The High Vibe Guide
You can feel happier! You can feel more positive, and it's so much easier than you think.
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The High Vibe Guide
28. The Power of Affirmations: Elevate Your Life with Positive Self-Talk
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Have you ever wondered if you could transform your mental landscape with just a few simple words each day? Join me as we explore the incredible potential of affirmations to shape a more positive and confident life.
I'll take you along on my personal journey with affirmations, starting from my university days and the profound impact of Louise Hay’s motivational teachings. Together, we'll debunk common misconceptions and doubts about affirmations and reveal how consistent practice can reshape your self-talk and elevate your overall well-being.
Tune in and unlock the transformative power of affirmations to elevate your life!
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https://yogawithjenna.com/free-resources
Welcome to the High Vibe Guide, the podcast where I demystify the concept of raising our vibration. I'm Jenna, a yoga teacher, mum of three and passionate advocate for helping others to just feel happier. Let me explain to you how we can all live more contented and fulfilled lives, and how it's so much easier than you think. Hi guys, welcome back to another episode of the High Vibe Guide. I'm Jenna, your host and your own personal cheerleader for living a happier life, and today we are diving into a topic that is very close to my heart, and that topic is affirmations. I want to talk to you about my first exploration with affirmations when I was at university, when I became aware of their power, and I want to explore why affirmations are just so beneficial. But I also want to discuss some common misconceptions, because I know a lot of people have them my husband is one in particular and I want to address the doubts that people may have about their effectiveness and then share my response to these thoughts. So get comfortable and let's get started. Have you ever heard the saying you are what you think? I think you hear it quite a lot, don't you? You are what you think. You are what you eat is another one. But regarding our thoughts, it's a simple yet profound idea that the thoughts we hold in our minds shape our reality in our minds shape our reality, and affirmations are one tool that we have in our belts to accomplish this shift in our mindset. But before I go on, for anyone who isn't entirely clear what affirmations are, they are positive statements that you repeat to yourself to challenge and overcome negative thoughts and self-sabotaging behaviours. They are incredibly powerful tools for personal growth and transformation. Personally, I really do believe wholeheartedly in their power and I have experienced firsthand how they can work to shift our mindset towards the positive and allow us to experience all the good stuff more and more and more. Now I draw a hell of a lot of inspiration from a lady called Louise Hay, who is very sadly no longer with us, but she was this remarkable author and motivational speaker and she was one of the earliest proponents of affirmations. I see clips of her all the time all over my social media. I mean, it's probably the algorithm, but she's just reposted and reposted all the time because she's just so good at explaining how our thoughts influence our reality. She believed that our thoughts create our experiences, and that's something that I believe in very passionately and that by changing our thoughts we can change our lives. So let's break down why affirmations are just so beneficial, I think, firstly, first and foremost, affirmations help to cultivate a positive mindset.
Speaker 1:So by consistently focusing on positive statements, we train our minds to look for the good in ourselves and in our lives, and this shift in perspective leads to such greater happiness and resilience. And by resilience I don't mean being able to just purely soldier through the hard stuff. That's not what I think resilient is, especially in this case. Here I mean that by training your mind to see more positive, it will become stronger. Your mind will start to possess a strength that it just didn't have before, and you'll be able to manage the harder and the more challenging stuff when it arises.
Speaker 1:Secondly, I think that repeating affirmations boosts our self-confidence and our self-esteem. Statements like I am worthy or I am capable and I am enough, these statements help to reinforce a positive self-image and counteract the negative self-talk that many of us struggle with. I think the trouble that people face here which I do want to get into more shortly is that, saying these statements, these affirmations, they can fall flat, especially on those really difficult days where we don't have much mental strength we all have those days but it's in the practice, it's in the consistency. By practicing affirmations, you are increasing the awareness of how you talk to yourself all the time and, as we know, breaking any habit is challenging. Why should breaking the habit of our own self-talk be any different? So, for me, not only can it greatly boost our self-confidence, but it can also increase our self-awareness. We first need to highlight how we actually do speak to ourselves on a daily basis, and I also think that affirmations can hugely reduce stress and anxiety.
Speaker 1:By focusing on calming and reassuring statements, we can soothe our minds and our bodies, promoting a sense of peace and relaxation. It can very much be a form of meditation, really, and when we do actually sit and meditate especially those of you that subscribe and listen to my weekly guided meditations and listen to my weekly guided meditations, I'm effectively planting little seeds of affirmation into your brain. When you allow yourself to be guided by my voice and you trust that I have your best interests at heart, which obviously I do when I say allow yourself to relax, to soften to, to let go, then you can, and I think we need to start trusting ourselves in this way to trust the right thoughts that we have, not the negative ones. That's just fear. Talking to you, affirmations are always thoughts that we can trust. It just doesn't feel like that in the beginning, unfortunately, because we aren't used to thinking this way.
