How to Write Affirmations: A Complete Guide
If you think things likeâŚ
â I canât do that.
â Iâm not good enough to even try.
â Iâm so tired of constantly feeling like a failure.
âŚTake a moment and imagine what your life would be like with a different soundtrack playing in your head:
â I focus on improving one step at a time.
â I can do that with practice and patience.
â I embrace discomfort as part of growth.
These are examples of positive affirmations; simple statements that you can use to manifest goals, dreams or experiences. They start working in your mind and without noticing they will embrace your outside world.
If you want to focus on positive thinking, discover the power of believing in your success, and take your self care practice on the go, then keep reading.
In this article, learn all about how to write affirmations and use them to summon goodness into your life with ease â¨
What are Affirmations?
Affirmations, sometimes referred to as positive affirmations, shape how you approach your goals, relationships and dreams, stimulating personal growth when practiced with intention. Integrating affirmations into your daily life can:
Live consciously in the present, fully aware of your potential
Focus your outlook on life through an intentional lens
Help you learn to regulate your emotional ups and downs
Improve your self esteem
âŚAnd yes, there is scientific research to support the power of affirmations! This is how they work:
Language and Cognition: How Affirmations Influence Behavior
Take a moment to consider your thoughts. Thoughts are like messengers delivering information from your central nervous system and into the realm of your consciousness. If itâs a warm, sunny day and youâre out for a walk, your brain will most likely process the sensory information to produce thoughts about how nice the day is, or whether youâre wearing comfortable layers.
By writing thoughts down, you transform ephemeral concepts into something concrete: words. The process of externalizing a concept brings thought into the material world, manifesting it as reality.
The act of writing your thoughts down is essential to the process of manifesting any kind of change, whether thatâs planning exercise into your upcoming week or learning to let go of guilt. In order to create a desired external effect, you need to start from the inside. Writing your thoughts down shapes the quality of your conscious reality and your subconscious cognition, both of which are fundamental to improving your sense of agency, independence and confidence - the key components of self-empowerment.
The Importance of Visual Cues
Writing is a form of introspection around your goals and priorities. By writing your thoughts down, you create a physical copy of your thoughts, which makes it easier to acknowledge and organize them.
Visualizing the material form of your positive affirmations in written form - in your daily planner, on a poster, or simply as a post-it note on your mirror - will help you to visualize your goals. When you have a visual cue to rely on, the message you record will be filed into deeper storage in your memory.
Write Out Your Affirmations by Hand
In our digital age, itâs worth asking: Are positive affirmations equally as effective when written by hand as when written on your computer?
An article by Pam Mueller and Daniel Oppenheimer demonstrated that those who write their notes by hand have a stronger conceptual understanding and are more successful in applying what they wrote about than those who take notes with their laptop. š In fact, writing by hand forces the brain to engage in a "mental lifting", as the most difficult part of writing is the preliminary thinking process.
This study suggests that handwriting your affirmations in a journal or notepad will bring you immediately back to your intention, faster than if you were to type them. Moreover, you subconsciously trust your own handwriting. This increases the sense of responsibility and commitment, essential for the good working of affirmations.
Types of Affirmations
Self love affirmations. Self love affirmations improve your confidence and love for who and how you are as a person. With these types of affirmations, the attention and positive vibes are focused on the person you are and want to be. You are in control of yourself, so embracing who you are is a great place to practice thinking positively and believing in what you affirm. Using self love affirmations can help shape your thinking patterns and focus on the actions that follow.
Relationship affirmations. Relationships give richness and meaning to our lives. Relationship affirmations acknowledge this, cultivating gratitude for the love you receive and focusing on how you can do your part to improve them every day. The goal with affirmations about relationships isnât about getting everything you want from the people around you; itâs to make them genuine and authentic. Address these positive affirmations to your family, your friends and your co-workers to spread peace and love in your life.
