The Truth About Affirmations

For a long time before I knew what affirmations were I used to say them every single day and had no idea why my life reflected everything I was saying. So right now you might be thinking that these affirmations I used to whisper to myself helped become the person that I am today but no, far from it. I used to be so negative that whenever a positive thought came to mind I would immediately water it down with something negative. 

These affirmations ranged from, “You don’t come from a good background so why would you think you could ever be successful?” to “A mansion huh? You? Lower your expectations and dreams please,” to “You are extremely skinny,” to “You really aren’t even pretty at all though,” and when I tell you that my life was just terrible, I mean terrible. I unconsciously spoke these affirmations to life. Fast forwarding to 2017 when I turned to self-love when I became single for the first time since 2010, I started loving everything about me and started feeling beautiful and successful and at this time, I still didn’t know much about affirmations, to be honest, I don’t even think I knew what that word meant.

So what are affirmations? To me, judging from my personal experience, I would define affirmations as things that you know about your yourself. Not things that you think you are or things you hope to be but what you already know about yourself. Don’t stand in front of the mirror and chant, “I am beautiful” if you don’t already believe it. It really does not work like that, why do you feel the need to convince yourself that?

There are millions of blog posts and books on affirmations that you can say to yourself but they do not work if that’s not who you are or what you feel. Don’t use affirmations as a way to convince yourself something. If you’re hoping to have a good day today don’t tell yourself you will if you don’t already believe you will. Affirmations are about what you know and believe not what you hope and what you want to convince yourself about.

Affirmations are about what you know and believe not what you hope and what you want to convince yourself about.

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When I used to tell myself that I am not pretty, I literally used to see myself getting worse and worse every single day. It’s what I believed in, it’s what I saw and it’s what the universe then chose to give me by throwing in acne, uneven skin color and dark spots. Every day I would wake up to something new and wonder why this is happening to me. That’s how affirmations work though, you see more of what you already know and believe. 

I, personally, am not a fan of following affirmations that we read about, you have to create your own. How do you do that? After a task, after talking to someone, when you notice something about yourself – affirm it. So, if you love cooking and your dish turned out good tonight, acknowledge it and say to yourself, “Damn, I am such a good cook man” (or however you would word it). If a stranger walked by and you smiled at them and gave them a genuine compliment, tell yourself that you are a good and kind person.

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Amongst other affirmations I changed in my life, being beautiful is one of them that truly switched things up for me. Ever since I acknowledged that I am in fact beautiful, I keep feeling more and more beautiful every day. And you know what? Now the universe makes me prettier, no more acne, no dark spots, no uneven skin color. Craziest part? I haven’t changed the soap I have been using for years, I am still using the same one I was using when I ‘wasn’t pretty’.

So do you see how this works? An affirmation is a form of self-love, don’t make it about self-hate. Point out all the good and quirky things you like about yourself. If you know you are going to be filthy rich in the near future, affirm it. If you know that your plans are going to work out, affirm it. There is so much power in the words we speak to ourselves so make sure that whatever comes out of your mouth, is pure kindness to yourself.

Affirmations are supposed to make you feel good about yourself and also help you manifest your dreams and help you ‘find’ yourself. Get yourself in the habit of affirming everything good you know about yourself and remember to love and take care of yourself.

That’s it for now,