How Can A Daily Affirmation Help You?

It’s pop culture to talk about affirmations, but what are they really? Is there more to them than proclaiming something like, “I’m awesome!”?

I think so.

A few days ago I was visiting my dad with my older brother. My brother asked my dad, “Hey dad, will you show us the scrapbook?” It was a scrapbook my dad had been creating over the years, filled with pictures and letters of our family from years past.

We came across one letter that was written to my dad’s grandma, informing her about her family’s history in Norway. The letter linked her lineage back to the man who’d created the Constitution of Norway.

I was distracted chasing after my one year-old nephew as my brother read the letter aloud but suddenly stopped in my tracks when I heard that part. “What?!” I grabbed my nephew into my arms so I could listen intently without fear he’d try to stick his hand in the toilet. “You mean to tell me I’m of Norwegian royalty and am only hearing this for the first time now?!” I smiled playfully.

We finished our visit, and I walked out of there feeling a little different.

It was subtle, but I stood a little taller and thought to myself,

I come from a family of influence.

This initial thought inspired a new thought, something I wanted to be true for myself as I imagined the life I’d create:

I am a woman of influence.

Boom, and there it was. An affirmation.

In The Five Minute Journal, an affirmation is “a statement of what you want in your life...It defines you as you want to be. Every time you write [or speak an] affirmation you prime your brain to start building this belief in your mind. With consistency, you will begin to create that change from within.”

Hmm. Could it be?

Well, Muhammad Ali thought so. He said, “”It’s the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen.” People like Jim Carrey and Will Smith also practiced them to build their careers.

So, will you try it? Make a statement that you want to be true about yourself, as if it’s true in the present, and wait to see what happens.