Positive Affirmations for Overcoming Challenges

The things you say and think to yourself form some of the most powerful influences on your school experience, career, relationships, success, and happiness. Staying positive is actually very sound advice!

Negative thoughts and internal dialogue feed doubts and fears. They make it difficult to achieve success and reach the goals we strive for. A positive affirmation is a healing, uplifting phrase that provides a tool for countering negative self-talk. Positive affirmations remind a person to remain vigilant about his or her own thinking process, regularly visualize goals, and grow and change in a meaningful way. Are you filled with positive affirmations or negative self-talk?

Negativity—Where Does It Come From?

Negative thoughts and internal dialogue can happen so fast and automatically that we are unconscious of them. This type of thinking leads to self-defeating emotions and behaviors like arguing, blaming, complaining, conflict, envy, gossip, judgment of others, powerlessness, resentment, self-criticism, and self-righteousness. Negative thinking is an accumulation of limiting messages and labels that build up over time.

Negativity usually starts in childhood. Most infants get ongoing and unconditional admiration. As the child grows older and begins to explore the world, its relationship to adults changes. Exploration is messy. Milk is spilled, objects are broken, and mud is tracked on floors. Adults suddenly become supervisors with the aim of keeping the child out of trouble. Feedback from adults changes from never-ending praise to sharp, annoyed voices that infer the child is bad. Some children get very little interaction with their parents unless they are behaving badly. These children repeat negative behaviors over and over again in an effort to get the parents’ attention. It’s not hard to understand why it is easier for many adults to view themselves as not good enough instead of wonderful, and to have doubtful, negative, and self-limiting thoughts. Breaking the habit of negative thinking requires awareness, patience, effort, and practice.

Overcoming Negative Self-Talk

The first step to replacing negative thinking with positive thinking is vigilance. This means you watch your own thinking and are curious about it. When you find yourself in a stressful situation (learning a new practical skill, meeting a new group of people, speaking in front of the class, etc.), pay attention to your thoughts. Ask yourself:

• What am I saying to myself?
• How does it make me feel?
• Where does this thought come from and what is its history?
• How does this thought serve me?
• How does this thought hold me back?

It helps to keep a journal about negative thoughts and self-talk. Getting them out on paper allows you to view them with more objectivity. Respond to negative thoughts with a positive, nurturing statement that counteracts the negative self-talk. These types of statements are often called positive affirmations.

Positive Affirmations

Some believe that positive affirmations tap into the power of the subconscious mind and can change both mental and physical health. The act of repeating an affirmation is thought to convince the subconscious mind that the affirmation is true, even if the conscious mind does not believe the affirmation. The subconscious mind adjusts subconscious behavior triggers in order to align more fully with the affirmation, and motivates the individual to realize the goal or make a change.

Research has found that practices like meditation and affirmation enhance psychological and physical well-being. A study conducted by Stanford University found that pro-social and positive emotional skills could be taught through the use of transformative practices (meditation, prayer, affirmation, and yoga). That study estimates that 75 percent of self-talk is negative. Imagine how lives would change if 75 percent of self-talk was positive instead.

Types of Affirmations

Positive affirmations can take many forms, including “I am” statements, “I can” statements, “I will” statements, and process affirmations.

“I Am” Statements

“I am” statements affirm positive attributes and strengths. In this type of affirmation, you focus on making positive statements about who you are as a person and your talents and abilities. Examples:

• I am courageous.
• I am creative.
• I am forgiving.
• I am intelligent.
• I am relaxed.

The statements can remain in the simple format used above or they can be adapted to suit a specific situation. In this case the affirmations might look like this:

• I am courageous and state my ideas openly.
• I am creative and have an abundance of ideas to share with my classmates.
• I am forgiving and do not hold grudges against people with whom I’ve disagreed.
• I am intelligent and express my ideas clearly in class.
• I am relaxed and share my ideas with the group.

“I Can” Affirmations

“I can” statements affirm the ability to accomplish a goal or take control of a situation. In these statements, you remind yourself that you play a significant role in life-shaping events and that, through effort, bad habits can be overcome. Examples include:

• I can be assertive.
• I can be honest about my feelings.
• I can control my anger.
• I can learn this material.
• I can lose weight.
• I can stop smoking.
• I can take risks.

Again, statements can be left in a simple format or adapted to address a particular situation. For example, “I can take risks” might be adapted to “I can take risks and share my ideas about ethics in ethics class.”

“I Will” Statements

“I will” statements affirm the ability to cultivate new behaviors and thought processes. They are sometimes more powerful than “I can” statements because the language is more determined. In an “I can” statement, a choice is implied: “I can control my anger (if I feel like it at that moment)” and so it may feel less determined than “I will control my anger.” Examples include:

• I will offer my comments in class today.
• I will pay attention to my diet today and drink the water I need.
• I will smile at my classmates today and add to the positive classroom energy.

Process Affirmations

Process statements remind you that life is a progression of events, and every day is a chance to make changes and grow as an individual. Process statements often begin, “Moment by moment, day by day, in every hour and every way, I am ...” This alerts your subconscious that you are actively engaged, over time, in making your life more positive. Process statements may cause fewer objections in the conscious mind because they are perceived as true. The conscious mind can say to itself, “Yes, I am working toward learning study skills. I may not have great study skills today, but next week they will be better, and the week after that they will be better still.” Process statements often get agreement from both the conscious and subconscious mind, making them more powerful.

Examples of process statements include:

• Moment by moment, day by day, in every hour and every way, I am eating healthy food and drinking the water I need.
• Moment by moment, day by day, in every hour and every way, I let people get close to me and trust them to like me.
• Moment by moment, day by day, in every hour and every way, I share my ideas in class and ask good questions.

Create Your Own Affirmations

Use the Affirmation Worksheet in the Picked Fresh section of this newsletter to create some positive affirmations for your life and your educational experience. Affirmations work best when they are repeated regularly.

Try these ideas to utilize affirmations effectively:

• Print each affirmation on an 8 1⁄2˝ x 11˝ piece of paper and tack them around your room. Look at them often and read them out loud.
• Write your top five affirmations on a piece of paper and keep them in your bag or your pocket. Take them out and read them aloud throughout the day.
• Record your affirmations and listen to them while driving in the car.
• Repeat your affirmations when you wake up each morning and directly before you go to sleep.
• Write your affirmations on index cards, shuffle the cards each morning, and see which affirmation comes to you out of the card deck.
• Paste pictures that convey the message of your affirmation onto poster board and tack them up where you can see them each day.

It’s a good idea to reevaluate your affirmations each month and determine if they are still relevant. You can also tie affirmation writing into goal setting and time-management planning.