Changing Your Mindset With Positive Affirmations
This Post is by Guest Contributor Rocio Espinoza
If you’ve wanted to change your mindset, the power of positive thinking can have a significant impact on your spiritual and mental well-being. While the idea of using positive affirmations isn’t new, it’s something that more people are learning how to put into practice. Your morning routine has the power to make or break your day’s productivity. Getting into a productive mindset early in the day can greatly increase the amount of work you can accomplish.
If you’re ready to create the life you want, read on to discover some ways that you can incorporate these mantras into your own life at home. The more you use them, the more positive change you’ll start to see in your life and relationships.
Positive Thinking
The concept of positive thinking begins with how you talk to yourself and others. If you have negative self-talk, you can sabotage your dreams and goals. Working on thinking positively will change your outlook, and likely, it will change your outcome, too. Start working on your internal dialogue and try to change it from a negative to a positive mindset whenever and as much as possible. While positive thinking is great for your mental health, it doesn’t mean that you should hide from your problems. The mental practice of positive psychology simply means that you’re learning how to look at things from a more optimistic perspective instead of a negative one.
What are positive affirmations?
Positive affirmations are simply statements or short phrases that are used to challenge negative or hurtful thoughts. Practicing these self-affirmations can help to improve your self-esteem, encourage you to make positive changes, and motivate yourself. Whenever you feel like being hard on yourself, using some positive meditation or saying these affirmations can help you turn things around. While this isn’t necessarily a cure-all for feeling downtrodden or unmotivated, it can help you slowly change your mindset.
Benefits of positive affirmations
Integrating affirmations into your life can have a wide range of fantastic health and mental benefits of positive thinking:
A longer lifespan thanks to lower stress levels, which can also lower blood pressure and reduce the risk of other health-threatening conditions like cardiovascular disease
Lower rates and frequencies of depression and/or depressive episodes
Higher self-esteem, more motivation, and greater odds of meeting one’s unique goals or challenges
A stronger, healthier immune system and less risk of certain viruses such as the common cold
Improved resilience and better able to cope with difficulties in life, including hardships and stressful times
Improved odds of following a healthy diet and practicing regular exercise, which offers improved physical health
Through the use of positive affirmations, discouraged students may alter their attitude, learn to employ words of encouragement, and rekindle a love of learning.
Affirmation cards for homeschool kids are excellent tools for encouraging your children to develop and practice positive self-talk and behaviors.
How to use positive affirmations
There are many ways that you can use positive affirmations at home, work, school, or any other environment. Here are a few examples of how you can use positive affirmations in your life:
Write down several positive sentences or short phrases so you can refer to them every day or as needed
Use a vision board to help you see your goals and your plans more clearly and encourage you to meet those goals
Repeat positive mantras throughout the day and before bedtime
Practice positive meditation to help you feel calm and grounded
Write down things that bother you, then determine how you can turn those negatives thoughts into a positive.
Examples/How to Write Positive Affirmations
Here are some examples of positive affirmations that you can use at home or anywhere:
What I love about myself is that I (fill in the blank).
I do everything with honesty in my life and work.
I am a kind and generous person.
I got this! I can do this!
I am grateful for (fill in the blank).
I always trust myself to make the right decisions.
My mind is creative and full of amazing, smart ideas.
I make a difference in this world.
I’m thankful to have people in my life like (fill in the blank).
I get inspiration from the people, places, and things around me.
I fully trust that I am on the right path in life.
I will follow my intuition and listen to my inner voice at all times.
I can see the good in all people.
I am in complete control of my destiny.
The people in my life respect me and value my opinions.
I am a happy person.
I am a leader, and I am great at what I do.
I can be myself without judgment.
I am able to accept my emotions and allow them to serve their purpose to help me grow.
I’m always ready and willing to learn something new.
Using Vision Boards to Promote Motivation and Positive Thinking
If you still need a little motivation, consider a vision board. This is an effective way to help promote positive thinking and help you reach your goals.