Career affirmations. Whether you want to break through a glass ceiling or find more purpose in your work life, affirmations are incredibly helpful for nurturing your success and financial prosperity. Ideally, career-oriented affirmations combine self-awareness, an abundance mindset and understanding of strategic time management with ambition. With these types of affirmations, it's important to be realistic, make âIâ statements that put you in the driverâs seat, and focus on whatâs going well - rather than whatâs going wrong. For example, write about affirming the value of your work with a higher salary, rather than wishing or hoping that your boss recognizes you with a raise.
Health affirmations. Alongside regular exercise, fruits and veggies, and all the things we already know are good for us, using written affirmations to focus on health and wellbeing can help you to love your body, accept it as it is and let go of self sabotaging behaviors. Don't underestimate the power that positive words have on your health, especially if youâre stressed or experience chronic pain; writing affirmations down in your journal about health and wellbeing on a daily basis will help you to shift your focus toward what you can do to benefit your quality of life.
Environmental affirmations. With environmental affirmations, you acknowledge what happens around you. Your thoughts, desires and dreams are all deeply influenced by what surrounds you. This type of positive affirmation will help you cultivate self-awareness around how you feel, think and act in different spaces and tune yourself to the environments where you thrive.
How to Write Affirmations
While there are abundant collections of pre-written affirmations to inspire you all over the internet these days, the practice of writing your own affirmations is a very important part of what makes these messages so powerful. An affirmation is ultimately a personal statement reinforced with commitment and belief. Tapping into your own needs, desires, and preferences builds the self-awareness and confidence needed to put affirmations to work in your own life.
Don't rush the process.
Take your time to tune in and reflect on what comes up as you write. Here is how to write affirmations, in a step-by-step guide;
Step 1. Center on yourself with "âI amâ statements.
Begin by considering that you are in control of your own mind. To do that, focus all your positive thinking on yourself and start your affirmations with the simple, powerful phrase: "I am". Forget about what others are or arenât doing to support your dreams for this exercise. This will help concentrate the agency, energy, and positivity into yourself.
Step 2. Use the present tense.
Thereâs nothing wrong with writing affirmations geared toward change, but make sure to firmly ground the actions that will get you there in the present. Don't postpone your change; the right time to start is now.
Writing affirmations in the present tense will focus your attention to the present moment and emphasize the possibilities of now. Write your affirmations as if your goal is to resolve your past and future in a single, present-tense phrase.
Itâs especially helpful to write in the present continuous tense (i.e. actions that are ongoing in the present moment and into the future), without giving yourself a time limit like "in two weeks I ...". Time-limited phrases tend to shift focus toward negative thoughts or outcomes that might arise if our affirmation is not achievable in that time frame. For example, choose "I am feeling grateful for the people that surround me".
Step 3. Focus on actions that support your vision of the future.
Now for the subject - the âwhatâ. While affirmations should be oriented toward the life you desire, they arenât the same as goals. Affirmations emphasize what youâre doing right now to achieve your goals. Itâs a good idea to work on goal-setting before you sit down with affirmations if you donât have a clear idea of what you want to accomplish with the practice. Once youâre aware of the spheres of your life that youâre seeking to improve, list two words to describe the energy you wish to infuse in that area. Use short sentences so it's easier for you to remember your positive statements.
Step 4. Repeat the affirmation and reframe unhelpful thoughts or experiences to reinforce it.
Positive emotions influence positive thoughts, and positive thoughts influence positive emotions. Recent research in constructivist neuropsychology is uncovering the true extent to which language influences emotion, and the findings are astounding. ² There is a stronger connection than previously believed between the language we use and the emotions we feel, which suggests that affirmations actually construct your emotional experiences.
For example, if youâre thrilled about a new job and say "I'm feeling joyous about my new job," this expression triggers the positive feeling that youâre already experiencing, amplifying its benefits. Repeating affirmations that are linked to real emotional experiences can help you manifest how you want to feel on a daily basis. If a negative thought cycle pops up that challenges your affirmation, donât push it away - consider how you can reframe that though to reinforce your affirmation and vision for the future.
Step 5. Base your affirmations on realistic expectations that deserve your full commitment.
