Self-Care Awareness Month: Affirmations & How to Use Them
Self-Care Awareness Month
If you have been following along with my blog this month, you know that I am in the middle of a series all about self-care in honor of self-care awareness month.
A few weeks I wrote a post where I gave an overview of some amazing self-help and personal development books, and then last week in my blog, I gave an overview of ways to begin implementing a self-care routine into your day. I gave a number of examples of the types of activities that could be incorporated to either a morning routine or a nightly routine, and one of the suggestions I love to encourage people to use is affirmations.
So What Exactly Are Affirmations?
Do you know what affirmations are? Are you wondering what makes them so powerful and why you should start a daily self care routine using affirmations? Keep reading and I will tell you why affirmations work and give you tips on how to create them and make they work for you #SelfCare #Affirmations #DailyAffirmations #SelfCareRoutine #MentalHealth #Happiness
Affirmations can be incredibly powerful and transformational, and I highly recommend using them as a part of your self-care routine each day.
You’re probably aware of the fact that your brains tends to be quite negative, and you can often feel quite fused with those negative thought patterns. I often have people seeking me for therapy and life coaching services that are looking for quick and effective strategies to reprogram those negative pathways, and affirmations are a way to do that!
Our subconscious mind operates in a one dimensional capacity, and it believes the things that we tell it. By using affirmations, you can start to reprogram your subconscious mind to help create the reality that you want versus the reality that you are currently experiencing. Affirmations are statements that are spoken in the present tense in a confident manner, even if the statements do not feel true yet.
How to Use Affirmations
It’s not as simple as just saying a few positive statements a couple of times one morning and expecting everything to be magically better in your life. As with all the self-care activities, personalizing things to your unique self and maintaining consistency are the keys to success. When I first implemented affirmations into my day, I started noticing some improvement in my mindset with the first few weeks, but as I mentioned in my post last week, it takes up to 66 days for a new habit to fully work and become a part of your day.
Are you feeling negative or feel like you have a lot of stress and worry? Did you know adding daily affirmations to your self care routine will increase your happiness and create a positive mindset? I have some easy tips and tricks to help you add daily affirmations to your morning or nightly routine to get you moving towards living a happy and positive life! #SelfCare #Affirmations #DailyAffirmations #SelfCareRoutine #MentalHealth #Happiness
Journaling Brainstorming Activity
If you are unsure where to begin creating your affirmations, a journaling/brainstorming activity could be a good place to start. Set aside some time when you can sit down and get in touch with your feelings. Write down a list of things you would consider self-limiting or negative that you find yourself thinking on a regular basis. Take those limiting thoughts or negatives beliefs and shift them into affirmations to start changing your mindset.
Next week’s blog will be all about journaling and some tips and techniques to try, so stay tuned for that!
Lindsay’s tip: I love using my Moleskin journals, because they come in all sizes and colors! I also recommend writing in your journals using fun colors or doing things to make it more fun and interesting to you. If it feels like work, you’re less likely to do it.
Here are some links to my favorite pens and markers that I use in my own journaling:
How to Create Affirmations
Start with “I am”
The statements should be about you!
Use the present tense.
Stay away from past tense such as “I was” or the future tense such as “I will”.
We are trying to anchor the thoughts into the current experience.
Use positive words and phrases
State what you are, not what you aren’t.
Example: “I am confident” not “I am not shy anymore”
Brief is better
It is easier for the brain to latch onto the brief “I am” statements versus using long sentences or paragraphs
Lindsay’s tip: As you get more familiar with using affirmations, you may increase the length or get more creative with the words you use
Be specific.
Example: Let’s say you struggle with feelings of safety. Saying, “I am ok” is not very specific. However, saying, “I am safe” is more specifically related to your struggle
What feeling are you needing to believe or change about yourself?
