So I love a positive affirmation I find them really empowering. These statements for me are amazing things that can help you express how you are feeling when you are struggling to find the words on your own. They can give you strength and the determination to carry on and because it is written down you kind of don’t feel alone in your struggles because someone else felt this way too.
I thought the whole positive affirmation thing was a quite new to me the last few years as I started using them more and more with my #daisydoesnt work but was quite surprised when I was rummaging through some of my old stuff in the loft and found a well worn, folded up piece of pink paper with a positive statement written in my hand writing from my late teens. I would like to say this wasn’t that long ago but this must have been about 25 years ago! I then remembered that I had it hidden away in my wallet for years and would bring it out and read it when I needed encouragement or felt a bit rubbish about myself. I obviously felt that this tiny folded piece of paper meant something special because I chose to store is safely away for all of these years in the loft with my other personally valuable possessions. And do you know what, when I opened it and read the quote written on it, I felt a connection with it. It was still as relevant to me today as it was all those years ago. Not that I haven’t moved on and grown, but the words were timeless.
Affirmations are catchy and similar to your favourite songs in that they provoke personal feelings. Everyone has favourite tunes that match how you are feeling at that time. Songs to make you happy, songs to motivate you, songs that help you through rough times, songs that make you feel….
The thing about an affirmation is it’s like a short hard hit of ‘feeling’. Just a few words that you can keep sharp in your brain and can easily remember. Repeat it over and over without having to really use your brain (which is good for those with bad memories like me!). I didn’t really realise how powerful affirmations can be until I started using them in my work with #daisydoesnt. They can provoke a whole conversation that leads to the person really opening up about things that they have been holding onto. Affirmations can make you feel that you can overcome anything to becoming a tearful bundle of emotion. You can use them to help someone understand another person or think about things from a different perspective.
My favourite thing is having a pile of them and letting someone read through them all to choose one that resonates with them the most. You can learn a lot from just watching their face and the expressions that they make without knowing as they read through them all. They will talk about the ones they feel a connection to and the ones they dislike. We talk about both as they are equally important but they will only write down the one that makes them feel the most positive and inspired. This is the one to squirrel away in your wallet. There is a whole mindful experience embedded in the process of carefully unfolding the paper, reading the affirmation, taking deep and slow breathes as you do before re folding it and placing it carefully back in your wallet.
I’ve been known to stick affirmations on sticky notes randomly around my house, on every door and mirror, on the inside of the front door, even so you can read them whilst sat on the loo! I’ve still got my own personal one folded up in my wallet that I get out when I need it. It’s just something that works for me – you can try it if you want.
There is a load of stuff written about the power of positive affirmations on the internet, studies galore! Or just buy one of the hundreds of books available on the subject, I have quite a few as I like to do my research but really I think that if it works for you it doesn’t really matter why. ❤️
#daisydoesn't 