What are Affirmations, and How Do They Affect Us?

Affirmations are positive statements that can help eliminate or reduce negative thoughts while boosting your self-esteem. If you believe you are confident, that's what you'll show to the world. Similarly, if you feel you don't deserve happiness, that's the person the world sees.

Affirmations can be either positive or negative. All the negative self-talk we say to ourselves can be turned into positive talk/affirmations with some practice. Sometimes, we know that we can do something, but due to fear, we start telling our minds that it is tricky and we can't do it. As a result, we fail to do it because we feed the negative thoughts into our minds and get stressed. In the same way, providing good ideas to your mind can help you accomplish your goals and bring greater peace of mind. 

Can affirmation help reduce stress levels?

Suppose you have to lead a football team today and the competition is very tough. You know you are an excellent player who can help the team win the game, but suddenly, a negative thought whispers in your mind that you don't have what it takes, and this causes you to become stressed. As a result, your mind stops giving you the insights to lead your team effectively, and you fail to guide your team to win the game. The failure and shame will make you more anxious and stressed for future games.

Now  picture, that instead of accepting the negative thought as fact, you view it as an opinion that holds no value, and you tell yourself you got this! 

This empowering thought keeps you motivated and gives you an energy boost to lead your team to victory, feeling courageous and cheerful. As a result, you're not as stressed and feel more confident. Thus, using positive affirmation would help you win the game and reduce your stress level! 

How to Make Affirmations to Lessen Your Stress

Many people argue that they don't make affirmations because they don't know how to do it. As a result, they fail to manage their stress and ruin their mental peace. It is simple if you are also one of them and want to learn to make affirmations. Just follow these few steps below and start creating affirmations to help manage your stress. 

1. See yourself in a positive light.

The first step in making affirmations is to start thinking positively about yourself. Think about your good habits and characteristics of your good character. Don't take yourself for granted. Instead, value yourself and understand your actual worth. 

2. Feed positive thoughts to your mind.

The second step is to feed positive thoughts to your mind. Taking the time to slow down and acknowledge the things that are going well and express gratitude daily help you become more positive. 

3. Believe in your good thoughts and turn them into reality.

Using affirmations can open your mind to possibilities of taking action and will reduce resistance. It is essential that whatever you feed to your mind, you must believe in that. If you are telling your mind that you are a game-changer, you must prove it by taking action. Still, if you have difficulty believing your affirmation, you can try adding what if in front of your affirmation; for example, what if I was a game-changer? This will help you to become more confident to take action to achieve your goals. When you reach these goals – or smaller milestones – you relieve stress and want to achieve more. 

Affirmations play a significant role in our lives. They don't only give us new hope to face everyday challenges with full courage, but they also help in reducing our stress. Reducing stress also makes us feel good about ourselves, which ultimately improves our mental well-being.