Before we begin with the hidden secrets of positive affirmation it is important to understand what it is in the first place. Fortunately, it is not something that is easy to understand and practice. Positive affirmation is a set of positive statements or phrases to challenge negative and unhelpful thoughts. Like I said it is not at all difficult all you need to do is to pick a statement and repeat it to yourself. It is extremely helpful to keep yourself motivated, encourage positive thinking, and boost your self-esteem. If you are among one of those people who frequently get all wound up in the negative self-talk. Then, a positive affirmation can help you fight out the embedded negative pattern.
Science behind Affirmation
Although, affirmation has some magical effects on people it is purely scientific. Focusing on positive affirmation can have a long term and lasting effect on the way you think and feel. The theory I am going to mention below will prove the point.
The Self Affirmation Theory
Steele in the year 1988 published an empirical study on the said theory. It is based on the idea that you can maintain your self-integrity by telling or affirming to yourself that you believe in things in a positive manner. Our self-integrity is related to our efficacy. It is our ability to govern our moral output and adapt accordingly when our self-concept is perceived in some kind of threat. Therefore, all humans tend to get motivated when we perceive a threat to protect and maintain our self-integrity.
Benefits of Positive Affirmation
Affirmations have transformed the lives of thousands of people and have been instrumental in changing lives. It is just magical how it programs our mind into believing things and concepts we repeat. There are several benefits of affirmation, which includes the following:
Reduced Negative Thoughts
Most of our thoughts are seeded in our sub-conscious mind. We are not able to discover these thoughts without being actively conscious. When you practice positive affirmation, you are able to get a peek into your subconscious. You become aware of your thought patterns and how you feel, which you were not aware of earlier. Once, you gain certain awareness of your thoughts and feeling, it becomes clearer for you. You become better able to filter out the thoughts you think are negative.
Increase Happiness
Like mentioned earlier, once you get a clear sight of what your feeling and thoughts are, you are able to acknowledge things better. Acknowledge the things that happened to prevent you to be happier. So once you are aware of the things that hold you back to be happy, you can get rid of those things. Or conversely, surround yourself with things that make you feel happier.
Give you an eye for small things
We often tend to overlook things that are there and are of importance to us. By practicing positive affirmation on a regular basis enables us to clearly see things that are crucial for us. For example, we tend to take being totally healthy for granted. But, if you self affirm and say “I am healthy”, you are better able to appreciate it and less likely to take it for granted.
Better Health
There are studies that prove that positive self-affirmation helps you stay in a good mood and stay optimistic. Overall optimism helps you keep heart problems like strokes, heart attack, and other coronary heart diseases at bay.
Except that, as established before self-affirmation gives you a broad sense of self-awareness. This self-awareness makes you more resilient in general. So, whenever there is any social pressure hovering over us or any news which would make us uncomfortable. Having a better sense of self is a great thing to have.
It keeps you in gratitude
Remember the time you were scoping for a job that you prepared yourself for and finally got. You bought a new wardrobe to fit the title. You were all happy about it, jumping up and down. Two years later, your gratitude for the job is different. Practicing positive affirmation helps you stay focused on the positive aspects. It is important to use affirmation for what you aspire to become. Know that it should not hold precedence over what you have already achieved.