Affirmations are so important! Here are some great affirmations that will help on your journey:
Creating space for truth…eliminating the negative thoughts that no longer serve us.
I AM. Two of the most powerful words for what you put after them shape your reality.
"What you think, you become. What you feel, you attract. What you imagine, you create". - Buddha
"You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you."- James Allen
"Whatever we plant in our subconscious mind and nourish with repetition and emotions will one day become a reality." -Earl Nightingale
"As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.”―Henry David Thoreau
“Much more surprising things can happen to anyone who, when a disagreeable or discouraged thought comes into his mind, just has the sense to remember in time and push it out by putting in an agreeable, determinedly courageous one. Two things cannot be in one place.”―Frances Hodgson Burnett
“The closer you come to knowing that you alone create the world of your experience, the more vital it becomes for you to discover just who is doing the creating.”―Eric Micha'el Leventhal
Below are some examples of Negative and positive cognitions. The goal of practicing Affirmations is to identify our negative thoughts and create positive ones or Affirmations that can “go to battle,” if you will, with those negative thoughts and push them out, eliminate them from our self-talk, and replace them with constructive, positive thoughts. Using affirmations can influence your subconscious mind and transform your habits, behaviors, attitudes, and reactions...even reshape your life.
Examples of negative cognitions and their possible positive cognitions.
I am not good enough….I am good enough
I do not deserve…I can have/deserve…
I should have done something… I did the best I could
I am weak…I am strong
I cannot trust anyone…I can choose whom to trust
I am not in control…I am now in control
I am a failure… I can succeed.
These are just a few examples to get your wheels turning about what you are trying to catch and what you are trying to practice instead and replace the negative with the positive. Affirmation work can be very challenging. You may not believe the affirmation. That is okay; say it anyway. Our alternative would be to let the negative message sit there uncontested. You may find that you need affirmations that say, instead of, I am a good person, I am learning to be a good person. You can make adjustments to help you allow them space in your body.
Some additional resources:
Louise Hay's book, Mirror Work, will help you practice affirmations.
A smartphone application called, I Am, will do a lot of this work for you! You download the app and then set it to notify you as often during the day as you desire. Each notification is an affirmation. This app will keep your affirmation work in your awareness and help you think of and create affirmations that work for you.
I encourage you to begin your affirmation work and be your own observer as you practice pushing back against the negative self-talk that you are currently experiencing. Some of these messages take deeper level work that occurs in a counseling session to move them fully, but you can begin the process today with this practice and resources.