What are Affirmations? How to Use Affirmations in Your Day | Manifesting in the Real World Ep. 9
“I am healthy, I am wealthy, I am rich, I am that —”
Anyone else seen this lip-syncing video of ‘I am’ by Yung Baby Tate and Flo Milli making the rounds on Instagram reels? Not only is it a fun song to sing along to — it’s also a great example of how effective affirmations can be! So, get yourself a cuppa, and let’s talk about affirmations!
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Hey everyone! Welcome back, or if you’re here for the first time, nice to meet you! My name is Ebonie and this blog (and the YouTube channel) is here to help you reconnect to your intuition, so you can manifest in the real world! If you’re interested in all things self-development and mindset, I hope you’ll enjoy today’s blog post (and/or watch the video), and consider subscribing to my YouTube channel linked above!
Today I want to share with you why I believe positive affirmations can work so beautifully, and how you can easily start incorporating them into your day! Beyond singing along to ‘I am’ by Yung Baby Tate and Flo Milli!
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What are Affirmations?
Affirmations are essentially short, positive statements. By repeating affirmations to yourself, you are reinforcing that positive statement as being true to you, even if it’s not true in your real life, yet.
It may sound simple, and even a little silly, but it can be super helpful!
For example, if you’re struggling with weight gain and you want to lose weight, you might state: “I am fit. I am my ideal body weight. I am beautiful. I love my body.”
For affirmations to be the most effective, you have to believe it – even if you have to suspend your disbelief for a moment.
Affirmations can help inspire and motivate you. They can help you to believe in what you’re trying to manifest. They can turn your negative thoughts into more positive ones. They can help shift your mindset.
So how do you make stating affirmations a daily practice?
There are three ways that I alternate between – you can use an app, affirmation cards, or write your own. For all of these methods, aim to repeat your chosen affirmation for five minutes, at least once a day. Sit somewhere quiet where you won’t be interrupted, set a timer for 5 minutes, and repeat one affirmation, over and over again until the timer goes off. State your affirmation aloud, even if it’s just a whisper.
Focus on one affirmation at a time and repeat it every day for as long as you feel you need to. You can pick an affirmation for just one day, or one week, or keep stating it every day for months at a time! Just be sure to keep really internalizing it – if you feel like it’s not working effectively, that it’s just become a habit to say but you’re not feeling it, try a different affirmation!
You can look at yourself in the mirror if you like, or you can visualise at the same time. I have a video and blog post on visualisation you can check out here if you’d like to learn more about that!
Affirmations are a form of visualisation, in a way. You’re convincing yourself of a new identity, as you’re wiring your mind to focus on what you want to become.
For example, you want to become wealthy so your affirmation could be “I am wealthy.” You will then go about your day, as your subconscious begins to believe that you are wealthy. Even if you’re not yet as financially abundant as you would like.
I truly believe that change starts with the mind. If you believe on a subconscious level that you are deserving of being wealthy and that you will soon be wealthy, your mind will be wired to recognise things, people and opportunities that will help you get to that end goal of truly being wealthy.
Affirmations also really highlight the power of words. The language we use has a huge impact on our well-being and happiness.
If your thoughts are negative, you’ll feel more negative. As difficult as it is, try to become aware of negative thoughts and flip them as they come. Learn to catch yourself out, hear the negativity, recognise and forgive yourself for thinking it because you’re only human and it’s completely okay to still have those moments! Once you recognise it though, think of the opposite.
If the negative thought is “I’m so unfit and unhealthy”, then what’s the opposite? “I am fit and healthy”. State that instead, even just for 30 seconds, over and over. Feel it. Embody it. Imagine it. Visualise it.
To make lasting change, your identity has to change first and foremost.
If you’re always saying, “I just don’t like exercising”, your identity – the person you believe yourself to be – is that you are someone who doesn’t like exercising. Chances are, you’ll never enjoy any form of exercise if you’re attributing who you are, your personality, your entire being, as someone who doesn’t like it.
So, affirmations allow you to shift your perspective, to begin changing your mind on an identity-level which will enable you to imagine a world where you are the best version of yourself, and living the life you want to live.
In the example of not liking exercise, try stating “I enjoy exercising”, “I enjoy moving my body”, or “I feel so great after I exercise”. It might sound silly, and if you’re stating it out loud, chances are you will feel silly too! But your perspective will begin to change, slowly but surely. You’ll begin to realise that you don’t have to contain yourself to negative, dismissive thoughts. You’ll begin to realise that you’re far more capable than you think you are right now. You’ll begin to realise that if you can shift your perspective and focus on building a positive mindset, so much is possible.
Now, all that being said, here are three ways that will help you incorporate affirmations into your day!
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#1. Use an app
This is probably the easiest option for most people. The app I use is called “I am” and has a widget that you can use, which I love. You can also set notifications, as many as you like, to get random affirmations throughout your day. It’s such a nice reminder to state affirmations!
I’m sure there are plenty of other apps you can try as well. Please share any affirmation apps that you enjoy in the comments too!
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#2. Use an affirmation deck
I love, love, love my affirmation card deck from Dreamy Moons! And so does my 7-year-old niece. So many times now she’s asked to look at them, and we start drawing cards until we’ve looked through the whole deck!
With affirmation cards, you can draw one and focus on it for an entire day, or week, or even month. As I said earlier, repeat an affirmation for as long as you feel you need to.
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#3. Write your own
Writing your own can be the most effective way to use affirmations, as you can make it super specific to you. The apps and the cards are fantastic, but they’re more generalised. I suggest starting with an app or cards because it allows you an opportunity to try out different affirmations, which will help you to write your own.
Keep your affirmations short, concise, as specific as possible, and in the present tense. E.g. I am wealthy, rather than I want to be wealthy.
There are so many more tricks to writing your own effective affirmations, but ultimately, experimenting and enjoying the process will help you most of all. So, don’t overthink it — just give it a try and see what happens!
Also, I’d be happy to make another video specifically covering how to write your own affirmations if you like – let me know in the comments below if that’s something you’d be interested in, or if you have any questions!
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So, now I’d love to know – what do you think about affirmations? Have you tried using affirmations before?
If you’d like to learn more about affirmations and everything I spoke about today, you can find more resources and recommendations linked below!
As always, please let me know in the comments, if you have any questions or requests, or find me over on Instagram @eboniehyland, I’d love to see you there too!
I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed today’s blog post and video. Thank you so much for reading this blog and supporting my YouTube channel, it really means the absolute world to me!
I create spiritual and self-development videos and blog posts here, every Thursday. So, if you’re curious, please consider subscribing to the channel, and be sure to ring the little bell to turn on notifications, so you never miss a video!
I hope you’re having a wonderful day, wherever you are in the world, and I can’t wait to see you here again next week!
So much love,
Ebonie xx