Saying positive affirmations is generally regarded as being on the ‘woo-woo’ end of the wellness spectrum and is often met with skepticism. How much of a difference can you effect on reality just by cajoling your mind with a few kind words? 

Well… a lot, actually.

While it’s true that we can’t control external events, our ability to respond to them has the most considerable bearing on how we experience life. By extension, training our brains to support self-worth improves that ‘response-ability’. It increases the likelihood that we’ll actively take steps to pursue our goals and desires, and helps persuade others of our worthiness, effectively opening doors. The end result – because we’re out there trying, we eventually get more of what we want. 

In The Book of Secrets, New York Times bestselling author and alternative-medicine advocate Deepak Chopra notes: 

“Of all the liberating ideas that could change a person’s life, this one is perhaps the most freeing: Being a creator is more important than the whole world. In fact, it is the world. Yet to truly live it, to be a true creator, a great deal of conditioning needs to be broken down.”

Deepak Chopra

Whether it’s advertising trying to sell us more of what we don’t need or well-meaning parents who got it wrong, there are plenty of voices out there telling you that who you are and what you have are not enough. Affirmations help because they develop a new narrative – one that we control.

The neuroscience behind positive affirmations

In recent decades, MRI studies have changed our understanding of how behavior affects and even changes the structure of our brains.

Neuroscientists use the term “use-dependent cortical reorganization,” to refer to our brain’s tendency to strengthen the neural pathways we use most often. 

Similarly, the concept of ‘neuroplasticity’ teaches us that even as adults, our brains can forge new neural pathways and lose those which are no longer used.  

An article on the science of daily affirmations that was published at PositivePsychology.com earlier this year cites two of the latest supportive studies in this field: “There is MRI evidence suggesting that certain neural pathways are increased when people practice self-affirmation tasks […] the ventromedial prefrontal cortex—involved in positive valuation and self-related information processing—becomes more active when we consider our personal values (Falk et al., 2015; Cascio et al., 2016).”

Developing these new neural pathways keeps us open-minded and helps us overcome the baseline negative biases and conditioning that may be holding us back since childhood. 

But there’s a catch. 

In order for affirmations to ‘work’ we have to actually believe them

A 2009 research study published in the journal Psychological Science found that “present tense positive affirmation had a positive effect on people with high self-esteem, but a detrimental effect on those with low self esteem. Individuals with low self-esteem who made present tense (e.g. “I am”) positive affirmations felt worse than individuals who made positive statements but were allowed to consider ways in which the statements were false. Individuals with low self-esteem who made future tense affirmations (e.g. “I will”) saw positive effects.”

It’s a fine line between “fake it till you make it” and “that’ll never happen for me”. So while the best practice for affirmations is to say them in the present tense, if that triggers resistance for you, it’s better to say it in the future tense as something that you can believably aspire to. 

Other  best practices include:

• Looking in the mirror (also useful for noticing resistance) 
• Saying affirmations early in the morning or before going to bed 
• Repeating your affirmations 
• Visualizing your affirmations 
• Somatically sensing your affirmations (look for an open, expansive feeling in your chest)

All these sensory perceptions help increase the believability of the positive statements, so that our subconscious is convinced.

Practicing positive affirmations with Kai

Kai sends you powerful affirmations in various formats, as both questions and statements, with tips on how to make them resonate to increase effectiveness. Practicing affirmations with someone else may feel a little embarrassing at first, but you’re likely to find that accepting your affirmations in the presence of another helps you to internalize their message.  

A final note on affirmations: confronting pain is an incredibly effective way to change your brain in a way that heals the effects of difficult past experiences and trauma. Affirmations, alongside other techniques and treatments such as Acceptance & Commitment Therapy, encourage us not to run away from our pain, but to heal by going through it.

Today I’m embracing my potential to be, do, and have whatever I can dream

References

• Dr. Tara Swart in Forbes on neuroplasticity and other underlying principles for changing your brain
• Journal of Psychological Science on the power and peril of positive self-statements
• The Annual Review of Psychology on self-affirmations and social psychological intervention
• Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience on self-affirmations reinforced by future orientation