You already know that affirmations can be powerful tools for helping you reach specific, defined goals. You may also know that affirmations can be used for spiritual growth, personal development, or improvement in specific areas of your career.
But did you know that building a regular affirmation practice can have all sorts of side / additional benefits? Affirmations can even have a positive impact on your health and wellbeing!
Side Benefit 1: Affirmations Help You Become More Mindful
Using affirmations helps you to stay focused on the present moment and keeps you from being distracted by feeling angry about past mistakes or anxious about the future. We cannot change what has happened in the past, but by increasing your personal level of mindfulness, you can be more aware of patterns of behavior and stop negative behaviors before they become even more entrenched. Being aware of something that needs to change is the first step toward making that change happen.
Because affirmations are positive statements about you in the present tense, your mental focus stays on what is happening to you right now, which is the core of mindfulness. Focusing your energy on the present and on making your affirmations effective and action-oriented, you make a big difference in the quality of your work and the results of your efforts.
Side Benefit 2: Affirmations Open You up to More Good Things
Your daily affirmation practice helps you to take note of and to concentrate on the good things that you want in your life and changes your expectations of what you deserve. We can live such busy, rush-rush lives that we miss some of the less-obvious good things in our lives. Not everything good that happens to us will come as a big epiphany – sometimes those good things come as whispers, and they are worth noticing and celebrating.
Once you widen your vision and start noticing good things in your life, you’ll see more of them. As a result, you start to see them as “normal” in your life, begin to realize your own inherent worth and dignity and that you deserve good things in your life. Realizing your own worth and dignity encourages you to be more open to receiving, without being clouded by self-doubt or worries about being deserving enough.
Side Benefit 3: Affirmations Change Your Perspective
As your attention stays on what is important to you, the trivial things that used to irritate you seem less and less important. Conversely, things you took for granted, like good health and a loving family, become part of your gratitude practice. Being intentional about seeing the good things in your life will help you change your perspective about other events as well.
When you are looking to what’s current and active in your life, the distractions from the past fade away – we can’t change them anyway! Anticipating the future can help with your motivation, but the future’s not here yet – focusing your energy on the NOW helps you be better prepared for the future and improves the quality of your life right where you are.
Side Benefit 4: Affirmations Change Your Mindset
When you build an affirmation practice, the repetition of positive, upbeat statements changes the structure in your brain. Neural pathways are created and strengthened that help to produce a more positive, optimistic mindset that flows over into your attitude to life. You have control over your mindset – and over how your experiences affect your mindset.
Know that what you focus on expands – that means that the more you focus on the good things that happen to you, the positive actions you are taking, and the positive mindset you’re developing, all the positive will take up more space in your life and bring you even more benefits.
Side Benefit 5: Your Affirmations Can Affect Other People
The positivity and optimism built by your affirmation habit spill over in other people’s lives too. Those close to you will notice your positive attitude and may even ask you what you’re doing differently. Having a positive outlook will show up in many ways – your smile, an increased enthusiasm for your life and your activities, and you may even notice an extra spring in your step!
Your new-found confidence and happiness make other people feel good and can encourage them to change their mindset also. Share your new affirmation practice with those you care about and spend time with – you can help them realize the benefits as well.
Side Benefit 6: Affirmations Improve Your Physical Wellbeing
Studies have shown that people who use affirmations as part of their daily routine have lower levels of anxiety and depression and are more resilient when dealing with stressful situations. Building us a reserve of good feelings and energy can help you to overcome challenges, or at least to look at them differently.
Optimistic people have healthier hearts, lower levels of inflammation, and are more motivated to live a healthier lifestyle. When good things are happening in your life, you look forward to more of the same each day. You’ll also build endurance and strength so that you can continue to participate in favorite activities and earn those good feelings that come from doing what you love. Those positive feelings and increased wellbeing can also make it easier to give up bad health habits like smoking.
Side Benefit 7: Affirmations Build Your Gratitude
Using affirmations in your daily life can help you develop a more gratitude-based attitude to life in general. Knowing what you must be grateful for and paying attention to those good things helps to extend and expand your sense of gratitude.
Seeing the world through a lens of gratitude helps to lighten your spirit and your mood. Gratitude is a beautiful place to be – thankfulness for rising in the morning, for the sun shining through your window, a smile that comes from the breeze ruffling your hair – all the ways you can express gratitude help make each day better.
As well as the specific goal-based affirmations, the entire process of building positivity enables you to appreciate what is good in your life. As you explore and experience these side benefits that we’ve discussed, be sure to write down your impressions and realizations in your journal. Writing down what you’re positively influenced by helps it to become more real to you and imprints the good feelings in your heart and mind. They’re easier to recall and relive the good repeatedly.
