How to affirm

Do Affirmations Work? Yes, but There’s a Catch

Affirmations are a self-help strategy used to promote self-confidence and belief in your own abilities.

You’ve probably affirmed yourself without even realizing it by telling yourself things like:

“All I can do is my best.”
“I’ve got what it takes.”
“I believe in my ability to succeed.”

These simple statements help shift your focus away from perceived failures or inadequacies and direct your focus toward your strengths — those you already have and those you want to develop.

But do they actually work? Kind of.

Affirmations generally work as a tool for shifting your mindset and achieving your goals, but they’re not a magic bullet for instant success or healing.

Neuroplasticity, or your brain’s ability to change and adapt to different circumstances throughout your life, offers a clue to help understand not only what makes affirmations work, but how to make them more effective.

Your brain sometimes gets a little mixed up on the difference between reality and imagination, which can be surprisingly useful.

Creating a mental image of yourself doing something — like acing a nerve-wracking interview or conquering your fear of heights by bungee jumping — activates many of the same brain areas that actually experiencing these situations would.

Regular repetition of affirming statements about yourself can encourage your brain to take these positive affirmations as fact. When you truly believe you can do something, your actions often follow.

For example, you might replace a negative or anxious thought, like:

“I’m so terrible at interviews. I’m probably not even as qualified as the other candidates. There’s no way they’ll hire me, I should just leave.”

With a positive affirmation:

“I have all the necessary skills and experience, and I’m the perfect candidate for this job.”

Using affirmations may help you feel more relaxed before your interview, and knowing you’re fully prepared can also help you avoid self-sabotaging thoughts or behaviors potentially interfering with your success.

Remember, action is key

Repeating an affirmation can help boost your motivation and confidence, but you still have to take some action yourself. Try thinking of affirmations as a step toward change, not the change itself.

Consider that nosy co-worker who always asks questions about your personal life. You don’t want to say anything to offend, but you also have no intention of answering their questions.

An affirmation like “I can remain calm even when I feel annoyed” might guide you to a habit of deep breathing or grounding exercises when you start to feel your blood boil.

These tactics, combined with your affirmations, help you get through the stressful moment until you can politely make an escape.

The affirmation didn’t make the change, you did. But it did offer a starting point.

Affirmations are just one self-help tool. Like other strategies, they can offer some measure of relief, but their benefits usually depend on how you use them.

Creating your own can help ensure you’re choosing affirmations that will help you most. Try the tips below to start developing and using affirmations more effectively.

Set them in the present

While affirmations can seem similar to goals, they don’t work in quite the same way.

Remember neuroplasticity? You’re using affirmations to help change long-standing patterns and beliefs. A good way to bring this change about is to act as if you’ve already succeeded.

A goal remains something you have to work toward. An affirmation, on the other hand, strengthens your confidence by reminding you of what you can do right now.

Avoid stock affirmations

You can find affirmations pretty much everywhere: T-shirts, inspirational images on social media, internet articles, and self-help blogs, to name a few places.

It’s perfectly fine to use an affirmation you read somewhere that really stuck with you, but creating an affirmation specifically tailored to your goals may work best.

Affirmations can be about anything, so why not get creative and consider ways to make yours as specific as possible?

Many people find it helps to link affirmations to core values, such as kindness, honesty, or dedication. This can help you remain focused on the broader picture of what really matters to you.

Example

Say you’ve felt a little down lately because your career hasn’t proven as financially rewarding as you imagined. To counter these negative feelings, you want to remind yourself of the things you do appreciate.

You might construct an affirmation along the lines of:

“I have wonderful co-workers and a loving family. My work satisfies me, and I know I’m making a difference.”

This statement reminds you of the things a large paycheck alone can’t provide.

Keep it real

Affirmations tend to have the most benefit when they center on specific traits or realistic, achievable changes you’d like to make to those traits.

Change is always possible, but some changes happen more easily than others. Affirmations alone can’t produce change in every situation, and if your affirmation focuses on a statement you don’t accept as true, it may have little effect.

Example

Perhaps you don’t think much of your body shape. An affirmation about desired changes might increase your motivation to work on getting fit or bulking up.

But exercise, however beneficial, can’t change every aspect of your body.

A more effective affirmation might involve a more neutral statement, such as:

“I appreciate what my body does for me each day, and I keep myself in good health with regular activity and nutritious foods.”

