Self Talk Makeover:Creating Affirmations That Work

Have you ever noticed how your mind gravitates toward the negative? That tendency—hardwired into our brains for survival—might have helped our ancestors avoid danger, but today it often traps us in cycles of self-criticism and pessimism.

This episode dives into the world of affirmations—not as magic spells or empty positive phrases, but as practical tools for redirecting our thought patterns. Unlike the sometimes forced "power statements" that don't resonate with everyone, we explore how to create authentic affirmations grounded in gratitude and personal truth. Statements like "I release comparison and embrace my unique gifts" or "I am attentive to good things and see blessings everywhere" can gently retrain your brain to notice the positive.

The real game-changer? Creating a master list of personalized affirmations and then weaving them naturally into routines you already have. Whether jotting one at the bottom of your journal entry, speaking it during your morning commute, or pairing it with your evening prayers, consistency is what transforms these simple statements into subconscious belief. Over time, these small practices can dramatically shift how you perceive challenges, celebrate successes, and recognize the brilliant web of connections you're creating in the world.

Ready to experiment with affirmations that actually feel true to you? Listen now, and discover how this simple practice might become your most powerful tool for creating harmony between your thoughts, emotions, and actions. Then join us again next week as we continue exploring ways to notice and celebrate the good things surrounding us every day.

To learn more, go to mycreateharmony.com

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Create Harmony
• 0:34 Understanding Affirmations and Their Power
• 1:45 Creating Authentic Personal Affirmations
• 3:09 Weaving Affirmations into Daily Routines
• 5:07 Closing Poem and Challenge

Transcript

Speaker 2: 0:05

Hi, there you are now listening to the Create Harmony podcast, and you found a place where we spend time talking about everyday joys and dwelling on abundant blessings, and those are things that sometimes get overlooked. We set our rhythms here with the rhythms of nature, and we celebrate the changes that each season brings. You can join in this conversation and really find some peace. So this is episode 118, and I'm your host, sally Burlington. Today, our topic is affirmations. So what are affirmations?

Speaker 2: 0:41

Those are positive statements that can help you challenge your negative thoughts and maybe overcome a pattern of negative thinking. So you know that our minds trend towards things that are negative and in the past that was a way that our brains learned to protect us from danger, which is important. But using affirmations can retrain our brains to connect with more positive news and when you repeat them often and sort of build that as a habit, you'll begin to believe them and you're dwelling in more positive thinking, and that creates change. So the thoughts in your head are really really powerful, and sometimes they're even subconscious, but they create our emotions and often move you to action, and that series of events is really a big force that shapes your life. So affirmations can be a powerful tool for personal growth. You can use them for self-improvement, you can use them to foster a mindset that is aligned with your goals, and you could really be aspirational with them, and learning how to use them well can be pivotal. So before we talk about where to use them, I want to talk about the affirmations themselves. So sometimes you hear people use affirmations in this type of context when they're really trying to like, claim their power, and it's in a very striving type of mentality, and what I mean by that is you hear people say like I am destined for success or I am able to overcome any challenges in my life, and those are great. If that's working for you and you're doing that, that's great. You should continue it. But for me, that doesn't always resonate. For me, I need there to be more of the essence of authenticity to my affirmations. So saying things like everything is always going my way, that just doesn't. That doesn't resonate for me. My affirmations are often linked to gratitude and choices that I can make, and I'll say more about that in a moment. But first I'll say that I've really been wanting to use affirmations a little more this year.

Speaker 2: 2:42

I've been wanting to to use affirmations a little more this year. I've been wanting to develop better habits of weaving that into my life. But I find it hard to just conjure up a new affirmation each day or week and I don't have time to try to source one. So at the beginning of the year I made myself a master list and I just put a whole long list of affirmations that I could draw from. So to create this list, I thought about the choices that I would need to make to thrive. What are the things that I want more of in my life, to be more peaceful and healthy and happy? And these are things like healthy eating, getting enough sleep. There are also things that I'm good at. I tried to focus on where I could share my gifts.

Speaker 2: 3:25

And, lastly, I thought through things that my inner editor, or my inner critic, tends to overthink, and then kind of took a step away from that. So what? Let me give you some examples. So I came up with a list that really worked for me and I things like I am adding value through my work or my body feels good when I stretch. Another example is I enjoy learning new things, I am open to asking questions, and then I added some statements about things that I wanted to avoid, like I will not waste time in spaces that refuse to value me, or I do not need to be perfect, and all of these statements help me feel more grounded in the positive and they draw my attention away from negative things and towards ways that I can be a blessing.