Speaker 1:One quote from Pretty Woman that I'll always remember is when Julia Roberts is telling Richard Gere how she got into prostitution and she's talking about her childhood and they're lying in bed, and then he says that she could be so much more, that she's bright and smart and has so much potential. And she says back to him the bad stuff is always easier to believe. And how true is that? Why is it so much easier to believe the bad stuff about ourselves? How messed up is that? I want to change this. I want to alter this so that we can easily believe the good and the amazing stuff about ourselves.
Speaker 1:And for those of you that are into manifestation and for those of you that are into manifestation, according to the law of attraction, affirmations can help us manifest our desires. So it's all about aligning our thoughts and our emotions with what we want to achieve, and then we can attract those experiences towards us into our lives like magnets. So, for example, affirming I am attracting abundance can help to draw opportunities and prosperity towards us. I have just recorded an amazing guided meditation for this Friday. It's all about journeying into the quantum field, so, subscribers, please stay tuned for this one this week. Anyone not yet subscribed and wondering how the link is in the episode description right here click on the link and pay only four dollars a month and you will get access to all of my guided meditations.
Speaker 1:But despite these benefits, there are some common misconceptions and doubts about affirmations, so let's address a few of them. The first one that I hear from a lot of people is that affirmations are just wishful thinking. I think that many people believe that affirmations are just empty words with no real power. However, research suggests otherwise and I suggest otherwise. Studies have shown that positive self-affirmations can improve performance and reduce stress. Have you ever seen the study or heard about the study on that Superman pose? I have heard about this before and I recently heard Tony Robbins talking about it, and it's been proven that if you stand for two minutes with your hands on your hips like Superman does or like Peter Pan does, it's called power posing, and standing like this has been proven to increase testosterone production in the body and enhance feelings of power and confidence. I think I've seen them do it in Grey's Anatomy as well some of the surgeons before they go into surgery. I am digressing a little bit here, but if just standing a certain way can affect how we think and how we feel, then imagine what our words and our thoughts can do.
Speaker 1:It's not about wishful thinking, it's about rewiring your brain for positivity. Something else I hear people say about affirmations, and it's always with people that have tried it and feel like it's not working for them, and that's I don't believe in what I'm saying and I get it. It's natural to feel sceptical, especially when you first start using affirmations, but the key is consistency. Over time, repeating affirmations helps to break down the resistance and allows you to then internalise these positive beliefs. So start working with statements that feel somewhat believable and then gradually work your way up.
Speaker 1:We're working with a lifetime of programmed beliefs here. Remember. Time of programmed beliefs here, remember. So. It's not going to change overnight, is it? There's no way that it could. But remember, here on the high vibe guide, we are all about small, actionable baby steps and realizing that the ability to feel happier, to to feel more joy, more confidence, more fulfillment lies with us. We have the power to change this Only us. If you leave it to somebody else, you're always going to be left feeling powerless, to the mercy of external circumstances, to other people to allow you to feel happy. Well, I don't know about you, but I think that's a serious waste of potential power, because the true power lies within you Just you, no one else. Honestly, you can move mountains. If only we could open up our awareness and let even just a glimmer of that sink in.
Speaker 1:Another common doubt that I hear a lot is affirmations just don't do it for me. They don't work for me, and you know, it's true that affirmations might not be a one size fits all solution. Different people respond to different techniques. So if affirmations don't resonate with you, maybe consider combining them or using them a slightly different way with other practices like meditation, visualization or journaling, maybe to amplify their effects. I often use affirmations when meditating myself, or maybe just as a mantra, kind of for the day that I repeat to myself throughout the day.
Speaker 1:Those of you who've listened to my episode my Magic Affirmation will know what I'm talking about. If you who've listened to my episode, my Magic Affirmation will know what I'm talking about. If you haven't listened to that episode yet, then go back and do it. I have proved to myself over and over and over again that our words and our thoughts really do rewire our brain. It sets it up on a new path and opens up our awareness to so many more things.
Speaker 1:And lastly, I hear this a lot, and it's mainly not just for affirmations, actually. And lastly, I hear this one a lot, and it's not just for affirmations. It's for many, many practices that will help us feel better, feel happier, and it's I don't have time. I don't have time for affirmations. The truth is affirmations, like anything that I talk about on here, it doesn't have to take up a lot of time. You can incorporate them into your daily routine while brushing your teeth, during your commute or before going to bed. A friend of mine has a post-it on her mirror in the bathroom. I had a period where I had them stuck all around the edge of my tall mirror in my bedroom. But hey, stick them on your laptop on the front door so you see it before you leave the house. Even a few minutes a day can make a significant difference. And, just like with everything on the High Vibe Guide.
