Power Up with Affirmations

Do you know the power of an affirmation? 

I first started to use affirmations regularly in my early 20’s, when I had cognitive behavioural therapy as part of my treatment for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

My therapist lent me her copy of Louise Hays’ ‘You Can Heal Your Life.’  I devoured it and ordered my own copy within a day! It’s still a book a refer to regularly for inspiration and reassurance – it’s literally travelled the globe with me!

In case you don’t know, let’s look at what an affirmation is!

Affirmations are our self-talk…The phrases we tell our sub-conscious mind and when repeated regularly become our habitual way of thinking and behaving.  

BUT, they’re NOT ALWAYS A GOOD THING!  Why?  Becuase we see what our subconscious wants us to see! So if we’re constantly telling our sub-conscious we’re not good enough, for example, it will happilly go off and find us evidience that we’re not good enough!  That’s because when we believe something, the brain will find ways to confirm what our beliefs are!  Another example is:  ‘I don’t have enough time!’  By telling yourself this, your brain finds ways to confirm this belief and constantly collects evidence to support your self-talk that you don’t have enough time and therefore, you feel like you never have enough time!

These phrases are known as our limiting beliefs, such as: ‘I can’t do… this that or the other because:’

• I’m not good enough
• I don’t have enough confidence
• I’m too thin or too fat

So how can we go from thinking in a limited way, to thinking in a positive more life affirming way, that attracts more of what we’d like?  

In the words of Mel Robbins, ‘You flip it!’  Flipping the negative phrase into a positive one, like ‘I have plenty of time’  tells your sub-sonscious to search for evidence to show you that you do have enough time, to… take that exercise class, do a few minutes of face yoga or just simply sit for a few minutes with a cup of tea to recharge your batteries!

The science behind positive affirmations tells us that they:

• establish healthy beliefs and behaviours that
• work to support your confidence and self esteem.
• Are the building blocks from which you can create peace of mind and inner joy.

And they do this by focussing the mind on the positive, on gratitude and show us are areas of most resistance!  And by this, I mean:

• the little voice in your head that says things like, you don’t deserve, or you’re not good enough etc and recognising how that makes you feel.

When acknowledged as resistance to change, you instantly know that this is an area you need to work on and can create some postive affirmations to reframe how you think!

According to self development guru Louise Hay, the easiest and quickest way to do this is through mirror work, but more on that later!

So, Positive affirmations such as :

• I am good enough
• I am courageous enough
• I am beautiful
• I am confident

Can help us retrain our minds by updating our subconscious to find a new evidence.   So instead of our inner voices saying we can’t, they say we can and our subconscious is programmed to find evidence to support us.

In her book, Louise recommends writing down your affirmations and then reading them aloud to yourself in front of a mirror…  

Personally, it’s taken me a long time to feel OK with this, but I came to realise it’s in the ‘uncomfortable-ness’ that I learn where my blocks and resistance to change is and can figure out what I need to let go off.   By embracing how I feel, rather than being judgmental of myself and detaching from feeling silly in front of the mirror (which in itself is resistance!) I lessen my anxiety, build my self-esteem and ultimately improve my skin too! 

My studies of psycho-dermatology have shown me how our self-belief systems are so intertwined into our skin health conditions, like eczema and acne and is why I am so passionate about using affirmations in my daily life and Face Yoga classes. (see my post on the How mental health impacts our skin here!)

If you don’t have an affirmation practice and would like to learn more about affirmations and the benefits of them, drop me a message and I can help you get started!

In the meantime here are a few I love:

I love and approve of myself
I naturally feel good about myself
I lovingly take care of my body
I calm my thoughts, I am serene
My skin is glowing and radiant

With much love and gratitude,

Carolyn.