Speaker 2: 4:21

So, for most of us, if we pay attention, if you really looked inside and paid attention to your self-talk for just a little bit, you'd probably observe the habit of you criticizing yourself or seeing places that you quote didn't get it right. But affirmations do not require us to be perfect and we don't have to work hard at being right all the time. They just give us some space to grow. We don't have to work hard at being right all the time. They just give us some space to grow. So here's some other examples. You could say I release comparison and embrace my unique gifts and talents, or I'm resilient and setbacks make me stronger, or I'm at peace with who and where I am in life. So that's a good way to use affirmations. These are positive statements, but they're not overly optimistic to the point that they're not realistic.

Speaker 2: 5:13

So, as I mentioned earlier, they can also be undergirded with gratitude. So statements like I'm grateful for all the blessings coming my way, or I am attentive to good things and I see blessings everywhere coming my way, or I am attentive to good things and I see blessings everywhere. So that's, those are some good ways to put gratitude in your affirmation statements. Now the trick is to get them into your mindset on a more frequent basis. So how can I do that?

Speaker 2: 5:38

And there are like endless possibilities here, but for me, what I did was, like I said earlier, make my master list and I just refer to that list and write an affirmation down in my journal when I'm journaling.

Speaker 2: 5:51

I have a daily journal and then more of a monthly journal, so if I don't get to it every single day, it's all right. But on the days that I do have time to journal, I write an affirmation down at the bottom of the page and I try to dwell on it for a few minutes after it's written, just sort of marinate in it a little. I also try to choose something that ties back into whatever my circumstances are for that day, like if I'm having an extra busy week. I try to choose something like I'm able to juggle many tasks and that doesn't say that I'm getting everything done on my to-do list, but it says that I'm rising to the challenge of my week. Or if I've just accomplished something that I really feel good about. I try to focus on that. So a few weeks ago I led a workshop at a local church and there was a really large crowd and it went really well. So I could say something like my workshops benefit others and you know something that affirms that that went well.

Speaker 2: 6:51

It's okay to celebrate when things go well. So you get the idea. Whether you speak them aloud, whether you write them down, maybe you mentally rehearse them there's lots of ways that these affirmations can reinforce your sense of self-worth and they can help you achieve a more optimistic outlook. So take a few minutes right now, this time together, and think about how you might incorporate affirmations into some part of your already existing routine. Like my routine is that I'm going to write in my journal every day, so I just created a system so that I could weave those affirmations in and it's not one more thing for me to have to do. So do you want to say one to yourself when you're getting ready each morning, or would you want to say them with your prayer time before you go to bed each night? Maybe you're a person who has a commute each day and you could create some affirmations for your commute time. If that were me, if I were going to have a commute, I maybe would like take some note cards and write an affirmation on each one and then like punch a hole in them and put a ring on it so that then I could put it in my car and read one each morning before I head out or each day when I come home from work. So something like that. It's a big chain game changer to create a master list or like like a thing on the ring. That is a big game changer because it takes that step of having to look up or think up a new affirmation away and it gave me the tools that I had to work with. So hopefully this conversation has inspired you to think of some ways that you can use affirmations in your routine.

Speaker 2: 8:27

Now for our closing. Today, I'm going to read a few words written by Donna Ashworth in her book Wild Hope. This is called you and it goes like this If every single person who has liked you in your lifetime were to light up on a map, it would create the most glitteringly beautiful network you could imagine. Throw in the strangers you've been kind to, the people you've made laugh or inspired along the way, and that star, bright web of you would be an impressive sight to behold. You are so much more than you think you are. You have done so much more than you realize. You're trailing a bright pathway that you don't even know about.

Speaker 2: 9:20

What a thing. What a thing indeed. May it be so. Thanks for joining us as we talked about how to use affirmations and how that can be a blessing in your life. It can really change your thinking. So I challenge you to think of some new ways that you can use those in your routines this week, and I know you'll see so many possibilities. So I hope you'll come back next week as we continue the conversation about seeing good things all around us. And until next time, peace, thank you, you.