Speaker 1:Nothing I speak about on here takes up a huge proportion of your day. I'm not into that at all, but what I am into is small actions, small activities that we can scatter throughout our days To start planting these little seeds of the good stuff in our minds. If we keep scattering these little seeds, and over time they do start to grow. Now let's talk about how to create effective affirmations. There are four rules here, pretty simple ones that are universal, really.
Speaker 1:The first one is be positive. Frame your affirmations in a positive way. Instead of saying I am not anxious, instead you say I am calm and relaxed. Instead you say I am calm and relaxed. It's just reframing it because the present tense Affirm what you want to be true now, not in the future. For example, I am confident instead of I will be confident, I will be confident Always, always, always. Keep it in the present. If you say I will be confident, it's leaving it out there in the future. Your mind has to get used to it being in the here and now. You have to get used to feeling it in the present, in the now, okay. The third one be specific. Tailor your affirmations to your needs and your goals. The more specific the better. I don't know. For example, I am a successful writer who inspires others with my words. I am a successful yoga teacher who reaches millions of people around the world with my teachings.
Speaker 1:The fourth one believe. Choose affirmations that resonate with you. If they feel too far-fetched, start with something more believable and build from there. It's okay to do that. You can start small, remember. Build from a smaller base. Find something that resonates with you that you can at least get a little bit familiar with, okay? So what I'd like to do now is take a moment to practice some affirmations together. So, if you can find a comfortable position, close your eyes only if you can. If you're driving, please don't but sit comfortably. Soften the facial muscles and you're going to repeat some affirmations after me and you're going to allow them to sink in. Just let them soak in and permeate a little. Okay, imagine them as true. So when you're ready, here we go. I am worthy of love and respect. I am confident and capable. I am attracting positive opportunities into my life. I am healthy, happy and radiant. I am grateful for all the blessings in my life. How did that feel? Remember, the more you practice, the more natural and powerful these affirmations will become.
Speaker 1:My first dabble, if you like, with affirmations was when I was at university. I had come home one weekend and I was feeling particularly low. With hindsight, I think that my negative mindset went as far back as my university years, maybe even younger, into my kind of mid to late teens. But it must have been going on for a while because I was telling my mum about it. But it must have been going on for a while because I was telling my mum about it and she gave me a CD to listen to in my car. Do you remember those days? Cds in the car. So as I drove back to university that Sunday evening, I took out my my latest burned mix that I'd made mix that I'd made, most likely containing some some random mix of the latest Rihanna and a few Michael Bublé hits in there. Yep, super cool university student I was, and I put in a CD of Louise Hay and I listened to her talk about affirmations and I repeated all of the affirmations that she gave on my two-hour journey back that evening.
Speaker 1:Now, back then I didn't really buy into the whole explanation of mindset and carving out new neural pathways in the brain to promote more positive thinking. I was just a selfish and impatient teenager who just wanted a quick fix, but do you know what? It must have worked pretty darn quickly, because I remember phoning my mum and telling her that all of these amazing things had just kept happening recently. I can't even remember what these things were now, but I so clearly remember the conversation I was having with her and telling her that these amazing things had just been happening, and I think I listened to that CD on and off throughout my university years and for me it just goes to show how powerful our words and our thoughts are.
Speaker 1:We are the constant narrator in our minds of our life and our story, and we become complacent. It becomes background noise and we so often lose the awareness of it. It seeps into our subconscious and before we know it, we're walking through life on autopilot. No worse than that we are thinking on autopilot. We have to be aware of how we think and how we speak to ourselves, because with our thoughts we're effectively telling ourselves how we should feel and how we should continue to think. And if that narration has become negative without us realising, without us realising, then we're in a world of trouble. So look, you're here today. You tuned in, you listened to me up to this point.
Speaker 1:I encourage you to give affirmations a try. They are simple, they are free, they are accessible to everyone. I have even created a document for you that I will share with you for free. It's been on the um, the free resources page of my website, for quite a while now. I created it a while ago. I'll put it in the notes it's yogawithjonacom, and I recently also created some phone and pc backgrounds. They're lovely affirmations on them, lovely pictures. I have one on my phone and on my laptop now, and they are also on my free resources page on my website and I wanted you to be able to download them and use them. I'll put the link in the description for you. So start with a few affirmations that resonate with you and just start incorporating them into your daily routine, and over time you will begin to notice subtle shifts in your mindset and your overall well-being. Thank you, as always, for joining me today.
Speaker 1:If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe for your weekly guided meditations. Leave me a review. Share the episode with your friends. A review. Share the episode with your friends. Remember you have the power to create the life you desire one positive thought at a time. Thanks, guys, I'll see you back here next time. Thank you all so much for tuning in. If you you enjoyed today's episode, please share with your friends and family to continue spreading that positivity. You can find me on Instagram at thehighvibeguide. Get in touch. I would love to hear from you. Thank you all so much for listening and I'll see you back here next time at the high vibe guide.