The Science Behind Positive Affirmations

Hi GF, 

Did you know there is actually science behind the use of positive affirmations? To most people who haven't heard of or use affirmations, think using them is very woowoo, unusual and just feel uncomfortable. I am not going to lie, using positive affirmations is uncomfortable. This is because, us as humans tend to focus more on the negative than the positive. 

There have been multiple evidence based studies conducted about the science and benefits of using affirmation cards. I am going to talk about two studies below. 

The first study was conducted and published in the journal "Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience", MRI's were utilised to reveal that using self-affirmations activated the reward centres in the brain. A simple affirmation was used "I will earn that promotion", this caused the brain to light up the same reward centres that respond to other pleasurable experiences, such as winning a prize or eating yummy food. It fired up the neural pathways and makes changes to those areas in the brain that make you positive and happy. 

So basically, we have the power to rewire out brains on a cellular level by saying positive affirmations to ourselves. Isn't that amazing! That just shows how powerful words can be and how positive words can light up our brains neural pathways by simple saying kind words. 

The second study I am sure many of you would have heard about. It was a study where they had two growing plants; the plants had the same amount of sunlight, same environment, same water and fertilisation. The only difference was that one plant had positive affirmations said to it and the other had negative words said. The plant that had negative words said to it, such as "You will never be strong", "You will never be beautiful", "You are weak", died. However, the plant that had positive affirmations said to it, such as "You are beautiful", "You are strong", "You will flourish", grew and flourished as a plant. 

Let's just put this in to perspective. Negative words killed a plant. Let's flip this, imagine how damaging it is being in an environment where others are saying negative words about themselves, or others are saying negative things about you. That can destroy someones self-esteem. That shows how powerful and strong our words can be and as hard it is to speak to ourselves kindly, it's crucial. 

So the take home message is that no matter how much we try to change the environment around us, we all have to look within and talk to ourselves kindly and with love. It is so detrimental. Words are so powerful!

Lots of Love, 

Tayla x