The Power of Affirmations
“I’ll never be able to give a great presentation.”
“I’m sure my boss will choose my colleague over me for the promotion.”
“I feel I’m not good enough.”
You may have some negative thoughts like this. When you have such thoughts, your mood and confidence may become negative too.
And that’s the problem with negative thoughts. They can become self-imposed predictions. You may talk yourself into believing that you aren’t good enough. Such thoughts can drag down your relationships, careers, and personal life.
However, if you consciously do the opposite and think positive about yourself, the effect can be much more powerful.
“The mind is everything. What we think we become.” ~Buddha
That's the power of positive affirmations
Type of Affirmations
Affirmations are nothing but positive statements that help you overcome self-harming negative thoughts. When you believe in them and repeat them often, you can make positive changes. However, these affirmations are not some unrealistic or wishful thinking. Instead, they program your mind so that you can use your thoughts and act differently. Some examples of positive affirmations include:
I will never give up
I respect and love myself
I believe in who I am
I am a work in progress
I am talented
I am surrounded by peaceful people
Affirmations can be related to any of the following aspects of your lives- Anxiety, Confidence, Health and Well-being, Physical appearance, Relationship, Self-love, Success, Work, etc.
What's the Science behind it?
Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to adapt to change to different situations in your life. This brain function allows you to understand how affirmations work and what makes them effective. Your brain may sometimes get lost in the difference between imagination and reality, which can be highly effective.
Forming a mental image of doing an act, cracking an interview, or conquering the fear of water by scuba diving, activates the same brain areas that actually doing the activities would. Research has shown that repeating positive statements can make your brain believe them as facts. When you really feel that you can do something, actions will follow.
For instance, you can replace a negative thought, “I am terrible at giving presentations,” with a positive one, “I am going to nail the presentation.”
Using affirmations makes you more relaxed before the presentation and also helps in self-destructive thoughts that may interfere with your success.
Benefits of Affirmations
Regularly using affirmations can help you to:
Boost your confidence, especially before challenging situations
Regulate negative feelings such as anger, frustrations, or anger
Finish projects or work that you’ve started
Boost your self-esteem
Overcome a bad habit
Improve your productivity
Overall, positive affirmations make you more resilient to perceived threats and respond less defensively.
Putting It To Practice
A great part of positive affirmations is that they are easy to implement.
Here are some simple steps to put affirmations to practice:
Make a note of your qualities that you perceive as negative
Now write the positive aspect of your judgment
Say out affirmations for three to five minutes at least twice a day
Repeat each affirmation ten times
Listen to the affirmations as you speak and say in a way that you believe them to be true
You can also ask your loved ones to say the affirmations for you. Listening to the affirmations from a loved one help you reinforce your beliefs
Be consistent and add saying out affirmations in your routine
Last but not least, be patient. It may take time before you notice any change. So stick to your practice
Some tips to make affirmations make more effective:
Start with “I am”
Write in the present tense
Note down things you want to change
Keep it short
Be realistic
Add emotions to the affirmations
Affirmations on MANNKI
Mannki Apps now provide you with a big pool of Affirmations. You will find our complete feed of Affirmations on the home screen. If you like one and want to remember it for rest of the day, just PIN it. If you want to see it more often, LIKE it.
Bonus for iOS App, there is a widget with these affirmations and your mental wellness score. This can be added to your iPhone's home screen. Stay tuned for the iOS app release.
Stay Positive!
Join Mannki
Mannki is a mental health app available in the google play store for android phones. We at Mannki are trying to improve the screening and diagnosis of mental health in India by continuously tracking the user's mental wellness journey. As with other apps, there are concerns related to informational privacy and data security (Maher et al., 2019), we at Mannki take privacy issues seriously which ensures that there is no data leakage. The app uses clinician-recommended diagnostic tests alongside passive sensing through a user's smartphone to help them understand their mental health better.
Mannki aims to overcome many of the challenges like imprecise user inputs, lack of diagnostic markers, stigma, and poor access. We are trying to bring transparency and care for undiagnosed problems with precise and measurable inputs. Currently, we are in a research phase where we are trying to collaborate with institutes to understand behavioral markers and build algorithms for various psychiatric disorders.
Join us and support us on this endeavour. Write to us at research.support@mannki.app