20 Positive Affirmations to Say to Yourself Every Day

Positive affirmations aren’t just woo-woo nonsense. They really can change your brain and your life in powerful ways. Here is how.

How do affirmations work?

Our brains are bombarded with information from our senses all of the time. Out of necessity, we filter out much of this information and only register what is important to us.

Try this little experiment to see how this works. Look around the room and notice all of the green things you can see. Now close your eyes and try to remember all of the red items in the room. Chances are you won’t remember many of them because you were focused only on the green things. Now open your eyes and see how many red things you missed.

This shows how the brain actively seeks out information it sees as pertinent while ignoring anything that it thinks is irrelevant. Because of this, the brain actually ignores many things and experiences that could be useful to us.

Why does this matter for affirmations?

When we use affirmations, we are training our brains to look for information that can help us with certain desires.

For example, if we affirm that we only want to eat healthy foods, it trains our brains to look out for healthy foods rather than cakes and chips. If money is important to us, our brains start to look out for new opportunities to increase our income.

Affirmations send a clear message to our brains that a certain topic is very important to us. When we say them, preferably on a daily basis, our brain gets busy looking for ways to help us achieve our goals.

We can use positive affirmations to help us in all areas of our lives.

How to create a great positive affirmation

1. To create an effective affirmation, we first need to think of what element in our lives we want to change. Think about the goals you would like to achieve or the personal characteristic you would like to develop so that you can create an affirmation around that desire.
2. Make sure your affirmation is positive. For example, “I don’t want to be poor” is a negative statement. Change it to something like “I deserve prosperity and abundance flows to me now“.
3. Write as though you’re experiencing what you desire right now, not in the future. If you affirm that something will come in the future, it will remain in the future.
4. Add emotion to your affirmations. The brain is highly attentive to emotions. That is why highly emotional memories always stick in our mind so clearly. For example, you might start with ‘I am excited to receive…’
5. Keep your affirmation short and snappy so it is easy to remember.
6. Start your affirmations with “I” or “My.” You are trying to make a change in your life, so it’s most effective if it starts with you.
7. Avoid phrases such as ‘I want’ or ‘I need’. Doing this will make wanting and needing the focus of your mind and just create more wanting and needing. Instead, express your gratitude for your new mindset.
8. Create affirmations that you can believe in. If you can’t believe the statement ‘I am rich and successful,‘ replace it with ‘I am open to new opportunities that will bring me success.‘

Here are some common areas that most of us would like to improve and some affirmations to help us achieve our goals.

Positive affirmations for success

Use these affirmations when you want to attract more success into your life.

I am excited to create all the success  I desire

I am a positive and influential presence on this planet

I joyfully let go of old beliefs that no longer serve me

I am worthy of all the good life has to offer and I deserve to be successful.

Positive affirmations for abundance

Use these affirmations to attract abundance and prosperity into your life.

All of my actions lead to abundance and prosperity

I joyfully welcome all good things to come into my life 

I create prosperity easily and effortlessly

I love abundance and prosperity and I attract it naturally.

Positive affirmations for happiness

These affirmations can help you to achieve the happiness you desire.

I choose to be happy and I deserve to be happy

I create peace and harmony and joy for myself today

I am happy and peaceful  in this moment

I have everything I need to be happy right now.

Positive affirmations for relationships

These affirmations can help you find a soulmate or improve your current relationship.

I am happy and confident within myself

I am joyfully building a happy relationship

I deeply believe that I will attract my soul mate

Others are drawn to me because of my positive energy

Positive affirmations for self-esteem

If you feel less than happy with yourself, use these affirmations to boost your confidence and self-esteem.

I let go of all negative thoughts and feelings about myself

I am proud of who I have become

I love and accept myself unconditionally

I am a unique and special person who is worthy of respect from others

Closing thoughts

Using affirmations every day can really make the way we think and experience the world more positive. By replacing habitual negative thoughts with these positive expressions, we can change our world.

It takes time to make these changes, so be patient and don’t give up on affirmations if they don’t work immediately. Most people find they experience a significant change after around 21 days of repeating and affirmation.

You can use several affirmations at once, but don’t try to change everything at the same time. Give your mind a chance to really focus on what is most important to you and then gradually add more affirmations over time.

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