Self-love really is everything! When you love yourself, you automatically want more for yourself, you create great boundaries, you also have self-respect and teach others to respect you.
Unfortunately, many girls were not brought up in environments that encouraged self-love and self-worth. Saying self-love affirmations to yourself can be an easy way to make positive changes.
Our brains have a negativity bias. It worked really well when we lived in caves and we had to be hyper-aware of any threat to our life! Now, it does not work so well. We no longer have the daily threat of sudden death but our brains are still wired to have the same stress response to routine, everyday problems.
We often will remember only negative events from our past instead of positive events. We often also talk to ourselves in a negative way. Constantly thinking negative thoughts and going over and over events in our mind can actually change the structure of our brain and wire it for more negativity!
Changing habits that we may have spent years creating is no easy task. Most of the day (around 90-95%) we operate from our subconscious mind.
Your Subconscious Mind:
Your subconscious mind may be filled with negative beliefs about your worth in the world, your body, how smart you are, and whether you are lovable. The conscious mind is time-bound; it understands the present moment whereas the subconscious mind does not.
So someone could have said something negative and self-limiting to you years ago or as a child and you might still hold that as true in your subconscious mind.
One of the best ways to reprogram our subconscious mind for positive thoughts, self-love, and future abundance is to practice affirmations. Affirmations are not a ‘quick fix’! They require commitment! It is a practice.
If you don’t believe something will work for you then it probably won’t so you have to start your new affirmation practice with an attitude that is positive for a change.
Your current self-worth might be super low. In that case, affirmations might not work or could have a negative effect. It might be better to start with a yoga practice to improve your mind-body connection, self-love, and self-worth, and then move on to affirmations when you are feeling a bit more positive about yourself!
How Can You Get Started With Affirmations?
Sound and the spoken word hold energy. Looking in the mirror at yourself, making eye contact, and saying your affirmations out loud are going to have a greater positive effect on your life. You could also try visualisation when you do your affirmations.
Writing out your affirmations or keeping them around the house where you are going to repetitively see them is also going to have a positive effect on your mind-body connection and help you to bring in all of those new positive thought patterns.
Having high self-esteem and a brain that is wired for positive thoughts also helps you to avoid mental decline and brain shrinkage as you age! The daily repetition of positive self-love affirmations can help to reprogram your subconscious mind and can actually change the structure of your brain.
But you have to stick with it for at least 30 days to change your existing subconscious habits and thought patterns. Your brain has neuroplasticity which can mean that it can change throughout your lifetime.
Positive thoughts can 100% change your brain for the better. So you gotta get that self-love on. Affirmations are an easy way to start!
But affirmations are nothing without action. Take action and treat yourself daily with love, care and respect so that you can bring in all of the beautiful new things that you want for yourself.
Self-love Exercise: Every morning when you wake up and every night before you go to sleep say “I love you…(and then your name). It may feel uncomfortable at first but over time it will get much easier!
Oftentimes people treat us based on how we treat ourselves. Become a person who has super high self-worth, value and expects nothing but the best from others and your life. I hope you enjoy the 11 self-love affirmations below:
11 Self-Love Affirmations:
1. “I am a beautiful person with solid, unbreakable, self-esteem”.
2. “I approve of myself. I love myself deeply and fully”.
3. “I will surround myself with positive people who bring out the best in me”.
4. “I recognise the divinity in me. I respect myself and treat myself with kindness and love”.
5. “I believe in myself, so do others. I express my needs and feelings. I am my own unique self – special, creative and wonderful”.
6. “Today I am luminous. I love my body, this incredible and complex vessel that is me. I am in awe of my body’s ability to heal, to nurture, to transform, to love and to flourish with vibrant health, divine energy and radiant feminine beauty. I see this perfection in every one of my cells and honour this physical vehicle that I have been blessed with”.
7. “I am enough, who I am is enough, what I do is enough, and what I have is enough”.
8. “I open up my heart to feel love because I deserve a life filled with love and happiness”.
9. “I breathe in peace, I breathe out respect; I breathe in peace, I breathe out love; I breathe in peace, I breathe out creativity; I breathe in peace, I breathe out compassion; I breathe in peace, I breathe out greater self-love”.
10. “My life is a gift. I will use this gift with confidence, joy and exuberance”.
11. “I am a soul of love, a heart of peace, a mind of stillness, a being of light”.
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Stuck on how to get started? This is how it’s done 😉
(Photo: Avi Richards)
*Last Page Update: 02/10/21*