What is an Affirmation and How Do You Use Them?
Today we are unpacking affirmations - what they are and how you can use them in your life. I feel like a lot of people are curious about affirmations but are also a tad bit apprehensive. I get it - I was there a few years ago honestly, lol.
We can use affirmations to overcome limiting beliefs that may be holding us back from pursuing our goals. I'm helping you uncomplicate affirmations - they are a simple and powerful tool if you use them mindfully, I promise!
Read this post to learn 3 tips for how to write affirmations.
But like, forreal, what is an affirmation?
It’s a positive statement that can help you challenge and overcome self-sabotaging and negative thoughts.
Affirmations are my go-to tool to use when I feel pinned down by a limiting belief. And while we’re over here dishing out definitions, I want to read something out of Michael Hyatt’s book called Your Best Year Ever because it was such a lightbulb definition of what a limiting belief is:
A limiting belief is a misunderstanding of the present that shortchanges our future (page 47).
We hear the term limiting belief thrown around a lot in the personal development space but I’ve never heard it defined quite like that and it really hit home with me so I wanted to make sure to share it with y’all too because it’s going to drive our conversation on affirmations today.
Affirmations are positive statements, right? Statements are made up of words. Our words are powerful. The words that we think and say shape our lives because what we think and say, we focus on. Our words create the dialogue that we have going on inside our minds all day long.
I want to read you something from Proverbs real quick because it’s so beautifully said:
“Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, sweet and delightful to the soul and healing to the body. - Proverbs 16:24”
Our words have the potential to HEAL us you guys...see! That is major! Our words set the tone for our lives. Okay that is my spiel on words - I had to go there because like I said, words make up affirmations, and now let’s dig more into affirmations themselves, yeah?
Affirmations are NOT lying to yourself about your circumstances. That’s what I used to think - like earlier when I said I thought it was people who had their head in the clouds and were just spouting off positive statements and turning a blind eye to what their life actually looked like - that’s not what affirmations are. We use affirmations to REFRAME our perspective not to pretend our current circumstances don’t exist. They help us view our circumstance in a way of focusing on where you’re going rather than where you’re standing. They ground us and remind us what the truth is.
So that’s what affirmations are: a tool where you say a positive statement to help you challenge and overcome self-sabotaging and negative thoughts.
Okay so why do affirmations work/how do they work?
Using affirmations positions our minds to shift our focus. We tell our brains to focus on X so we start noticing more X.
Think about this in other areas of your life - my husband was telling me that he had to stop listening to true crime podcasts because he was walking around constantly paranoid that someone was trying to kill him. He was constantly thinking about true crime because he was always listening to it. When he stopped listening to the podcasts, he stopped worrying about someone trying to kill him all the time.
To me, this is how affirmations work. The words that we speak about ourselves over and over again are what we focus on. Affirmations help us create new, positive thought patterns.
Okay so now you know what they are but how do you write them? Disclaimer - I don’t think there is a single right way to do it but I do have some tips that I like to follow when I write mine so I’m going to share those.
Tips for Writing Affirmations:
Tip 01: Reverse engineer.
Aka start with the struggle. You can’t rewrite your negative belief script if you don’t even know what the negative belief is, right? So identify what the limiting belief is first.
Tip 02: Determine what or where you want to be.
In order to reframe your thoughts regarding the circumstance you’re in, you’ve got to know where you want to be. It’s no help knowing how you’re stuck (as in you know the limiting belief) if you don’t know where you want to go now, make sense?
Tip 03: Use gratitude and/or scripture to identify the truth.
These are 2 incredibly powerful tools that I use to help me craft purposeful and intentional affirmations. Sure, you can just hop on Pinterest and write down a feel good quote but it’s not going to have as much impact as it would if you wrote what your heart needs, you know?
Example:
Okay real life and kind of vulnerable example coming atcha so you can see these tips play out.
Sometimes I struggle with feeling like my business is growing too slowly. When I see others’ Instagram and podcast numbers seemingly skyrocketing, I’m quick to compare their numbers to my own and have thoughts like:
“I’ve been at 20,000 followers on Instagram for months - no matter how much value I provide, the number doesn’t go up. I’m never going to grow a well known brand.”
First, let’s identify the limiting belief:
I don’t have what it takes to cultivate and lead a solid online community. The value I’m providing isn’t measuring up.
Then, let’s determine where I want to be:
I want to show up every day confident in knowing that I am making an impact for the Hustle Sanely Squad. I want you guys to learn and apply what I teach and I want it to help you change your life.
And lastly let’s use gratitude and scripture to craft an epic affirmation:
Gratitude: I am so grateful for the women who are part of the Hustle Sanely Squad and trust me to speak encouragement into their lives every single day.
Scripture: Luke 16:10 says: “He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much.”
Matthew 25:23 says: His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful and trustworthy over a little, I will put you in charge of many things; share in the joy of your master.’
Affirmation: I choose to serve the women that God has put in front of me well. I choose to nurture them and encourage them fiercely. When I am faithful with little, increase happens. I choose to focus on serving instead of striving.
See? No false promises or glazing over my actual circumstances. I’m just choosing to flip my perspective and focus on where I’m going. The thing with affirmations, though, is you have to use them consistently if you want them to make an impact on your life. Affirmations are like exercise for your mindset - you can’t go to the gym once a month and expect to maintain a healthy body. You’ve got to make it a regular part of your life, ya know?
I keep my affirmations on sticky notes around my house. I have a note in my phone for easy access (because let’s be real - I pretty much always have my phone within reach). I write them in my journal every morning and I read them out loud after I write them.
Real talk - I felt like a looney toon when I first started saying my affirmations out loud. But I wanted to see if they worked so I stuck with it. Then after me feeling crazy subsided, I started to get emotional when I said my affirmations. We don’t realize how deep rooted some of our limiting beliefs are. We really do mistake them for our truth if we’ve been told them (by ourselves and/or others) our entire lives. So hearing the actual truth via affirmations can cause some emotions to bubble to the surface - at least that was the case for me.
And now when I say my affirmations, I feel very grounded. I’ve shared this on Instagram so y’all probably know this but I like to use scripture to help me write my affirmations so imagine speaking God’s truth over yourself all day every day - it’s really freaking powerful.
To wrap this up, I have a quote to share:
“Every thought is either an investment or a cost. -T. Harv Eker”
If you’ve never consistently used affirmations as a tool to help you replace toxic thought patterns with positive ones, highly recommend - it really did change my life. I am able to show up well when I speak and believe truth over myself. Speaking life over ourselves and others helps us grow!
If you vibed with this post at all, you 100% need to get your hands on The Power of Our Words: Writing and Using Affirmations Bundle from the Hustle Sanely Vault! You get a 5-page workbook and accompanying video training about words and affirmations and you get a desktop and phone wallpaper with that verse from Proverbs hand lettered by me.
I teach on peacefully productive topics, just like this, in the Hustle Sanely BFF Membership every month!
If you enjoyed this post, tune into episode 069 of The Hustle Sanely Podcast to listen into this topic!
