How Affirmations Saved My Life

Take a look into my mind and see how affirmations saved my life.

“Every thought we think is creating our future. ”
― Louise L. Hay

This is a bit of a different post, where I’ll be baring my heart open to some of my darkest secrets. I’m hoping it will be a bit cathartic to me, much like journaling.

Also Read from here: How to Journal for Mental Health

I’m inspired to share this story because I believe that if I can affect just one person in the world by sharing my story, that’s amazing to me.

SOMETIMES WE DON’T KNOW WHEN THE NEXT WAVE OF INSPIRATION WILL STRIKE, OR WHERE IT WILL COME FROM. ALL I KNOW IS, WHEN YOU SET YOUR HEART OUT TO GROW AND BE A BETTER PERSON, THE UNIVERSE/GOD/INFINITE INTELLIGENCE WILL GUIDE YOU.

Now that I think of it, my self-growth journey has been intentional from the start. I took no shortcuts, and I wasn’t forced into concepts my mind wasn’t ready for yet. It was all just one big river, flowing constantly and continuously.

When I say affirmations saved my life, I mean they literally saved my life. I’ll take a pause here and state some trigger warnings: there will be mention of self harm and wanting to take your life.  Please proceed with caution, and if you are triggered by these topics, please, please don’t put yourself through reading this post.

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I KIND OF ALWAYS KNEW ABOUT AFFIRMATIONS AND THE LAW OF ATTRACTION. I KNEW ABOUT ACTING AS IF YOU ALREADY HAD WHAT YOU WANTED. I KNEW ABOUT PRACTICING GRATITUDE AND ALSO ABOUT SCRIPTING OUT YOUR LIFE LIKE YOU ALREADY HAVE IT.

Before I get into the how’s and the why’s, I just wanted to give a brief background on my knowledge of all things related to affirmations.

Affirmations are statements that are infused with positivity and encouragement, and all things amazing.

Also Read from here: How to Make Good Affirmations

My favorite affirmations are undoubtedly:

• I believe in myself
• I trust myself
• I can do it
• I feel good
• I love you. I really, really love you (Saying to myself, of course.)

Affirmations give intention to your life. They correct your course on the current of life. They direct your energies to the right areas of your life.

Of course, I always knew about affirmations. I just never really understood how they worked. I mean, I knew the basics. The stuff about affirming what you wanted to be, or how you wanted to feel. They always kind of felt empty to me. I was a fan of them, don’t get me wrong – it’s just – I hadn’t stepped fully into their glory.

That is, until I stumbled upon the work of Louise Hay. Gosh, I just love this woman and all she has single-handedly done for me.

I started out by listening to the audiobook version of You Can Heal Your Life. If you know me, you know that I am a serious self-help/non-fiction junkie. I love reading motivational books.

In fact, here are my current fave self-help/non-fiction reads. I’d recommend them to anyone!

• Girl, Stop Apologizing: A Shame-Free Plan for Embracing and Achieving Your Goals by Rachel Hollis
• Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear
• Becoming by Michelle Obama
• You Can Heal Your Life by Louise L. Hay
• Untamed by Glennon Doyle

Anyway, back to the topic on hand: Listening to Louise Hay, with her calm and soothing voice, I began to understand exactly what affirmations do for you. Remember, before this, I knew what affirmations where, and the basic mechanics of it all. But now, I had a real teacher teaching me about the truth that would change my life, and save me in the process.

What are affirmations?

Affirmations are intentional and positive statements you tell yourself because you know that the thoughts of today, are the results of tomorrow.

You know that what you think today, you manifest tomorrow. Your thoughts are the seeds of the future that you plant today. How awesome is that? Imagine a beautiful, fresh green sprout, that beautiful thought, that is going to bring you all the goodness that you truly deserve.

Don’t worry about the lifetime of negative thoughts you have had in your head.

As Louise Hay says, “It’s only a thought, and a thought can be changed. I am not limited by any past thinking. I choose my thoughts with care. I constantly have new insights and new ways of looking at my world. I am willing to change and grow.”

The difference in my beliefs of affirmations between before and now is this: I now believe that affirmations are a reflection of how I want my future to be. When I affirm positive things, I know that tomorrow, things are going to be amazing for me.

I feel such joy and happiness when I affirm some things. I feel like all the good in the world chose to flood with heart. I feel like a piece of heaven came down to visit me.

I’ve always been a negative person, and achieving this has been one of the biggest achievements of mine to date!

I truly see in my mind’s eye that everything is going to be okay. All is well. I believe it with all my heart, and I truly see it happening to me.

