How Performance Affirmations can Change your Life
If this is your first time working with affirmations, get ready for your mindset to change. Adding affirmations to your daily routine will shift your mind and bring you new perspectives on life. A new outlook on life means new opportunities for growth and expansion. This is a journey to become better than you already are. Even if you feel that you are in a place where you are happy with your life, imagine what could happen if you pushed a little beyond your comfort zone.
- How do Affirmations Work?
A study from 2015 aimed to understand the ways self-affirmative statements worked on the brain, particularly the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC). This part of the brain is responsible for emotional regulation, study, and self-perception. The results showed that when using self-affirmations, this part of the brain experiences increased activity and this leads to the ability to make positive changes, which in this case were increased levels of physical activity (Falk et al. 2015).
Another study from 2016, suggests that people suffering from generalized anxiety disorder can use positive ideation in the form of images or thoughts, to reduce their worry (Eagleson et al. 2016). The results of this study showed that rather than focusing on the anxiety, the participants who focused on a positive thought pattern were able to create more inner peace and the ability to move forward. Focusing on new thoughts repeatedly and following through with new and sustained action is how neural pathways are created. The effect of repetition is also a hypnotic technique that targets the subconscious mind. Studies show that the desired outcome is more likely to be achieved when incorporating hypnotic communication (Arbour et al. 2022).
Through using affirmations, you are creating a positive pathway in your brain that will attune your subconscious mind to the positive potential that is available to you!
- How to Choose the Right Affirmations
Choosing the right affirmations for yourself depends on where you currently are and where you want to be in the future. Affirmations are used to target the part of you that knows there is extra focus, strength and determination within you. By speaking positive phrases to yourself, you are activating a remembrance of the power and potential of your mind and body.
Affirmations are most beneficial when they are applied in a cycle of adaptive potential. This means choosing affirmations that encourage the next step on your journey, rather than choosing a goal that is giant leap ahead of you. This type of adaption is closely connected with a positive feedback look between the self-system and the external social system, allowing for beneficial changes to be made. Studies have shown that when used in this way, affirmations improve education, health, and relationship outcomes, with benefits that persist for months and years (Cohen & Sherman, 2014).
The key here is ‘adaptive potential’. If you jump ahead too far into the future, and say, for example – ‘I am changing the world’ – it might be hard to digest when this feels like a long-shot goal. Instead, an adaptive affirmation may be – ‘I am changing who I am today, at this moment’. This is a smaller, bite-sized piece of affirmative action that feels good for the mind and body.
When you jump too far ahead, it often results in bypassing your true emotions and feelings and this invalidation can lead to further feelings of hopelessness and despair. Instead, the best way to progress through affirmations is to move from feeling okay, to good, to great. But don’t jump from feeling sad into saying you feel fantastic, as that will be hard for your mind to process!
- How to Use Affirmations for Maximum Effect
To get the most benefit out of your affirmation practice, it is important to take the first step and incorporate them into your daily routine. The simplest way to use affirmations is by saying them out loud to yourself at least one to two times per day. Of course, the more frequently you can repeat them to yourself, the better, but start with a sustainable consistency that you know you will be able to continue for the long term.
If it is possible and you are in a safe and comfortable place, it is always more beneficial to speak the affirmations aloud rather than silently. The voice is a powerful energy center in the body that projects our thoughts into words, and our words into reality. It is the bridge between our inner and outer worlds. By using the voice to its full potential, you will begin to activate your own inner power.
Even if the voice sounds shaky, or uncertain at first, continue to speak affirmations until you sound confident and clear. When you speak with conviction, you will start to believe the words you are saying, and this will have a ripple effect throughout the body and mind.
When you feel comfortable using affirmations, one way to advance your practice is to speak them aloud while looking at yourself in the mirror. Try to hold eye contact with yourself and speak as though you are directly speaking to yourself. In this way, you are looking into a combination of both your old and new self. You are able to see who you are and also see who you are about to become.
You can also increase your self-esteem and discover why dreams do not come true; you can decide on sessions with a psychologist. If you have problems with self-esteem or with anything, I invite you to a meeting-acquaintance with me; you can choose a convenient place and time here
The idea for this article was information from the book «Powerful Performance Affirmations» D.Greer
Photocredit: khelpHR
