The clean slate that comes with a new year can put enormous pressure. You get the feeling that you must fill the new pages with incredible adventures. The work on the “new and improved” version of yourself must start now. But what if you don’t have the energy? 

Instead of getting comfortable with January blues or putting on your plate more changes than you can handle, focus on one thing. Give yourself a promise that you’ll start improving the single most important relationship in your life – the relationship with yourself. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Most of the shadows of this life are caused by our standing in our own sunshine.” He is right. If you don’t learn how to love yourself and be gentle with yourself, how can you expect to witness a change in others?

Self-love is the foundation for happiness, positive changes, and better relationships. Learning how to appreciate, value, and love yourself is how you’ll open the door to a better life in this new year. 

One of the most powerful tools for working on self-love is affirmations. Before you start your self-love journey, we want to equip you with tips on how to write a motivating self-love affirmation. 

What is an Affirmation?

An affirmation is a practice of self-empowerment and positive thinking. It is a carefully crafted statement that should be regularly repeated to one’s self to have an effect.

The purpose of an affirmation is to oppose your negative self-talk. An affirmation can help you switch focus from negative thoughts about your bad qualities to your best traits. 

The benefits of affirmations aren’t just theoretical.

 One study found that self-affirmation increases activity in the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) and posterior cingulate (PCC), areas of the brain connected to self-related processing. These areas are most likely to motivate positive changes regarding our self-portrayal. 

What’s more, many publications show that affirmations have been used to successfully treat people with low self-esteem, depression, and other mental health conditions. 

Considering that 85% of the world’s population are affected by low self-esteem, affirmation has been gaining more attention as a successful method for coping with it. 

But what is a self-love affirmation?

A self-love affirmation aims to strengthen your belief in your self-worth. It can focus on any aspect of yourself that provokes negative self-talk. 

“Rather than giving in to negative thoughts, a self-love affirmation reprograms your mind. The consistently repeated affirmation teaches you to see yourself as a lovable person with great qualities who deserves to be happy,” shared Dorian  Martin, a psychologist, a writer at assignment writing services, and an advocate for self-love affirmations. 

To test the power of self-love affirmations, you first need to write one. For that reason, we present to you some useful tips for writing your self-love affirmation.

Start with “I am…”

For an affirmation to take an effect, it needs to be in the form of your typical thoughts. You probably don’t refer to yourself in the third person in your stream of consciousness. When you think about yourself, it probably starts with “I am…”

The affirmation needs to mimic your normal form of through. The mind is an impressionable creature of habit. So, you want to imbed your self-love affirmation among your thoughts.

Writing in the present tense will make you believe that you ARE that person. Not that you will become it one day. The change needs to start now. 

Don’t Start with “I need/want”

The goal of affirmations is to cut the ties with wanting and needing and commit to real changes. If you start the affirmation with “I want” or “I need,” the whole process will lose the point.

For expressing any type of future changes that you look forward to, change the wanting and needing for positive emotions. You can express such affirmation like this:

• I am excited to….
• I look forward to…

Make it Short

You want to live and breathe that affirmation. It should be your mantra throughout the day. Which is why you want to make it short. 

Affirmations don’t necessarily need to be concise. However, a short affirmation is easier to remember. And you do want to remember it. 

Write a sentence or two for starters. You can easily add things and make it longer with time.

Write the Opposite of Your Common Negative Thoughts

The hardest part of writing affirmation is finding what to write about. 

Sadly, most people aren’t accustomed to praising themselves. So, when the moment comes to evoke self-love, we fall short of what to write about.

But don’t worry. There is a method that can be the source of your good qualities. Take your most common negative thought and write the positive opposite. 

Put in an affirmation what would you like to be that counteracts that negative belief.

For example:

• Negative thought: I am lost. I have no purpose.
• Self-love affirmation: I am capable and cautious. I am exploring my options until I reach my dream life. 

It’s all about the perspective. Stop saying to yourself that you are lost and that you have bad luck. Because that’s how you’ll look at the world. 

Look in the Mirror

If your negative self-talk primarily refers to your physical appearance, there’s a great method you can try out.

Byron Katie, an American speaker and author wrote, “Do you want to meet the love of your life? Look in the mirror.” 

We are all uniquely beautiful. People get so caught up with “ideal beauty” that they forget how beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.

Instead of comparing yourself to others, look in the mirror and find something that you love about yourself. Something that makes you an original.  Then, write it down in your affirmation.

Estelle Liotard, an editor and paper writing service reviews writer, shared her tip for writing self-love affirmations, “Put the spotlight on what you have and not what you think you don’t have. Learn how to value uniqueness and not wallow over the ever-changing perception of beauty.”

Final Thoughts

An affirmation isn’t a recipe for an instant result. It demands time and persistence. Once you create your affirmation, repeat it frequently. 

You can put the affirmation somewhere you can see it. Remember that the change can’t happen without you. Show that you are ready to commit to your relationship with yourself. Write your self-love affirmation.

Read more; https://nopanic.org.uk/affirmations/