Similarly, affirming your favorite traits (physical or otherwise) can help you see yourself in a new light.

Compassion, quick wit, strength, speed: Everyone has unique talents. Focusing on yours can help prevent frustration and self-criticism when affirmations don’t manifest into improbable outcomes.

Ultra-positive affirmations along the lines of “I am beautiful” and “I love myself each and every day” often fail because most people don’t truly believe those things.

More neutral or specific statements, such as “I love my smile and kind face” or “I treat myself with kindness every day,” generally prove more helpful.

Practice affirming yourself every day

To get the most benefit from affirmations, you’ll want to start a regular practice and make it a habit:

Start with 3 to 5 minutes at least twice a day. Try saying affirmations upon waking up and getting into bed, for example.
Repeat each affirmation about 10 times. Listen to yourself saying it, focusing on the words as they leave your mouth. As you say them, believe them to be true.
Ask a trusted loved one to help. Listening to someone else repeat your affirmations may help reinforce your belief in them.
Make your routine consistent. Try not to skip any days. If you meditate, affirmations can be a great addition to your daily practice.
Be patient. It may take some time before you notice any changes, so stick with your practice!

Another benefit of a daily routine? Practicing affirmations can activate the reward system in your brain, which can have an impact on the way you experience both emotional and physical pain.

Knowing you have the ability to manage stress and other life difficulties can help boost confidence and self-empowerment, further promoting faith in yourself.

The truth is, affirmations don’t work for everyone. And contrary to what some people suggest, positive thinking isn’t all-powerful.

Negative ideas about the self can certainly hold you back, but sometimes these ideas come from something that dwells a little deeper within.

Uncovering past experiences that are fueling deeply etched patterns of negative thinking is best done with help from a therapist.

Also keep in mind that low self-esteem and other negative thought patterns often relate to mental health concerns, including depression and anxiety.

A therapist can help you begin identifying potential causes of negative or unwanted thoughts and explore helpful coping strategies, which might include affirmations alongside other tools.

A daily affirmation practice can mark a solid step on the journey toward self-improvement — for some people.

If affirmations leave you in a worse mood, don’t take this as a sign of failure or resign yourself to unhappiness. It could simply mean your journey toward change uses a slightly different route. A therapist can offer guidance and help you plot a better course.

Crystal Raypole has previously worked as a writer and editor for GoodTherapy. Her fields of interest include Asian languages and literature, Japanese translation, cooking, natural sciences, sex positivity, and mental health. In particular, she’s committed to helping decrease stigma around mental health issues.

Using Affirmations - Stress Management From MindTools.com

Use affirmations to climb out of a negative mindset and into the light.

"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.

What Are Affirmations, and Do They Work?

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 affirmations 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. [1]

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. [2]

What's more, affirmations have been used to successfully treat people with low self-esteem, depression, and other mental health conditions. [3] 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. [4] 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.

Note:

There is evidence that the higher your self-esteem, the more effective affirmations can be. However, research also found that if you have low self-esteem, positive affirmations actually make you feel worse, because they set up a conflict between the positive state you desire and the negative feelings you currently experience. [5] If this applies to you, work on Boosting Your Self-Esteem before you use affirmations.

How to Use Positive Affirmations

You can use affirmations in any situation where you'd like to see a positive change take place in your life. These might include times when you want to:

Raise your confidence before presentations or important meetings.
Control negative feelings such as frustration, anger, or impatience.
Improve your self-esteem.
Finish projects you've started.
Improve your productivity.
Overcome a bad habit.

Affirmations may be more effective when you pair them with other positive thinking and goal-setting techniques.

For instance, affirmations work particularly well alongside visualization. So, instead of just picturing the change you'd like to see, you can also write it down or say it aloud using a positive affirmation.

Affirmations are also useful when setting personal goals. Once you've identified the goals you'd like to achieve, affirmative statements can help you to keep yourself motivated in order to achieve them.

The power of affirmations lies in repeating them to yourself regularly. It's useful to recite your affirmations several times a day (have them pop up in your notifications!). You also need to repeat your affirmations as soon as you engage in the negative thought or behavior that you want to overcome.

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How to Write an Affirmation Statement

Affirmation statements usually target a specific area, behavior or belief that you're struggling with. The following points can help you to write the affirmation statement that best fits your needs.

Think about the areas of your life that you'd like to change. For instance, do you wish that you had more patience? Or deeper relationships with your friends and colleagues? Or would you like a more productive workday?