Affirmations are my precious seeds that I plant in my mind’s earth, to reap the benefits of my vibrant green shoots in the future.

Here are some examples of affirmations I use daily:

• Everybody loves me
• I am lovable
• I am worthy of everything life has to offer me
• Everybody loves my ideas and is always good to me
• People love giving me and tell me they love me
• I am happy and healthy
• My body is amazing
• I have a great mind
• Everything always works out for me
• I always do the right thing

Also Read from here: How to be Happier in Life

It may not seem like much, but I used to think really negatively. One day I realized that, hey maybe my life is this dark and sad because I always affirm negative things! In order to understand how beautifully helpful affirmations are to me in my life, here is how I used to think:

• Everyone is so bad to me
• No one listen to me
• No one likes my ideas
• I always do the wrong thing
• I’m so bad to everyone around me
• I suck
• I always mess up my cooking
• I’m not good at a lot of things
• I don’t trust myself
• Things don’t happen right for me

You can see the difference in the way I speak to myself now. I expect better results in my life now that I have switched to intentional affirmations. It’s not that hard to flip a situation and create an affirmation. For example, if something is not going right, you don’t get that text you’ve been waiting for, or that check you needed, what you have to say is:

I love it when people text me. I love it when I get my checks on time. I feel good when everything goes right!

Also Read from here: How to Raise Your Vibration Right Now

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It’s now time to get a bit dark. The trigger warnings are really flashing in front of you now. I think this part is really necessary so you can truly understand exactly how affirmations saved my life. You can skip this portion of text and go right ahead to the section titled: How Affirmations saved my life.

Life Before Affirmations Saved My Life

In order to lay the facts straight about how affirmations changed my life, I have to take you through exactly how the affirmations saved my life. This is a short recourse on life before affirmations came into my life.

I was suicidal before affirmations saved my life

I’m jumping straight into the dark bits. I was suicidal. I had suicidal thoughts every day of my life. It kind of seems far away from me right now.

I’ve struggled with suicidal ideation for so long, but I faced some major trauma in my life a few years ago, and that made everything worse for me.

I’m pretty vague about what happened when I write on my blog. I don’t think I will ever have the courage to open up about what happened, but I felt so hopeless and lifeless after that incident in my life. I was ready to go through with the unthinkable.

That’s a short description how I felt. It’s only until recently that I’ve managed to go days without once thinking those thoughts. I attribute it all to learning how to use affirmations properly. Especially through Louise Hay.

This is what I mean when I say affirmations saved my life. They literally saved my life.

I want to live now. I want to experience all the amazing things I can bring into my life by being positive. By looking at the rising sun and seeing myself in it.

I was depressed before affirmations saved my life

I don’t think being depressed comes as shocking after the sad revelation above. I was depressed. I was depressed because thinking about my life was just too painful. I loathed myself. I was racked up with mental disorders that I barely knew. Anxiety filled my life. I had an insane amount of self-esteem issues.

I was living a shadow of the life I truly deserved.

Feeling depressed is like the whole world is covered with a grey filter. Everything is cloudy, and you’re only allowed to be sad. Everything makes you feel low, and reminds you of how loathsome you are.

Also read from here: How to Stop Hating Yourself

You feel like a blight upon this world. The only emotions that brighten you up in a disgusting way are anger, and feeling like a victim.

There is so much pain and suffering that you impose on yourself by virtue of your thoughts.

And that is how affirmations saved my life. They taught me that maybe I wasn’t a disgusting creature. Maybe I didn’t need to be perfect to love myself. Maybe, just maybe, I deserved the best.

Self harm

I have written about self harm on my blog before. Life is very bleak indeed when you resort to harming your own self.

I was going through a lot of pain to be doing that to myself.

I’m not completely comfortable talking about this, but affirmations really did save me from pain.

Also Read from here: Top 10 Self Harm Alternatives That Actually Work

I had a Negative Mindset

I’ve spoken about this before on my blog. I literally grew up a proud pessimist. I learnt this word really young, and I identified by it for a long time. I was a negative person. All my thoughts were negative.

I always thought about what would go wrong and I always felt nothing good would happen to me. I’ve already listed a bunch of my negative thinking patterns above.

HAVING A NEGATIVE MINDSET REALLY LIMITED ME FOR MOST OF MY LIFE. I MISSED OUT ON SO MANY GOOD THINGS BECAUSE I WAS NEGATIVE. BEING NEGATIVE ALSO MEANT I FELT UNWORTHY OF SO MANY THINGS.

In fact, when I think about it, thinking negatively made negative things come to me. In that same manner, thinking positively makes positive things come to me.

