“I’m never going to be able to do this job; I’m just not smart enough.”
“Why does my boss want me to run the presentation? I’m a terrible public speaker, and I’ll just embarrass the team.”
“I wish I could stick up for myself at work. In every meeting, I let the others walk over my ideas. I’m never going to get ahead.”
Many of us have negative thoughts like these, sometimes frequently. When we think like this, our confidence, mood and outlook can become negative, too. The problem with negative thoughts is that they can become self-fulfilling prophecies. We talk ourselves into believing that we’re not good enough. And, as a result, these thoughts drag down our personal lives, our relationships, and our careers.
But, if we deliberately do the opposite and use positive thoughts about ourselves, the effect can be just as powerful but far more helpful. In this article, we’ll explore how you can use affirmations to drive positive change in your career, and in your life in general.
Affirmations are positive statements that can help you to challenge and overcome self-sabotaging and negative thoughts. When you repeat them often, and believe in them, you can start to make positive changes.
You might consider affirmation healing to be unrealistic “wishful thinking.” But try looking at positive affirmations this way: many of us do repetitive exercises to improve our physical health, and affirmations are like exercises for our mind and outlook. These positive mental repetitions can reprogram our thinking patterns so that, over time, we begin to think – and act – differently.
For example, evidence suggests that affirmations can help you to perform better at work. According to researchers, spending just a few minutes thinking about your best qualities before a high-pressure meeting – a performance review, for example – can calm your nerves, increase your confidence, and improve your chances of a successful outcome. Self-affirmation may also help to mitigate the effects of stress. In one study, a short affirmation exercise boosted the problem-solving abilities of “chronically stressed” subjects to the same level as those with low stress. What’s more, affirmations have been used to successfully treat people with low self-esteem, depression, and other mental health conditions. And they have been shown to stimulate the areas in our brains that make us more likely to effect positive changes in regard to our health.
A latter study suggests that a stronger sense of self-worth makes you more likely to improve your own well-being. So, for example, if you’re worried that you eat too much and don’t get enough exercise, using affirmations to remind yourself of your values can spur you on to change your behavior. Dr Devi Chauhan is best affirmation healer in Thailand.