Write down several areas or behaviors that you'd like to work on. Be sure that they are compatible with your core values and the things that most matter to you, so that you'll feel genuinely motivated to achieve them.
Be sure that your affirmation is credible and achievable. Base it on a realistic assessment of the facts. For instance, imagine that you're unhappy with the level of pay that you currently receive. You could use affirmations to raise your confidence to ask for a raise.

However, it probably wouldn't be wise to affirm to yourself that you're going to double your salary: for most people, and most organizations, doubling what you're earning in one go isn't feasible. Keep it realistic! After all, affirmations are not magic spells – if you can't believe in them, it's unlikely they'll impact your life.
Turn negatives into positives. If you are struggling with negative self-talk, note down the persistent thoughts or beliefs that are bothering you. Then choose an affirmation that is the opposite of that thought and belief.

For example, if you habitually think, "I'm not talented enough to progress in my career," turn this around and write a positive affirmation such as, "I am a skilled and experienced professional. "
Write your affirmation in the present tense. Write and speak your affirmation as if it's already happening. This helps you to believe that the statement is true right now. For instance, "I am well-prepared and well-rehearsed, and I can give a great presentation" would be a great affirmation to use if you feel nervous speaking in front of a group.
Say it with feeling. Affirmations can be more effective when they carry emotional weight. You need to want this change to happen, so every affirmation that you choose to repeat should be a phrase that's meaningful to you. For example, if you're worried about a new project that you've been tasked with, you could tell yourself, "I am really excited to take on new challenges."

Examples of Affirmations

By definition, your affirmation will be personal to you, and specific to what you want to achieve or change, but the following examples may provide some inspiration:

I have plenty of creativity for this project.
My work will be recognized in a positive way by my boss and colleagues.
I can do this!
My team respects and values my opinion.
I am successful.
I am honest in my life, and my work.
I like completing tasks and projects on time.
I'm grateful for the job I have.
I enjoy working with my team.
I'm bringing a positive attitude to work every day.
I am excellent at what I do.
I am resilient.
I am not afraid to stand up for myself.
I will be a leader in my organization.
I am proud of myself.

Tip:

The use of affirmations is just one way to make positive changes to your life. You can also use techniques such as Thought Awareness, Rational Thinking, and Positive Thinking, and Cognitive Restructuring. You may also want to take our quiz, Are You a Positive or Negative Thinker?

Warning:

Negative thinking can cause severe health problems and, in extreme cases, death. While these techniques have been shown to have a positive effect on reducing occasional negative thinking, they are for guidance only, and readers should take the advice of suitably qualified health professionals if they have any concerns over related illnesses or if negative thoughts are causing significant or persistent unhappiness. Health professionals should also be consulted before any major change in diet or levels of exercise.

Key Points

Affirmations are positive statements that can help you to overcome self-sabotaging, negative thoughts.

To use affirmations, first analyze the thoughts or behaviors that you'd like to change in your own life and career.

Next, come up with positive, credible, and achievable affirmation statements that are the opposite of these thoughts. Repeat your affirmations several times a day, especially when you find yourself slipping into negative self-talk or engaging in negative behavior.

Remember that affirmations are most effective when you use them alongside other strategies, such as visualization and goal setting.

Registration on the public service portal and account confirmation

get a service on the portal of the State Service

To get full access to electronic government services, you need a verified account on the State Services Portal

STEP 1. REGISTRATION ON THE PORTAL

1. On the State Services portal (gosuslugi.ru) click the "Register" button

2. In the registration form that appears, enter your last name, first name, mobile phone and email address, then click on the "Register" button

3. Wait for SMS with confirmation code

4. Enter the confirmation code received from the SMS and click "Continue" for

completion of registration

STEP 2. FILLING IN PERSONAL DATA

1. Log in to your personal account. After successful registration, the status of your account will be "Simplified"

2. Fill out the user profile - indicate your SNILS and the details of the identity document (passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation, for foreign citizens - a document of a foreign state)

3. Wait until the verification of your entered data is completed (the data is being verified by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia and the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation), this may take from several hours to several days

Upon completion of the verification, a notification will be sent to your email address. In case of successful verification of your data, the status of your account will change from "Simplified" to "Standard"

Provided that you are a client of one of the banks - Sberbank, Tinkoff or Post Bank, you can register and (or) confirm your account in web versions of Internet banks or mobile applications without having to visit the MFC or service centres. If you are not a client of one of the banks - Sberbank, Tinkoff or Post Bank, you need to visit the MFC or service center to confirm your account.

