A Guide to Positive Affirmations

We all need help being kind to ourselves sometimes.

“I looked in the mirror and hated myself physically and mentally. I wanted to gnaw my teeth in frustration over how I felt about myself. I put my fingers in my hair, and I wanted to pull on it in desperation”

There are so many reasons why people glance at their reflection and become unsettled with who they see looking back at them. The way we perceive ourselves has so much to do with our fluctuating self-esteem, but it also has to do with our previous experiences in life. If we struggled in our past, there is a chance we are emotionally fragile. Our confidence wavers, and it can be stolen from us in the blink of an eye.

Low self-esteem is defined and “characterized by a lack of confidence and feeling badly about oneself” according to Psychalive.org.

With the rise of people dealing with negative self-talk and low self-esteem in today’s society, there is also a rise of websites, blogs, and self-help books promoting positive affirmations as a strategy to combat these negative feelings about oneself.

What Are Positive Affirmations?

To put it simply, a positive affirmation is a positive statement that affirms who you are. The practice of stating positive affirmations out loud is how you declare your worth and value to yourself. When you speak to yourself through positive affirmations, you are asserting your self-empowerment.

The concept is a new age practice that seems like it is relying on words over action. On the other hand, there is research to back up the beneficial behavioral effects on the brain. Here is what the Communication Neuroscience Lab from the University of Pennsylvania has to say about their research on the topic:

“The study also found that self-affirmation increases activity in the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) and posterior cingulate (PCC), areas of the brain connected to self-related processing. That, says Cascio, suggests that increases on self-related processing act as a kind of emotional buffer to any painful, negative, or threatening information that follows.”

Practicing positive affirmations supports your brain to not spiral into negative thinking. If the goal is to have better self-esteem and confidence, then positive affirmations might be just the tool you need.

How to Start Using Positive Affirmations

• You will want to have your completed list of positive affirmations easily accessible. You can write them down, print them out, or you can even write them on post-it notes.
• Next, you are going to find a quiet place where you can be alone each day. Being isolated is important so that you can focus on your voice without any interruptions or judgments.
• Once you find your peaceful place, you are going to speak your positive affirmations out loud and repeat them until you feel the flow. You should do this for at least five minutes and repeat it as often as possible — morning, afternoon, and night.
• The key to success is repetition. If you say it often enough, your mind will start to accept the affirmations as true. Repeat the process.

What if it Makes You Uncomfortable?

If you have never practiced the repetition of positive affirmations before, there is a high likelihood that you will feel uncomfortable — maybe even awkward. It is similar to the experience of praying for the first time. If you don’t know how to start, then you don’t know what to say.

It is also possible that you might feel the effects of imposter syndrome. You might perceive yourself as a phony who is faking self-love. This belief you might impose on yourself during the positive affirmation process is proof in itself that you would benefit from the practice. You deserve to feel self-love and confidence.

What if You Don’t Know What to Say?

As an English teacher, it is my responsibility to provide guidance to struggling students who need an extra push. One of those supports we give to our students is called sentence stems. It is an educational strategy that helps students who claim that they don't know what to write down. It is for the student who has thoughts but not written words. It is a simple tool that encourages students to respond, think critically, and verbally communicate what they are thinking. The same concept can be used for you when creating positive affirmations.

You don’t want to generalize your positive self-talk. Instead, you want it to reflect your own experiences and goals to make it personalized to you.

All you need to do is fill in the blank.

40 Positive Affirmation Sentence Stems

Here is a list of 40 sentence stems you can use to begin your journey towards positive self-esteem and self-affirmation:

1. My _____ is a priority to me.
2. I am confident about my _____.
3. I am proud of my _____.
4. I am thankful for my _____.
5. I am not defined by my _____.
6. I am becoming _____ every day.
7. I am strong enough to _____.
8. I can overcome _____.
9. I believe that I can be _____.
10. I choose to be _____.
11. I am in love with _____.
12. Today will be a great day because _____.
13. I will not worry about _____.
14. I love being _____.
15. I can control my _____.
16. I have today to accomplish _____.
17. I feel safe from _____.
18. I am able to _____.
19. I will be true to myself by _____.
20. Today I will be able to _____.
21. I will honor myself by _____.
22. I attract opportunities by _____.
23. I belong ______.
24. I am beautiful because _____.
25. I am enough because _____.
26. I belong here because _____.
27. I am a positive light to _____.
28. I am excited about _____.
29. I surround myself with _____.
30. I am unique because _____.
31. I trust myself because _____.
32. I am allowed to _____.
33. I unconditionally love myself because _____.
34. I appreciate _____ about myself.
35. I am perfect the way I am because _____.
36. Life is good because_____.
37. I smile because _____.
38. I take ownership of my life _____.
39. I am powerful because _____.
40. My voice matters because _____.