Making Affirmations Work for You
Let’s be honest: affirmations don’t always work
Affirmations don’t always work. They just don’t. I use them and I believe in them but I also know that sometimes they don’t work.
Why don’t they work? One of the biggest reasons is that you simply don’t believe them. When an affirmation is too positive, too much, you just can’t convince yourself to believe it. And when you don’t believe it, naturally it won’t work because belief is how it works.
When your current belief is “I’m ugly and worthless,” telling yourself “I’m beautiful and worthy” is going to be tough to swallow. And yet everyone wants you to think it’s as simple as telling yourself that, right? So when it doesn’t work, and people just keep telling you that if you just keep affirming it to yourself it’ll change, you just get more and more frustrated, right?
There is a solution. It’s a simple one, but it’s often overlooked when it comes to affirmations.
Start smaller
I like to suggest what I call “bite-sized affirmations.” When you’re struggling to make an affirmation work for you, it’s too big. It’s too positive, too much, too whatever you want to call it. And that’s why you’re struggling.
So instead, find a bite-sized affirmation you can believe. For example, if your current belief is “I’m ugly,” maybe the bite-sized affirmation you can use instead is “I have pretty eyes.” Or if the current belief is “I’m worthless,” the bite-sized affirmation might be “My paintings bring my grandmother joy.”
Bite-sized affirmations are the smaller bits of truth that are easier to believe than the huge ones that you find yourself discounting immediately. They’re a stepping stone to believing something bigger and better.
Think of affirmations like a map
If you’re going on a road trip from Florida to California, you’re not going to expect to get from Jacksonville to San Diego in an hour, right? Of course not! You know it’ll take a few days. So you look at the map and plan…