Are you new to affirmations and would like some help creating daily affirmations that work for you? Do you need some ideas of how to create affirmations and work them into your morning or nightly self care routine? Check out my list and soon you will start feeling better, have less stress, and have a more positive outlook. #SelfCare #Affirmations #DailyAffirmations #SelfCareRoutine #MentalHealth #Happiness
Louise Hay
I was introduced to the work of Louise Hay through my life coach, and I feel in love with her work. She wrote the self-help book You Can Heal Your Life, and though it was a bit woo-woo for me at first, I gave it a shot. She focuses a lot on the use of affirmations in your daily life as a consistent part of self-care, and I highly recommend checking her book out as a resource. She also has one called Heal Your Body that is currently on my reading list. I have heard such great things about it, and I can’t wait to read it.
***This post contains affiliate links, and I may receive a very small commission if you purchase through those links at no additional cost to you. Thank you for helping me out.***
Affirmation Tips
If speaking them feels too strange at first, try writing them down.
Start by writing them 3-5 times as part of your morning or night routine.
Do this consistently for 7-14 days to develop comfort with them.
Writing them helps the brain develop comfort with thinking them.
If speaking them still doesn’t feel comfortable after writing them, try reading them outloud instead of saying them from memory.
Write the affirmations on index cards or post-it notes and place them around your home, car, office or other places you frequent.
Lindsay’s tip: I love writing affirmations on my mirror in the bathroom or workout room using these liquid chalk markers and I change them frequently!
Anytime you notice one of them, say it to yourself or out loud.
Lindsay’s tip: Louise Hay actually has a few card decks of affirmations that could be used in this way. I’ve included links to those decks below:
This next 2 decks are a bit more advanced and have longer affirmations that can be shortened to your liking or said as is. I just wanted to provide you with as many resources as I could:
Try to incorporate them into other activities
Say them to yourself while washing your face or brushing your teeth.
Say them in the shower.
Say them to yourself while stretching or working out.
Say them to yourself while driving down the road.
Incorporate them into a meditation.
Just remember that you can’t do this wrong, and self-care is a constant journey or figuring out what works best for you! Start where you are, do what you can, and start living your best life today!
Work with Me
If you are interested in setting up an appointment for therapy, life coaching, or consulting or if you would like more information about ways to incorporate and implement self-care into your life or how to use affirmations as part of your daily routine, you can call my office directly at 314-485-9189 or feel free to send me a message. My direct email address is lindsay@lindsaywalden.com and you can also follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest for more life and relationship tips!
I will be launching a number of new workshops and coaching groups in the next few months, so there will be many ways to connect and work with me! Stay tuned for details on them coming soon!
Therapy Thoughts Workshops
If you are local to the St. Louis area and interested in attending my monthly Therapy Thoughts Workshops, I just wanted to let you know they are on hold for a bit, but we will be back soon with more helpfulness. I love being able to bring you a great discussion with tips to implement into your life. I’m so grateful to the The Bike Stop Cafe for this opportunity, and I can’t wait to see how this develops in the future! If you have topics or questions you’d like me to cover in a future workshop, please let me know. Either send me an email lindsay@ilndsaywalden.com or call my office 314-485-9189.
Therapy Thoughts Podcast
My Therapy Thoughts podcast has re-launched, and I am so excited!!! Each new episode will be uploaded to my Therapy Thoughts Podcast Blog on the website each Thursday afternoon at 2:00pm CST, and then I’ll share it to all the podcasting sites from there. It is also available on the Apple iTunes podcast site, and you can subscribe so you never miss an episode!
Last week we talked about Boundaries. If you want to check it out, here is the link to Episode 5.
We are still considering changing the name of the podcast, but that’s not for sure yet. There is already a Therapy Thoughts Podcast, and I don’t want there to be any confusion, so I will update you as soon as we make a decision about what to do.
I really am so grateful to all of you for your continued support, and I hope you’ll tune in this Thursday. Remember to make sure you are following all my social media platforms so will know when each new episode is available. And, make sure you subscribe to my YouTube channel, so you will be able to watch the episodes once I have the videos ready to go!
