You or someone you know may have been having a few rough weeks due to the daily stresses of life. It can be because of something personal such as a newly diagnosed health condition that may have left you with an altered appearance or fear of uncertainty that each day brings. Either way there have been many days where you may have felt crummy, full of self-blame and self-sabotaging thoughts such as ‘I can’t do this.’, ‘I’m ugly’, ‘This is impossible’, ‘Why me?’, etc. All of these thoughts and feelings have their place and are completely legit considering what you have gone through. However, after some time, you realize you had enough and you truly do want to work towards a better life and to feel better overall.
There is a saying by Wayne Dyer that goes, “If you change the way you look at things the things you look at change.”
Surely this quote is all about perspective in how we see and perceive things control how we operate and move in our lives.
One of the ways to begin to change your habits for the better is to work with your mind and emotions to aid you in looking at things from another perspective. Just as much as the focus has been on something wrong, you can definitely use that same formula to focus on what you do want. Positive self-talk and affirmations are a legit way to get you started in the right direction. It was something I had to adopt myself from dealing with my own issues here.
What Are Affirmations?
Affirmations are the use of an idea in the form of a short phrase or sentence, typically spoken/written over and over to the point of full acceptance mentally and emotionally, in order to instill into the mind that specific thought and feeling so that it can lead to a desired perspective and behavior.
Benefits Of Positive Self-Affirmations
Improve Self-Confidence
According to research the benefits of positive self-talk include being able to subconsciously override any negative scenarios to self-confidence in certain situations allowing the person to perform better at daily tasks. Research noted here utilized fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) machines showed an increase in areas of the brain responsible for reward, values and self-processing.
Improve Healthy Habits
This study here, has shown that positive affirmations geared towards a healthier lifestyle such as healthy eating helped people to make that very change they desired. Overall, affirmations have been shown to help decrease stress, instill positive feelings of self-worth and improve overall well-being.
Improve Daily Performance
Positive self-affirmations have also been shown, through research here, to help people perform better in work/school settings, thus helping to close achievement gaps between high and under performance due to disadvantages possibly affected by socioeconomic, racial and gender statuses.
It is no mystery that these benefits show we could all use a “pick-me-up” every now and again in order to live our life from the standpoint of our best selves. Daily affirmations have become a popular way to keep your mind focused on something positive in order to ensure this happens. Therefore, adding a quick 5 minute routine of focusing your thoughts and feelings on a specific affirmation for your day is guaranteed to put you on a path to an overall improvement in your life.
How To Make Positivity Affirmation Box
I have not considered myself the best creative person on the planet (an affirmation for me to work on!), yet I had fun with this. I used what I had laying around in the house. For this project, I have decided to utilize a small cardboard box and believe it or not, a gift bag to use as a decoration. You can use anything you’d like such as wrapping paper, old clothing you no longer wear, etc.
Materials I used:
Small box
Gift Bag about the size of the box
Scissors
Tape
Paper (you can use index cards, or anything else to write on)
Pen
1. First take the box and open the flaps so. Cut into both top flaps going towards the outside of the box about 1 inch at about 2.5 inches apart. Do this for both sides so you get a square.
2. Close the flaps so you can see the square. Then take your pen and draw the outline of this square onto the flaps underneath.
Time to put the covering on! If you are using wrapping paper you can skip directions 3-6 and start from the bottom and wrap it similar to how you would wrap a gift/present. If you are using an old gift bag like me, continue with direction 3-6.
3. Cut the lower two flaps where you drew the line so that when you close all flaps as if you are going to close the box, you see a box with a square hole up top.
4. Take the gift bag and cut one of the corners from the top of the bag to the bottom. Continue cutting until it’s laid out with the bottom of the bag laying flat yet still attached to one of the sides as in the 3rd photo.
5. Lay the box on it’s side and roll it so all the sides are covered as shown below. Tape it secure.
6. Stand the box up. Notice where there extra wrapping/paper is. Cut the corners down to the ends of the flaps so that when it “closed” it can come down smoothly.
7. Cut along the inside where your square hole would be. Leave some room to fold the covering over the edges.
8. Fold the covering and tape it down on the inside. Do this for all the sides.
9. After you’ve secured all the sides, you have the option to fold the flaps like a pinwheel as I have or you can do it where the bottom flaps are in their usual position facing each other and the top flaps are doing the same so that the ends form a straight line. Secure any loos
10. Turn the box upside down and secure it with tape. Cut off any excess material.
11. Now it’s time to prepare the affirmations! Take the paper and cut them into 20 strips. Index cards can be used as well.
12. Write one affirmation on each piece of paper. Here are some examples of affirmations you can use. Feel free to create your own. Remember to write them in the present tense as I will demonstrate below:
I Am Healthy
I Am Resourceful
I Am Beautiful/Handsome
I Am Wealthy
I Am Loved
I Am Intelligent
I Am Royal
I Am Blessed
I Am Loving
I Am Thankful
I Am Strong
I Am Powerful
I Am Open-Minded
I Am Happy
I Am Love
I Am Excellence
I Am Provided For
I Am Amazing
I Am Divine
I Am Confident
I Am Living
I Am Creative
I Am Secure
13. After you write down all your affirmations, fold each paper and put them into the box.
14. Shake it up!
15. Each day, preferably upon waking up or before bed, choose one affirmation from the box and read (or write it down) it at least 10 times. Ponder on it’s meaning and how it relates to you. Keep it’s message in mind as you go about your day.
As I mentioned before you can use different materials around the house that may be much easier than using an old gift bag which would most likely make it look much neater. Yet, the overall design is very functional for everyday use.
I hope this idea has inspired you to bring more positivity into your life by way of daily positive affirmations. I have found this to be one fun way to get them in. The messages are a great thing to refer to as you go about your day, especially when coming across any challenges be they personal or due to outside circumstances.
Remember to stay active in your self-care!
Much Love,
*~Netert Aset~*
What is an affirmation you use or would
like to add to your daily routine?
About Post Author