STEP 3. IDENTITY CONFIRMATION THROUGH "Post Bank".

1. On the main page of the "Post Bank" application, click the "Pay and transfer" button

2. From the list of services and providers, select "Public Services"

3. Click "Government Services Account Confirmation"

4. In the form that appears, enter your SNILS and click "Confirm"

5. Wait for the confirmation code (will come in the form of an SMS or Push notification)

6. Indicate the received confirmation code in the line "Enter the confirmation code" and click "Confirm"

In case of technical problems, please contact the Post Bank hotline: 8-800-550-07-70 or the State Services portal hotline: 8 800 100-70-10.

ID CONFIRMATION THROUGH Sberbank

1. On the main page of the Sberbank application, select the Payments section

2. From the list, select the category "Registration for Public Services"

3. In the form that appears, select "Verify Account"

4. Check that personal data is correct and up-to-date

5. Enter your SNILS and click "Continue"

6. After searching for your account on the State Services Portal, the application will display the message “Your account has been verified”

In case of technical problems, please call the Sberbank hotline: 900 or call the State Services Portal hotline: 8 800 100-70-10.

ID CONFIRMATION VIA Tinkoff

1. On the main page of the Tinkoff application, click the "Payments" button

2. From the list of payments, select the category "Public Services"

3. Click "Registration on gosuslugi.ru"

4. In the form that appears, select "Verify Account"

5. Check that personal data is correct and up-to-date

6. Enter your SNILS

7. Click "Verify Account"

In case of technical problems, please contact the Tinkoff Bank hotline: 8 800 555-777-8 or the State Services portal hotline: 8 800 100-70-10.

How to make an identity confirmation for the State Services without the MFC

The State Services Portal allows you to receive various public services online, that is, on the Internet, without contacting in person and without visiting all kinds of government agencies. However, it must be remembered that in order to get full access to all services on the portal, first of all, you need to register on the website of the State Services, as well as verify account . That is why I will tell you, where you can confirm your account on the State Services !
Contents of the article:

Ways to confirm an account for the State Service portal;
Where can I find the addresses of the Public Services User Service Centers;
Is it possible to confirm the account through the mobile application of the State Services;

How to confirm the account on the State Services without MFC

How to confirm the account on the State Services? To verify the identity on the State Services means to confirm the identity of the user, that is, documentary evidence (using personal data) that the user is the owner of the account. This is necessary, since anonymous receipt of public services is impossible in principle.

So, let's consider, how can I confirm my account on the State Services ? In principle, there is a way that allows you to completely eliminate errors and difficulties in verifying your identity for public services - this is a personal appeal to the MFC (multifunctional center). But personally, of course, I would prefer a different way, which would allow me not to waste time visiting multifunctional centers. Therefore, we will further consider how to confirm an account for Public Services without contacting the MFC. In general, this can be done in the following ways:

Get a confirmation code in a registered letter of the Russian Post;
Confirm registration for the State Services using an electronic signature;
Via Sberbank Online. And personally, I recommend using this particular method, as it is one of the fastest and most convenient!

Even more convenient, in my opinion, is to use the Sberbank mobile application, then you can verify your identity for the State Services from your phone (Android and iPhone).

What is the fastest way to confirm your identity at the State Services? It can take up to 14 days to receive a confirmation code by registered mail by the Russian Post, so this is clearly not the best way to verify your identity for the State Services.

Thus, the fastest and most convenient way to confirm registration on the State Services website is to use Internet banking, since confirmation is fast, you don’t need to contact anyone personally. In addition to everything, an online account confirmed through a bank can then be used for authorization in the taxpayer's personal account!
By the way, a useful life hack: if you confirmed your account with the code from the Russian Post letter, then just confirm your account again through Sberbank online, and you can log in to the taxpayer's office on the website of the Federal Tax Service!

Where can I confirm the account on the State Services

A Where can I confirm the account on the State Services ? As mentioned above, you can make a verified account in the State Services, as well as get an electronic signature by contacting the nearest User Service Center. The addresses of these centers can be found on the official website www.gosuslugi.ru. In addition to everything, the specialists of the center can help in solving the problems and difficulties that have arisen when working with the State Services portal.

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