Living Your Affirmations—Making It Real, Not Just Repeated
Aug 20, 2025
I once had a client—let’s call her Keisha—who told me she had written her affirmations in her journal... once. She swore they were beautiful: "I am grounded, radiant, and unstoppable." When I asked how often she revisited them, she said, "Oh, I think about them sometimes. They're in the drawer with my sage and my expired yoga class pass."
And that right there is the gap.
Affirmations don’t work because they’re eloquent. They work because we live them. They become spiritual floss—clearing the gunk from the day and keeping our energy aligned. If your affirmations are collecting dust, let’s breathe some life back into them.
The Psychology Behind Daily Integration
Repeated exposure reinforces belief. That’s not just woo—it’s neuroscience. Research shows that consistent repetition of self-affirming statements increases activity in the brain's reward system and strengthens belief over time (Falk et al., 2015).
It’s the same reason advertisers show you the same jingle a thousand times. Repetition builds familiarity, and familiarity builds credibility. So if you’re only affirming when you remember—or when Mercury is in retrograde—you’re missing the power of the practice.
Try This: Make Your Affirmations Real
1. Post 'Em Where You Live
Bathroom mirrors, phone lock screens, sticky notes on the fridge—anywhere you need a reminder. Let your space reflect your intention.
2. Mirror Work, with Compassion
Look yourself in the eye and say it out loud. You might feel ridiculous at first. Keep going. Affirming while making eye contact creates an emotional connection that deepens over time.
3. Create an Affirmation Playlist
Yes, a playlist. Think songs that reflect how you want to feel. Your theme song. Your morning hype track. Your late-night wind-down. Every song is an energetic affirmation. Don’t just say it—sing it, move to it, be it.
Affirmations aren’t a box to check. They’re a way of relating to yourself. When spoken, seen, and heard regularly, they start to feel like home—like a place you return to again and again to remind yourself who you are and who you're becoming. Want to go deeper? This blog series is inspired by Cultivating Inner Peace—and I’m building a companion workbook to guide your practice. Stay tuned.
References
Falk, E. B., Cascio, C. N., & O’Donnell, M. B. (2015). Self-affirmation alters the brain’s response to health messages and subsequent behavior change. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(7), 1977–1982.
