louise Hay’s famous book – You Can Heal Your Life. She was dealing with a brain tumor diagnosis and was on her own personal journey to heal her life and came across the book in her search for answers to a healthier life.
As an ‘overweight-trying to be accepted’ teenager, this book was a total revelation for me as it taught me the power of my thoughts and taking total responsibility for my life and its outcomes. As my girlfriends read teenage romance novels, I was reading one of the most popular self-help books of its time and a book that I have always had close at hand throughout my life.
This book introduced me to many concepts but none more powerful than the practice of affirmations. Yes, I do them, I believe in them and they are have become my total fall-back strategy when life gets tough or I feel that the negative chatterbox in my head has taken over (like she does!) Affirmations (or call them positive thinking, power thoughts or whatever phrase fits for you) are one of the most effective confidence building techniques I know.
Affirmations work for me because they purposely fill my head with the positive and leave little room for the negative bitch in my head to interrupt.
Affirmations are built on the idea that your thoughts create your life, or you are what you think. They help to re-wire your brain (yes, really) and will break patterns of negative thoughts. You see, in the world of evolution, we still have brains like our caveman ancestors. For survival reasons, the brains of these distant relatives focused on the negative. Their life depended on them constantly looking for the threat, the negative, the sabre-tooth tiger about to jump out from behind the rock and eat them.
This is one of the reasons why, without conditioning or focus, our thoughts automatically tend towards the negative – She doesn’t like me; I’m not smart enough; That was a stupid thing I said; I’m doing a terrible job as a mother………. You know the drill, right?
‘Negative thinking is also self perpetuating, and the more you engage in negative dialogue…the more difficult is becomes to stop.’
Affirmations work for me because they purposely fill my head with the positive and leave little room for the negative bitch in my head to interrupt. It keeps her quiet and changes not only the way I think but also the way I speak and act too. When I have positive, power statements running through my head I’m instantly a nicer, more positive person (which is always good).
‘Positive words and thoughts propel the motivational centres of the brain into action and they help us build resilience when we are faced with life’s problems.'
Now, there is a bit of a skill to creating affirmations for yourself and, if you haven’t got Louise Hay’s book on your shelf then I highly recommend you do, but they are positive statements that are stated in the now, ie. using words like ‘I am…’ rather than ‘I will be….’. It is also recommended that they are relatively short so that you can remember them easily and they are effortless to repeat.
So, as I said at the beginning, powerful affirmations are my first go-to strategy when I am feeling off track, full of doubt, scared or when any other negative emotion starts to take over (like they do) and these are my 5 favourite positive statements I pull from my repertoire first:
My 5 Powerful Affirmations
1. Everything is working out perfectly
This is a super powerful statement that helps calm me when I am feeling out of control, fearful of what is happening or when things are not happening fast enough (which happens a lot for me with my highly impatient, entrepreneurial brain). In my late 20’s I travelled America by myself and I said this constantly to help me push through the fear of uncertainty.
2. I am Fit, Strong & Healthy
I pull this one out when I am exercising or focusing on getting fit. When I run (which I hate doing, by the way) I repeat this in my head over and over. This helps prevent the other strong, negative, persistent thoughts that arise telling me to quit, to stop or that I’ll never make it. I have made it to the end of runs I never thought possible for me to achieve because I kept repeating this statement.
3. I am on the Right Path
This is a great one for those following their dreams and trying to be true to who they believe they are. Following my dream for Rise Women and building a business has come with many challenges – all of which bring the constant question of whether you are doing the right thing. When these doubtful thoughts arise, I smack them down with this powerful statement and get back to it.
4. You CAN do this!
I pull this one out when I am exercising or focusing on getting fit. When I run (which I hate doing, by the way) I repeat this in my head over and over. This helps prevent the other strong, negative, persistent thoughts that arise telling me to quit, to stop or that I’ll never make it. I have made it to the end of runs I never thought possible for me to achieve because I kept repeating this statement.
5. I can handle anything that arrives
I love this affirmation, especially when my confidence is a bit shaky. I get a great sense of calmness and confidence in my abilities when I repeat this and get back to believing that I will handle anything. It helps me take away the fear of the unknown because, if you knew you could handle anything, what would there be to fear?
I’d LOVE to hear what your favourite powerful affirmations are so please head over to our Facebook page and inspire others or send me a note through our contact page. Do you have a ‘go-to’ power statement that you use?
BE YOU! (and be positive!)
