I recently wrote about how we talk to ourselves and why it’s important to stop putting ourselves down. I also began a No Mean Words (to yourself & others) Challenge. This has been a hard one to keep. I do think I’m better about how I talk to and about myself. I stopped telling everyone I was a procrastinator, and I’ve been good about thinking and saying I’m strong, smart, and capable. But it hasn’t felt like it’s making that big a difference… until today. Today, I read something (that I’ve probably read or heard many times before) and it clicked. Finally. And it’s something we all intuitively know.
Everything you say is an affirmation. And you’re either affirming the good in you and your life, or you’re saying something that affirms negativity, fear, anger, anxiety, sadness in life. Everything you say and think is an affirmation. So what are you thinking, what are you saying?
All right, so what’s next? I bet this makes sense to most of you. It certainly did to me. And it definitely underscores the idea that we need to be kind to ourselves and others. Affirm what you want, right?
But there’s more. Here’s the interesting thing about affirmations. If you’re working in a restaurant, living off your tips, you probably can’t say to yourself, “This year I will make a million dollars,” and believe it. If you can, that’s great. Keep on working and believing and don’t worry about the “how”, focus on the “what” – what you want. But if that seems implausible to you, then you need an affirmation that you can believe. How about instead, “I can find work I love that pays me well.” Do you believe that?
The deal is words have energy. And when you want to shift energy, you breathe deeply, you meditate, and you do something else, you change the way you talk about things, you, your work, your life, your friends, your love life. Being mindful of how to you talk to yourself, that inner voice, and what you say out loud to others, changes the way you interpret your world and your own sense of your well-being.
Here are some examples of how you can redirect that energy, change the affirmation from negative to positive and still keep it in the sweet spot, meaning you can believe it:
If these don’t work for you, create your own, and make sure these affirmations, these positive thoughts and words, are in the sweet spot. Make sure you actually believe them.
If we can be kind to and supportive of ourselves, we can save the world. No kidding. It begins with you. The kinder you are to yourself, the better you’ll treat your loved ones and strangers, the better you’ll care for the planet, and this effect will ripple on and on. Consider this the Kindness Butterfly Effect.
Everything you say and think is an affirmation. Make those affirmations support you in creating the life you deserve, the life you love.