When brainstorming your affirmations, be realistic. Write affirmations that reflect the truth of your situation. Thereâs a big difference between setting optimistic affirmations and using them to lie to yourself. If your affirmations donât acknowledge real limitations that youâre facing, they will likely guide you to feeling disappointed, frustrated or hopeless when reality kicks in.
Tips for Writing Affirmations
Affirmations are based on the Narrative Paradigm, a theory that humans are constantly narrating stories that affirm our personal values. Âł
Whatever your story is and wherever itâs going, affirmations can help you to enact them in real time, building confidence in who you are and what you can accomplish.
Here are a few ideas and tips that can help you implement affirmations in your daily life, whatever your personality is.
Work affirmations into your daily routine. If youâre a morning person, first thing is the best time to work on your daily affirmations. This will help you start your day on a positive note, setting the tone for your day before itâs set in motion. If youâre more active in the evening though, work your affirmation practice into your bedtime routine. Planning even 5 minutes into your self care routine before sleeping can put your mind at ease as you reflect on how your day went.
Accept and release negative thoughts. If youâre stuck in a cycle of negative self talk, affirmations can help you shift the tone of your inner-critic toward neutrality. Itâs important not to reject or avoid negative thoughts if they arise in your brainstorming process though - this tends to amplify them, as if youâre in a shouting match. If a negative thought arises when youâre thinking of affirmations, acknowledge it, accept it - and then release it, shifting attention back to what you wish to embody in your life.
Repeat, repeat, repeat (three timesâ the charm!). Make a list of your goals and transform them into effective affirmations. Then recite your affirmations three times: the first time they will feel like empty words, but when integrated into a routine, they will acquire a deeper and more nuanced meaning.
Find (or create) your own peaceful place. Surrounded by nature, lying in bed, listening to music, with a candle - everyone needs a place that channels peaceful and relaxing vibes. Take a deep breath in and a deep breath out (and again) - until you feel ready to start with your own affirmations.
Place positive cues where youâll see them. Write affirmations on post-its and place them all around your familiar places to remind you of your energetic focus. Posters hung on the walls, post-it notes stuck on the desk, your phone's wallpaper or the Simplish app that can send notifications whenever you want. Fill up your surroundings with cues and imagine the positive changes you wish to embody.
Refresh weekly or monthly. With time, your aims and priorities will naturally change. At first, sit down weekly to check in with your affirmations. Hold on to old affirmations that still ring true and rewrite old affirmations to suit new goals. Once youâve got the hang of this, refresh your affirmations on a monthly basis. However often you update your affirmations though, itâs a good idea to write them down on a daily or weekly basis to keep them fresh in your mind and relevant to the activities you have going on.
Examples of Affirmations
As the architect of your own dreams, you will always write âbetterâ affirmations (those that are more aligned with who you are and what you wish to embody) than anything you can find on the internet. But we all need inspiration! Here are a few examples of affirmations to get you started:
I create ease with every deep breath.
I am grateful for my family and my friends.
I embrace my vulnerabilities with love and kindness.
I deserve happiness.
I love who I am.
I am spacious.
I have the capacity to embrace these challenges.
I am pure, moving energy.
I welcome change.
I honor my partner.
I make decisions with an abundance mindset.
I am powerful.
I can do this.
â¨
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Mueller PA, Oppenheimer DM. The pen is mightier than the keyboard: advantages of longhand over laptop note taking. Psychol Sci. 2014 Jun;25(6):1159-68. doi: 10.1177/0956797614524581. Epub 2014 Apr 23. Erratum in: Psychol Sci. 2018 Sep;29(9):1565-1568. PMID: 24760141.
Lindquist, Kristen A., Ajay B. Satpute, and Maria Gendron. âDoes Language Do More than Communicate Emotion?â Current Directions in Psychological Science 24, no. 2 (April 1, 2015): 99â108. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721414553440.
Admin. âThe Narrative Paradigm.â Communication Theory, July 7, 2014. https://www.communicationtheory.org/the-narrative-paradigm/.