The Neuroscience Of Affirmations
Repeating positive affirmations is a self-help method to deal with negative, useless thoughts and promote self-growth. Does this approach work, though? Is it backed up by science? In brief, yes, affirmations do work and are backed up by science. There are lots of Neuroscience Of Affirmations proven to help activate parts of the brain associated with the processes of self-reflection and self-rewarding.
In this post, we cover everything you need to know about positive daily affirmations, from what they are and the science/research behind them to their most notable benefits. So, stick around to find out.
Your Thoughts Change Your Reality
"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails."
Every minute of every day, your body changes physically in response to the thoughts that run through your head. Think about this as something that causes your brain to send signals and release neurotransmitters.
Neurotransmitters are chemicals that control practically all of your body’s functions, including your mood and feelings. Over time and with repetition, it’s been proven that your thoughts change your brain, your cells, and even your genes.
When people practice gratitude, they get waves of rewarding chemicals, like dopamine and norepinephrine, and experience a general uplift of the mood. In his book, The Brain That Changes Itself Norman Doidge speaks about an experiment in which two groups of participants exercised a finger muscle for four weeks.
One of the group, which actually moved their fingers, showed increasing in muscle strength up to 30 percent. The other group, who just visualized how moving their fingers, also increased muscle strength by 22 percent.
What you think, say to yourself, visualize can change your brain, body, and life. One way to exploit this power to help you is through affirmations.
Studies suggest that positive affirmations can help us respond in a less defensive and resistant way when presented with life challenges. They are a mental health tool that can help you develop a healthy sense of self and build a more resilient brain.
What Is an Affirmation?
Affirmations, also called I am affirmations, are words you intentionally come up with to support, encourage, and lifting up your brain and body. They can be positive statements used to overcome negative states as depression, or any anxiety-producing thoughts and beliefs.
They can be thoughts providing positivity and encouragement. Affirmations can help to influence your thinking patterns, mood, behavior, and from there your entire life. They can also imact your habits and health, and all that aim to improve.
Your mind thinks in pictures in relevance to the words you hear or speak. The words in an affirmation involuntarily bring up related mental images. For that reason affirmations and visualization work well together. You can purposely combine them for a powerful tool, but you don’t have to.
How Do Affirmations Affect The Brain
Positive affirmations are powerful tool that proven to activate your brain’s reward centers
There’s a study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to prove that affirmations really activate the reward centers of the brain. These areas, specifically the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, and the ventral striatum are the same reward centers that respond to other enjoyable experiences. Such as eating your favorite food, getting a success, or winning a prize.
Your brain’s reward system is unique and quite powerful. Research give evidence that the reward circuits can decrease pain and help you alleviate when stressed.
The study also found out that saying or practice affirmations enhanced activity in the medial prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulate. These are areas of the brain that are connected to all self-related thoughts and self images into your mind. Science shows that improved self-related processing can act as a kind of emotional buffer to any painful, negative, or damaging information.
Neuroscience Of Affirmations
10 Proven Benefits of Affirmations According Since
Various scientific studies point out that positive affirmation practices can bring benefits in many ways:
- Studies show that affirmations can decrease health-deteriorating stress.
- Affirmations have been shown to help people accept “threatening” messages more effortless, with less resistance. These results suggest that people can apply positive affirmation as a tool to deal with their everyday challenges.
- People have increased their physical activity levels using the power of affirmations in experiments.
- Practicing affirmation has effectively reduced stress and rumination, both critical factors for anxiety and depression.
- Research shows that they can help a person to be less likely to dismiss harmful health messages from their body. People are becoming more likely to respond with the intention of any change to get things better.
- Evidence put forward that affirmations can help you perform better at work. As stated by researchers, spending a few minutes just thinking about your best qualities before a high-pressure meeting can increase your confidence, calm your nerves, and improve your chances of a successful outcome.
- Students struggling with negative stereotypes in school because of their gender, race, or generational status elevated their academic performance in college using the power of affirmations.
- In a study, a small affirmation exercise boosted the problem-solving abilities of “chronically stressed” people to the same level as those with low stress.
- Affirmations can help increase feelings of hopefulness.
- Affirmations have been used to efficiently treat people with low depression, self-esteem, and other mental health conditions.
How to Use Affirmations
You can use affirmations in any situation within your life where you’d like to see a progress and positive changes to take place in it. This might include when you want to:
- Lift up your confidence and trust in yourself.
- Decrease negative feelings such as anxiety, anger, or impatience.
- Increase your self worth, self love, and self-esteem.
- Find the motivation to keep going.
- Improve your level of focus and productivity.
- Quit a bad habit. Improve your health, sleep and even lose weight.
