National Domestic Violence Awareness Project

self-care-strategies:

Positive affirmations are a great way to reframe persistent negative thinking. I tend to find generic affirmations ineffective, so I decided to come up with a way to create affirmations that are more meaningful to me. 

I use affirmations when I have a lot of negative thoughts occupying my mind. The affirmation-creating strategy I’m about to describe serves a dual purpose. The first step releases the negative emotions, while the second step turns the negativity into positivity. 

First, take a sheet of paper and write down all the negative thoughts you’ve been dealing with. Hopefully, by expressing your thoughts by writing them down, you would have released some negativity. 

Next, set the list aside for a few minutes. Then, with a fresh outlook, take a look at your list of negative thoughts again. Try to pretend that you’re your therapist, parent, or friend, and think about what they would say if you told them what you were thinking. How would they try to turn those negative thoughts around? 

Next, underline or highlight key statements that could be turned into positive affirmations, and write those statements somewhere that you can see them daily. 

Make an effort to repeat these statements to yourself, and in time you will be able to sense a shift in your thinking.

In my opinion, personally tailoring your affirmations is much more effective than any generic list of affirmations. Everyone has their own set of negative thoughts that they must cope with at any given time, and it’s important to be aware of what sort of positivity you need. I hope this helps!