How to Use Daily Affirmations to Feel Good

‘If you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely’ said Roald Dahl. When looking back as an adult on his writings, we can perhaps see that many of our childhood favourite bedtime stories were perhaps pretty macabre. Toeless "hags' and bone crushing giants were aplenty in a Roald Dahl novel, but somehow we didn't seem to think that at all grisly.

But the opening sentence to this article is one of his more positive ones. It's also perhaps our first foray into the use of affirmations, even if we didn't realise it when reading this sentence as a kid.

Loved by everyone from Oprah to Arianna Huffington, daily positive affirmations are becoming a way of life for people all across the globe.

It’s widely noted that most new year’s resolutions are broken before the end of January each year. This self perceived "failure" can send us into a spiral of negative self-talk. But self-affirmation is one of the easier daily tasks we can carry out to help us think and feel better for positive change.

Positive phrases take a few minutes each day, cost nothing and can be used to help guide you through different circumstances throughout your life. The power of affirmations is such that they can take your world from negative to positive and help you see things in a more positive light.

Sounds like a pretty good bet for a world mired by a still very relevant pandemic and a cost of living crisis, right? Perhaps because of these challenges, the practice and popularity of positive affirmations seem to be on the up.

So what these self-affirmations, how do we practice affirmations effectively and what are the benefits when we practice positive affirmations every day?

Wait, Do Positive Affirmations Work?

Yes. If we use affirmations effectively, they can help us take on new positive mental attitudes. And while they can feel a little ‘new age’ for those of us who’re not used to chatting away to ourselves in the mirror, research has shown they genuinely do increase mindset and feelings of self-worth.

In other words, telling yourself, or affirming, that positive change in your life is coming, can change your mindset to take some action to make this change. Or, we can become more emotionally equipped to adapt to different challenges. These challenges won't magically disappear. But we'll start feeling more positive towards them.

This has in turn been linked to greater overall success and happiness, as you’re not holding yourself back with negative thought patterns.

There’s science behind it, too. Affirmations can actually help rewire our brains. Much like exercise, they raise the level of feel-good hormones and help form ‘positive thought’ neurone clusters. Our brains work in a thought-speech-action way, and affirmations can help break patterns of negative thoughts, which in turn affects speech and actions.

Also, much like constantly repeating negative statements to ourselves, such as "I can'd do this", in other words, negative affirmations, will become our dominant thought, a focus on positive affirmations can also help take your world to a much more productive and enjoyable place to be.

Amazing, right?

But… What is an Affirmation?

Affirmations are simply positive statements that can be used to encourage and/or motivate ourselves and others. Positive affirmations are based on widely accepted "plus statements" that promote positive valuation of ourselves.

The word affirmation comes from the Latin affirmare, originally meaning "to make steady, strengthen." That said, it’s important that they have some basis in reality. For example, telling yourself that you’re "happy with your career" if at that moment you aren’t, can actually have a negative effect - research shows that people who say positive self-statements when they don’t actually believe it made them feel worse.

Similarly, affirmations don't work if they're unrealistic. For example, we can't conjure up a lottery win just by telling ourselves how much we want a million or two in the bank. If that's what we want (who doesn't?) then we need to take actions to have that, like buying a lottery ticket each week.

But they are reminders of what is good and joyful in our lives currently, meaning we’re satisfied with what we have and therefore comfortable to chase after future goals, rather than cosmically ordering up a new life.

What Are the Benefits of Daily Affirmations?

You can repeat daily affirmations anywhere, any time throughout your day. Doing so is believed to help improve everything from stress levels and sleep patterns to a more positive body image and improved emotional health

So, it appears that affirmations are helpful for our mental wellbeing, but where do we start with such a powerful thing?

How Do I Write and Start Using Affirmations Daily?

You can buy ready made cards with positive thoughts already written on them. But it’s just as easy to make them up yourself by thinking of some areas of your life you think you should be thankful for, and writing down short sentences that sum them up.

Areas that you might like to cover are health, money, family, relationships, friends, career, happiness, hobbies… it can be anything that brings fulfilment or joy to your life.

What Are Some Good Affirmation Examples?

Here's some examples you can use if you feel you're struggling to think of some. Then, perhaps you can expand on these to make a positive affirmation set of your own that reflect your own personal values.

• I am strong
• I am kind
• I am a good friend/sibling/parent/child
• It's good to be me
• I can find positive in every day
• I learn every day
• My life is a good life
• I trust that I'm on the right path

How Do I Use Positive Affirmations?

So now you have some ideas, you still have to take steps to incorporate affirmations into your life. The easier you make this, the easier they will be to add into your day to make positive change.

Set some time aside to dedicate to your affirmations. They only take five to ten minutes, but knowing that you’re not going to be rushing to work or any other task because of them means your mind can clearly focus on the task at hand.

• Step One: Take three deep breaths, inhaling and exhaling to a count of ten.
• Step Two: Look yourself in the eyes in a mirror. Feel free to smile, laugh, or be neutral. It’s important you’re comfortable so do whichever feels most natural for you.
• Step Three: Say your affirmation slowly, clearly and with intent. If you're not alone, or it feel strange, there's no need to say them out loud. In your head is just as good.
• Step Four: Repeat the affirmation four or five times, focussing on the meaning of the words.
• Step Five: Take deep breaths again, three more times, giving your mind and body time to soak up the positive vibes from your affirmation.

There is no right or wrong affirmation to use. Choose affirmations that work and feel right to you.

More Examples of Affirmations to Change Your Life

If you struggle to find your own words that work best, another method is to use words written by someone you admire. We’ve rounded up twelve of our favourites here:

• Am I good enough? Yes I am - Michelle Obama
• Good riddance to decisions that don't support my self-care, self-value, and self-worth - Oprah Winfrey
• I'm giving you permission to root for yourself and while you're at it root for those around you, too - Mindy Kaling
• We do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all the power we need inside ourselves already - JK Rowling
• We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope - Martin Luther King Jr
• I am deliberate and afraid of nothing - Audre Lorde
• My perspective is unique. It’s important and it counts - Glenn Close
• Nothing can dim the light that shines from within me - Maya Angelou
• I’m better than I used to be. Better than I was yesterday. But hopefully not as good as I’ll be tomorrow - Marianne Williamson
• There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so - William Shakespeare
• I take responsibility for my own happiness, never put it in other people’s hands - Roy T Bennett
• I do what is right, not what is easy or what is popular - Roy T Bennett

Positive Thinking: Using Affirmations to Change Low Self-Esteem

Positive affirmations can help take your emotional health to a higher plane, meaning that each day, you feel lighter and brighter. Much like using a daily gratitude journal to record all the things you're grateful for, affirmations help us reflect and be thankful for all that we have, and allow us to set goals for the changes we want to make.

Affirmations can be used day or night - we think starting our day with positivity is always a good thing. We like positive thinking before bed too. So really, affirmations reflect who we are, so there are no strict rules.

If the idea of affirmations has ignited something in you, give them a go. Start today and you could soon be reaping the benefits!