- Adjust yourself to attract wealth and abundance.
- The power of affirmations lies in working with them constantly and as you’re needed.
- It’s useful to practice them throughout your day, when you engage in negative or anxious self talk or find yourself in challenging emotional situations. While practicing affirmations, it will be great to take a few slow, relaxing breaths. By doing it you’ll ground yourself in the present moment.
- While you are mindful of your breath in and out, focus on the affirmations and especially on the images and feelings they invoke.
Examples of Positive Affirmations
Your affirmations are need to be unique to you and specific to the things you want to achieve, address, or change. The following examples can be adapted to fit your needs.
12 Affirmations to Release Negative Thoughts
Letting go of negative thoughts is a vast, physical release. You’ve been wearing a heavy, lead suit, and then you can get out of it and float onward. And a profound sense of well-being washes over you.
Try some affirmations to release all thoughts that keep us from being our joyful souls.
- I give up my old habits and choose to build new, positive ones.
- I let go of my impatience and relax in faith in God’s hands.
- I am in tune with the experience of my life, and I am at peace with what is happening.
- I no longer resist the lessons of my life. I’m learning with open mind and awareness.
- Other people do not control my thoughts and emotions; I do.
- I release all things that no longer serve me. I welcome confidence into my life.
- I am filling my day with positive thoughts and actions.
- I am kind with myself and others.
- I release the need to replay situations in my mind.
- I forgive myself and release my worries.
- I transform my negative thoughts into love and light.
- I welcome health and happiness.
10 Affirmations For Confidence And Success
- I am meaningful, and my self-confidence is what thrives in me.
- I am confident in who I am.
- I know I am important because I am worthy, just like I am.
- I speak, walk and move with grace and confidence.
- I am confident I will become a better version of myself, ready to conquer the world!
- I refuse to live shackled by fear and doubt.
- I am willing to be brave, move through my deep fears, and come out on the other side. And It is just enough.
- I awakened the giant that was sleeping deep within my layers, and that giant is my self-confidence.
- I am awakening my self-confidence.
- I decide to be brave and to have courage.
Affirmations For Confidence And SUCCESS…
10 Affirmations For Focus And Clarity
- Now I am relaxed and focused. Now I am present at the moment.
- I keep my mind on what I am doing.
- I feel better, and I get happier. That’s why I am able to stay fit and focused on what I do.
- I have more energy and concentration because my body is happy.
- I am at focus, and I am ready to tackle my projects, pursuits, and passions.
- I like what I do. That’s why it’s so easy for me to stay clear and focused.
- I stay focused on my deep passion and purpose. And because of that, I have the energy, mental clarity, and spirit to complete my to-do list.
- I think faster and more clearly because my mind is clear of junk.
- I keep my thoughts on my goals because I have a solid mental focus.
- I am full of energy which makes me stay focused on my daily task with joy.
Affirmations For Focus And Clarity…
10 Affirmations For Self Love
- I allow my love to spill over into every area of my life.
- I spark love by practicing kindness.
- I am happy to be loved and offer my love whatever I can.
- I love building up heartfelt connections.
- I let love bind into my heart, my mind, and my soul.
- I live with a deep appreciation for the power of love.
- I feel a real deep love that comes from accepting who I am.
- I love who I am now and what I am becoming.
- I love myself immensely.
- I value and cherish every part of what makes me who I am.
10 Self Worth Affirmations
- Deep down, I muster the courage to be my true self.
- Wherever I am, I have got that courage to be true to who I am, and being true to the best version of myself.
- I am true to my likes and dislikes.
- I am true to my own values.
- I fit in myself and don’t fit into some box.
- It’s my time to move on. I stop doing things I don’t like, saying things I don’t mean, and going places I don’t care to go.
- I am a shining and cheerful being, aware of my potential.
- I have a pure heart and a deep belief in the goodness of humanity.
- I follow my core values and what’s important to me.
I prise myself high and feel great about who I am; that’s why I am worthy of my love and the love of others.
10 Affirmations On Money
- I am the creator of my wealth.
- I am capable and gifted.
- I am so capable that I can benefit from any option to do any job to perfection.
- And I am paid for that with dignity.
- I am an expert in my niche, and I am always more than well paid for my talents and skills.
- I am a powerful creator skilled at achieving anything I set my mind to.
- I easily monetize any option for income.
- I reinvest my funds and multiply my earnings with no effort.
- I virtually monetize every possible chance for revenue that my life generously offers me.
- I am a money magnet that attracts new, fresh prospects for money and wealth.
You can improve every area of your life with the power of positive affirmations. It will help you develop greater positivity and confidence. You will feel a greater sense of abundance and an increase in your sense of happiness.