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What Are Positive Affirmations?

The first step to designing powerful and effective affirmations is understanding the basic. Affirmations are positive statements that help overcome challenging and negative thoughts. They are used to inspire and motivate you by announcing your goals and intentions in the completed state. By saying loving affirmative statements to yourself you are affirming to yourself and the universe that your intentions are true and that your beliefs are aligned with your desires. Think of your favorite affirmations as reminders of your personal power and little doses of positivity to assist you on your personal discovery and growth journey. 

Using affirmations is as simple as taking a few moments out of the day to speak them aloud or writing them in your journal. It is that easy to incorporate more positivity into your day to day life. They may seem overrated but positive affirmations have the power to boost your mood, mindset and manifest change into your life. 

Some Benefits of Using Affirmations:

• Decreasing stress by creating solutions to the problems we dwell on 
• Combats negative and challenging thoughts by intentionally reframing them into positive ones 
• Helps you concentrate on goals by giving you a motivational mantra to push you along
• Improves mood by creating more optimism in your daily language 
• Enhances self image and self esteem by “reprogramming your brain” 
• Improves problem solving skills by eliminating performanced induced stress

How to Write Effective Affirmations:

Creating your own affirmation is where the magic really happens. 

When designing a positive affirmation you’re actively rewiring your brain by intentionally identifying your limiting beliefs, blockages and negative thought patterns and consciously replacing them with your desires and positive intentions for yourself. 

Creating affirmations is natural and easy, there are just a few guidelines to make sure you create the most effective affirmations for yourself and can easily integrate positive self-talk into your day to day life.

Identify a focus or theme:

The first step in creating powerful and effective affirmations is choosing a theme or area of life to focus on. This is very important because we all have different relationships to different areas of our life. Creating affirmations is also a form of shadow work because it addresses parts of our subconscious mind and “shadow self”. It is a good idea to approach this kind of self healing work with intention so that you aren’t overwhelmed by emotions. Organizing your healing work will also make it easier to have a holistic understanding of your personal relationship with different areas of life. 

 Here are some ideas of things to focus on:

• Self-Appreciation: What is a trait that deserves to be amplified?
• Personal goals: What goals and intentions do you have? 
• Manifestations: What are your biggest dreams and desires?
• Boundary setting: What are some healthy changes that need to be made?
• Challenging negative programming: What beliefs do you hold that aren’t authentic to you?
• Overcoming limiting beliefs : What beliefs are affecting your self esteem and confidence?
• Expressing gratitude: What are you most proud of and grateful for? What are you overlooking in life that needs some appreciation?

Be honest and gentle with yourself when addressing negative thoughts and don’t let self doubt or “imposter syndrome” get in the way of thinking big while goal setting. 

Design a solution or desired outcome:

The next step in creating affirmations is to design a solution or desired outcome. This process may be different depending on what kind of theme you’re working with. 

For example, designing a solution to overcoming your limiting beliefs will involve replacing the negative belief with an oppositional positive belief. Replace a thought like “I don’t have enough time/resources to pursue my passion.” with a more constructive thought like “I make time to explore my passions everyday, my love for ___ is my most valuable resource.” It is important to show gratitude for what you do have in life, even the little things. It is one of the easiest ways to raise your vibration and shift your outlook on life. 

When creating intentions, goals and affirmations for manifesting the key is to emotionaly  embody and visualize the desired outcome of your ambitions. Journal or meditate on your intent and let your dreams run wild. Creating affirmations that address your manifestations and higher self also help strengthen your fresh positive self beliefs that you developed while overcoming negative thought forms. 

Types of Affirmations

Have you ever noticed that you may resonate with some affirmations and not others? Or maybe when writing your own you haven’t been able to find your authentic voice? It’s most likely because of the tense that it is written in. I’ve distinguished three types of affirmations by tense and broke down how they are written so you can design affirmations that are perfect for you.

Present Tense

Present tense affirmations are “I am” affirmations that state something as if it already happened. They are designed to align your beliefs about what is possible with your desires, this is also called the Law of Assumption. Present tense affirmations are good for exploring potential and connecting with your personal power. These affirmations are good for saying aloud daily or writing into a list, there is power in repetition. Pay attention to how you feel when you say your affirmation aloud and try to identify what feels authentic and natural for you and what does not. 

Example: “I am highly creative and visionary.”

Future Tense

Future tense affirmations are “I will” affirmations that initiate change into your life by declaring something will happen in the future. Future tense affirmations are commonly considered to not be beneficial for manifesting because of the science of law of attraction; by declaring something to exist in the future it creates temporal distance between you and your desires. But I personally believe these types of affirmations are great for realistically framing your goals and staying inspired about long term ambitions. Not everything happens overnight and we should embrace the process. 

Example: “I will share my creativity with the world.”

Natural Tense

In Natural tense, affirmations are timeless and usually don’t use a specific tense. They help cultivate a positive narrative identity and self belief system. I personally resonate with these the most when crafting personal affirmations. Natural tense affirmations are designed to mimic your natural tone of voice. This makes it easy to integrate them into my day to day thoughts and when speaking about myself to others.

Example: “Creativity comes easy for me, new ideas are always coming to me.”

Each type is suitable for different purposes but it is ultimately up to you to choose what feels best for you and the theme of the affirmations that you are creating.

 My theory is that: 

Present tense affirmations tend to your soul and reclaims personal power.

Future tense affirmations tend to your physical body and guide you into the right direction.

Natural tense affirmations tend to your mind and reconstruct your inner dialogue and narrative. 

PRO TIP: String them all together for a powerful affirmative personal statement.

“I am highly creative and visionary. Creativity comes easy for me, new ideas are always coming to me. One day, I will share my creativity with the world.” 

How to use affirmations?

Using positive affirmations and incorporating them into your life is incredibly easy. 

Here are some ideas to explore, discover what resonates most with you:

• Say them aloud in the mirror first thing in the morning
• Create an affirmation journal and write them daily 
• Design or find a wallpaper for your laptop and phone screen (Click here for free affirmation wallpapers!)
• Use affirmation cards or oracle decks 
• Meditate on your affirmation of choice
• Use an affirmation app, my favorite is called “I am”
• Record yourself saying them and to listen to daily 
• Write them on sticky notes and stick them around space you use often.

The most important thing when engaging with affirmations in any form is to be emotionally engaged and to be optimistic. Using these guidelines you will be able to design the most heart felt affirmations and be able to reframe your mindset with self love and positivity.

Check out my positive affirmation Pinterest board for more inspiration before you start writing your own!

https://www.pinterest.com/moonandbabe/positive-affirmations/

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By repeating these affirmations to yourself daily, you can reprogram your mind to think more positively and confidently. Remember to choose affirmations that resonate with you and speak to your goals and values.

Has practicing positive affirmations made a difference in your life? What are some of your favorite positive affirmations? Share them in the comments below and lets all support each other in cultivating a more positive mindset! I can’t wait to read your affirmations and share some of my own.