Journey to Self-Empowerment with Daily Affirmations

“Affirmations are our mental vitamins, providing the supplementary positive thoughts we need to balance the barrage of negative events and thoughts we experience daily.” - Tia Walker

I was sitting on the couch feeling empty, unimportant, beating myself up about all the things I said that day to my boyfriend, my colleagues, my boss and my family members. My thoughts went like this:

• "something is not okay with me"
• "something is missing"
• "no one appreciates me"
• "my life sucks"
• "what will I do now?"
• "why do bad things always happen to me?"

This day was just an average day for me. The same scenario repeated itself over and over again. I felt miserable and unworthy. I was destroying my own belief in myself, my self-esteem, self-worth and basically anything that had got to do with my "self". I became my own worst enemy. But one day I realized something that changed the destructive chatter in my head and replaced it with powerful, positive and life enhancing self-talk.

I realized that I'm the only one who can change my attitude. No one else can do it for me. If I want to be more satisfied with my life, I have to make changes in my thinking habits. I have to move out from the powerless state I was stuck in and become positive, self-confident and a motivating individual. Feel free to join me on my journey to self- empowerment.

Writing down and repeating daily affirmations have been proven to have an amazing impact on developing a healthy personality. It can set you free from the chains of derogatory self-talk. Making reassuring statements and giving yourself a pep-talk twice a day can turn you into this self-confident, decisive and powerful person within only a few months. You can acquire all the great qualities that you envy in others and that will finally make you feel good enough and help you let go of comparing yourself to others. But before you jump right into writing them there are certain things you need to know in order to increase the effectiveness of affirmations.

The 10 Most Effective Ways to Practice Daily Affirmations

Start by believing you can acquire all the qualities you always wished for. Whether it is to become more self-confident, a better communicator or just the desire to let go of obsessions you have to believe that you are capable of changing your negative thought patterns.

Next, there are certain "rules" of writing these affirmations. You could ask why I can't just write them however I feel like. The answer would be simple. Because if you do so within a few months you will decide that "affirmations don't work" and just give up and label them "useless" without realizing that the affirmations work perfectly it's just the way you wrote them are less effective. Following this, read carefully (before starting writing) the next 10 ways of writing and practicing daily affirmations and enjoy the results.

1. Organize your thoughts by dividing the affirmations into 6 categories. It will help you brain storm much faster. I'm giving you an example for each. These areas are the following:

• Family: "I am a considerate daughter who calls her parents once a day."
• Relationship: "I spend quality time with my kids an hour every day."
• Social: "I keep in touch with my friends (be specific with who) on a weekly basis."
• Spiritual: "I spend half an hour alone time every day to reflect on things that happened that day."
• Professional: "I am patient with my co-workers."
• Health: "I exercise 40 minutes every day to keep fit."

2. Take a blank piece of paper or just write in your mobile at least 10 affirmations.

Then add one more every day until you feel you wrote down all of them.

Example: "I am self-confident.", "I am lovable for all my good qualities.", "I am fit and healthy."

3. Think big! Write down everything you ever wanted to become. Don't be shy! If you could become anyone you want, what qualities would that person have? Take a moment and imagine the best you possible then just write down your new qualities. Be specific!

4. Make sure to write each sentence in the present tense . When you state your desired qualities in the present you start acting like you already have them. You don't have to believe them, just write them down. Avoid using the terms: "I will" or "I will try". These phrases are not associated with success thinking.

5. Keep it positive!  I can't emphasize the importance of being specific in the wording of your desires. Compare the two examples below. In the first statement you focus on the positive change in your communication with your wife/husband. In the second example you focus on the negative behavior that is currently a habit of yours. Just remember the following fact: The universe doesn't recognize negatives such as: "don't", "can't", "won't", " isn't". So keep them out of your dictionary! Positive: "I speak to my wife/husband in a nice manner." Negative: "I don't shout with my wife/husband."

6. Read the affirmations out loud in front of the mirror in the morning and in the evening. You can even record yourself and listen to it on your way to work.

7. Set a reminder in your phone for the morning and the evening. This exercise will remind you of reading your affirmations.

8. Visualize yourself in different situations in the future having already all the qualities you wrote down. Spare half an hour for that exercise a day.

9. Pay attention to your negative self-talk and immediately correct those thoughts to positive statements. Keeping it positive is not only important while writing down your affirmations but also in the constant chatter of your head. Imagine that I'm sitting on your shoulder controlling everything you say to yourself. It will be fun

Example: "I messed it up again. I'm such a looser."

Correction: "I might have made a mistake but I learnt from it and next time I will definitely succeed."

10. Most importantly BELIEVE! Believe strongly that you can do this. I promise it will change your life. Just keep doing them even if you have doubts in the beginning.