Have you ever looked in the mirror and said something positive about yourself out loud? Though self-affirmations may sound small and silly, they make a big difference on your self-esteem.
Self-confidence and assurance play a more significant role in one’s performance than most people realize. When someone gets down on themselves, it’s more than just a momentary lapse of confidence. The negative things people say to themselves linger. Those wounding jokes or negative thoughts may seem meaningless, but they impact self-worth and affect every aspect of life.
By improving thought patterns around qualities, individuals can inspire to overcome struggles and strengthen confidence. It may seem silly to look in the mirror and say how amazing you are, but the impact of doing things like that has proven beneficial.
What Are Self-Affirmations?
Positive self-affirmations are healthy ways to improve self-esteem and build empowerment. They are powerful words and phrases that impact how a person views themself. Anyone can use such positive statements to impact their active self and subconscious. Communicating self-affirmations encourages challenging the negative self-talk that tends to build up throughout life.
Saying something is not going to give truth to it, but repeating positive and impactful statements with intent can alter thought patterns, feelings, and behavior. When someone is intentional with their thoughts and words, they launch a change from within.
The Benefits of Self-Affirmations
Self-affirmations may seem cheesy at first, but they work by slowly changing the mind’s unhealthy thought cycle. It is possible to reprogram thoughts with positive self-affirmations.
Repeatedly saying or reading statements that encourage self-confidence, the mind absorbs those affirmations, developing the ability to believe them. Using self-affirmations properly can help a person:
- Focus better: Training the mind through self-affirmations helps concentrate on actions and how they can help accomplish a goal.
- Get motivated: It is more common to be active than passive when achieving goals.
- Redirect negative thoughts: Self-affirmations can replace negative thoughts with positive ones. By continuing to change those outlooks, they become second nature.
- Improve belief in self: Changing beliefs is possible. By choosing to view things more positively, an individual is more likely to believe in their abilities.
When self-affirmations make a person feel better, they are more motivated to continue utilizing them. In difficult times, self-affirmations can restore faith. A person may be more likely to reflect on the past and how certain experiences have affected them. Additionally, values may even change based on how a person views their change and progress.
With a more positive outlook and deeper perspective, stress can be managed with healthier methods, which leads to being happier and more productive, and even more adaptive to change.
Building Positive Self-Talk
Positive self-talk may seem like a simple concept, but practicing it is vital. Anyone can tell themselves they are unique and capable, but even with repetition, it won’t really make the changes unless they build those statements from the ground up. Self-affirmations have to carry weight and meaning for them to make an impact. When saying these positive statements, it is best to think about what can be done in a literal, physical sense that will back them up.
Analyze Self-Esteem
When improving self-confidence, a starting place is necessary. This can be difficult because individuals must face the things they are least secure about. However, pinpointing the parts that need improvement allows for a good starting point to work from.
Consider the parts some may view as negative. Some questions a person might ask themself include:
- Do you self-sabotage?
- Do you have poor coping or communication skills?
Whether these feelings are based on internal struggles or comments heard from others, overthinking it could hinder the process. Simply determine what those qualities are. Identifying the problems uncovers what to work on when creating affirmations.
Flip Negative Thoughts
Gaining any benefit from self-affirmations starts with training the brain to unlearn negative thought patterns.
During this process, an individual may get down on themself due to criticism, which is not uncommon. Instead of thinking, “I’m such a failure,” that person should redirect that energy into something more positive. A healthy alternative affirmation is “I can healthily absorb criticism.” This will make a small change at first, but once the individual begins to believe these words, they will become more powerful.
Speaking affirmations quietly or aloud multiple times throughout the day engages the mind and body. Affirmations aren’t just reciting something for memory but saying it with intent and absorbing it. Anyone can do this in the car or while relaxing, but the best thing to do is look in the mirror while saying positive self-affirmations. Reciting self-affirmations in the mirror encourages viewing change in facial expression and improves the impact.
Getting Support
Self-affirmations are essential for self-improvement, self-awareness, and healing from trauma. It isn’t about memorizing nice things to say about yourself but about really taking the time to change internal beliefs and behaviors through positive statements. Retraining the mind to think about things differently improves the ability to handle stress and challenges. Self-affirmations are a vital part of trauma-informed treatment and care. These statements teach how to manage struggles and develop more power and motivation. This can be extremely impactful for adolescents as their minds are still forming. While in this vulnerable time, they can begin practicing self-affirmations so they are at their strongest come adulthood.
At Havenwood Academy, we are experts in trauma-informed care for teen girls. We encourage our clients to recover through self-affirmations and other proven methods that improve self-esteem, confidence, communication, and behavior. Call us today at (435) 586-2500 to learn more about our competitive program and resources.
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Eric Allred was born and raised in Rigby, Idaho. He grew up on a family farm where he learned the value of work. He graduated from Rigby High School and attended Rick’s College, now known as BYU-Idaho. He received his bachelor’s degree in journalism from Utah State University, received a master’s degree in organizational behavior and human relations from the University of Phoenix and a second master’s degree in marital and family therapy from Phillips Graduate Institute. Eric has been involved in Rotary and was president of a local Rotary Club. He enjoys being with his family and doing outdoor activities such as fly fishing.
Chase was very fortunate to start in this industry as a struggling 17 year old kid looking for a mentor and something to be passionate about. Wilderness therapy was Chase’s first stop in this industry and was truly a transcendental experience for him. Chase has an enormous love for this line of work and the power that it has in creating change in everyone involved. Chase’s biggest belief is the power a mentor, strong, healthy relationships, and accountability can have on anyone, especially youth. Taking a very relational approach to his work, Chase has always been very relatable to the students he works with. Being able to understand and relate to a vast variety of the same struggles as a lot of the students he works with has been able to help him continue to grow, learn, and teach. Chase believes that with great rapport and trust, he can use his experience to continue to coach and train new staff, and has the ability to find those staff with the passion for this industry, and help them grow. His love and passion can be felt the moment you talk with Chase about this industry and he passes that on to others he works with. In his spare time you will find Chase cheering for the Eagles, Yankees, and Mavericks, hanging out with his brother, learning more about Eastern Psychology, and continuing to grow and learn.