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I asked myself that question 6 years ago… “Do Affirmations work for anxiety?”
I struggled with anxiety for many years
I had it so bad that I couldn’t go shopping alone
And I remember running from my apartment to my car
Affirmations alone did not fix my anxiety, but they were VERY helpful
I took a holistic approach to healing, affirmations were one of many pieces
In order to heal, we need to change our mental habits and beliefs
If you want to quit smoking…
You need to start calling yourself an ex-smoker, not a smoker
If your belief is that you are a smoker, quitting is either going to be very hard or temporary
Your conscious mind cannot overrule your subconscious
Affirmations are a great tool to change the subconscious mind itself
What are affirmations?
Affirmations are statements that slowly trick our minds into forming a new identity
We all have areas of our life where we struggle and are self-conscious
All of those things about our identity are controlled by our subconscious brain
This is the part of our brain that we don’t control
Our subconscious brain is powerful enough to control our entire life, but not smart enough to see the difference between truth and a lie
When you begin using affirmations to change your life, you will likely feel silly and know that the statements are a lie
But that is your conscious brain talking, and it is not very powerful
So we need to go straight to changing the subconscious, even if it feels weird
And affirmations can feel weird and uncomfortable!
I know that they were uncomfortable when I started
My anxiety made me constantly worry about the past and future, so slowly letting that go was very difficult
And I am still working on it
How do affirmations work?
As I mentioned before, affirmations help you change your subconscious beliefs
The subconscious determines what you are capable of and creates your identity
You will never outperform what your subconscious believes to be true.
You will never keep more money than you think you deserve
Your conscious will never beat your subconscious. If you do, it will be temporary as you reset to your default
Affirmations are a powerful tool to change what your subconscious believes
You will see yourself as worth and deserving of your goals
When the person you want to be becomes your identity, reaching those goals becomes so much easier
Instead of working against your stream of life, you work with it.
The subconscious mind is powerful but it believes what you tell it over and over
Have you ever met someone that told themselves a lie so many times they believed themselves?
That is because their subconscious adjusted to believe what they told it
Affirmations work the same way
You state and write statements so many times that your subconscious believes you and adjusts accordingly
There will be resistance when you start affirmations
Your conscious mind knows that the statements aren’t true yet (or that you don’t believe them)
But the conscious mind doesn’t hold the power to change your life
Work through the discomfort and change will slowly happen
What causes anxiety?
Anxiety can be developed for many reasons
It is not fully understood
Anxiety could stem from abuse, prolonged stress, trauma, personality, family history, and more
Anxiety creates actual change in the brain, so nothing is a quick fix for it
Even with a lot of work, it is likely that you will still struggle with anxiety.. At least sometimes
My anxiety was created from childhood trauma
I had so many beliefs from that trauma that anxiety was part of my identity
Affirmations are powerful, but they are not miracles
The give you some tools to heal and high the mental habits and beliefs created by your anxiety
I went the natural route and it worked wonders, but every journey is different
I encourage you to try natural, but make sure you have a doctor and a support system
Anxiety is a serious disorder that you should not face alone
Do Affirmations Work for Anxiety?
Affirmations can help you see yourself and your life more positively
I know that my anxiety was the worst when I only saw the bad in myself and my life
I predicted all the ways that something can do wrong, and acted like those things were already happening
While doing that, I hid behind “Hope for the best but prepare for the worst”
But I practically wrote off the best as impossible and just focused on the worst
Affirmations helped me change that
When you focus on the good in your life, more good will happen
And you will notice that good
I could have 20 good things happen, but only see the 1 bad thing
Affirmations change your mental habits to help you see the good and not notice the bad as much
Which is a huge issue that people with anxiety have
We only see the bad, even if the bad is imaginary
I had this issue for most of my life, but it really affected my functionality as a new mom
I would stress and have nightmares that my kids had SIDS
Oh I remember those images and dreams
And they would set off a massive panic attack
I even had anxiety about starting affirmations!
Do Affirmations Work for Anxiety?
The more that I focused on what could go right and changed my mental habits…
The less often those panic attacks occurred
I found myself imagining the good that could happen instead of only the tragic
I slept better, ate better, took care of myself better, and took care of my family better
Anxiety is still something that comes up in my life, but affirmations made it less often
And they made it easier to recover when the anxiety does hit
I can see the difference between the identity that I created, and the anxiety now
And affirmations helped my subconscious make the identity I created the “true identity”
If you are a mom and need some affirmations ideas, check out this post
It has many different affirmations for moms that you can try!
If you want to focus on affirmations for anxiety and depression, I have a post for that too!