Mental Health Monday – The Power of Positive Affirmations

Ad – This post contains items that were gifted

There is currently a boom in the self-care, personal growth and self-development field and we are regularly inundated with content about it, particularly on social media. Some of the things suggested that can help people are often viewed as a bit ‘woo woo’ – meditation and affirmations for example. However, there is a lot of science that can back up how a simple set of positive words – affirmations – can positively impact both your mind and body.

What Is A Positive Affirmation?

An affirmation is a positive statement which is said and repeated by a person to encourage and uplift, as well as challenge negative and self-sabotaging thoughts.

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The are written in the language of the brain using a specific formula. Linguistic guidelines which mean an affirmation fits this formula include that they are not written in the past or future tense – an affirmation is always in the present tense. They only include positive words, as the brain would need to do a lot of extra work in order to extract positive instruction from a negative statement – for example ‘I’m never worried’ becomes ‘I’m always calm’. They need to be spoken as if they are true, a hard fact. Statements that include words like ‘might’ and ‘could’ aren’t as powerful as those which contain words like am and do. Your brain will; respond to this, even if you don’t quite believe it.

mal paper Affirmation Card Deck

When mal paper reached out and asked if I’d like to give their Affirmation Card Deck a try, I jumped at the chance. As I am sure many of you have felt, or do feel, I just didn’t know where to start with affirmations.

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The word Mål, pronounced ‘mo-l’, means goal in Swedish

Their collection of products has been designed and produced to foster positive daily habits – with the end result of a happier, calmer and more productive way of living. The company takes inspiration from the Scandinavian minimalist way of living and produces simplistic and effective productivity tools,

In today’s digital world, it’s more important than ever for people to reconnect with physical objects to avoid burnout and nurture their inspiration.

https://malpaper.com/

There are 52 cards in the pack and they arrived in a simple, black and white box (size wise they are similar to a standard deck of playing cards) which is perfect for your bedside table, desk or even in your bag for people on the go.

Personally, I keep them on my desk and flick over a new one every morning. The power of affirmations comes from repeating them, so I do this 5 times out loud when I choose a new card and then every time I head to my desk during the day, I will read it aloud again.

You may want to choose a particular affirmation for a particular day sometimes – for example you may choose ‘I trust and know that goals will be achieved’ when you have a university assignment deadline. Not only do you need to repeat it regularly throughout the day as normal, but you should also always go back to it when you feel the negative emotion you want to overcome creeping in – those worries about it not being finished in time, it not being good enough etc.

Check out the mal paper Affirmation Card Deck on their website – they also have an Affirmation Deck for Kids as well as other resources such as journals and daily goal setters available to buy.

I hope this post has helped you see the reasons that affirmations do work and how they can be so helpful with our mental health – from building confidence and self esteem, to helping us be more positive and mindful to enjoying a more productive day.

If you are struggling with your mental health, please do seek out help – I have listed a few places you can go to for support in my post – Where Can I Find Support For My Mental Health?

I hope you all enjoyed the post and do let me know if you have or haven’t tried affirmations in the comments below! Take care and keep safe,

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