What Are Affirmations and How To Use Them?

Affirmations are simple, short, and yet powerful phrases. When you say, think, even hear them, they become thoughts that shape your reality.

Researches have shown that in a day, our minds experience about 45.000 and 51.000 different thoughts. That's 150 to 300 thoughts per minute and unfortunately, for the majority of the people, 80% of these thoughts are negative. 

Affirmations exist to help us reverse this negative aura!

What is an affirmation?

Affirmations are sentences with an intent to affect the conscious and the subconscious mind so that they turn around, they affect the behavior, thinking patterns, habits, even the environment.

The words that form an affirmation, automatically bring up related images into the mind, which inspire, and motivate. The affirmations and the images they create to your mind, tend to stay to your subconscious mind, which then, changes the behavior, habits, actions, and reactions according to the repeated words.

The Benefits of Affirmations

They motivate.
They keep you focused on the goal.
They affect the subconscious mind and activate their powers.
They transform the way you think and behave, and this can lead you into contact with new people, who can help you with your goals. 

Positive statements make you feel positive, energetic, and active, and hence, put you in a better position to change your inner and external worlds.

How to use affirmations?

Consistency here is key! You need to repeat them daily, a daily routine really helps with affirmations. Here's an example you can try, you can always adapt it as needed, but it's a good start.

Say your affirmations 2x a day.

Start in the morning, as soon as you can after waking up. This guarantees a positive start to the day — that the first things you start thinking about are your goals and ambitions, and of course, that you are having positive thoughts!

Say your second set of affirmations as close as you can before going to bed. This ensures that you have positive thoughts in your mind as you go to sleep, you are thinking about your goals and these will seep into your subconscious mind and solidify as you sleep.

Say them multiple times. It is up to you, but we recommend either 5-minute sessions or alternatively, saying your whole set of affirmations 10x-20x each, in a slow, confident voice.

Tips:

Start with a focus. Don’t pick too many subjects at once, being specific will help you focus a lot better.

Be consistent. Repeat them daily.

Make a commitment to do them for 30 days, no matter what. Think long term, and don’t give up.

And the most important: Say them in the present tense. As they're already happening, feel that they're already happing in your life. 

What is next?

Observe your mood first. Before you start your daily routine, just take a few seconds to “look inside” you, see how you feel, see how your emotions are, do you already feel positive, negative, a little tired.. just take note.

Then, say your affirmations, slowly, take your time, and then do a “mood check” again. See how you feel, see how positive you now feel, see how you feel differently about yourself. This can be a great way to gain confidence in your affirmations early on.

Before you even see the life-changing results you really want, this simple experiment should show you how they can instantly lift your mood and change how you are feeling in an instant and inspire you to keep going so that you really do get to see the bigger and lasting changes you really want!

Journaling is a really good way to observe your feelings and how they change through the days.

If you want to change your life through affirmations, you can find much more in our Pinterest account, where we post daily self-love affirmations and quotes based on the law of attraction.