What is a vision board? A vision board is an assortment of images, quotes, and other things that make you happy or help you see your goals in “real life.” This technique can be helpful in several scenarios, whether you’re aiming to lose weight, buy a new home, or get a big promotion at work. You can combine various images with powerful words and phrases to encourage you to stay motivated and think positively. The power of visualization is an effective tool that can help you stay on target and feel encouraged to keep pushing forward regardless of adversity.
How to create a vision board: You can use a piece of poster board or a corkboard to serve as the “foundation” of your vision board. Cut out pictures from magazines, use personal photos, or find images online that you can print out and attach to the board. Next, surround these images with positive wording and quotes that will motivate and encourage you. Your vision board can focus on a single goal, or it can encompass several facets of your life. The key is to only fill it with positive images and words meant to promote a positive mindset.
Positive Meditation
Meditation is a wonderful way to help you feel grounded and stay positive throughout your day. Here are some tips about this form of meditation and how you can practice and incorporate it into your life.
Practice positive meditation first thing in the morning. It’s a great way to start your day on the right foot and in the right frame of mind.
Start with short meditation sessions, then work your way to longer ones as you begin to feel more comfortable finding your “flow.”
When practicing positive meditation, repeat some of the positive affirmations you have written down.
Use soothing, gentle music to help calm your mind while you meditate.
Choose a quiet place free from distractions when meditating for the best results.
Try some grounding techniques to help you feel calm and have a grasp of your surroundings.
You can also meditate before bedtime to help you relax and promote more restful sleep.
Creating Positive Affirmations with Your Loved Ones
Positive affirmations are especially important when creating solid and long-lasting relationships with loved ones. These encouraging statements help communicate your love and support, resulting in trust and intimacy.
To create consistency with your positive affirmations toward loved ones, find ways to build them into everyday interactions. Find activities or date night games that encourage positive interactions with your significant other. Create a weekly or monthly event with your children that brings joy to the whole family. Go out of your way to plan a dinner with all of your friends. These examples help reinforce positivity and use positive affirmations to help strengthen the relationships with those you love most.
Tools to help you out
Here are some positive affirmation books and meditation apps that can help promote positive change in your life.
Positive affirmation books
You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay. This book shows you how to shape your world and your life through your thoughts and feelings for a positive outcome.
The Happiness Equation by Neil Pasricha. Filled with nine important secrets, this exciting book explores several ways to make yourself happier every day by changing your mindset.
Be a Work in Progress by John Cena. Written by famous actor and WWE superstar John Cena, this newly released book features words of wisdom about remaining open-minded, bold, embracing challenges, and learning how to make the most of each opportunity that comes your way.
Good Vibes, Good Life by Vex King. Exploring ways to find your higher purpose, this book explores self-care methods and other ways to put your well-being first. It also discusses how to manifest your goals and overcome fear so that you can flow with the Universe.
Badass Affirmations by Becca Wilson. Learn how to practice daily positive self-affirmations, improve your self-esteem, and much more with this book written just for women.
Positive meditation apps
Headspace. This popular app is chock-full of guided meditations, sleep sounds, and even meditations for kids.
Calm. With guided sessions that range from as short as three minutes to as long as 25 minutes, the Calm app lets you choose your favorite type of meditation to help you calm anxiety, feel gratitude, or practice positive mindfulness.
Insight Timer. The Insight Timer app lets you choose your favorite type of meditation or mindfulness exercise to help you get the results you want. You can also decide how long you want each meditation session to be based on your schedule and needs.
Aura. Improve your aura with this meditation app featuring nature sounds, daily meditations, life coaching, music, and more. Choose your mood when you open the app to get tools that are tailored just for you.
Smiling Mind. Developed by psychologists, this meditation app encourages mindfulness practice as part of a healthy lifestyle. It features easy 10-minute daily meditations that are broken into categories.
Whether it’s a vision board, daily meditation, or writing down and repeating positive words of affirmation, use these tips to help you develop a positive mindset. When you practice a more positive outlook and encourage yourself, you’ll be amazed at what can happen. Keep these helpful tips, books, and apps in mind when you’re ready to start working on developing a healthy relationship with yourself and your mind. No matter what challenges come your way, you’ll find them much easier to overcome when you have a positive outlook.
See Rocio Espinoza’s original article here.