So, just imagine all the negativity that was coming my way from being such a debby downer! Life is tough when you are a negative person.

Choosing positive affirmations literally saved my life.

I was emotionally unstable

I know exactly why I was emotionally unstable. I was relying on other people to give me the emotional satisfaction that I have craved all throughout my life.

I’ve always tied my emotional stability as well as my self worth to others. I just didn’t know any other way.

I diagnosed myself as an empath and a codependent personality. I had to depend on others to give me the validation I wanted.

Also Read from here: 5 Crucial Life Skills for Empaths and Codependents

My emotional environment depended on how I made others feel. I felt responsible for everyone’s feelings. If I thought I made someone mad, I would not sleep the whole night knowing I had done such a horrible thing.

Of course now I know that most people are emotionally stable and do not depend on me to make them feel worthy, so if I make them mad, that’s on them, not me. How other people react is a reflection of them, not me.

Today, I’m so self-reliant for my emotional stability and I am so proud of myself for getting here. I totally understand that I can be there for myself, and I am capable and enough.

Also Read from here: How to Become Stronger Emotionally

And that is how affirmations saved my life.

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How Affirmations Saved My Life

Whew, here comes the good parts! This is how affirmations literally saved my life. I don’t know where I would be without these precious gems. Affirmations have made my life worth living. Living in love and joy and working to maintain a good outlook on life are how I want to spend the rest of my days here. I want to LIVE.

Here are the ways how affirmations saved my life:

Affirmations taught me to be positive

Is this really a shocker? Going from negative to positive has been so rewarding.

I decided to take that leap and start being positive when my whole world was crumbling around me. I decided to choose me for once. I decided that if everything was gone, maybe I could try going positive as a last resort.

However, learning how to do affirmations boosted that positivity that I had learned.

Going from negative to positive is not very easy when you don’t really know how to be positive! You have to work from scratch and learn things that most people usually kind of already know.

Doing affirmations meant that I had to believe that good things would happen in the future for me if I believed in the power of my positive thoughts. And boy, did good things happen! I have experienced some amazing things in my short time of being positive.

I am definitely a lot happier now that I identify as a positive person. Of course, I’m still learning the ropes—after all, you can’t really undo years-worth of conditioning in a short time. It’s way better to go through hardships with a positive outlook on life.

I stopped thinking about ending my life

I’ve already talked about this in the points above. This is how affirmations literally saved my life. I don’t want to end my life anymore. I want to live and experience the life that comes after everything.

I want to smile and laugh and love more. I want to experience more, and I want to learn more things.

I want to go on and see what is waiting for me.

I want to see where life takes me and how I live that path that life directs me to.

 That’s how affirmations literally saved my life. I learned that I am the master of my life. I am the only thinker in my mind. I am the only being that will ever be by my side for eternity. I am there for myself and I love myself.

I gave myself a chance

You might be thinking, “What’s the big deal? I’ve gone through life being negative and not using affirmations and I’m fine!”

Of course, I thought of that too.

I could continue living without planting those future seeds of goodness. I could. But why would I choose that if saying affirmations gives me a chance? Saying affirmations gives me a running start. It gives me an edge over my negative mindset life!

If I have that tiny chance of better results, you best believe I’m going to take it! Believing in affirmations means that I give myself the best, and that means giving myself the best thoughts.

Affirmations taught me self love

Affirmations guided me to the path where I started to love myself. I began to understand that what I truly needed what pure, unconditional love.

Love doesn’t not ask you to be perfect. It doesn’t want you to prove yourself worthy of it before you can experience it.

This is why self love became easy for me. I believed when I told myself, “I love you.”

Also Read from here: How to Learn to Love Yourself

I truly believed it because it was a thought I planted for my future. It was a seed that would sprout tomorrow.

Affirmations taught me to be healthy

When I affirm to myself that I love my body, it makes me want to show up for my body.

I know that my body is listening to everything I speak about it, and I know that it is watching whatever I do for it.

That means that I will be sure to never say anything negative about my body. I won’t criticize any part of my body.

It also means that I will be good to my body by feeding it healthy foods to show that I care for it. Everything I do matters. And since I am now positive, I focus on giving my body the best that I know it truly deserves.

Every morning I wake up I do a full body scan using my mind. I feel every part of my mind and affirm, “I feel good.”

I truly do feel good! My heart and lungs feel good. My hands and legs feel good. My brain feels good. I feel good all over.

This is how affirmations are saving my life every day.

I started to receive amazing things in my life

This did not come as a shocker, although if I’m being honest, it does come as a shocker to a former pessimist.

I was missing out on life.

