Affirmations Are Like Spells and Here's Why You Should Incorporate Them into Your Routine

This story was originally published on Tigress Mag for Girls

I started using affirmations after I read Louise Hay’s The Power Is Within You. Despite the cheesy book title, I quickly learned that Hay and her affirming techniques are pretty prime for getting to where you want to be and—well, your general well being. After reading some of her books, I slowly immersed myself into the metaphysical (not a word to be afraid of! It’s just another title for the study of life’s big questions: What are we doing here? How can we be cool about it? The answer: Meditate, affirm, be present and so on, ya dig?). 

Hay taught me everything I needed to know about letting go of the past and negative vibes and the first step to doing all that is affirming. Curious? Read on, my friend.

So, What Is An Affirmation? An affirmation is in the name. It’s a positive statement made in the present moment. It’s having control over your subconscious thought. It’s an attempt at changing your narrative by literally changing the narrative. It’s about having more control over your thoughts than you once did. Thoughts become things, so might as well keep your thoughts positive.

Affirmations Are Kind Of Witchy: I like to think that an affirmation is like a spell, which makes you a witch and how cool is that? With an affirmation, you’re telling the universe, God, etc. exactly what you want and exactly how you want to feel. You’re not going to get instant results (like a spell), but you’ll get everything you want or need in due time as long as you keep at it and believe in your thoughts as well as in yourself.

You’re Not Lying To Yourself: When I first starting using affirmations, I used them to affirm my self-love. I would look at myself in the mirror and repeat: “I love and accept myself just as I am now.” A little voice at the back of my head would pop up and call me out. “LIES,” it would say. It was rough, but I kept repeating my affirmation. Eventually, I found myself opening up to new experiences and immersing myself in activities that brought me joy. That little voice disappeared and loving myself feels like much less of a struggle these days.

Any new radical thought that you tell yourself is going to feel like a lie, but you’re changing your narrative, which means that you’re trying to make a change in your life and that’s kind of huge. It’s going to take some getting used to.

Start Affirming Now: Make it a part of your routine. Do it before you shower, while you get ready in the morning, or before going to sleep. Here’s how: look at yourself in the mirror; smile at your gorgeous face and say cool calming things out loud (it feels straight up WEIRD at first, but you’ll get used to it). If you want to work on self-love, tell yourself you love yourself. If you want to work on becoming money-positive, say some money positive things to yourself (ex. I am a money magnet. Sounds corny, I know).

If you can’t think of any affirmations, you can use the Internet for help or read some books by Louise Hay (the queen herself). It’ll take some practice but affirm away and see what cool awesome new developments pop into your life. Despite popular belief, it’s all in your hands, babe.