Positive Affirmations

The dictionary defines self-talk as “talk or thoughts directed at oneself.” Self talk is the way in which you talk to yourself, your internal dialog though it doesn’t have to be internal. Self talk is both the way that you talk to yourself inside your head and the things that you say about yourself out loud or to other people. It may be positive or negative, how you talk to yourself influences how you see yourself. An affirmation is “an act of saying or showing that something is true”. Another definition is an “emotional support or encouragement”. Positive affirmations are the process of elevating our self image by saying beneficial things to help convince ourselves of the truth behind them. They are an emotional support for dealing with difficult times by reframing the difficulty into something to be overcome instead of something that to just be accepted. We are constantly talking to ourselves and speak over the things that we do. You can be speaking positive things into your life or negative ones. If you don’t take control of what you speak into your life you don’t know what is being said about you, by you. Positive affirmations allow you to take charge of what you are saying about yourself and reprogram yourself to think better and be able to handle negative situations. Episode Breakdown How we talk to ourselves greatly affects our lives. The way we talk about ourselves has an affect on how we think and feel. When we put to words our own self image that gains power, especially through repetition. When we talk to ourselves we don’t just say something and forget it. We tend to repeat phrases and tell ourselves the same things over and over again. If you look at someone who is confident and self assured, they are constantly telling themselves what they are good at and when things don’t go well for them they will say that it is a new challenge to overcome. On the other side, if a person is constantly berating themselves they will start to feel like they can’t do anything right. This can take several forms from self hatred to blaming others for all their problems. Negative self-talk is one of the most dangerous things you can do. Negative self talk is an inner dialog that holds you back and puts limitations on your own abilities. These are words and phrases that negatively affect your thoughts and emotions. Many times these negative self talks start from accurate appraisals of a situation. However, instead of accurately assessing you aren’t good at something and so need to work harder to get better you catastrophize and start to believe that we will never be able to do the thing. Continued negative self talk leads to a form of perfectionism where if you can’t do something right the first time you don’t believe you will ever be able to do it. This limits your thinking and your ability to learn new things. It has also been shown in studies to exacerbate or lead to depression and depressive episodes. (Fiske et al. 2009) What is a positive affirmation? Positive affirmations are any statement or simple sentence that you can use to combat negative thoughts and ruminations. They can be used for motivation, self-esteem, or to get through challenging situations in life. The things you say about yourself, both publicly and privately, define your identity. Through positive affirmations you are able to create a flexible self-identity that is able to adapt to changing circumstances in life. (Cohen & Sherman, 2014) Affirmations are not something to say in order to praise yourself, but because you want to deserve to be called the thing you are affirming. The main goal of affirmations is to refocus your thinking. Regular use of positive affirmations allows you to take control of your own thoughts and combat negative ones ...