When I affirm that good things always come to me, I’m planting that thought for the next second, the next hour, the next day.

The best part is that it always shows up in one way or another.

This makes my life so much more exciting and amazing.

It is such a transformation in my life, I tell you! I love to live this way. I love to say affirmations about what I love and what makes me happy. It puts me in such a spirited and uplifted mood. I love to feel this way.

It’s not just about the material things that I receive. I’m just getting better and better at feeling at peace knowing that I can just choose to not get served negativity from other people! When I affirm things like, “Everybody loves my ideas and always listens to me,” I am giving myself some peace of mind.

Even if things don’t go my way, that wouldn’t matter to me because I am in charge of my emotions anyway. I don’t want to feel emotions such as anger, sadness, frustration and other negative emotions. I just want to be happy and content. And that’s what I choose every day.

Affirmations taught me to listen to my intuition

Intuition is that guidance that you get from deep within. It is the voice of what you truly want in life. I would say it’s a connection to infinite intelligence, and it always has the best for you in mind.

For some of us, that voice is buried deep under, from not learning to listen for it. Maybe you’re so used to obeying others that you were never given a chance to express yourself, and that’s why it’s really soft in volume.

Learning to listen deep within was one of the ways how affirmations saved my life. Because if my life isn’t my own, then how can I be saved?

I have learned to hear and listen to what my mind and body is telling me. It’s a nice feeling, honestly.

I started to love myself more, and I can express myself better. I always found it a bit odd that I could never really give a name to my emotions. It’s like they were mostly buried down deep and really soft, that they could easily be blown away or suppressed. I would see other people expressing how they felt and never really understood how they could articulate their thoughts that well.

Well, now I know, because I am attuned to my inner voice.

I have come to give a voice to my opinions. Affirmations allowed me to realize that my opinions matter too!

Affirmations gave me self worth

Affirmations have taught me the truth about my self worth. I never used to have this belief that I was worthy enough.

I thought my worth was tied to some material concept. I thought my worth was tied to how productive I was, or how good I looked. I thought everyone was better than me and deserved better than me. I feel undeserving of anything good that came my way.

Affirmations really saved my life.

Now I can live knowing that I have the same worth and value as the next person. In fact, I’ve learned that I deserve more than that person because I am my number one priority. I get to treat myself to the best there is out there, and I deserve it!

I am my priority.

I am worthy.

In fact, recently I had a dream about a girl that I thought was better than me in all aspects, when I was in uni. In this dream I realized that I had finally began to think of myself as worthy. I had infinite value.

This dream made me realize that even though I thought of her as way better than me, it was not true. I was just as deserving as she was, and gosh, I was way cooler than she was!

I have finally understood that I am worthy, and no one is better than anyone else.

This is another way how affirmations have saved my life!

Affirmations made me work harder at my goals

There is something about affirmations that has boosted my productivity levels. I just know I am a better person. My self esteem has rocketed, and this means I have more confidence.

I also work harder at my goals because I believe in myself.

I believe I can do it! I encourage myself, and I truly deeply believe I can do it all!

This is how affirmations saved my life. If I can work harder because I love myself and because I believe in myself, that is better than working hard because of some sort of limiting belief. In fact, I think working harder with a great mindset gets you better results!

After working hard, I’m sure to praise myself and revel in the golden warmth of my self-praise. It is truly felicitous.

Affirmations have helped me to regulate my emotions better

I am the only thinker in my mind.

I am responsible for how I feel.

I choose to feel good emotions.

Affirmations make me realize that I am in charge of my emotions. Furthermore, I now firmly know that how someone treats me is not related to me in any way, but it is a reflection of themselves.

This one affirmation vaulted me into greater mental heights.

Also: I am not responsible for how someone treats me. People only know me by some image of me that they have created in their minds. They will never really know the real me, only just a mirage. That makes me feel good. It makes me know that no matter what, there is always a chance that I was never really responsible for their reactions to me.

Maybe they think of me in a way that is not true!

That comforts me. It also helps me to maintain emotional stability. If I know that most of people’s actions are never really personal, I am calm and peaceful.

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SO, there you have it! The story of how affirmations changed my life. If you have anything to share with me about your journey with affirmations, please leave a comment down below. I’d love to hear from you.

Thank you for reading something that I chose to share with you. It means a lot to me.

Peace,

Aza

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• How to Be Confident in Yourself
• How to Stop Hating Yourself
• How to Love Yourself First
• How to Learn to Love Yourself
• How to Forgive Yourself for Past Mistakes
• How to Feel Better On a Bad Day
• How to Develop Good Habits
• How to Get Rid of Anxiety in the Long Run