Learn Your Flow

Are you feeling down, full of negative thoughts about the world and yourself. If so, why not boost your positivity by introducing affirmations into your meditation practice. Affirmations are short, positive statements that can be repeated either to yourself or out loud. They are designed to help shift negative thought patterns into positive ones.

Benefits of affirmations:

• Affirmations can help with self-confidence and improve sense of self.
• They can also help with reducing stress.
• Affirmations are good for improving motivation.
• They can help you to persevere through difficult times.  
• Affirmations can help with behavioural changes such as a healthy food habits.
• They can also help you perform under stress.

Affirmations go hand in hand with meditation as the meditation can help you to observe and recognise negative thought patterns as they arise. Once you are able to notice these thought patterns you are able to change them into a more positive outlook by using the affirmations. But always be mindful of safety so that if your negative thought patterns are severe or persistent then always seek help from a medical professional.

How to write an affirmation: 

• To start off you need to choose a purpose for your affirmation – Are you going to use it for motivation, or confidence, or even healthy relationships. Once you have chosen a theme or behaviour you wish to change you can make your affirmation specific to that goal.

• It is important to keep your affirmation realistic – For example, you could choose an affirmation to help you with improving your financial situation. With this topic it is easy to make the affirmation unrealistic. Such as, ‘I am going to win £1 million’. You’re more likely to have success if you create an affirmation that is more realistic like ‘I attract abundance’

• Keep your affirmation short and sweet – It is best to write an affirmation that is between 3 -7 words long. This makes it easier to remember and is easier to repeat.

• Write your affirmation in the present tense – Always write you affirmation like it is already happening. This will help you to believe it is true right now.

• Choose the opposite of the negative self-talk – Choosing the opposite to the negative self-talk is a perfect use of affirmations. An example of how to do this is if you make a mistake and your mind tells you “You are so stupid” you can change this thought pattern by using a positive affirmation such as “I can learn from mistakes.”

Here are some examples of affirmations:

I accept who I am	I can be whatever I want to be
I am proud of my achievements	Today will be a productive day
I deserve to be happy	I am getting healthier each day
I am strong	I am successful
I am brave	I am intelligent and creative

Affirmation challenge…

Affirmations can be repeated as many times as you like and whenever you like. The more times the affirmation is repeated the more successful it will be. So why not incorporate it into your daily routine. Or, if you have started a daily meditation practice try setting aside at least 1 session where you can use your affirmation. Start by choosing your affirmation, whether you have written your own or found one that suits your needs. Once you have found your affirmation choose a number and repeat your affirmation that many times, every day for a week to see the positivity grow.

One thing to remember is that practising affirmations is relatively easy as you don’t need to use any props if you don’t want to. However, one way of keeping track of how many times you have repeated the affirmation is by using beads. Mala beads are a necklace consisting of 108 crystal beads, but you can just use a bracelet. Both items can be worn and are easy to carry around. Another way of practising affirmations is also by writing the phrase down repeatedly. 

Affirmations can also be used to help with manifestation which is a topic that we will cover in more detail next month. But while you are waiting why not start boosting your positive vibe with all your affirmations.